The MAGA Cult

If you had any doubts about whether Trump is the leader of a personality cult, look no further than the AI-generated images from his followers. The propaganda posters use a combination of religious and political/nationalistic symbolism to exalt Trump as a (near) object of reverence and worship.





Notice the similarities to similar propaganda posters from the cult of Chairman Mao in China. The religious symbolism is different but the combination of religio-political symbolism is clear.



Similar types of religio-political symbolism is used to support the cult of Kim Jong Un in North Korea.




The cult of Hitler in Nazi Germany is in the same tradition.




Let me be clear. I'm not calling Trump a fascist or a nazi or a communist. The political views of these personality cult leaders are incidental to their overall strategies for gaining the unquestioning loyalty of their followers. The fact remains that these are all nationalistic and authoritarian leaders that prop themselves up as objects of hero worship, and Trump is following in that tradition, using the very same tactics to create unquestioning loyalty to Trump and the MAGA cult.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Metaphorical Imperative

Image
From the time I was child I've been fascinated by the natural world, and since I was in high school I've been very concerned about developing good ways of bridging the perceived gap between Geology and the Bible. I majored in Geology in college with the intention of going to the Institute for Creation Research after graduation. While in college I became disenchanted with that enterprise (for reasons I'll discuss later), and I've focused since then on developing what I hope are faithful ways of interpreting Scripture as a theological text rather than a scientific text. Over the last few years, I've become progressively more concerned with our need to respond to global environmental problems such as climate change and land use issues that are unsustainable for our planet. In the process, it's become increasingly clear to me that the evangelical church does not have a meaningful way to engage in these types of issues in a way that is both Biblically grounded and re...
Read more

Autism and Tylenol: Should We Be Concerned?

Image
AI Tylenol Bottle with Gibberish Text A couple days ago we were told by Trump and RFK jr that we should be concerned about a potential causal link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Given that Tylenol is pretty much the only over-the-counter medication that is considered safe to take for fevers and pain during pregnancy, I can only imagine the confusion being generated right now about how to cope with pain and fever during pregnancy . Now I'm not a medical doctor, so please don't just take my word for it. I'll supply a series of links below to resources written by those qualified to give medical advice. I think, however, we should be able to see through a lot of the current rhetoric if we understand how both cherry picking and ignoring confounding variables can lead to very misleading conclusions that can result in needless fears and even false guilt among moms with autistic children who took Tylenol during pregnancy.  The backgrou...
Read more

More Ready than You Realize

Image
Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix Brian D. McLaren I liked this book a whole lot more than I expected to. It offers a very engaging challenge to those who would want to package evangelism into diagnostic questions, canned illustrations or five point outlines. He likens it to a dance. It "begins with something beyond yourself," and "over time, your whol life begins to harmonize to the song. It's rhythm awakens you; its tempo moves you, so you resonate with its tone and flow with its melody. The lyric gradually convinces you that the entire world is meant to share in this song with its message, its joy, its dance" (pp. 15-6). McLaren understands that it is the gospel itself, and the transformation that occurs in us by God's Spirit that motivates our engagement with unbelievers. And he undestands that the hope of the gospel is more than just the conversion of the sinner--the entire cosmos (not the sum total of all people in the world) is suppo...
Read more