Why Is One Not Like The Others?

An Algebra teacher walks into a classroom at the beginning of the school year....hands out a syllabus and says to the students, “The first test is next Wednesday.  I expect you to pass it.  If you don’t all pass this test it will not be my fault, it will be your fault.  Maybe it will also be your parents fault, because it is up to them to see that you study,  but it won’t be mine.  I take no responsibility for your failures.  Good luck,  you’re on your own so get to it!”  Wednesday comes and everyone fails the exam.  Eventually students and parents complain to the school administration.  The teacher boasts to the administration about his superior teaching methods and he says many people have told him that he is a great teacher.  He says that if the students failed it was because it was due to their lack of effort and inferior ability.  He says he should not be expected to teach algebra to such stupid kids. The teacher is fired.

A football coach holds a team meeting prior to the first scheduled practice, hands out equipment, but there is a shortage of helmets, shoulder pads and mouth guards.  The coach says not to worry, protective equipment is overrated anyway. The coach tells the team, “Here’s the schedule.  We play Central City in two weeks, on the 25th.  I’m expecting you to get yourselves in game condition and I expect you to win that game.  I’ll see you on the 25th!” The night of the game the team is unprepared and they lose 72 to 0.  Seven players are carted off the field with concussions  or shoulder injuries due to lack of proper protective equipment.   The next morning the coach is bragging about the great coaching decisions he made the night before, but blames the loss on the game officials and on the opposing coach for cheating.  Before the next Friday night the coach is fired.

A President of the United States, in the time of a growing, worldwide pandemic deals with the situation in virtually the same way as the teacher and the coach, giving inconsistent directions, or none at all as to how to survive and overcome the disease.  He claims no responsibility and blames others.  He refuses to listen to, or support, the medical experts.  He refuses to supply front line workers with the equipment that they need to protect themselves.  He downplays the threat and boasts of self perceived achievements while more and more people become infected and more and more people die.  He is adored by over one third of the people, and supported by the people with the power to remove him.  The rest of the people have only their fears and anxieties to guide them.

Why is one not like the others?

The Cult of Trumpism

I've been giving this some thought today and I'd like to make a point. I've seen a few memes on Facebook in the last two days, and I've re-posted a couple of them, that deal with this issue of Trump vs Dr. Fauci, asking the question, "Which one do you trust for information regarding the pandemic?" It is amazing to me that there are large number of people who trust Trump to give better factual information on the virus and how to handle the pandemic more than they trust Dr. Fauci to do so.

It would surprise no one that I have tremendous respect for the integrity and the intelligence of Barack Obama. In fact I have had respect for most of the Presidents that have served during my lifetime. Some more, and some less than others, but I can say with complete sincerity that I would not have trusted President Obama or any other President in my lifetime more than I would trust Dr. Fauci or any other medical/science expert to give the best factual information available to proceed with life in our present day situation.

Now we have Trump and the White House staff going after Dr. Fauci trying to convince the American public that Dr. Fauci has been wrong and Trump has been right throughout the ordeal of the last five months or six months and there are many who believe what they are peddling. And so, to me the evidence is clear that we are dealing with cult mentality here.

A cult can be defined as a group of people joined together by a common ideological system fostered by a charismatic leader who has fostered the belief in the followers that "we have the truth and you do not." If you study the more famous cults of recent history, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Jim Jones and The People's Temple (Jonestown), Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate, several things are clear and consistent, the unyielding loyalty and support for the cult leader, the total rejection of factual information that contradicts the cult leaders message, opposition to critical thinking, belief that they’re being offered solid, absolute answers for questions such as good vs. evil, etc., and an "us' vs "them" mentality.

Again, there is no way that I, or any of my more progressive, liberal leaning friends would ever have taken President Obama's word over Dr. Fauci's word regarding public health information, but today we have, and I know a few personally, people who have rejected the expertise of Dr. Fauci, the Center for Disease Control and other medical and scientific experts while buying totally in to the messages that Trump and his minions are selling. That's why we have diminishing numbers of people wearing masks, increasing numbers of people rejecting social distancing, large gatherings of people not following the guidelines put forth be the real experts, promoting "COVID parties, and who knows what else.

Trumpism is a cult just like the Branch Davidians and the people who drank the Kool Aid at Jonestown. The difference is that it is negatively effecting far more people this time, a whole country. A country that today has 3,506,453 cases of COVID19 and 138,700 related deaths all brought to you by a cult leader, perhaps the most dangerous cult leader of our times.