Serious question

[malaise]

Are MAGA ReTHUGs a cult or a gang of thugs, coup enablers, grifters and thieves led by a mobster?

[Siwsan]

1. The are a cult led by a gang of thugs, coup enablers, grifters and thieves

lead by a misanthropic, mendacious, malignant mobster.

[malaise]

6. You win the thread

😀😀

[werdna]

2. Yess! n/t

[Glorfindel]

3. All of those things

And probably worse if we knew the full story. Thanks for an interesting question, malaise.

[Hugin]

4. All of the above.

It is a collation of misandrists.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Hitler started out as a gangster.

Look at him today, he's former US pee-resident Donald J Trump's idol.

[gademocrat7]

7. Yes indeed

they are evil, vindictive, despicable creatures.

[sanatanadharma]

8. They are those who, so full of themselves, leave no inner-room for reality to root, grow, and flower

Those of whom you speak are bullies, at times with bully-personalities, whose behavior seeks to compensate for their scared inner-child emotions.
Their inner-Self is poorly defined and understood in relation the world around, leaving them fearful and subjectively-reactive to illusion and delusion. Meanwhile they are objectively ignorant of cause and effect and thus pursue self-destructive ends in the odd belief that they alone "know".

All "-isms" are born in the delusion of otherness, where-in the other is a danger to the self.
Except, however, "humanism" (various forms and names) wherein the other is an adornment within the world of the "Self".

[multigraincracker]

9. All of the above plus.

TFG has managed to unite them into a tribe. When it starts to fall apart, and it will, it won’t be pretty. Hate, greed, envy and a lack of critical thinking won’t hold them together for long.

[malaise]

11. It has started already

Expect gunshots

[cachukis]

10. Many are lost souls bereft of leadership.

They were promised better opportunities by the right to work states that never delivered. Democrats' message attracted the more intellectually sanguine which left those workers behind.
They have been chasing a way out of the desert and lo, a demagogue arises.
Con men need cons.
With all the information available, it seems there are more con men than
cons and the message crosses over.

Religion and prayer failed miserably during the Plague of the 14th C. Europeans have been ambivalent about christianity since. Think of how many replacements of catholicism have arisen.

People want their own views corroborated. They need commonality. With all the disparity in social media, simplicity of repetition holds sway.

Cynicism remains when hope fades.
Funny how, for some, they have hope in the cynics. They have their world view reinforced.

[malaise]

14. Thoughtful response - a colleague of a good friend wrote a serious paper a few years back

About black swans- the rural white poor who have been destroyed by neo-liberalism. The Reagan gang who pushed that agenda and those who followed fueled their anger and blamed ‘the other’ for their woes while enriching their owners and financiers. They use the cultural, racial and religious differences as diversion while fleecing the poor and marginalized among all groups.

The good news is that the young people are waking up to their effing scams.

[cachukis]

15. Suspect you are right about the young, but like

any cadre, they need acknowledgement of their world view.
They too are searching to connect with a truth they can support. Luckily, the have recognized many of the falsehoods characterized as truth, particularly when it comes to gender issues.
Many do see that there is more than one perspective than what some project regarding the discombobulation in Israel. Had a great conversation with my grandson, on break from college, at Thanksgiving. He is a reader and knew far more than what I had expected, considering how pervasive is disinformation today. I feel many of his peers struggle over what they see to come to a safe harbor.
The Democrats in office need to acknowledge this group as a voting bloc.

[malaise]

16. Agree big time

Nice to hear about your grandson - there is hope

[gab13by13]

12. Thom Hartmann said this yesterday,

Trump is the leader of a movement, the white supremacist movement. There is more enthusiasm behind movements.

Thom gave a stark warning that movements "usually" beat out politicians. He did say that didn't apply to the Democratic primary between Hillary and Bernie, but that primary was an example of a movement v a politician.

A caller to Thom's show made the suggestion of getting someone like Taylor Swift to lead a Democratic movement that supports women's rights and supports our democracy.

[Wounded Bear]

13. The options provided are not mutually exclusive...so, yes.