Trump today and Jim Jones in 1978
Two great articles first from ALTERNET here:
Second article from THE GUARDIAN here:
Trump didn’t need to lure his MAGA followers into a remote jungle, like Jim Jones did in Guyana where 900 killed themselves in 1978.
Trump didn’t need to physically isolate them from the rest of the world like Jones did. Instead, Trump built his Jonestown right here at home, within the U.S. boundaries brick by brick. He did it using over 30,000 documented lies, fear, rage, revenge, and an intoxicating promise to his MAGA cultists of his national change for them to join. Now, today, tens of millions of Americans are trapped inside Trump’s reality-warping cult.
Just as the Jones’ followers drank poisoned cyanide-laced Kool Aid believing it and he was their salvation and he would meet them in heaven, Trump’s followers have swallowed his Big Lies "Kool aid" laced with false statements and failed promises and tons built on tons of lies. The are all now willing to sacrifice our Constitution, our democracy, and our future on the altar of his lies, and insatiable ego.
Jones wasn’t always a madman. In the beginning, he offered something people desperately wanted: community, belonging, and equality.
He drew on them as lonely, marginalized, and disillusioned. He offered them meaning, dignity, and the hope of a better world.
But slowly, he twisted that hope into a tool of control, weaponizing his followers’ trust for his own wealth, power, and self-aggrandizement.
Trump like Jones didn’t invent grievances - both exploited them. For decades, America’s middle class was gutted by (1) Reaganomics and (2) Neo-liberal trade policies; (3) U.S. jobs shipped off shore; (4) Unions crushed; (5) Their was stagnated; and (6) billionaires amassed obscene wealth.
Trump didn’t cause that pain, but he channeled it. He told working-class Americans that he alone could restore their lost greatness.
At the 2016 RNC Convention, Trump bellowed: “I alone can fix it.” That wasn’t a campaign promise. It was a cult leader’s declaration.
Like Jones, Trump positioned himself not as a servant of the people, but as their savior, the one indispensable man without whom all their hope would be lost.
Cults, whether religious or political, thrive on division and a sense of victimhood. Jim Jones taught his followers that outsiders were out to destroy them, that they were surrounded by enemies, traitors, and saboteurs. He warned that the CIA, the media, and shadowy conspirators would annihilate Jonestown unless his people followed him without question.
Trump's enemies list is long: The so-called "Deep State" of the Federal civil and Elected personnel; basically all Immigrants; Black voters; Mostly women; Most if not all Democrats; Most also if not Journalists; most Doctors and Scientists; nearly all State election officials; Many members of his own party who dare to tell the truth, or show zero loyalty to him about anything he promises or says he will do.
Trump has spent years feeding his followers a steady diet of paranoia, victimhood, grievances, and tons of lies convincing them that the only thing standing between them and ruin is him.
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My 2 Cents: The two articles cited above fit into a scary part of our history as shown side-by-side and outlined above.
A good read and lesson in history to see what we as a nation face right now under Trump and MAGA.
A lesson in the making as it were and one not to be forgotten or ignored.
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