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Comment by lawn | Hacker News Reader

Steven Hassan also wrote "The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control", which is very relevant today.

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Either that or you lack the life experience, maturity and wisdom to accept that people can disagree with you without there being a conspiracy involved.

Are you saying that after reading the book? Isn’t it pretty straightforward to review which methods are used, and discriminate based on these methods, without taking a position on the content/beliefs/political goals? My understanding is that cults share methods of manipulation and coercion.

You specifically may not be in the Trump/MAGA cult, and there are others who simply do disagree, as you say. But there is undoubtedly a cult wing of MAGA. My mother is a member, and it checks every single box of cult behavior.

Sure just as is the case for the Democrat party and any other sufficiently large political organisation. There are elements of the Democrat party that think it's rational to mutilate children for example. I'm not aware of any MAGA supporters with this level of brain-washing.

> . . . mutilate children for example. I'm not aware of any MAGA supporters with this level of brain-washing.

Really? I’m sure a large portion of the MAGA base supports circumcision.

Yet you watch Trump and his cabinet members lie every day.

Aren't a lot of Republicans now saying it is ok to have sex with 15 year old girls?

EDIT: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/megyn-kelly-eps...

Megyn Kelly Suddenly Finds Pedophilia Very Hard to Define When a 16-year-old accused Russell Brand of rape, Kelly begged conservatives to condemn him. Now she’s splitting hairs about men “into the barely legal type.”

Maybe I'm too much of a left-winger and don't get enough right-wing content, but this would be news to me, unless you and I also have very different notions of what "a lot of republicans" means.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/megyn-kelly-eps...

The author correctly asserts that you don't have to be in the cult to support Trump.

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