Trumpite Americans, when will you finally acknowledge your leader is a joke?

I continue to be absolutely astonnished at how gullible and stupid people are. I'm wondering how much of it is due to cognitive decline in our older population. Certainly that, massive disinformation campaigns, and the gullilbility of the American religious people all have parts to play.

You may be aware, so apologies if so, but that tweet mentions Festinger - for those who were TLDR, he showed in research of a cult that they would keep rationalising (using the word in the loosest sense) away things that proved them wrong. Such as the current QAnon claim that "oh, it must be according to the Julian calendar!!" when a given date fails to herald the events they predicted. Having invested (and alienated others in doing so), they MUST keep digging further and further down the rabbit hole because the alternative is admitting they wasted their time/cash and likely burned a lot of bridges over a bunch of complete nonsense.

Yes, those are valid points, and while I didn't know Festinger by name prior to your post I was aware of his research.

What I'm surprised at however is the sheer scale of this cult - nearly 20% of Americans by some research hold at least strong belief in Q theories if aren't explicitly members themselves. That astonishes me that they are so easily manipulated by such utter and complete nonsense. But as the old adage goes, some of the people all of the time...

it's all just laziness. Most people, I think, are "door knobs". They are easily turned - depending on the last person to present to them a ... seeminly logical argument. Those people never do their own investigations into any matter. So, if someone presents them a "logical" argument for or against any given issue, those people will accept that argument.

I like "logical" in quotes.

Just because it seems logical to the doorknobs doesn't mean it necessarily is an actual logical argument. Hence the quotes.

And here we go - peer pressure is also a big part of it ("keep the faith!!"):

Hilarious. Youngkin wanted nothing to do with Trump.

We’ll have to put a pin in that one. Youngkin tried to distance himself from Trump and the media played along. Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party and the 2024 frontrunner. Something tells me Youngkin will be singing Trump’s praises in no time.

Guess we'll see. Thing is in Virginia you can't run for consecutive terms as Governor. So he has no need to pander to the base past this point. Depends on what his long-term positioning is. My take is he gains more by not aligning himself there unless and until he decides to run for the Presidency, and that probably won't be in 2024. A 2028 run when Trump likely isn't in the picture makes more sense.

Early childhood lead exposure.

How about a Trump dart board?

It's all one big grift. Damn these people are stupid.

They're still there, and talking to birdman.

That can't be good.

Anyone read Clarke's Childhoods End?

This was foretold.

Or maybe Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Possibly, Heinlein's Puppet Masters.

Either way, shit's about to get real.

Definitely wasn't Childhood's End. Puppet Masters...I can see that...sorta

Starts out with Aaron Rogers and then quickly moves to Trump.

Awkward.

But isn't Carlson doing the same goddamn thing?