The difference between a con and a cult is that when you debunk a con, the victims get mad at the con artist, but when you debunk a cult, the victims get mad at *you.*

MAGAts look like suckers, but they're in deeper than that. They're cult members. Their very identities require T---p be perfect, so they fully and eagerly inhabit a fantasy world.

We need to get better as a culture at cult-proofing students and cult deprogramming adults.

@airbagmoments The problem is, as with many conservative politicians, he offers easy answers to the increasing complexity of life. Cult-proofing people would require that they be willing to accept that modern life is complex and doesn't lend itself to simple answers. I don't know how you make people comfortable with that.
@ianhecht It's definitely paddling upstream. It's why Gore's climate chaos film was brilliantly entitled An Inconvenient Truth. But people mostly aren't naturally inclined to learn math, either.