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(From April, needs repeated) Lockdown protesters resemble "child soldiers" and "urban gangs"
Yale psychiatrist Bandy Lee: Lockdown protesters resemble “child soldiers” and “urban gangs”
A Yale psychiatrist has warned that pro-Trump lockdown protesters, who exhibit similar psychology as "child soldiers," could quickly turn into "armed troops in the streets" if the president loses his re-election bid.
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine, said the armed protests were a natural evolution of the loyalty President Trump demands from his supporters. Many of these protests have evidently been organized by deep-pocketed groups allied with the president.
..."Subconsciously, it is a loyalty test for the people," Lee said. "In Africa, where I did some ethnographic work, child soldiers would be recruited and made to kill a family member to demonstrate their allegiance to the government and not to the family. Similarly, in urban gangs in America, one may be challenged to kill a police officer to prove one's willingness to uphold gang rules over societal rules.
"When Donald Trump suggests that the virus be taken as a 'hoax', that people gather in churches or that people protest for their own sacrifice, he is actually testing people's loyalty to the 'laws' of his mind over the laws of nature, or even impulse for survival. The more he abuses them, the greater their devotion grows, since the psychological cost of admitting their mistake is ever higher — and so it becomes easier to dig a well of unreality than to see the obvious truth.
A Yale psychiatrist has warned that pro-Trump lockdown protesters, who exhibit similar psychology as "child soldiers," could quickly turn into "armed troops in the streets" if the president loses his re-election bid.
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine, said the armed protests were a natural evolution of the loyalty President Trump demands from his supporters. Many of these protests have evidently been organized by deep-pocketed groups allied with the president.
..."Subconsciously, it is a loyalty test for the people," Lee said. "In Africa, where I did some ethnographic work, child soldiers would be recruited and made to kill a family member to demonstrate their allegiance to the government and not to the family. Similarly, in urban gangs in America, one may be challenged to kill a police officer to prove one's willingness to uphold gang rules over societal rules.
"When Donald Trump suggests that the virus be taken as a 'hoax', that people gather in churches or that people protest for their own sacrifice, he is actually testing people's loyalty to the 'laws' of his mind over the laws of nature, or even impulse for survival. The more he abuses them, the greater their devotion grows, since the psychological cost of admitting their mistake is ever higher — and so it becomes easier to dig a well of unreality than to see the obvious truth.
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/23/yale-psychiatrist-bandy-lee-lockdown-protesters-resemble-child-soldiers-and-urban-gangs/
Link to tweet
When Donald Trump forces his followers into crowded indoor rallies without masks, he is demanding they prove their loyalty to him with their lives. This is what I meant when I compared his commands to those made to gang members and child soldiers:
The more he demands of them, the more deeply they will be trained in their devotion to him, giving up their personal interests, their lives, and their agency. There will be no end to this without stopping the cycle of abuse.
The more he demands of them, the more deeply they will be trained in their devotion to him, giving up their personal interests, their lives, and their agency. There will be no end to this without stopping the cycle of abuse.
Link to tweet
9 of the 10 states that have seen the most rapid increase in #coronavirus are states that voted for Trump in 2016, led by Texas, where the number of reported cases increased by 297 percent. | via @FiveThirtyEight @NateSilver538 #MAGAMasochism 🦊🤡😷
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-coronavirus-isnt-just-a-blue-state-problem/
What all of this exposes is a deadly Red state tribal loyalty/ideological purity/cult membership test that essentially provides Trump with the greatest source of narcissistic supply a malignant narcissist could experience because…
….if people are willing to sacrifice their grandparents, other Americans, and even their own lives in order to “save” the economy…..and by extension, Trump, his presidency, and his legacy.…
...then, in Trump’s mind…Trump must be a “great man”
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I had forgotten about the wackos in Germany parading around with Trump flags.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/world/europe/germany-trump-far-right.html
I need to read up on Cargo Cults.
