© Getty Images / Louise OLIGNY
Americans still clinging to the idea that their candidate lost the 2016 election because of meddling by the Russian state have much in common with victims of brainwashing cults. For them, doctrine has eclipsed reality.
Russiagate true believers are already screaming about foreign interference in the 2020 election and it hasn't even happened yet. Months after the long-awaited special counsel's report failed to serve up the promised evidence of "Russian collusion," they have held fast to their conviction that President Donald Trump is a Russian asset placed in office by Vladimir Putin, and the intelligence agencies that serve as their oracles have predicted further "meddling" will occur to keep him in office.
Indeed, their beliefs only grow stronger the more contrary evidence is presented, to the point where they have more in common with a cult than any other political group.Russiagaters are back in the headlines after the Justice Department, the Pentagon, and a cluster of intelligence agencies released a joint statement on "ensuring security" for the 2020 elections on Tuesday. But to be fair, they never really left. Just last month, they were pearl-clutching
about Russians on Facebook targeting Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden, and before that, it was a non-story about Trump supposedly telling Russian officials he wasn't concerned about the (still-unproven, but who's counting)
Russian interference in the
2016 election.
There's no such thing as a negative Russiagate story, and even if Trump is ousted from office and replaced with a safely Russophobic warmonger like Biden, the election will be presented as a narrow victory over the forces of Russian meddling. If Trump wins in the absence of Russian interference, Russiagaters will claim there was a coverup. If intelligence agencies claim there was, but fail to show proof, as they did in 2016, it will be because the proof has to stay classified. If they declare there was meddling, and show reality-based proof - which hasn't happened yet for any of the elections deemed to involve Russian meddling - then, and only then, can the story be trusted. This is not how reality works.Such unshakable faith is typically the domain of religion, not politics. But three years after the initial claims of Russian meddling in the US election, with the sanguine early predictions Trump would be running home to Putin within months having thoroughly collapsed,
Russiagate resembles nothing so much as a fringe religious cult. The devotees of high priests Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher may not have a deity, but they have their saints - former FBI director James Comey, former special counsel Robert Mueller, and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who continues to play the part of the martyr in interviews. On the side of evil is, of course, Vladimir Putin, portrayed as omnipotent - "Russia" is behind all domestic discord and will shut off your heat in the middle of the winter on a lark - and irresistible, with a few Facebook groups and clumsy memes somehow enough to induce black voters to elect a Russian asset.
Led by Maddow and Maher, certain mainstream media figures have set themselves up as a "priest class," urging viewers to allow them to interpret primary sources such as the Democratic National Committee emails released by WikiLeaks in lieu of reading them themselves. CNN's Chris Cuomo led the establishment of this caste, warning viewers the month before the election that they were not allowed to read WikiLeaks publications - that was for journalists to do. The media can thus smooth over any logical inconsistencies with the collusion doctrine and memory-hole the really inconvenient primary sources. Believers' faith is thus protected, dissenting reports rejected (after all, if it was legitimate, it would be printed or discussed in the mainstream media), and doubters frozen out in a phenomenon cult expert Robert J Lifton calls "mystical manipulation." In fact, most of the characteristics Lifton includes in his checklist for brainwashing cults are fulfilled by Russiagaters.Cultists are kept from straying too far into "wrongthink" through thought-stopping techniques they are taught by other members early on. For Russiagate, this manifests in buzzwords like "fake news" and the smearing of all non-mainstream sources as unreliable.
True cultists will cut entire websites out of their news diet, lest they be exposed to "Russian disinformation" carefully disguised as, say, American conservatism (Breitbart, Infowars) or peace activism (antiwar.com, the Ron Paul Institute). Even aggregators like Drudge Report have been smeared by the
PropOrNot list later used, more disturbingly, by more authoritative voices like the Poynter Institute in an attempt to smear entire sections of the web as disinformation and "fake news." Such "milieu control" keeps cultists safe in their echo-chambers.
By controlling a person's information environment, it becomes much easier to control their thoughts. Brainwashing cults demand purity from their members, and both impure thoughts - perusing "fake news" or having civilized online chats with dissenters - and impure people must be jettisoned. If you can't convert your friends (or family, or spouse!) to see things your way politically, ditch them, a surprising number of articles recommended around the 2016 election. This is no different than a cult demanding followers cut off family members who frown on its activities. Cults know that without a strong support system, it can be difficult to leave."Sacred science" is another hallmark of brainwashing cults, referring to unquestionable doctrine and the discouragement of questioning.
Many elements of the Russiagate conspiracy theory - CrowdStrike's assessment that the DNC fell victim to "Russian hacking," delivered to the FBI without the actual server; the claim that the Internet Research Agency somehow changed voters' minds with a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of goofy memes, many of which were posted after the election - require a complete suspension of one's critical faculties. The Hamilton68 "Russian bot" dashboard, cited by dozens of publications to support the claim that the Kremlin is steering political conversation on social media, has seen one creator largely disavow it ("I'm not convinced on this bot thing," Clint Watts
told Buzzfeed last year) and the other exposed as the leader of his own election-swaying faux-Russian bot armies. Yet the "Russian bots persuading people on social media" narrative persists, even when its targets reveal themselves
to be humans.
The most disturbing element of a true brainwashing cult is "dispensing of existence," the cult leader's ability to determine who lives or dies (sometimes metaphorically, by being excommunicated, but sometimes literally). Russiagaters are quick to label their enemies traitors - former CIA director John Brennan infamously
accused the president of treason last year, a crime that has a very specific meaning for an intelligence official who delivered "kill lists" weekly to the desk of former president Barack Obama. Brennan is not the leader of the Russiagate cult per se, but the investigation currently being conducted into the operation's roots seems to point to the intelligence community, and recently
turned into a criminal investigation.
Less powerful Russiagaters are fond of denouncing their enemies as Russians (and by extension less than human - recall former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's conviction that Russians are "genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate and gain favor," unlike the rest of humans who are presumably trustworthy types who never lie under oath).
Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul have all been tarred with the Russiagaters' brush recently, given cringe-inducing nicknames like "Moscow Mitch" and "Red Paul" for disagreeing with doctrine. In medieval times, heretics were burned at the stake; now they are "burned" on social media.Perhaps sensing the cult's days are numbered, Brennan recently backpedaled in his conviction that Russians stole the 2016 election. Russian meddling "changed the mind of at least one voter," he hedged at the National Press Club last week, not long after an enthusiastic colleague caused him to cringe by cheering "Thank God for the Deep State!" Russiagate may not be over - the warning from the intelligence agencies suggests they are preparing yet
another excuse in case they lose the election - but when it does end, it will be with the saddest of whimpers.
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For many, atheism gives meaning to their lives. Have you heard an atheist complain about Christians or the bible? It's a passionate argument. They will repeat the same mantras, make the same points over and over, deriving mental balance from the exercise, calming their egos, soothing themselves with the story of their intellectual superiority, paying ritual tribute to their not-gods.
If you reject spirituality consciously, then it will come upon you and overtake you through your subconscious. -And you will have no control or understanding of it there.
The Far Left religion is a mishmash of angels and devils and creation/destruction myths. Russians and Carbon footprints, Capitalism v Socialism. Where the tribes of loyal followers, the enslaved and holy, the beggarly POCs, walk across actual deserts in pursuit of the promised land! (-Which the lord will surely deliver to them and smite their enemies, for they are the chosen people).
Where Trump is the stand-in for the Devil.
They're literally playing out the biblical myth in real time because they have rejected it in story form. (Holy cow!)
Consequently, because the Far Left are unwittingly religious fanatics, they will fight tooth and nail to preserve their sacred cows and idols. Trump could single-handedly serve up world peace and establish prosperity for all, and yet the Fanatical Far Left will shake their heads and hunker down and just tell you that you are being fooled by the devil. That true salvation lies only in eating impossible burgers, living in tiny houses and having sex with alien-inspired weirdos of undefined gender. And in sacrificing babies on the altar of self-service.
It's not a nice religion either, with creation at the center. No, no. It requires, I think, a conscious acceptance of spiritual reality to decide not to follow your base, retarded monkey instincts. If you only allow for the material, then you're going to be worshiping Satan by default. Except you won't even know it.
People broadly consider "Religion" to mean one of the Big Three, and that's where the trouble begins. The folks I know who reject religion as a matter of personal identity also reject everything requiring non-materialism by default. That's a mistake, imho.
Religion is the practice and/or narrative used to recognize and put into daily order the realities and consequences of living suffused by and within the non-material realm. Major religions are old prescribed sets of abstract rules which don't always make a lot of literal sense or stack up logically, but still attempt to serve the essential role of integrating spiritual realities into human existence.
Building your own religion is the more difficult but most effective way of doing that, because when it comes down to it, the more concrete you become in your understanding, the more powerful you become. It's the difference between having a children's story about "crying wolf", and studying the psychological mechanics and reasons people raise false alarms for attention. Casting aside the psychological insights because there's no actual wolf is short-sighted.
"Life is Religion".
The authorities do not need religion anymore, now they can monitor us and instantly deploy overwhelming force should we get any "impure" thoughts.
The spiritual and philosophical insights of the people who wrote the Bible 1600 years ago are not suitable for purpose any longer. They became obsolete in the age of Enlightenment, where worship, idolization and the very idea of an Absolute King who rules over all were thrown into the trash bin of history.
Faith or belief is the act of ignoring facts, evidence and logic in order to hold something as true anyway. There is no need to believe in a fact - it is true whatever you do, so when you have faith in something you are actively telling your brain to ignore any doubts because you want whatever that is to remain true. This is the height of antiintellectualism.
There is therefore no need to resort to spiritualism, when you know that it is just you tricking yourself in order to feel better. However, atheists aren't free of this; they're doing the exact same thing when they are countering a belief with another belief - because the existence or non-existence of God can't be proven, so they are tricking their minds to comfort themselves that they are right.
The best thing you can hope for is to shed the blinds and see that whatever you see as important, like football, religion, political views or family... convictions of any sort... they are choices that you made and put there. The core of our being is our inner voice; our experiences, memories, thoughts and emotions. All the rest is choice, and so religion does not define you - it only makes it easier to make stances on some issues because they are athoritatively made for you to just agree with and let yourself feel good almost for free.
Who then? He replied that he was an angel of god, named Rowan and that god had already manifested himself on this earth under the guise of Rowan Cocoan, aka, 'RC' (not to be confused with JC)
- So we must turn to RC for salvation!!!! Or else, there will be hell to pay!
This is your last warning.
R.C.
* Apologies to Jagger Richards, 'Girl With Faraway Eyes.'
RC
The "Golden Rule" for instance, is as valid today as it was a couple thousand years ago. (Treat others as you would treat yourself.) As well, many sociological truths about human nature haven't changed at all over the centuries; the biblical stories which sought to encapsulate complex understandings into tidy story nuggets are not wrong or obsolete simply because the enlightenment came about. As I said earlier, casting such long and hard-earned wisdom aside because they lack concrete actuality is unwise. Just because there is no actual wolf you can point at doesn't invalidate the lesson wrapped up in the story of the boy who cried wolf.
You note that, "Faith or belief is the act of ignoring facts, evidence and logic in order to hold something as true anyway."
I again think this is only a partially useful definition which ignores certain important elements. To improve upon it, I might say rather that "Faith or belief is the act of assuming facts which may not be immediately evident. " Those fact may indeed not be there at all, in which case one's faith is misplaced. But if those facts are there, but simply unseen by conventional means, then you are still able to proceed effectively, accounting for their effects and indeed utilizing those effect, regardless of your ability to accurately measure them.
As well.., everybody uses faith in a limited way regardless; faith is an absolute requirement for you to function as a thinking being; you use it all the time. You probably don't understand aerodynamics to the extent that you can build an airplane, but you have faith that the principle holds when you board one. Or that when you close and open your eyes, the world will remain from one moment to the next, and that your plans for tomorrow are worth carrying through on today. There is no way to prove that there will be a world tomorrow, or even the next instant, but pattern recognition has allowed you to build up the necessary faith in the universe's ability to persist.
Fair enough, but these "story nuggets" aren't faith-based. They are moral- and philosophical pieces from a time where oral storytelling was the most important and widespread way of disseminating wisdom and info from one generation to the next. The context in which both the Old and the New Testament were made should tell you that their relevance for the rest of the world today, two thousand years later, is miniscule. The Old Testament is a "origin story" for the Jewish people, and the New Testament is a tale of rebellion against the Roman Empire and the local priesthood that had pledged fealty to it. The spiritual elements of both texts were borrowed or inherited from older beliefs, getting updates that would make them more popular in that day and age. They are both collectivist and authoritarian, because the need for a unifying conviction for the Jewish people were great in the era when they had no homeland (OT), as well as when that homeland was occupied by a totalitarian slave-state (NT).
The important part is; none of that is at all relevant for the individualistic post-enlightenment world of Northern Europe. The mere existence of Protestantism should tell you that there was a problem with how this Middle-Eastern religion imposed absolute authority over the very core of the human being, the way the Germanic cultures saw it, at least. In the modern West, spirituality is much more accurately expressed by the famous words of the Declaration of Independence. And yes, those words include a reference to a creator - but the point was precisely the opposite of collecting all power in the hands of a single institution.
While spirituality in the hands of the individual is benign, it is an absolute evil in the hands of the collective. Organized religion is an example of the latter, regardless of its philosophy, morals or wisdom.
I will, however, say again that it is a bad idea to over-simplify. I DO hear what you're saying, and I agree, but I also want you to hear me because I don't want to end up in one of those "repeat our points" cycles to no end.
If one removes religion, kills god as it were, then the spiritual hole left behind becomes very toxic. Materialist thinking leads to hysteria, apathy and the modern social justice movement we observe today where anything goes, truth is inverted, degradation seen as good. People will create a mythos out of garbage if need be. In a world with no spiritual dimension, we apparently get the god of the planet and climate angry with us, where the solution to our transgressions is to punish ourselves. (A huge step backwards from the Christ figure who would bear out sins for us, releasing us from the need for sacrificial offerings to angry gods and the need to live in tiny houses and eat only vegetables, etc.)
Religion, like it or not, is an absolute requirement. It will happen. While perhaps individually, a few of us can handle the Star Trek ideal society and its precepts, (though I doubt even that), as a whole, we're not capable of proceeding without a spiritual map of some kind. Without, we quickly find our way into chaos. Religion, whether dressed up in out-dated, corrupt old systems, or contained in personal explorations of spirit, provides that. And for all its flaws and limitations, it seems to me that Christianity bore better fruit than the current clown world edition, where speaking truth about basic biology can get a person 'cancelled'.
Those people, the good people, had turned to God for help. This is what each of us needs to do to gain that guidance. God works in mysterious ways, and the "knowings", knowing something without knowing how you know, is one way. Hunches, intuitions, the still small voice are other ways. If we don't turn to God before else, if we don't walk and talk with Him and ask for that guidance, if we don't turn away from our unrighteousness, then He won't help us and we will be in the state of chaos in which we find ourselves in the US.
R.C.