Additional Reading:
Conspiracy Theories, Cults and How to Help Friends and Loved Ones with Debunker Mick West
How to Help People Involved in QAnon–A Reddit AMA: QAnonCasualties
AUTHORITARIAN PYRAMID CULT STRUCTURE
To help discern the member hierarchy of a destructive cult, I typically use the pyramid below. To apply this structure for Trump’s followers, let’s first start outside the pyramid with “fringe members,” people who are affiliated very loosely in a behavioral sense and may be indoctrinated into the authoritarian belief system. They are influenced and involved with the destructive cult, but not to the extent of someone who may work for Trump in the administration or one of his businesses. That individual may be evaluated as less extremely mind controlled than the staffer but is still involved in a destructive, mind control (BITE) experience. People mostly use smartphones and these digital devices serve as the personalized delivery system for cult indoctrination–if they believe all critical information is “fake” or evil.
QAnon is a political cult. It has a coherent black/white, good vs. evil and us vs. them ideology. Trump is the putative savior, a messianic figure able to end and bring to justice an international cabal of satanic child traffickers. Underlying the story is Q, a super patriot digital soldier who clarifies and magnifies the spiritual mission of Trump and the faithful. A so-called “Great Awakening” will lead to the arrest of all high profile pedophiles or traffickers (the “enemies” of children). Judgement Day, known as “The Storm” will arrive at any moment, in advance of the 2020 US Presidential election. People are influenced through their smartphones, their computers, and media they consume that all reinforces the notion of an all or nothing, good versus evil ideology. To be a follower of Qdrops is to enter into a version of a live action game, where there is no individual critical thinking. Everyone who criticizes Trump is labeled an enemy, a brainwashed agent of the left, a member of the cult of Soros etc. When you realize that so many prophecies have utterly been wrong and start to question and dare verbalize doubts to other believers, you will be chastised and punished. Family members and friends who ask critical, confrontational questions in factually based conversations are seen as a problem and they are avoided.
It is important to state that people can become involved with authoritarian cults like Putin’s Russia, or the Chinese Communist Party, or organized criminal cartels; for these people, the BITE model is even more extreme. Trump true believers have accused me of being brainwashed by the left or the mainstream media. If they take the time to evaluate my books, writing and interviews, they will understand that I do listen to pro Trump sources like Fox, conservative sources like the Wall Street Journal, as well as follow on Twitter many people I do not trust as fact based. There are also left-leaning political cults such as those presented by Mao or Lenin and Stalin. The BITE model is a vehicle for understanding the phenomenon of mind control, not for assessing left or right leaning ideology as representing good or bad and/or evil. I use the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights as the basis for my analysis.
Additional Reading:
What to Do About the QAnon and Those Ensnared in It? Interview with Travis View
QAnon: What Is It About? A Discussion With Conspiracy Theory Researcher Travis View
Conspiracy Theories, Cults and How to Help Friends and Loved Ones with Debunker Mick West
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