Love-Bombs and Buzzwords: How Authoritarian Cults Work

[Nevilledog]

https://lucid.substack.com/p/love-bombs-and-buzzwords-how-authoritarian


“A dictator is in general a man who comes from below and then throws himself in an even deeper hole…the world watches him…and jumps into the void after him,” said Charlie Chaplin in 1939, commenting on the destructiveness of the leader-follower dynamic. To understand how those leaders convince people to take that leap, and what needs such leader worship fill, we can look at authoritarian cults - when and why they hold particular appeal, and how they operate. For although illiberal leaders may share with celebrities a certain magnetism and charisma, their particular power and fame lies in their ability to get people to do their bidding, no matter what that entails.

Authoritarian cults find favor at moments of transition, when existing political parties and politicians seem unresponsive to the needs of the moment and there is mass anxiety and anger about progress in racial, gender, and labor emancipation. This disaffection stimulates yearnings for a different kind of leader, creating a space in the political marketplace that ambitious and ruthless individuals exploit.

The cults that rose up around Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in the early 1920s provided a foundation. In the wake of a ruinous war, they answered anxieties about the decline of male status, the waning of class privilege, and the loss of moral clarity. Those who saw these men speak in person, like Heinrich Class, Chair of the Pan-German League, and the critic Ugo Ojetti, felt they were witnessing “something entirely new in the political life of our nation“: the comfort of “the world reduced to black and white,” presented by someone with “absolute faith in himself and in his own powers of persuasion.”

This relief among followers in finding an anchoring figure who provides a solution to current problems (often by identifying scapegoats), and reveals a dogma that makes the universe legible, remains unchanged a century later. Such feelings can be all the more potent if the aspiring leader presents those truths as forbidden by the "establishment" and poses as someone who is risking everything to make the real facts known.

*snip*

[TheBlackAdder]

1. I think that's how Republicans are trying to appeal to Krysten Sinema.

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Just a perception based on a few observed markers I've noticed in other similar people.

Love-bombing is extremely effective and if you add in a component of attention & validation, quite powerful.

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[underpants]

2. Another great read.

In the wake of a ruinous war, they answered anxieties about the decline of male status, the waning of class privilege, and the loss of moral clarity. Those who saw these men speak in person, like Heinrich Class, Chair of the Pan-German League, and the critic Ugo Ojetti, felt they were witnessing “something entirely new in the political life of our nation“: the comfort of “the world reduced to black and white,” presented by someone with “absolute faith in himself and in his own powers of persuasion.”

[live love laugh]

3. "... those who saw these men speak ..." (referring to famous fascists)

It’s almost like you need to learn a new language to understand what TFG says and to speak to these people.

TFG is a clumsy and often pointless speaker and yet he speaks their language.

The cognitive dissonance is mind bending.

[hunter]

4. I had some weird encounters with a Moonie woman in 1981.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church_of_the_United_States

It's a sad memory.

I hope she was able to walk away from that.