There have been a lot of accusations by many that the 2024 incarnation of the MAGA movement has devolved into what is essentially a cult. I've always been somewhat skeptical of going that far, although there is certainly no shortage of fanatics who've gravitated into the movement.
However, reading reactions from the Controlled Opposition objecting to the Election of Pope Leo XIV is starting to sow some doubts in mind that MAGA isn't taking on the aspects of a religious cult. These objections are primarily coming from the United States, from the fringe-elements and certainly don't reflect the views of mainstream Catholics (or Christians generally) worldwide.
As Cardinal, the new Pope had the temerity to question some of the policies of the New Right and their appointed gurus, specifically JD Vance who seems to be the nominally Catholic counter-weight to the nominally Protestant Paula White in turning the Red Pilled Neocon ideology into a more-or-less official State Religion. Before too many Catholics get caught up in the online hysteria generated by such holy media moguls as Musk and Murdoch, we should point out a few basic facts:
1. The Pope is Christ's Vicar on Earth: not Donald Trump's vicar.
2. Unlike the American Uniparty: a Cardinal doesn't need the approval of the RNC and Wall Street billionaire donors to be elected Pope.
3. JD Vance doesn't speak for American Catholics, he speaks for WEF operatives like Peter Thiel.
4. Opposing the agenda of the New Right: specifically things like smashing down church doors and carting refugees off to concentration camps; as well as supporting genocidal anti-Christian regimes doesn't make one a servant of Satan.
5. Likewise, opposing the ethos of the New Right which makes things like empathy and justice equivalent to Heresy, happens to be in accordance with the New Testament. The Church relies on nearly 2,000 years of tradition; not the New Normals promoted by the likes of Andrew Tate and Ben Shapiro.
We need to bear these things in mind as the flurry of interest-group backed trolls begin flooding the American Media Establishment. However, the question of the modern MAGA movement turning into a cult is still open. The Administration, it must be admitted, has done nothing to curb these dangerous tendencies---in fact, they seem to be encouraging them.
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I used to read Life Site News too and remember some of your comments there, except for the ones that got denounced to the moderators and removed before I saw them. 'Lickspittle News' like you called them in the last post describes them perfectly. Even traditional Cardinals like Sarah and Burke were praising Leo XIV, but these sycophants can't get over him standing with Francis over Vance.
ReplyDeleteMAGA does seem to be taking on cultish overtones. A lot of the people in the Administration not only are Red Pill fanatics, there is lot of playing footsie with the occult going on.
I agree about the occult symbolism being displayed, especially with 'Dark MAGA.' It's something that needs to be looked into more deeply.
DeleteI saw an article today where Leo said that misuse of AI and Big Tech were the greatest threats to humanity; and that we need to beware of dehumanizing people and turning them into algorithms and statistics. Francis was going along the same train of thought before he died. I can imagine how well that is going to go over with the Techbros.
DeleteIt has nothing to do with Vance, though used as an example, but rather with this unending embracing of the world's population. Nice try, but no society has survived without a limitation on immigration. What limitation on immigration numbers of the world's population would you find acceptable? None?
ReplyDelete'No society has survived without a limitation on immigration.' Well, we did alright in the Post-Civil War Era when we really did have something like Open Borders. But we couldn't sustain that level today. We need sensible immigration reform, not simply declaring more fake National Emergencies and trusting the Government not to abuse the powers they assume.
DeleteAs for Vance, he interjected himself into the debate by trying to pose as a theologian and got 'owned' by people who actually are.
It would be a stretch to call MAGA a cult, Trump did have a celebrity-status following like Obama and Clinton did. I think that Lutnick was on 'the Apprentice' and so was Blagojevich who got a pardon recently. What you said about the treatment of immigrants shows that they have a sadistic streak like the Spanish Inquisition did.
ReplyDeleteExactly: and that was all that Pope Francis and the other bishops really called for. They acknowledged that nations had a right to implement their own immigration policies and deport people if necessary---they insisted that it be done with respect and human dignity not with the callous indifference and brutality that thugs like Tom Homan are encouraging.
DeleteI don't believe Maga is a cult. However, I think we could say American protestant evangelism is kind of culty. I'm thinking of things like the Moral Majority and the SBC. Politics and faith are merged together and America is kind of perceived as the promised land. We are the chosen people, God's favorites, and so everything revolves around us. Catholics tend to have a more global perspective, faith being seen more as existing worldwide. Very often Popes tend to speak several languages and visit multiple countries. In some ways it kind of represents the contrast between a more rural and isolationist perspective versus a more cosmopolitan one.
ReplyDeleteThe possibility that the Pope might not revolve exclusively around US politics is unimaginable, something so unfamiliar to many Americans, it's almost inconceivable.
Ha! Not that Catholics are doing much better! I've not researched the new Pope at all, but I have heard numerous complaints from Catholics already. I heard plenty of that about Pope Francis too, much that was in my opinion, unjust and often false.
Somebody suggested the other day that much of the 'cultishness' around MAGA might be the effect of political marketing. The RNC wants the votes and support of Christians, so they're crafting a narrative and projecting an image around what they think that Christians want to hear (with substantial doses of their own objectives woven in). Appealing to people's desire to be part of the 'in-group' is what makes mass-advertising so successful and probably why we have the phenomenon of the Megachurch in America.
DeleteIn Latin, the word 'Catholic' actually means universal or cosmopolitan. They don't exclusively focus on the US, which is one reason that there's so much anti-Catholicism in the New Right ( I suspect this is also at the root of their hatred for Islam as well). It's a harder sell among Catholics; in the Evangelicals' case, they have their roots in Puritanism which believed in America as a new Promised Land for a Chosen People too. The LSN-types have been trying to drive a wedge between the universal outlook (which they portray as Leftist) and American Catholics (of the New Right variety) whom they portray as standing for Tradition. One of the terms they used in attacking both Francis and now Leo is that they opposed Synodality---which is the belief that the Church should intervene in internal national politics. It's a complicated topic and I should do a post on that.