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Nobody joins a cult. They just forget to leave. How do you get them to leave?

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Jan 12, 2021
Category: editor's letter

This is the most frightening footage I’ve seen since January 6. [Alas, a few minutes after I published this piece, Parler was taken down and the link stopped working.] Matthew Scarboro created this two-minute video from years of Trump speeches. It’s messianic and inspiring; Trump describes his cause as the will of God, tells his followers that they cannot be defeated, and promises them “the greatest adventure” of their lives. It launched on Parler before January 6 and was viewed more than 60,000 times in a few days. Amazon, Google and Apple have removed the Parler app.

Who feels this way?

Start with instant polls on January 6.
Republicans were divided over the storming of the Capitol: 45% supported it, 43% opposed it.
58% of Republicans would describe the events as “peaceful.”
17% of Republicans would describe those who stormed the Capitol as domestic terrorists; 30% say they were patriots.

Now consider a just released Quinnipiac Poll of 1,239 self-identified registered voters nationwide, surveyed from January 7-11.
73% of Republicans say Trump is protecting, not undermining, democracy.
70% of Republicans say Republicans who voted to block electors were protecting, not undermining, democracy.
73% of Republicans say there was widespread voter fraud in 2020.

Not much change. Distressing, wouldn’t you say?

Over the weekend, my friend Christina Haag — a gifted actress and NY Times bestselling author of Come to the Edge, a beautifully written memoir about her long romance with John F Kennedy Jr. — posted on Facebook:

I have two friends who’ve been in cults and have gotten out. I know more who remain or were damaged by countless years of crazy before they left. The two who got out had help. Their families had the money to hire cult deprogrammers, and they did. It was a long process. In one case, the friend had to be removed (aka kidnapped) from the cult, which involved detectives and took several tries. Through work with experienced professionals, the brainwashing was untangled and the false group beliefs were brought to light. They were lucky. They went on with their lives.

And today, with the cult at hand — one in which so-called patriots descended on Washington because “Our President wants us here” and overcame the Capitol building like zombies at his behest — how will the deprogramming and the unraveling of the Big Lie begin? (I include those who did not march, those who say they abhor violence but are still supporting Trump and the “patriots.” I include those on Facebook, many Q-affiliated or pastel Q anti-vax health influencers — I’m looking at you, Dr. Christiane Northrup — who are so far down the rabbit hole of what Kellyanne Conway termed “alternative facts.” I’m including, sadly, old friends from college.)

I offer: Education. Get’em while they are young. Civics, Social Studies, history, AMERICAN history, reading and discussing the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Progressive curriculums may have done away with these, and I think it’s a mistake, especially when the input at home is hate, bias, and Fox News. Helena Duke, an LBGTQ eighteen-year old, saw video of her mother, aunt, and uncle violently harassing a black officer on Wednesday at the Capitol and turned them in. I say, that’s hope. And with Betsy DeVos gone, there’s possibility.

Also: Meditation (and perhaps yoga) in schools. Give kids the sensory experience of the non-reactive response, especially in a world where they (we) are overwhelmed by stimuli. Give them the perception of pause.

And: Pay teachers. They are on the front lines in so many ways. They have the power to change minds, to offer nuanced ways of approaching ideas and issues when there is the black and white of racism and hatred and ignorance at home.
As for the rest, the so-called adults in the room — those who defiled our Capitol, killed police, terrorized congresspeople, those who still support Trump after Wednesday, including evangelicals and Hasidic groups, the whores on shock radio and shock TV, the press people at the WH, Trump’s family and paid enablers, and Senator Cruz and Representative Hawley, and anyone who promulgates the Big Lie that the election was stolen after 60 court cases judged it otherwise — I don’t know. After prosecution for crimes committed, I think news and respecting fact-based journalism are at the heart of change. Maybe it’s the rise of a branch of sensible Republicans. And the bravery to speak out against a tyrant, even if that means you’ll be voted out of office.

But I wish there was a mass deprogrammer.

Lightbulb time for me. In the ‘70s, I wrote about est as a cult. Werner Erhard’s followers howled. No way were they in a cult. But here’s the bottom line: “No one joins a cult — they just forget to leave.” The human potential movement lost its novelty and faded away. Will the cult of super-patriots do the same?

I reached out to some friends.

A lawyer who has done more than a hundred successful mediations suggests a tough remedy:

What would you call people who are paranoid, believe that alien lizards who disguise themselves as people have infiltrated America, that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophilia sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor, that pedophiles are secretly running the government to foster their agenda, and that Trump won the election? This is delusional paranoid thinking. These people are reckless and violent and dangerous. They need to be deprogrammed. Laws are already on the books to involuntarily commit dangerous mentally ill people. The constitutionality of these laws has been upheld If the word “deprogram” is too Maoist for you, then use the word “receive psychiatric care and medication to get them reconnected to reality.”

However justified, that program’s not likely. “These people” are white. Recent history suggests that politicians and police — two groups that failed democracy at the Capitol — only endorse aggressive enforcement and punishment for minorities.

A friend who is a media hotshot argues that hard-core Trumpers are too far gone to be reached. Better, he told me, to hurt the bottom line of companies that advertise on Fox and Newsmax.

You are never going to convince 70 million people of anything. But you can choke off a lot of this money. You should encourage your readers to email the CEOs of major corporations: “I will boycott your services and products if you continue to advertise on networks such as Fox.” Over and over again. You would be surprised what happens when the CEO’s PR folks start waking up with inboxes that have stopped working because there are 1,000 emails crashing the system.

Major banks and corporations are already stopping donations to politicians who supported the insurgents — and in the case of Josh Hawley demanding their contributions back. The Lincoln Project “will launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign targeting companies that bankroll Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the election, pushing those firms to cease donations to these and other Republicans.” Is this “cancel culture?” Not at all: It’s old fashioned capitalism, survival of the fittest. I like the idea. I hope someone assembles a list of offenders to make it easy to blast those emails.

My lawyer friend sent me an interview with forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee , a forensic psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine for the past 17 years and president of the World Mental Health Coalition. Dr. Lee explains Trump’s pathological appeal and how to wean people from it. It’s all fascinating. This is my takeaway:

The emotional bonds Trump has created facilitate shared psychosis at a massive scale. It is a natural consequence of the conditions we have set up. For healing, I usually recommend three steps: (1) Removal of the offending agent (the influential person with severe symptoms). (2) Dismantling systems of thought control—common in advertising but now also heavily adopted by politics. And (3) fixing the socioeconomic conditions that give rise to poor collective mental health in the first place.

That’s my lawyer friend’s solution, just blanded out in professional prose. Again, it’s not wrong. It’s just that most Americans don’t know any crazies. They don’t see the Republican base as fodder for a Fascist movement. Most of all, they want someone else to fix it, they want to believe the meaningless rhetoric of “healing” and “moving on” will do the trick. Locked down, warmed by Netflix in their bubbles, they have no fight. On the other side? Armed, angry, brainwashed people eager for a second civil war and determined to get it.

In my world I’m hearing a lot about trauma. A friend’s leg won’t stop shaking. The smartest person I know says, “I’m having trouble accepting that this happened.” My most optimistic friend: “For the first time, I’m in despair. We’re in free fall. I feel helpless.” I thought back to 9/11, when I spent hours updating and calming 125,000 terrified people in an AOL chat. How was January 6 different? The building didn’t fall down.

Nobody joins a cult. They just forget to leave. How do you get them to leave?