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Cults, mafias, and terrorist organizations have been doing the "troublesome priest" routine for forever, and prosecutors judges and juries have been able to see through their bullshit and apply laws anyway. It isn't easy, and there's certainly lots of times those organizations (mafias in particular) have been able to corrupt or intimidate people, but it got done and it can be done again.
This isn't like those. None of those even come close. Those have the power to maybe get someone, maybe even a few people, murdered. Trump's useful idiots were prepared to storm the capital and upend democracy in the USA, and they very nearly succeeded.
Trump doesn't operate like a traditional cult. There are no official cult power structures or communication channels. He just has to hold a press conference and let the mainstream media do its thing. He just needs to say 'we need to fight for our rights' and then mention a target in the vein of 'this person is a corrupt individual who undermines democracy' and they'll be at that person's house in thousands.
Which is why I wish they were much harsher on him when it came to violating gag orders.
Sure, they might be able to trace back evidence to pin on him. Years after the judge is dead.
You are giving them way too much power.
These are the same people that stormed the capitol and the same people a single member of which stormed a US senator's house and fucked up her husband with a hammer simply because Trump constantly shit talked about her.
No I am not giving these people too much power. They are dangerous and they don't know limits. They've proven this much.
The last time a cult tried anything approaching this level of magnitude, they ended up coining the term 'drinking the kool-aid'
Most of those people who stormed the capital were all Infowars listeners following Alex Jones. Once Alex Jones saw that they were committing violence he immediately retreated and claimed they were all antifa. In many other rallies since then very few people show up. I think most of them are all talk hiding at the other end of a phone line. In the meantime any and all non-trump supporters should be armies up for self-defense.
Of course he did. Alex Jones was a pawn, not a man in the know. He was already in deep shit over his Sandy Hook bullshit.
Jones never knew where the line between inciting mob action and keeping his ass covered lay. He frequently crossed it. Shit, he would frequently get into fights himself.
And yeah, relatively few people showed up to further rallies afterwards, but then even Trump knew it'd be fucking suicide to pull that shit again any time soon. Trump had to disown the actions of his mobs, something he had never done in the past. He did so because he knew he was in deep shit if he didn't.
But there are still millions that hang onto his every word, and chances are there are still thousands that will commit violence for it. And Trump is fighting for his life here.
Heck, he doesn't even have to do anything. Trump could disappear for good and I bet his followers would come to their own conclusions and pull some shit.
Only takes a few in the crowd to break through. Imagine if one or a few of them got as far as Ashli Babbit did. The outcome of the riots could have been very different.
True, but that's no reason to be complacent. This could easily become a 'lessons learned' aspect for the Trump family too. They might do more to ensure that someone turns up armed and at the right spot, which will also be a lot easier for a judge's house than the Capitol building.