The Cult of Trump

[Value Buy]

Dec 22, 2021 15:11:53 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Dec 21, 2021 23:46:34 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

I would expect your god trump to make such a mistake but not you!

40% of the US population won't even get vaccinated to SAVE THEMSELVES.

they are not socialist Democrats.

And they are not all rightwing Republicans. Non vaccinated Americans via percentage numbers shows Blacks lag White vaccination rates.

www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

[Opti]

Dec 22, 2021 23:09:28 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Dec 22, 2021 15:11:53 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

40% of the US population won't even get vaccinated to SAVE THEMSELVES.

they are not socialist Democrats.

And they are not all rightwing Republicans. Non vaccinated Americans via percentage numbers shows Blacks lag White vaccination rates.

www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

They also include some of the health nuts and so called woo woo crowd. I have reached out to one of them with a significant platform, but I doubt I changed their mind. 

I think the airplane Karen video, I think Tenn posted, probably falls in one of the categories I mentioned.

[tallguy]

Dec 22, 2021 23:09:28 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Dec 22, 2021 15:11:53 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

40% of the US population won't even get vaccinated to SAVE THEMSELVES.

they are not socialist Democrats.

And they are not all rightwing Republicans. Non vaccinated Americans via percentage numbers shows Blacks lag White vaccination rates.

www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

Understandable though in their case.  Tuskegee, anyone?

[Value Buy]

Dec 22, 2021 23:18:25 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Dec 22, 2021 23:09:28 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

And they are not all rightwing Republicans. Non vaccinated Americans via percentage numbers shows Blacks lag White vaccination rates.

www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

Understandable though in their case.  Tuskegee, anyone?

Since most posters here do not accept excuses for white people not getting vaxxed, maybe it is time not to accept that reason either. 
I was just responding to dj's post where he stated they are not all socialist democrats and I showed him they are not all Republicans either.

[djAdvocate]

Dec 22, 2021 17:26:45 GMT -5 Opti said:

Dec 22, 2021 15:09:51 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

I fervently disagree. I think PRRI was basically asking THIS question:

"if the Trump Republicans were voting because of economic stress, then WHY did their opinion of the economy go from "most pessimistic" to "most optimistic" as SOON AS TRUMP WON?"

this is particularly intriguing in that, as I have pointed out before, the economy did BETTER under Obama than Trump (prior to the pandemic, of course.  after the pandemic, Trump had the worst economic performance of any president in history).

the ANSWER is that it actually doesn't have to do with ECONOMICS.  they voted for Trump because of the FEAR OF LOSING SOCIAL STATUS.

they did NOT set out to PROVE that thesis.  that is why it took six months to make this analysis.  they had to re-survey again and again to get at this question.

I think that it is REALLY IMPORTANT for Democrats to understand this with ABSOLUTE CLARITY.  because harping on about the economy is not going to rescue them, as the trolling thread shows.

Simple, because Trump won. Not because he ran, but because he won and they believed a rich business person would make the economy better. Much like that stat of W's approval right after 911. Its irrational feels. 

Real important, I don't think most people who voted for Trump did vote because of economic stress. The coalitions he put under his big identity tent to win were Evangelicals and White rights groups. The former got on message with the pro birth pro conservative stance. This was fed further by money grubbing "preachers" who sold the idea, heck fake prophecies on how Trump was the chosen one. For President, by God. Blasphemy of the highest order ... but it was one of many tells that these aren't really religious people. At best, they are people who use the cover of Christianity to cover for many social order beliefs.

The White rights group came in easily enough once Trump's wall took over many minds. That was IMO his first big win. It was liked for so many reasons. Sure some were economic, but most of that was peeps worried about the costs of social programs more than their own livlihood. The knee jerk reaction of no more others though, I think was a far bigger sell mentally for many Trumpers. Its obvious just listening to them talk about immigrants. They assume they are all brown, Spanish speaking, and going to be a financial drain on the safety net. 

what the study shows is that economics were not at play.

it was loss of social standing.

what is interesting is, if you listen to conservatives, they CONTINUE to complain about

economics, EVEN THOUGH THE ECONOMY WAS BETTER UNDER OBAMA AND IS BETTER

UNDER BIDEN THAN IT WAS UNDER TRUMP AT ANY POINT IN HIS TENURE.

I really have to keep repeating it, because the bitching keeps happening over on the troll thread.

[djAdvocate]

Dec 22, 2021 23:18:25 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Dec 22, 2021 23:09:28 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

And they are not all rightwing Republicans. Non vaccinated Americans via percentage numbers shows Blacks lag White vaccination rates.

www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

Understandable though in their case.  Tuskegee, anyone?

correct. and black folks NEVER forget that shit.

[djAdvocate]

Dec 22, 2021 18:18:22 GMT -5 Opti said:

Support for abortion if needed is widespread in the US. However it is strongly against policy for Catholics and Evangelicals. Most of those who identify as that religion I think are not religious. Its a social thing. Like if you are in the South, you go to church. 

So I don't and won't see it as a religious divide. I think its something that people put in their social basket, and I personally have been horrified reading how those faux religious folk have justified only caring if the fetus is brought to term. It is so like manic gun buying and the need for the military to be bigger than anywhere else on the planet. It is an emotional need. It has in most cases, no legit religious basis. 

My current local church falls into the most expansive blue bucket FWIW.

talk to the hand.

www.pewforum.org/2009/01/15/abortion-views-by-religious-affiliation/

[tallguy]

Dec 22, 2021 23:30:42 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Dec 22, 2021 23:18:25 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Understandable though in their case.  Tuskegee, anyone?

Since most posters here do not accept excuses for white people not getting vaxxed, maybe it is time not to accept that reason either. 
I was just responding to dj's post where he stated they are not all socialist democrats and I showed him they are not all Republicans either.

There is a very small number of people who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons.  There is also a minuscule risk of complication for another very small number of people.  Aside from those, give me one legitimate excuse that white people use for not getting the vaccine.  The fact that you can apparently with a straight face create an equivalency between the two groups should be cause for some serious introspection. 



I'm guessing it won't be.  

[djAdvocate]

and to be perfectly clear:

I won't accept illegitimate excuses, PERIOD.

you're afraid of needles?
too bad.
you are a scientologist?
sorry.

I have gone from kind caring to not caring at all.
GET YOUR FUCKING VACCINATION.

NOW.

[Tennesseer]

Dec 22, 2021 23:18:25 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Dec 22, 2021 23:09:28 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

And they are not all rightwing Republicans. Non vaccinated Americans via percentage numbers shows Blacks lag White vaccination rates.

www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

Understandable though in their case.  Tuskegee, anyone?

I wonder if VB will look that up.

[Opti]

Dec 23, 2021 0:01:41 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Dec 22, 2021 18:18:22 GMT -5 Opti said:

Support for abortion if needed is widespread in the US. However it is strongly against policy for Catholics and Evangelicals. Most of those who identify as that religion I think are not religious. Its a social thing. Like if you are in the South, you go to church. 

So I don't and won't see it as a religious divide. I think its something that people put in their social basket, and I personally have been horrified reading how those faux religious folk have justified only caring if the fetus is brought to term. It is so like manic gun buying and the need for the military to be bigger than anywhere else on the planet. It is an emotional need. It has in most cases, no legit religious basis. 

My current local church falls into the most expansive blue bucket FWIW.

talk to the hand.

www.pewforum.org/2009/01/15/abortion-views-by-religious-affiliation/

Talk to my hand DJ.

This research is from 2008, 13 years ago and does not contradict what I say. Words have power, and the way some of those categories are written, your average new age attendee would answer the Qs different than a more mainstream Catholic or Baptist will. 

For example, do you attend church once a week or more.
New age, new thought places sometimes insist on calling themselves centers. Not churches. They are small, unlike the large Catholic churches or Baptist churches. Because they are small, they often have only one service in the entire week. I've yet to meet a Catholic church that didn't have at least two services on two different days every week. Its possible to attend church more than twice a week there. If you are Muslim, daily or at least very frequent worship is expected. Will Jews say they go to church regularly, or will some reject the question as they go to Synagogue. 



On the new age, new thought side, they distinguish between being religious and being spiritual. I personally would define myself as spiritual not religious , if work permits, I do attend church/the center once a week. I might be there more often, but its not attending church per se, its doing book club, practicing for the choir, being on the board or a whole other basket of stuff that isn't worship. In some churches that includes prep for your turn to host the un-homed and come up with toiletries etc. for their comfort.

NOTICE how only three religions on the balance hit the 50% or greater mark for believing abortion should be illegal in most cases or all cases. Jevovah's Witnesses , Mormons, and Evangelical Protestant Churches. Only the latter is really sizeable in this country. I think the I don't want to answer folks are making this graph interesting. For Catholics, 48% on the legal or legal in most cases side, versus 45% of the illegal or mostly illegal side. Where are the other 7% of the Catholics. Playing Switzerland or having no opinion?

Have an absolutely certain belief in a personal God

What an amazing and weird worded question.  Buddhists don't have a monotheistic religion. How are they supposed to answer that? I believe God exists, but heck person God makes it sound like I am supposed to have my own personal God. Maybe the Buddhists and the Hindus can play to looking at it that way. I choose you Ganesh. 

Where is all the missing work? What are the answers to the special circle Qs for peeps who believe abortion should be legal or at least in most cases? Where are the absolute numbers contained in each religious class with the bar charts. What are the absolute numbers on either side of the legal/illegal line. Pretty pics can mislead. With legit numbers attached to each graph, each conclusion, a different picture may emerge. 

48% of US Catholics fall on leans or agrees on the legal line. 45%, 3% less fall on the illegal line. AND ABORTION BAD, IS OFFICIAL CATHOLIC DOCTRINe at least until they really find God or have a change of heart. 

[djAdvocate]

Dec 23, 2021 1:02:44 GMT -5 Opti said:

Dec 23, 2021 0:01:41 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

talk to the hand.

www.pewforum.org/2009/01/15/abortion-views-by-religious-affiliation/

Talk to my hand DJ.

This research is from 2008, 13 years ago and does not contradict what I say.

you think so, eh?

ok.

but I am not going to risk having this thread shut down so we can argue.

let's move back to the subject of this thread, please.

thanks.

[Opti]

If I find them, I might toss in some stories from NAR. Just like Faux Christians, there are many souls who think they are religious. IMO they really are just keepers of hate & grudges that may or may not be approved by their religion. To me, a real religious person actually follows the true dogma of the religion, not the social grudges and holier than though trappings some think are desireable.

Monks and Nuns are often religious. Church lady, however, might just be an asshole who dresses in a religious looking way.

[Opti]

Dec 23, 2021 1:07:11 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Dec 23, 2021 1:02:44 GMT -5 Opti said:

Talk to my hand DJ.

This research is from 2008, 13 years ago and does not contradict what I say.

you think so, eh?

ok.

but I am not going to risk having this thread shut down so we can argue.

let's move back to the subject of this thread, please.

thanks.

Yes I think so, which part of the undead Trump cult would you like to discuss next?

[djAdvocate]

presidential historians are not waiting to condemn Trump:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States

he is ranked in the bottom four in the last THREE surveys.

he is in the bottom decile, with Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.

so, yes, Trump might NEVER rank the worst ever. of course, he still might, too. we are still finding out how awful he was. but nobody is even debating any longer if he is the worst president in 150 years. the jury has delivered the verdict. he was.

[djAdvocate]

more evidence of his cult status.
he is the worst president in 150 years, but Republicans still love him.

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/20/republicans-view-reagan-trump-as-best-recent-presidents/

at least he didn't outrank Reagan.

[djAdvocate]

for those that don't know, Johnson succeeded Lincoln (he was VP), and he was pro-secession. he went on a national tour promoting his policies to Republicans, back when Republicans were against slavery, and opposing the 14th amendment.

he is an absolute embarrassment to the Democratic Party.
that is the guy that Trump is fighting to beat for 43rd place.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Dec 23, 2021 1:48:07 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

for those that don't know, Johnson succeeded Lincoln (he was VP), and he was pro-secession. he went on a national tour promoting his policies to Republicans, back when Republicans were against slavery, and opposing the 14th amendment.

he is an absolute embarrassment to the Democratic Party.
that is the guy that Trump is fighting to beat for 43rd place.

Adam Ruins Everything did an episode that discussed the reformation.  They had an African American scholar on as an expert who talked about every time a disinfranchised group gets closer to being equal to those with the privilege there is a MASSIVE backlash and we go backwards again.

She likened to a rubber band you can only stretch it so far before it snaps back.

I was starting to get really depressed about it until she pointed out that while a rubber band snaps back it is never as taunt as it was before.  Eventually it will lose the ability to snap back completely, we have to be dedicated to stretching that band until it does.

I've also regularly heard the phrase society moves forward one funeral at a time.  McConnell and Trump won't be around forever.   It's not that you get more conservative as you age it's that each generation after you is more progressive.  You're not "seeing the light" and joining the rightful side of politics.  You're an outdated old fart whose ideas are now obsolete.   That's how it should be.

Unfortunately Trump & Co can do a shit load of damage in the time they have left on this planet.  I am REALLY hoping that the momentum that started in 2020 keeps going we can NEVER EVER AGAIN take voting for granted and that the most logical candidate will win.   There are too many angry white people out there to assume that.

[djAdvocate]

Dec 23, 2021 8:24:15 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Dec 23, 2021 1:48:07 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

for those that don't know, Johnson succeeded Lincoln (he was VP), and he was pro-secession. he went on a national tour promoting his policies to Republicans, back when Republicans were against slavery, and opposing the 14th amendment.

he is an absolute embarrassment to the Democratic Party.
that is the guy that Trump is fighting to beat for 43rd place.

Adam Ruins Everything did an episode that discussed the reformation.  They had an African American scholar on as an expert who talked about every time a disinfranchised group gets closer to being equal to those with the privilege there is a MASSIVE backlash and we go backwards again.

She likened to a rubber band you can only stretch it so far before it snaps back.

I was starting to get really depressed about it until she pointed out that while a rubber band snaps back it is never as taunt as it was before.  Eventually it will lose the ability to snap back completely, we have to be dedicated to stretching that band until it does.

I've also regularly heard the phrase society moves forward one funeral at a time.  McConnell and Trump won't be around forever.   It's not that you get more conservative as you age it's that each generation after you is more progressive.  You're not "seeing the light" and joining the rightful side of politics.  You're an outdated old fart whose ideas are now obsolete.   That's how it should be.

Unfortunately Trump & Co can do a shit load of damage in the time they have left on this planet.  I am REALLY hoping that the momentum that started in 2020 keeps going we can NEVER EVER AGAIN take voting for granted and that the most logical candidate will win.   There are too many angry white people out there to assume that.

the phrase I like is that time is a one way arrow pointed in the direction of liberalism.

I think that is true, in the long haul.   in the short and intermediate haul, there can be setbacks.  some that last 1000 years.

[djAdvocate]

is the Trump Cult a Death Cult?

www.channel3000.com/is-the-trump-cult-becoming-a-death-cult/

"....you look at the news and discover the state of Tennessee has decided to stop recommending vaccinations for its children and has fired its top vaccination official without providing a reason.


I’m not quite sure why this is happening but the thought seems to be that requiring – or even recommending – that parents have their kids vaccinated goes against freedom, or something."

as if the parent was not responsible for the welfare of the child? note the word RECOMMENDING above.
not mandating. RECOMMENDING.

[deminmaine]

I wish I could give a good argument against your premise, but I think it is spot on.  THe trump phenomenon that I see around here is supported and cheered on by xenophobic racists, pure and simple. Oh the regular panoply of self interested neo-fascist (Republican) sympathizers are also on board, just because they hope trump is just a convenient vehicle to their ends, but his core support is by mysoginistic, fearful and hateful deplorables who cheer on his every denigration of the "other".  And the other isn't just Mexican. Or black.  Or Communist. Or Democrat. Or Asian. Or educated. Or gay. Or poor. Or disabled.  It is a huge swath of society that isn't like them.  That is "different", or almost worse, "thinks they are better than them".  (Limo Libs) Yup, they are downtrodden by their own inadequacies, and lashing out, because they are "real Americans" and they aren't going to take it anymore. And there are millions of them, and they now drive the neo fascist party.  Given the big advantage given by our electoral system to wide open spaces, they now hold very disproportionate advantages in upcoming elections too.  

You are right to be very worried.  I think we are on the fascist abyss.  (But..... Turkey?)

[djAdvocate]

LOL! Hey, at least Turkey is a REAL dictatorship.
it doesn't try to hard to be a democracy.

I fear more for the US because of that. because y'all stand SO MUCH TO LOSE.
and you know what is the MOST disappointing?

less than half of you get that.
I am not trying to insult anyone.
I am just going by what I see.

1/3 of you rejoice in it, and another 1/6th of you just don't see the risk.

[djAdvocate]

Dec 21, 2021 20:36:21 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Dec 21, 2021 20:20:03 GMT -5 hurley1980 said:

Yes!  I mean, what happens if this country truly falls into a civil war?  Are hundreds of millions of Americans going to become refugees fleeing to any other country that will let us in? I could probably go to Canada or Mexico pretty easily now, but not if everyone is rushing the boarder to try to get there as well.  

Are we going to end up like Syria? I just can't believe its even getting as close as it is to this situation in my lifetime.  Trump destroyed our country!

viewed another way, the Civil War never ended, because the South never TRULY accepted defeat.

we were held together by a fragile alliance that respected human beings, at least in writing.

that is falling apart now. and I have to say that

I AM PART OF THE PROBLEM

because until a year ago, I still respected conservatives. conservatives USED TO graciously accept defeat. now they are the party of spoiled children. 

I am a grown man. I won't stand for that level of immaturity. the indignity of boasting PROUDLY that you only go to web pages of people that agree with you.  I never thought I would see that here. I always thought we were the self questioning people.

I was wrong. secretly, only 60% of us are like that- and we are not brave enough to give the 40% a good talking to.

I had to add to this.

I just saw a John Oliver from 2017, and he was talking about the Civil War Monument issue.

he pointed out that the MAJORITY of these monuments were erected FIFTY YEARS after the end of the Civil War, in a 15 year span between 1905 and 1920.  why?  well, because that was the peak of Jim Crow and the KKK.  the South was RUN by these people, to a large degree.  and they wanted symbols of their racism erected everywhere.

so, now it is 150 years later, and 50 years after the civil Rights era (the pendulum swung the other way).  perhaps this is the nadir for the US, just like the WW1 era was.  perhaps not.  perhaps we still have a way to go.

[djAdvocate]

confession: it is not difficult to tell, but I am pretty angry about all of this.
I grew up at a time when America was at it's PEAK of civil justice,
and I have watched decade after decade as the GOP (mostly) has carved it back.
it is sickening to watch. and over the course of a lifetime, I have to say....


it is fucking depressing.

[Tennesseer]

A long read but well worth it.

America is now in fascism’s legal phase

“Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.”

So began Toni Morrison’s 1995 address to Howard University, entitled Racism and Fascism, which delineated 10 step-by-step procedures to carry a society from first to last.

Morrison’s interest was not in fascist demagogues or fascist regimes. It was rather in “forces interested in fascist solutions to national problems”. The procedures she described were methods to normalize such solutions, to “construct an internal enemy”, isolate, demonize and criminalize it and sympathizers to its ideology and their allies, and, using the media, provide the illusion of power and influence to one’s supporters.

Morrison saw, in the history of US racism, fascist practices – ones that could enable a fascist social and political movement in the United States.

Writing in the era of the “super-predator” myth (a Newsweek headline the next year read, “Superpredators: Should we cage the new breed of vicious kids?”), Morrison unflinchingly read fascism into the practices of US racism. Twenty-five years later, those “forces interested in fascist solutions to national problems” are closer than ever to winning a multi-decade national fight.

The contemporary American fascist movement is led by oligarchical interests for whom the public good is an impediment, such as those in the hydrocarbon business, as well as a social, political, and religious movement with roots in the Confederacy. As in all fascist movements, these forces have found a popular leader unconstrained by the rules of democracy, this time in the figure of Donald Trump.

My father, raised in Berlin under the Nazis, saw in European fascism a course that any country could take. He knew that US democracy was not exceptional in its capacity to resist the forces that shattered his family and devastated his youth. My mother, a court stenographer in US criminal courts for 44 years, saw in the anti-Black racism of the American legal system parallels to the vicious antisemitism she experienced in her youth in Poland, attitudes which enabled eastern European complicity with fascism. And my grandmother, Ilse Stanley, wrote a memoir, published in 1957, of her experiences in 1930s Berlin, later appearing on the US television show This is Your Life to discuss it. It is a memoir of the normalization years of German fascism, well before world war and genocide. In it, she recounts experiences with Nazi officers who assured her that in nazism’s vilification of Jews, they certainly did not mean her.

Philosophers have always been at the forefront in the analysis of fascist ideology and movements. In keeping with a tradition that includes the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno, I have been writing for a decade on the way politicians and movement leaders employ propaganda, centrally including fascist propaganda, to win elections and gain power.

America is now in fascism’s legal phase

[Opti]

Dec 23, 2021 1:16:50 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

more evidence of his cult status.
he is the worst president in 150 years, but Republicans still love him.

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/20/republicans-view-reagan-trump-as-best-recent-presidents/

at least he didn't outrank Reagan.

OM (insert swear word here)...

I don't get seeing Reagan and Trump as similar. Reagan was extremely popular when he ran and not just with Republicans. Trump wasn't even liked by most of his fellow candidates in 2016, yet the brainwashed ... believe.

[billisonboard]

Dec 23, 2021 21:16:02 GMT -5 Opti said:

Dec 23, 2021 1:16:50 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

more evidence of his cult status.
he is the worst president in 150 years, but Republicans still love him.

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/20/republicans-view-reagan-trump-as-best-recent-presidents/

at least he didn't outrank Reagan.

OM (insert swear word here)...

I don't get seeing Reagan and Trump as similar. Reagan was extremely popular when he ran and not just with Republicans. Trump wasn't even liked by most of his fellow candidates in 2016, yet the brainwashed ... believe.

There is this:

"By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations. In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever." link

[djAdvocate]

they were both populists, and they both came from entertainment backgrounds.

[djAdvocate]

seven distinguishing features of a cult:

Several years ago, the founder of IHOP, Mike Bickle, created a list of seven ways to recognize the difference between a religious community and a cult. Written down, the signs seem clear:

1. Opposing critical thinking

2. Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving

3. Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture

4. Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders

5. Dishonoring the family unit

6. Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership)

7. Separation from the Church

[Opti]

Dec 26, 2021 1:02:26 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

seven distinguishing features of a cult:

Several years ago, the founder of IHOP, Mike Bickle, created a list of seven ways to recognize the difference between a religious community and a cult. Written down, the signs seem clear:

1. Opposing critical thinking

2. Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving

3. Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture

4. Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders

5. Dishonoring the family unit

6. Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership)

7. Separation from the Church

The faux Christians usually don't do #5, but #3 is a great way to identify them. It seems to be the majority of what the "preachers" preach.