03-15-2024, 10:57 PM
(03-15-2024, 09:36 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: You've never seen the term cult used in a positive manner? Never heard of a "cult classic?"
Alright you got me there.
Quote:In all honesty, I get what you're saying but the reality of it is that the intention is not to offend. If you take offense being a part of a group that meets those definitions, then maybe don't be a member of it. I am a member of several organizations that people refer to as a cult. I mean, I am a Freemason for crying out loud, do you know the things that have been said about my Brethren? But even beyond that, I am also a civil servant. Every time negative things are said about the government that is derogatory towards a group of people with which I identify. People make the choice to be offended and they make a choice of the groups with which they affiliate.
Well to be clear, I'm not arguing that you can't call it a cult. I think you should actually be allowed to call it a cult when the intention is to argue your point about the movement. I was just saying I don't think it's fair to say people shouldn't be offended by it. At the same time, I don't think people being offended by it should be cause for it's usage to be banned. That's a slippery slope in my opinion.
Quote:You are applying the MAGA movement moniker in too broad of a brush. For instance, Jeff Yass, the billionaire investor who caused Trump to change course on the TikTok ban. He isn't a part of the MAGA movement but he is a Trump supporter. He doesn't give two shits about the MAGA movement, he just sees Trump as a tool to manipulate. The GOP voters that are going to vote for Trump because he is the party's nominee? Not MAGA. I am talking about the die-hard, excuse making, head-in-the-sand MAGA members. That's the MAGA movement.
Is that the MAGA movement though? Perhaps I'm uninformed here, but I always just saw the MAGA movement as the people who support Trump and not necessarily a group of people who are strangely devoted to him. I mean, I voted for Trump twice and I considered myself "MAGA" but I never saw myself as anything other than someone who supports Trump. And I think a lot of people that I would consider "MAGA" feel this way as well.
Quote:Now, objective is probably the wrong term to use because of the inherent ambiguity that exists in the definition of the term. However, when you look to authorities on the matter, when you view the MAGA movement through an objective lens is certainly going to show that those die hard followers fall within the defined boundaries. But again, just being a Trump voter, or even someone that supports him, doesn't make you a part of the MAGA movement. That is a very specific subset.
I'm not so sure I agree with the bold here.
What I find interesting about the whole MAGA thing is that it literally was just a slogan for Donald Trump's campaign, something that is not even remotely close to being unique to Trump. Yet, people ralllied behind the slogan and it somehow morphed into this derogatory term for Trump supporters. Trust me, I get that there are people who have really extreme and racist views that are "MAGA", but what I don't understand is why those people are the ones who got to define the slogan when that's really all it was to begin with.
For Obama it was "Yes We Can". Or "Change".
For Bush it was......whatever Bush's was.
For Hillary it was "I really suck at this!".
Joking aside, I feel like Trump just heavily marketed the slogan and made some hats and then people sort of lost their minds with the whole "MAGA" thing, when in my opinion it was just a slogan/rallying cry for his presidential efforts like every other campaign that came before and that will come after his days as a presidential candidate are over.
At the same time..... I'm not sure we should continue this discussion here. Seems we've wandered into the territory of derailing the thread, but I do enjoy the discussion on this.
