The only time I was ever sure he was telling the truth was when he once talked about how much he enjoyed eating some chocolate cake.

@snytiger6 I bet he hates chocolate cakes...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz Judging by his constantly expanding waistline, I'd say he probably was telling the truth in that one instance...

You can't fix stupid or deluded..

@TomMcGiverin I think deluded is fixable, in some cases. However, it does require that the deluded are open to learning and willing to admit they don't already know everything.

@snytiger6 Believers don't care about "knowing", especially when facts and reality are contrary to what they believe, they only care about what they believe.

@nogod4me That is because religions are cults and cults are religions... There is no difference to speak of.

@Lizard_of_Ahaz. Extremism is usually more pronounced in cults. Cults are usually harder to break free of and can have far harsher consequences for those who try.

Many here may have come out of their religon without many problems. Cults would most likely consider that act as a betrayal and cause extreme problems for them, even death in some cases.

When a belief system becomes mainstream, it is usually considered a religon.

@nogod4me Islam, Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Evangelical, Mormons....
Any questions?...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz. Exactly!

@nogod4me All of them and more have elements of extremism and are cults as they fit the definition of cults... Trump's GOP is a cult of personality but all those religions are cults as well just a different kind of cult...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz Yes, they originated in extremism, violence and self-righteousness and they have pushed themselves into the mainstream until they become normalized into a society. Just like the Trump cult has tried to do, there is nothing "normal" about them. They are extreme liars, violent, willfully ignorant believers, hypocrites, etc.

How many people would have rejected the Catholic religion if they truly looked at their history, the Crusades, the Inquisition, prostitution, etc.

They become "bureaucratized":

Social Sciences
"Bureaucratization is defined as the process of rationalization in government, often seen as an inevitable development leading to a system characterized by rules, hierarchy, and administration."

"Yes, the Inquisition used torture — on men and women, young and old. But the torture wasn’t used to punish heretics. It wasn’t used primarily to extract confessions. It wasn’t used as a tool of genocide, nor expressly to break the will of individuals or communities, as Iraq and El Salvador used it in the late 20th century."

"Above all, Hassner says, torture during the Spanish Inquisition was not reckless. After building decades of experience, the authorities used torture systematically, almost scientifically. It was, he says, 'bureaucratized".

[news.berkeley.edu]

Trump would love his cult to become normalized and mainstream. After all, he calls them, "good people". Remember the "Fuhrer cult" created around Adolph Hitler.

@Lizard_of_Ahaz Hitler admitted that he used the Catholic Religion (cult-ure) as a blueprint for The Third Reich.

"FOR HOW SHALL WE FILL PEOPLE WITH BLIND FAITH in the correctness of a doctrine, if we ourselves spread uncertainty and doubt by constant changes in its outward structure? Here, too, we can learn by the example of the Catholic Church. Though its doctrinal edifice, and in part quite superfluously, COMES INTO COLLISION WITH EXACT SCIENCE AND RESEARCH, it is none the less unwilling to sacrifice so much as one little syllable of its dogmas - IT IS ONLY SUCH DOGMAS WHICH LEND TO THE WHOLE BODY THE CHARACTER OF A FAITH." [Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf" Vol. 2 Chapter 5]

"I have followed [the Church] in giving our party program the character of unalterable finality, like the Creed. The Church has never allowed the Creed to be interfered with. It is fifteen hundred years since it was formulated, but every suggestion for its amendment, every logical criticism, or attack on it, has been rejected. The Church has realized that ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING can be built up on a document of that sort, no matter how contradictory or irreconcilable with it. THE FAITHFUL WILL SWALLOW IT WHOLE, SO LONG AS LOGICAL REASONING IS NEVER ALLOWED TO BE BROUGHT TO BEAR ON IT" [Adolf Hitler, from Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction, pp. 239-40]

Trump uses this Nazi trick, speak the lie often enough and fools will believe it, even against all evidence.

@nogod4me Hitler was the second person attempting to take the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor the first was Napoleon though being an atheist himself worked towards discrediting the church (unfortunately he didn't succeed in this goal). Hitler also tried for the crown but wanted the religious aspect intact feeling it would be an unstoppable force to unite Europe under religious fanaticism...