When people experience a psychotic break (not a manic episode or paranoia) they aren’t typically aware of it. You’d have to have quite a bit of personal experience with such episodes to be aware of it. It’s not just that line that tells me he’s full of shit - it’s everything he said and did during that incident.

If he was lucid enough to know that his behavior and reasoning could be interpreted as “insane”, then he wasn’t actually experiencing a psychotic break of any sort. The voice of “god” he was hearing? That was his own inner voice, expressing his own violent fantasies. He’s just another violent asshole trying to justify…

I believe it was Frank Herbert who said something along the lines of: Power doesn’t corrupt. Power attracts the corrupt[ible]. Absolute Power attracts the absolutely corruptible.

My mom chilled out a lot as she got older. I have no contact with my ex, thankfully (she was, among other things, a toxic narcissist).

Exactly.

I definitely know people who retired and moved to Maine (and New Hampshire). Well, at least during the summer months.

The born-again thing is something that managed to infect certain Catholics, despite having no roots in Catholicism itself. Obviously my mom was one, but I’ve also seen it happen to my ex.

I was living in VT in the 90s when the Island-Ponders were still active (they’d show up at festivals and such to recruit youngsters who didn’t know any better).  I’ve been in SoCal when what I call the “money cults” were pretty active, and watched my (now) ex get sucked into that. Watching the fervor grow in someone’s…

That seems like a fair assessment. I just hate when people throw the word “cult” around when it’s not appropriate. I’ve seen cults at work firsthand (and I’m not just referring to born-agains, at this point), and it leaves an impression on you. Like, literally hair-raising creep/terror shit.

It seemed to me that things were going pretty well up here in VT, but I wasn’t sure about the numbers. I guess my overall impression was correct. People took it seriously here, for the most part. Wore masks. Signed up to get vaccinated when it was available to them, etc. It was helpful that our dept of health had a…

What will also not be surprising (unfortunately so): right-wingers calling her “weak” for it.

That’s not really any different than any other version of christianity, and not exactly specific to “cults only”.

You’re honestly just grasping at straws, trying to force a fit where there isn’t one. Like I said, a religion doesn’t have to be a cult in order to be awful.

See, that’s a much better example. Although I suppose it depends upon whether the other characteristics are present as well.

A lot of you are awfully quick to call Catholicism a cult. A religion doesn’t have to be a cult in order to be awful. Every one of you is missing one key piece of the cult puzzle: social isolation. Catholics are, for the most part, sociable people, and their religion in no way restricts who they can socialize with.…

trump cashed in big time on “the swamp”, and he was the swampiest swamp-creature to ever swamp a swamp.

I gotta say, your last sentence threw me at first, but when I thought about it, not just is there a profound ignorance in the US as to that particular situation, there’s a profound ignorance concerning what comprise fascism, police states, apartheid states, and genocide. And hell yes, I think all of those apply to…

I feel you. I’m going on a very rough 4 day stretch, myself. About the only good thing is music right now, so I’ve got the cans strapped on and listening to HEALTH.

Hey, I’m totally down to laugh at Panic!, but at least they didn’t use that fucking “Bodies” song by Drowning Pool... jesus...

Never quite the defense they think it is.