Partisans like to insult MAGA by comparing Trumpism to a brainwashed cult. But how fair is that, really? Let’s take a look.

Noted cult expert Steven Hassan has studied the psychological techniques of cult mind control extensively and has assembled this chart of the most common mind control techniques by category. Evangelical Christian author Ronald Enroth looks at abusive and manipulative churches from a born-again Christian perspective.

Let’s begin with Steven Hassan’s Information Control and Thought Control. These are the two categories of mind control techniques found in far-right MAGA political circles.

Information Control

1. Deception.
   a. Deliberately withhold information. Right wing media withhold all information that might portray their hated “liberals” in a positive light.
   b. Distort information to make it more acceptable. Right wing media misrepresent the Constitution of the United States to make right wing tyranny and bigotry appear as if it is “Constitutional governance.” “The January 6th insurrectionists were just an orderly tour group!”
   c. Systematically lie to the cult member. The ongoing lies about nonexistent “widespread voter fraud,” among hundreds of examples.
2. Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information. “Don’t believe the liberal media.”
3. Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines.
4. Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda. Far right moguls and media outlets have become MAGA’s entire supply of information. Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino, Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” Fox News, Newsmax, One America News Network, Epoch Times, and uncountable far-right astroturf sites.

Thought Control

1. Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth. Self-explanatory and self-attesting. “You had better believe and agree with our every single tenet or we’ll label you a “RINO” – “Republican In Name Only.”
2. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words. “Election integrity” neatly encapsulates the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” by “widespread voter fraud.” A “Conservative,” when capitalized, denotes someone who is 100% homophobic, 100% against women’s rights, 100% committed to the lie that America was founded as a Christian Nation, 100% committed to the “stolen 2020 election” lie, and is 100% committed to the belief that the force of government must be used to “legislate morality.” A “Patriot” refers to a militant religious fundamentalist who has wholly internalized hate propaganda and desires a government that will severely harm the targets of his hate. “Patriotic” becomes a synonym for “maximally hateful and bigoted.” “Constitutional governance” and “Constitutional conservative” encapsulates the right wing lie that America’s founding fathers had really intended to enact a religious dictatorship rather than a free nation. “Freedom” and “liberty” are redefined to mean a nation or society that mandates all inhabitants’ observance to MAGA’s religious dictates by force of law, and which ostracizes or punishes dissenters.
3. Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts. Engaging in reflexive mocking. Responding to a lengthy, patient explanation with nothing but a dismissive “HaHa” or “laugh emoji.” Dismissing facts with one-liners like “They’re just out to get Trump!”
4. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism. Just try to have a rational, dispassionate, fact-based discussion with a Trumpist. It’s nearly impossible. The response to any such attempt at honest discussion is almost always mocking, laughing in your face, or a personal put-down such as “you just hate Trump!”
5. Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy. Ask any pastor, church parishioner, or Liz Cheney what happens to anyone who questions the infallibility, purity, conduct, actions, or character of Trump. “They’re weaponizing the Justice Department to get Trump!”
6. Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful. Self-explanatory and self-attesting.
7. Instill new “map of reality”. A gradual process that involves consuming little to nothing other than right wing hate propaganda. Some people have spent their entire thinking lives fully immersed in right wing hate propaganda. When this new map of reality has been 100% fully internalized, you are said to have a “Biblical worldview.” Your Biblical Worldview functions like a pair of virtual reality glasses, superimposing this new map of reality onto everything that you see, hear, and interpret.

The other two categories of mind control listed in Steven Hassan’s B.I.T.E. model, Behavior Control and Emotional Control, are carried out within many right wing MAGA churches.

Behavior Control

1. When, how and with whom the member has sex. MAGA churches tend to be incredibly obsessed with the details of everyone’s sex life. That includes the sex lives of their own members.
2. Control types of clothing and hairstyles. MAGA churches are often straitjacket-strict about how both men and women may dress. Men are often required to live a cookie-cutter existence. “Modest” clothing is a thriving industry that serves members of far right churches. Check out the right-wing flag-waving at this modesty vendor’s site.
3. Encourage and engage in corporal punishment. Many MAGA churches condone child-beating and even ritualized child abuse. Some MAGA churches even authorize wife-spanking or wife-beating.
4. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think.

Emotional Control

1. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault. “They’re weaponizing the Justice Department to get Trump!”
2. Instill fear, such as fear of a) thinking independently, b) the outside world, c) enemies, d) losing one’s salvation, e) leaving or being shunned by the group, and/or f) other’s disapproval.

Many but not all MAGA churches fall into the category of Churches That Abuse. Abusive churches often discourage or even ostracize questions. Say one dubious or skeptical thing about the Orange Godᴹᴬᴳᴬ and an abusive church will penalize you severely.

Abusive churches foster rigidity. The most fanatical MAGA churches are intensely legalistic; Josh Duggar of reality TV fame, now convicted on child pornography charges, attended Trump presidential debates in person in 2016 and patterned his life by the teachings of the ultra-legalistic Institute in Basic Life Principles and the equally legalistic Independent Fundamental Baptist Church. The more Trump-fanatical a church is, the more likely it is that the church practices spiritual abuse and even physical abuse. Some of the worst MAGA churches even call for what can only be called ritual child abuse.

Conclusion: I think it’s safe to comfortably categorize MAGA as a political cult that relies very heavily on established techniques of thought control and information control. When mixed with religious fundamentalism, which much of MAGA is, it can sometimes cross the line into a religious cult as well, especially when Trump himself is made into a god-king by a fundamentalist church or sect.

When the latter happens, Trump acquires a David Koresh-like spell over the minds of his worshipers; as with David Koresh, Trump could probably decree every marriage void and claim every wife and female child for himself – and the MAGA cult would cling to him every bit as tightly.