Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/27/the-blacks-for-trump-guy-u.html
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If you pay attention to the ‘high profile’ people that are/have been in his corner, that campaign seems to have attracted a lot of unstable, opportunistic and attention-hungry individuals, in general.
‘Like-kind attracts like’, I guess.
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What’s telling is the Yahweh ben Yahweh guy is just about the only “Black for Trump.” There’s always going to be that One Guy who sees an empty corner and grabs it.
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This would explain why he’s drawn to politics.
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I don’t believe religion makes people stupid - there are plenty of very bright people who practice some kind of religion. But it seems to amplify the stupidity of those who attach to it by a factor of about 1000 by feeding and reinforcing their fears and prejudices. It gives them what in their minds is an “authoritative perspective” for everything they likely already blame, hate, and distrust.
It’s unfortunate, because as an attraction to the hopeless, it could (and does in many cases) do so much good. But people find what they are looking for, and it seems many people are looking for confirmation of their hatred. It’s a damned powerful drug, that’s for sure.
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It’s a two-way street.
“Let’s go to Uganda and give the the poor food and water and medicine. Additionally we’ll only give them this stuff they need as long as they let us preach to them the hatred of gays to the point where murdering people for being gay is completely culturally acceptable there.”
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There’s a mindset that abhors uncertainty.
Religion offers not only to relieve you of any obligation to investigate life with an open mind, but to make questioning things a sin.
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To be fair, there are plenty of religions that do not preach hatred of anyone, including some versions of Christianity. And typically, and I speak from experience, certain missionaries tend toward the less dogmatic. Believe it or not, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was once its most “liberal” arm, often sharply differing with SBC leadership over issues regarding gender and sexual orientation. People who spend time helping others in a culture that is foreign to them almost always come away having learned much more than they’ve taught. When I was in seminary (1989-1992), the professors who taught missions were some of the more liberal thinkers.
Of course, all of this has changed since the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in the early to mid-90s. But around 70% of those active SBC missionaries back then left the SBC and joined other Protestant organizations.
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Absolutely true, of some religions 
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“part of an extremist murder cult”
I miss the days when we had moderate murder cults.
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Not some - most “versions” of Christianity reject hatred, including the New Testament version. This is true of all religions. Even Islam, which we are told to hate and fear, is surprisingly open in some times and places.
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I suspect that most people who are drawn to religion later in life (as opposed to being indoctrinated as children) are attracted by the spiritual aspects, but many people with mental or emotional issues are drawn to it out of a desperate need - possibly unconscious - to “fix” or “find” themselves. Religion has been sold to them as a cure-all, when really it is only a crutch. And like a crutch, religion does not actually heal these people, it simply allows them to keep hobbling along, telling themselves that they are all better, until at some point they completely break.
That’s the impression I get from the more extreme fundamentalist and evangelical people that I’ve met/seen/heard, regardless of what flavor of religion they actually follow.
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Sadly a lot of people aren’t looking for guidance or comfort, they are looking for justification. Wrath finds a cause. All you have to do is look around in traffic to see how people’s emotions come first, and then they project them onto everything they see.
Religion just makes the voices in their head “inspired”. If someone comes to religion already thinking they are special, or privileged, or authoritative, then they get the ultimate seal of approval. That’s why religions need to look more toward mindfulness and teaching their adherents to be aware of their thoughts, instead of being hand-puppets to them.
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Now that this news is out I bet Trump isn’t encouraging people to look at “his” African American anymore.
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That’s an issue I struggle with a lot. There seems to be an attraction toward religion for people who are unstable mentally, but then religion is part of the human experience. It’s really hard to say when the line is crossed from normal human belief to crazytown. I have a second cousin who owned a Pontiac Firebird because he was a preacher (not sure who ever heard him preach) and, you know, the Firebird is also a Christian symbol. He also collects Hummel figurines. So he’s on the border of crazytown, maybe a citizen. It’s hard to say.
But this dude is clearly a citizen.
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Oh I don’t know. From Trump’s perspective, you can’t be crazy if you hate Obama/Clinton. He does ally himself with Breitbart afterall.
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And Alex Jones who apparently recently did a “I’m not antisemetic but the Jews control everything” screed.
I bet if anything Trump would say, “I never associated with that guy, just because his sign was put up in my rally, I mean, I’ve got lots of people holding signs here. He’s just evidence of one of the many of the blacks that support my Presidency. I mean when you have as many of the blacks supporting me as I do because of their failing schools and crime-ridden neighborhoods, some I assume are good people but many of them are going to be murderers, is that my fault?”
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Yahweh Ben Yahweh had videos on public access TV years ago, I remember seeing them late one night just being kind of dumbfounded, although it was typical cult stuff, “our leader is God on Earth” etc.
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They were all killed off by the extreme cults.
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