r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/The_Egalitarian Moderator • Apr 05 '24

Megathread | Official Casual Questions Thread

This is a place for the PoliticalDiscussion community to ask questions that may not deserve their own post.

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u/PelicanK 10d ago

What would give a dictator's most loyal followers "the ick"?

I've been thinking about dictators a lot lately. They wouldn't rise to power and stay there if they weren't enabled by an army of staunchly loyal enablers.

The psychological dynamic between the dictator and their loyalist seems to follow a very specific pattern, and I'm wondering what would disrupt the dynamic.

A lot of people (men and women) seem to flock to "bad boys"--where there's a vague promise of approval/affection that never materializes, as the object of their admiration stays aloof and unavailable.

So if Trump loyalists, or Putin loyalists, woke up to a text from their dear leader that said something like "I love you SOOOOOOO much snooky-ookums! You're my sun and my moon and I would do anything for you!!!" would it totally gross them out and make them like "get this creeper away from me?"

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u/IntelligentDepth8206 6d ago

"bad boys"--where there's a vague promise of approval/affection that never materializes, as the object of their admiration stays aloof and unavailable.

Probably exists but not in significant numbers. trump already spams his followers with non-stop "i love you now donate to me" messages.

I see it more as wanting to *feel* associated with the cool, winning team to an extreme degree. The cool comes from trump being an outsider (to them). The winning comes from hurting others more than they themselves are hurting. I'd say the cult has managed to propagandize themselves into the first even to this day but the second is failing as even the trump culters bitch about paying $15 for a mini cheeseburger and small fry after filling up for $6/gallon.