this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
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Yeah, but it's not a personality that people want to build a cult around. You generally need someone who's extremely charismatic. I hate trump more than anyone else on earth right now, but even I have to admit he's charismatic.
The other qualifier I believe, is that you can just unabashedly lie to your followers. Just look them dead in the eyes, and lie through your teeth. About politics, their opponents, religion, etc. Just lie straight to their face. Because you're going to have to. Nobody who's interested in a cult is going to follow anyone who's promising mediocre results. You've gotta promise the outrageous and unrealistic.
Bush had none of those qualities.
I just don't get how he is charismatic. I'm amazed people say this. At his best, his personality is oily car salesman (and I say this as someone who has relatives I love very much who sell cars) using vague generalities to praise himself or people he wants to boost. That's how Trump seemed to me twenty years ago. Now he's all that AND can't stay on topic for 15 seconds or answer literally any question without diverging into a rant on some other subject entirely.
Even his body language seems so calculated for "strength" or "power" or whatever. OH SHIT you steepled your fingers, I feel like I have to go along now, etc.
I find the guy to be a transparently awful performance artist at his best and a doddering barely coherent performance artist at his worst.
This is not because I hate his guts, this is just how he has always seemed to me.
https://youtu.be/YQqrIr202es (it's in Spanish)