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Over the holidays I was back in Ga, and visited my family, that included the ones on the trump train! What stood out to me are the ones...in trump’s cult! It appears that they are much more focused on ‘things,’ than being up close and personal with people things! Their house’s are not places for being with family and friends...they are held as status symbols. They maintain ‘old things,’ from their families, because their parents were happy when they were purchased back in the day! One such person can’t sell parents home place, because ‘they died there!’ I know this is only a ‘snapshot’...of our culture, but if some of my family have these traits, then there must be more! It is not easily detected in passing, you must be staying in their mist for a time! People have worked so hard to maintain their things, and now ‘they’ have become the force for their life! The energy left over from that, is not enough to look into the emotional and psychological nature of a society! That needs slow observation and absorption...a totally different kind of work, to the physical side of life! Has anyone else found this...as you were privileged to be close enough to be a deeper observer, of people, when they are unguarded?

Freedompath 9 Dec 31
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Whomever has the most stuff at the end of life..Wins!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Have you not heard that ‘you can’t take it with you when you die?’

@Freedompath I have ..but consumerism is prevalent it seems that's peoples only motovating drive in life..

@Charlene that is so true...sad!

@Freedompath ain't it though?..smh..

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Cults, more than most, have a thing for symbolism. They are looking to something outside of them that can give them happiness, and so they glom onto what worked for someone else and hold that as their own. That's why they hold on so tightly to their leaders... When the feelings within ourselves become overwhelming, the easiest thing to do is shut them down and project them onto other things, rather than "feel."

So true!

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Brilliant, thank you.. Fortunately, I’ve no family that fits that description, beyond a handful of ‘corn fed cousins’ clinging to ‘their heritage’ in the midwest, family member’s so ..f’ed up my mother no longer speaks to ‘her sister.’

Though, I’m definitely surrounded by ‘it’ here in old Appalachia.. It’s like their brains have limiters or governors ..that keep them from reving above a very low RPM. As if to fit in amid their limited society, nobody may shine, beyond a material way. Their positions become them, especially their Trucks 😉

What I find tragic is how quick and thoroughly they’ll disown a family member having strayed.. You know, the one currently in prison, or worse, California.

I have an easy time meeting ‘them,’ but an impossible time remaining connected. There’s a ..f-in religious test question tossed into every fifth sentence, something to verify that ‘you’re of the body.’ And if failing that test, you’re no longer to be taken seriously or trusted. You’re the enemy.

A ‘time’ I occasionally recall is the point in Bush Jr’s presidency when it was too obviously crumbling for even them to ignore. A ‘magical time’ in which some of them actually admitted their mistake.. I feel we’re nearing that with trump - in record time! Will they admit they were wrong, or we were right …or jump directly to their go-to proclamation that ‘all politicians are evil’ and ‘that’s why they’re no longer going to vote’...?

I very much appreciate your post, if for no other reason than it makes me feel even less sorry I had no immediate family to spend time with ‘over here’ 🙂

Varn Level 8 Dec 31, 2018

People seem to have become the less important...as people have amassed certain ‘things!’ And, religion has in my opinion been part of the problem!

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I have noticed that a lot of the more affluent areas with the upscale homes are also more conservative. Don't get me started on the absolute greed of the 'prosperity gospel' of the religious. They obviously have skipped the 7 deadly sins of the religious dogma. Here's a scary but predictable link: [democracyguardian.com]

I have heard some religious organizations trying to attract people with money by saying.. if you have money or are rich..then you are good, otherwise why would God bless you with money and success??? lol it seems the opposite of what the bible preaches?? A rich man will have trouble passing into heaven,

I think the same!

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Interesting observation of the people in your family. I think a lot of us have been doing the same thing you did. By looking at our own families and close friends we can see just how we have all been conditioned to be so into our "things" by our society. We equate happiness and status with what we accumulate during our lifetimes. Not the relationships but the "things". In looking at my things that I have collected over the years I see that much of it is just stuff without much worth to anyone but me. I have begun purging my stuff to lighten my load, and pass on things to others who can use them or need them.

...’lighten my load,’ it may be breaking our backs, to keep tract of or maintain! ?

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I'm into genealogy and old photos. Like old things too. But the older I've gotten the more I realize that things are just things. Trump is definitely someone with good ol' days syndrome. He's trying to go back to pre-WW2 with his isolationism. Not realizing that everyone breathes the same air, drinks the same water. We're learning that everyone on Earth is a relative whether close or not. We're all in this thing together. It's sad that people don't see that we're all people and shouldn't be excluded.

Well put!

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Old saying. "The only things that are important are the things you can escape a shipwreck with."

yups..and sometimes that's barely your life..and kids

@AmmaRE007 Perhaps you may also include, memories, skills and education, plus enough clothes to keep you warm.

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Mixing Christianity with Trumpism leads to delusion

It leads to acute, chronic, cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias.

@jlynn37 Cognitive dissonance

If you are a Christian, are you obligated to believe that everything in the Bible is true?
If not, how do you decide what is true, and what can be ignored?

If you believe that everything in the Bible is true, do you suffer from COGNITIVE DISSONANCE* when you read of events in the Bible such as the following.

Talking Serpent Genesis 3
Lot’s wife pillar of salt Genesis 19
Aaron’s rod becomes a serpent Exodus 7
Parting of the sea Exodus 14
Balaam and his donkey converse Numbers 22
The sun stood still Joshua 10
Samson ties torches to tails of 300 foxes Judges 15
Jesus sees all the Kingdoms from non existent mountain Matthew 4
Well you get the idea.

  • Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying
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