Pamela Hemphill, aka MAGA Granny, made headlines just lately when she refused President Donald Trump’s pardon for her position within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. The Boise, Idaho, retiree had already served a six-month sentence however was nonetheless on probation for the misdemeanor cost of demonstrating within the Capitol.
“I misplaced my essential considering ….” she told The New York Times, explaining why she wasn’t within the pardon. “I used to be in a cult.”
She is true: MAGA is a cult. I do know, as a result of I grew up in a bunch many consider to be a cult.
MAGA has all of the components required to outline a cult: a charismatic chief, an authoritarian doctrine, a hatred of outsiders and a loyal following. Hemphill voted for Barack Obama in 2008 however had spent the remainder of her life as a reasonably disinterested Republican. Till she joined the MAGA motion and started posting on-line about how the upcoming Jan. 6 protest can be a “battle.” She traveled 1000’s of miles to be there that day regardless of present process remedy for breast most cancers.
I first left the Unification Church in 2010. Obama was in workplace. Again within the ’60s and ’70’s, hippies and different disconnected youth searched so arduous for solutions that they got here up with some actually bizarre ones. In these days, the Unification Church was famous for selling flowers and trinkets on avenue corners and alluring passersby to a close-by Church middle for a free meal.
The chief of the church, the Rev. Moon, referred to as “True Father” by his followers, personally organized a lot of their marriages, often by filling a big room with members and pairing them off. Newly fashioned {couples} had been then married in mass weddings, probably the most well-known of which occurred in Madison Square Garden in 1982. My mother and father had been married at that occasion, and I used to be born a number of years later. I used to be often called a “Blessed Baby” since I used to be a second generation member.
My mother and father instructed me tales of becoming a member of the Church, of escaping “deprogrammers” and “infiltrators,” making themselves sound courageous and righteous. Most members I knew labored for Church-related organizations and companies, and had been barely scraping by. I spent most of my free time at Church facilities with different Church households, generally singing Korean Christian hymns, generally singing Beatles songs with altered lyrics. It was simple to really feel like I used to be rising up in a bubble, in a distinct time and place than my classmates and neighbors.
After faculty, after I started to inform new buddies about my upbringing, I spotted it wasn’t only a “unusual neighborhood,” it was what I now consider to be a cult. Often the very first thing folks wished to know was why somebody would be part of a “cult” within the first place.
“The American unrest within the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s gave us a spike in tumult that prompted the formation of so many cultish teams, not in contrast to what we’re seeing at the moment,” mentioned Amanda Montell, creator of the guide “Cultish: The Language Of Fanaticism.” “People have to really feel like they matter and that their world is sensible. And once they lose that sense of belonging, they get annoyed and generally find yourself trying elsewhere to fill the void.”
Cults thrive throughout instances of social unrest. In 2025, most individuals I do know are burdened from the each day grind, the on a regular basis price of survival. Circumstances like earnings inequality, cuts to public spending and the rising price of meals — all predictors of social unrest — are additionally a breeding floor for cults. Identical to sepsis solely happens on the web site of an an infection, cults flourish in ailing societies. They supply each a way of neighborhood and a story that new converts can maintain on to, one which validates their anger.
Trump, for my part, gives a solution, a story that helps some folks make sense of the world. He has scapegoats, identical to the Rev. Moon did. Many Trump supporters consider “illegals” are ruining our cities and destroying America. For the Rev. Moon, it was the “communists” and “atheists.” He used to say that America was “turning away from God,” an issue that might solely be solved by a return to conventional household values with clearly defined gender roles. MAGA shares this view as nicely, with Vice President JD Vance giving interviews by which he accuses ladies of making themselves miserable by specializing in their careers as a substitute of beginning a household and having youngsters. Each teams have been accused of being homophobic and transphobic, an enlargement of their inflexible expectations of gender. Each teams are also obsessive about weapons and defending the Second Amendment.
The scapegoats that leaders like Trump and the Rev. Moon supply as much as their members are by no means the true cause why we are able to’t afford our medical payments or why it prices 1000’s of {dollars} every month to place a roof over our heads. So “cults” have to search out extra of them, extra causes to remain offended.
Hemphill is to this point the one one in every of about 1,600 Jan. 6 rioters to refuse a pardon. She credit remedy as part of how she got here to grasp how she discovered herself within the MAGA world and to see it as a cult. I had already determined to depart the Unification Church earlier than going to remedy, but it surely has been invaluable in processing my expertise, unraveling the various lies of my childhood.
It took me some time to confide in my therapist. I had been warned about them since I used to be a youngster and scuffling with melancholy. My mother refused to let me see one again then, as a result of she was apprehensive I’d inform them in regards to the Church. From the skin, it’s simple to see why radical teams actually hate remedy. Therapists assist problem our beliefs, guiding us to be ever extra introspective and reflective. These teams want their members to disregard their emotions, to remain in a state of panic and concern of the skin world.
Which is why I preserve occupied with Hemphill. It was arduous sufficient — excruciating, even — to depart the Church 15 years in the past. I had doubts for a very long time, however I had outdoors buddies and prolonged household who supported my selection. And whereas I may stroll away from the Church, MAGA is at present accountable for our nation’s three branches of presidency.
In 2016, when Trump was elected the primary time, I centered my efforts on speaking to individuals who I knew had been nonetheless within the Unification Church or former members who nonetheless held on to a few of their right-wing politics, encouraging them to alter their beliefs. I signed petitions and marched round my metropolis corridor. This time, although, I wish to do one thing totally different. I don’t wish to simply play protection.
I don’t know what the longer term has in retailer for my nation. I do know we’re up towards lots. However I wish to be one of many bizarre folks making an attempt to do their half to restore their communities, whether or not that’s by passing out socks to my homeless neighbors or planting seedlings at a neighborhood backyard or preventing for lease management. I wish to help politicians and different leaders who’re in a position to present actionable options to the issues plaguing our society: scholar loans, well being care, and the prices of kid care, transportation and housing.
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It’s not sufficient to consider how one can get folks out of those harmful, radical teams. We have to cease them from feeling like they’ve to hitch one within the first place.
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