Cults don't always have to be violent.
When they do get violent, it tends to be in attempt to protect their hold on ideological control. If you walk onto the compound of a traditional cult and try to deprogram the people there, there's a decent chance you'll be met with some sort of violence, even if it's clear you're unarmed and don't present a physical threat.
Similarly, the woke left will engage in violence in order to prevent right-wing speakers from getting out their message on college campuses -- even milquetoast ones like Ben Shapiro.
The right has no such equivalent. There is no real attempt to silence the other side.
Regarding "constantly changing their thoughts to conform with their leader", that can be said about any rapidly changing political landscape. In 2005, how many people on the left were arguing for transgender 3-year-olds, full college loan debt cancellation, free college tuition everywhere, abortion-on-demand at 9 months, fully socialized medicine, black reparations, no cash bail, and defunding the police? Aside from a few extremists, probably very very few. Today none of these are considered outlier positions for the Democratic Party, and all of these positions were defended by major Democratic Presidential candidates in 2020.
Trump's policies didn't differ too much from 2010 era mainstream Republican policy. There were some tweaks -- he was more isolationist, he was neutral on the LGBT stuff (a fact which is often overlooked), and he didn't want us in any new wars. Aside from that, it was pretty much Republican policy as usual. You claim that my politics have changed since Trump came into office, but they really haven't.
Originally Posted by
BCR
Cults do other things. They do this which I borrowed.
Information control
They practice deception
They minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information
They make extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda
The above is pretty much a perfect description of the Cult of the Woke Left.
They are big advocates of cancel culture, and attempt to browbeat those with differing opinions to stay quiet.
They are pro-censorship, excusing it as "fighting misinformation" or "silencing hate speech".
They control or highly influence a large portion of the mass media and entertainment industry, and punish people in those organizations who don't go along with the accepted narrative. (This is why some of the completely insane trans stuff has been coddled for so long.)
Doesn't that sound like your list above? If you don't believe this, how come longtime liberals like Noam Chomsky, Bill Maher, and countless others have sounded the alarm about this sort of behavior?
Thought control
They require members to internalize the group's doctrine as truth (black-and-white, good vs evil thinking).
Again, this is a description of the Cult of the Woke Left, and not so much MAGA types.
MAGA people push a fairly uniform narrative, but they have a fairly high tolerance for people who are mostly on their side but don't agree with everything. That's why I don't experience vicious, angry attacks on social media from MAGA types when I disagree, yet I get it all the time from leftists.
If I were to have gone to a MAGA-infested Facebook group in late October 2020 and wrote, "Guys, I think you're incorrect about a lot of things, such as the way you've been treating COVID/masking, and your belief that Trump rarely does anything wrong. However, I'm a conservative like you, and I absolutely can't stand the left, so there's no question I'm still voting for Trump", what do you think would have happened?
I'd get a few conspiratards trying to change my mind, and perhaps a few snide comments, but that would be it. For the most part, they'd be happy enough to see that I'm voting for Trump when it's all said and done, and that I'm mostly on their side.
However, if you were to join a far-left group and disagree about BLM, defunding the police, and the current extreme trans movement, you would be called all kinds of horrible names, and told to get the fuck out. Even if you said you despite Trump and will never vote for a Republican for as long as you live, they still would be incredibly nasty to you.
One side demands absolute conformity of belief systems, or you're judged almost as harshly as their opponents.
The other side has conformity of belief systems, but is fairly tolerant of those from the outside who mostly agree but won't go along with some of the more extreme stuff.
The fact that people with corporate careers can't express right wing politics on their Twitter anymore, without risking their jobs, should be all you need to know about how cult-like each side really is.