I think Scientology outlasted Hubbard because the basis of the cult is to constantly collect blackmail on the members through assessments which makes it hard to leave without your dirty secrets getting released and every person in your life cutting you off.
Comment on What is likely to happen when/if trump dies?
Steve@communick.news 18 hours ago
It’s extremely rare for a cult to survive the death of its leader.
The only one I know of is Scientology.
Vance would become POTUS, but he won’t be able to keep MAGA united. Remember Rump is miraculously keeping both pro Israel zionists and anit-semitic neo-nazis together on the same team. As well as others who would be natural enemies. MAGA will collapse. Vance’ll almost certainly loose in '28.
Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca 15 hours ago
the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Every religion currently operating is a cult that survived the death of its leader.
Steve@communick.news 13 hours ago
A a handful maybe. Most grew organically from collections of myths, stories, and traditions. Greek, Nordic, Egyptian, Hindi, Jewish, Wiccan, Vodo, Zoroastrian, even Christian, all started as folktales.
digger@lemmy.ca 18 hours ago
When did David Miscavige die?
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Anyone heard from his wife in the last decade or so?
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Heard she was road tripping with Jimmy Hoffa and D.B. Cooper.
fizzle@quokk.au 18 hours ago
This is my take.
Trump’s death won’t change the shitty people who have elected and continue to support him, but those people will no longer have a focal point.
Among all his shitty traits, he does have the uncanny ability to engender support from shitty people in a way that no one else can emulate.
Vance will be POTUS. He will reverse course on Trump’s dumbassery… withdraw from Iran, hose down Hormuz, water down the tariffs et cetera. He will try to win support from the great unwashed and the oligarchy but will ultimately fail.
backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 15 hours ago
I think Vance’s response depends greatly on if he takes direction from his handlers in Heritage Foundation or if he gains an ego and believes he’s the new cult leader. They learned their lesson with Pence who, with the obligatory “fuck Mike Pence”, still wasn’t invested enough to commit treason.
Vance just doesn’t have the twisted charisma Trump has to be the cult guy. Heritage knows it, but they knew he had a shelf-life and only needed to get in and secure their position. The Third Reich didn’t survive Hitler but he wouldn’t let go (and they couldn’t get rid of him) until it was too late. The Soviet Union survived the death of Stalin because nobody after him tried to recreate his larger than life image, they maintained the control that was established under his reign.
If Vance does what he’s told he doesn’t need to be Trump, and if the regime continues to disregard democracy, the courts, and even declining public opinion among conservatives that rode the wave but are now leopard fodder, they don’t need another Trump, just an institution to defend. These fuckers are embedded and will be difficult to remove.