this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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This is one of the aspects of MAGA that feels most alien to me. I see entire shops dedicated to Trump merch (fuck living in a red state). That's so fucking weird. Bernie was cool, Obama.... Had a nice personality, and mamdani seems pretty rad. I'd still never even think of buying more than a bumper sticker to show support for these people. They are politicians, not pop stars.
They aren't supposed to be fawned over, they're supposed to work a government job.
Why the fuck would I tie a foundational part of my personality and identity to a policy maker? That's dumb as shit, especially coming from a group heavily invested in a religion that specifically forbids worshipping false idols.
Populism
Populism is weird as fuck.
Especially when it's getting freaky in bed with Religion
It seems so classically gatekeeping to say "populism" because it implies that just because its popular with people it's bad. Trump attracts grifters. They call themselves "entrepreneur" or "business minded" but it's all a big ecosystem of ideology driven spending. It isn't "popular with people" - it's madness overtaking the gullible and uncurious.
Each and every one of his followers are ardent dollar chasers who see themselves as deserving of the same treatment as the wealthy elites. They are all at varying stages of luck and yet none will admit that luck has anything to do with success. They are delusional, not popular.
So it isn't "populism" that drives merch. It's the echo chamber of greed.
Populism is not the same as something just being popular though. It is pretty well defined political -ism.
But yeah populist personality cult is a closer descriptor, because not every populist movement entails the latter.
I honestly don't understand the people that gets pop-stars merch either...
But at least, they liking somebody because they sing well is objectively less weird.
Romanticizing both is cringe
It's a personality cult. He plays to their emotions and they lap it up, oblivious to the fact that he's just using them. Expect the insanity to continue to escalate, until the Trump train runs into the brick wall of reality and the fantasy world he's created collapses. I think the weakest link is the economy, in that he's teeing up economic collapse. I figure we've got a year or two max before it all comes unglued. Things are going to be brutal.
Because people see themselves in Trump. These people are “about to succeed” and see Trump as having had “made it”. It’s the party of projection. They think associating with Trump will increase their chances of “making it”. It’s kind of like those churches that tell you the more you give the more blessed you will become.
It sounds like you aren't completely insane.
Exactly thank you. I too see this shit. Literally Maga stores. I voted, knock doors and bought T shirts and bumper stickers when Bernie was running. But now I don't wear any of that and even he had won I would not make him or any politician part of my personality.
I live in a very red state. If I were to put a Democrat bumper sticker on my car then my windows would get shot out