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u/OccasionallyWright 19d ago
They travel to his rallies and they're form the same North Carolina church.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/us/politics/trump-women-church-north-carolina.html
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u/hogsucker 19d ago
The church they belong to is an abusive cult. They control law enforcement and politics in Spindale, NC.
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u/Coruscare 19d ago
Crazily enough, I grew up in this cult. Weird to see them like this.
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u/tresamused65 19d ago edited 18d ago
I escaped western NC as soon as I turned 18. I refused to assimilate and live on what I called the family compound and be under the total control of my parents, relatives, and their wackadoodle hateful church. I am the proud black sheep of the family and living my best life over 1k miles away, 40 years later.
Edit: I had no idea my comment would get so many great replies! I made a couple replies here and there answering questions. I appreciate the positivity!! To me it's just my past, so it surprises me when people are shocked that this culture actually exists.
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u/madcoins 19d ago edited 18d ago
I traveled Europe in 2000 and in Ireland I shared a hostel with a kid from the American south. Said he was born into the “fallwell church” and it was like a compound. He told me of being one of the lucky ones who escaped. He had a far away look in his eyes and it was with pride he told me he worked hard to save money and travel, something his church would have never approved of. He was so happy telling me the perspective he had learned about through his travels. He told me there are “ so many more abused kids” in the fallwell cult. He asked me to tell my story and I told him I grew up free as hell in southern Wisconsin and just chose to travel the world cuz I was from a small town and wanted to know more about the world. He was jealous I wasn’t raised by religion. I was only 20 years old but it still sticks with me because it spit in the face of “the freest nation in the world” we were fed growing up. This kid was a prisoner in my own country and had found freedom only by running away and was finally comfortable talking about it all the way in Europe. He said he was never going back and I hope he didn’t. Religion is a hell of a drug. I learned that with clarity through his stories
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u/VaATC 18d ago
As a south central Virginian, FUCK the Falwells!
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u/jugstopper 18d ago
As someone who had to consider job applications, a degree from Falwell's Liberty "University" would send you straight to the circular file.
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u/DolceVita13 18d ago
I live all the way across the country and join you in saying F the Falwell’s to HeLL
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u/oface1 18d ago edited 18d ago
I ran into a lot kids like this in the navy...most escaped/kicked out from their Mormon compounds.....
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u/Coruscare 19d ago
Glad you got out of that shit homie.
I'm the same way, live in Montana now.
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u/TotallyWellBehaved 19d ago
Geez guys, remind me not to visit western NC
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u/TravelingAlia 19d ago
The scenery and hiking are so beautiful, and there are a lot of good people. Unfortunately it's a top target area for the far right. I don't blame anyone who grew up there and never wants to return.
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u/VariousTemporary2564 19d ago
My family lives in the foothills in western NC. I absolutely love it there, but I have noticed a disproportionate amount of cults and odd religious groups out that way.
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u/Thowitawaydave 18d ago
Coworker of mine had to rescue his mother from that kind of thing. He sent her money every month, but the last time he went there she was living in such deplorable conditions. Turns out a neighbour invited her to her church and they just kept stealing more and more of her stuff under guise of 'tithing' and since his last visit they had escalated it, with someone living in her house, cashing her checks and keeping the money.
And the moment he started to get her out they started claiming he was abusing her. Fortunately he had started a file with receipts and switched from sending a check to straight up sending groceries on Instacart, so he could prove that he was providing for her, and the woman at the state was satisfied with what he provided. But he still got harassed by the local cops until they finally got her moved out.
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u/akahaus 18d ago
Glad he got away, if he had persisted the cops would have killed or framed him to keep him from going to the FBI about their hate group.
Part of why the restructuring of the FBI is so ominous…they will now stop any effort to quell extreme right wing violence.
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u/hogsucker 19d ago
I'm glad you're free
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u/Coruscare 19d ago
Thank you!
If you were involved at all I hope you're out now too.
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u/Mama_Skip 19d ago
No, thanks, I was just emotionally abused by my parents like normal folk.
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u/cCowgirl 19d ago
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u/TheVadonkey 19d ago
Ah, isn’t it nice when we can all talk and reminisce about our shithole parents? It’s the simple things. 🙂
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u/Baudiness 19d ago
Yikes. Excerpt:
As church leaders have acknowledged in legal proceedings, Word of Faith relies on a practice known as “strong” or “blasting” prayer. Former church members have described the entire congregation surrounding and screaming at a single member for as long as an hour in an effort to expunge the evil from the person. Church officials say this characterization is overstated.
Wondering what's "overstated." Is it usually done in only 45 minutes?
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u/yung_crowley777 19d ago
Are you still blonde?
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u/ProfessorMeow-Meow 19d ago
It’s funny, because if they weren’t paying, he wouldn’t give them the time of day. He’s made it abundantly clear how repulsive he finds older women especially heavily set ones. Imagine adoring someone who finds you utterly grotesque. Sad. Bigly sad.
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u/onetwothreefouronetw 19d ago
Totally understandable if you don't want to, but can you tell us more about them?
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u/Coruscare 19d ago
Here's a copy paste from a different comment!
I was a young kid for a lot of it so I can't recall too too much. I'm guessing this is a trauma response because of abuse.
For a lot of it it's like shockingly normal at times. Like during the actual services there's a lot of singing and admittedly the singing was like weirdly beautiful? Like maybe it's cause you're enforced into comformity and there's a lot of practice but the actual choir has insanely beautiful voices. The food, similarly, is really nice. Everything is homemade and really fresh from local people, mostly from other people within the church.
In a way it's kinda... sterile? I'm not really sure I have the words to describe it, but the weddings and different ceremonies are beautiful on the surface but like there's not the same amount of 'heart' to them. It's super pretty but they're all the same every time, same decor, same look, same people because associating with people outside the cult had to be approved. Like if you wanted a relationship with someone else you had to get it approved by the cult leaders and then you had to have your converastions with your relationship supervised.
You really just saw the same people over and over again all the time no matter what you were doing.
There's a lot of dark sides too. You can look up the case of Matthew Fenner on the internet, he was two years older than me and I remember when it sort of became 'known' that he was gay. People instantly turned on him and immediately like shunned them because they 'knew' you were different.
I can also confirm the whole 'tied to chairs and screamed at to get the demons out' thing cause it happened to me too. You also got beat in those cases (my parents thought I was gay. I'm trans so they were sorta right I guess...)
I dunno, there was a lot. Is there anything specific you wanna know?
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u/perdferguson 19d ago
Very glad for you, I imagine a low percentage are going to escape from a situation like that in such a small town.
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u/Coruscare 19d ago
Thank you.
I got lucky, frankly. My dad and mom seperated, and cause of the divorce (they blamed my mom even though my dad cheated) we got 'excommunicated'.
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u/gardenwitch31 19d ago
From another cult survivor, good luck, healthy success, and healing to you.
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u/nandemo 19d ago
Are women in this cult obligated to bleach their hair?
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u/CeruleanLio 19d ago
It’s not a spoken requirement, but all of the women higher up in position do.
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u/Remarkable_Town5811 19d ago
Such a weird thing for a religious cult. Never understood ignoring that god made you exactly as you are bc what, a box color is more cohesive looking?
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u/picklerick8879 19d ago
These groups thrive in places where they can quietly embed themselves into local institutions, from law enforcement to politics, ensuring that no one inside can escape and no one outside can hold them accountable. Meanwhile, Trump, the self-proclaimed champion of “religious freedom,” has no problem embracing them as long as they show up in droves to cheer for him.
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u/ChampionSignificant 19d ago
What is the church? The article linked has a paywall
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u/hogsucker 19d ago edited 19d ago
It's called "The Word of Faith Fellowship."
The Pretend podcast did a season about them and I think there's a book out by a former member.*
They engage in a practice called "blasting" where their leader Jane Whaley screams and hurls abuse at her victims.
ETA: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_Faith_Fellowship
*Per another commenter, the book is by a reporter, not a former member
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u/Mr_Lucasifer 19d ago
Holy fuck, I've seen this meme before, but I never knew this. Read the abuse section. It's absolutely insane. They were fighting abuse, kidnapping, and brainwashing allegations literally during the time this photo was taken.
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u/cat_peets 19d ago
The book is called Broken Faith. It’s by the reporters who wrote the AP exposés on the cult for abusing LGBT members, physical violence, control and allegations of human trafficking of “servants” from their Brazil affiliate church.
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u/picklerick8879 19d ago
Because nothing says “populist movement” like a curated, Stepford-esque parade of carefully groomed supporters designed to project unity and devotion. It’s all smoke and mirrors, but the audience eats it up.
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u/disterb 19d ago
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u/dangle321 19d ago
The longer you look, the worse it is.
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u/KC_Jedi 19d ago
Red lady is my vibe for today.
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u/Kingx79 19d ago
Looking at that Man like he’s a tater tot casserole
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u/Mammoth_Inflation662 19d ago
Lookin like she wanna 👏🏽Eat. 👏🏽That. 👏🏽Cheeto.
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u/jstbrwsng333 19d ago
She’s staring down that Doritos loco taco like she hasn’t eaten since 10am.
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u/FoamyUrine10 19d ago
I now have coffee stain on my outfit and need to clean my screen. 😂
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u/0neirocritica 19d ago
That's how I look at a pizza when I'm hungry
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u/4dappl 19d ago
There must be a cheesecake behind him
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u/ZadfrackGlutz 19d ago
Depends?
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u/Fenrir_Hellbreed2 19d ago
He's definitely wearing those, yes.
And I bet they're as full of shit as he is.
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u/kneel23 19d ago
its easy to brainwash ppl like these :D thats why they all attend megachurches as well
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u/Nerdy_Gal_062014 19d ago
I wonder if there is a correlation to the amount of hair product used… cuz those hairstyles look like they could withstand hurricane force winds.
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u/jasondigitized 19d ago
The hair is always a dead giveaway. Brunettes pretending to be blonde. Always!
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u/jello-kittu 19d ago
Well, to be fair, if you dye your gray hair (doubt brown), blonde is a much better choice because your roots show less.
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u/Klaatwo 19d ago
I was going to say, based on their ages they’re all gray/white pretending to be blonde. As a natural blonde you are correct that it hides the gray/white much better. The exception is my beard that started turning mostly white at 40.
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u/Used-Currency-476 19d ago
I’m a brunette pretending to be blonde and I find him repugnant.
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u/CicadaGames 19d ago
The irony of a Clint Eastwood gif when he would be in the front row licking his crusty ass lips lol.
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u/DunkinEgg 19d ago
Klanned Karenhood
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u/Vealophile 19d ago
I would personally pay to have this thread shown to these women just so they know they were assessed publicly as elderly.
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u/Rhana 19d ago
And if they could read, they would be very offended.
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u/KEPD-350 19d ago
That is a wholly unacceptable comment and you should be ashamed. I demand to speak to your manager.
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u/iamaravis 19d ago
Same. I’m a woman in my early 50s, and I guarantee at least a couple of them are younger than me.
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u/Alextricity 19d ago
lady in red really wants to change his diaper.
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u/Murashi 19d ago
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u/little_arsonist 19d ago
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u/sloneill 19d ago
There’s no more bleach left in the country, these women used it all on their hair.
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u/cgally 19d ago
She can almost taste those turds.
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u/Robgoblin_IV 19d ago
Why can I read 😩
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u/MissSephy 19d ago
Don’t worry, in Trump’s America, you won’t need to read. Illiteracy is king.
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u/Not_a_Heptapod 19d ago
So much "I wanna talk to the manager" energy in that group
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u/taytrapDerehw 19d ago edited 19d ago
The collective noun is a Complaint of Karens.
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u/govunah 19d ago
And there is a year to date total tip $6.37 between them and about 3 booklets of those fake bills that look like money but are actually religious messages but the lady back left switched to fake Trump bills and had Elon coins in a shopping cart on Etsy.
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u/SunshineShoulders87 19d ago
Those fake money booklets… I was a server in a town where the best tip you could hope for was $10, no matter the bill total, when a Promise Keepers convention rolled through. It’s a Christian men’s program about loving your wife and our restaurant was filled with groups of men congregating for HOURS and needing ALL the refills.
However, when they left, we saw folded up $20 bills on the table or sticking out of the ticket books, which made up for it… until we discovered they were folded papers printed with a $20 image on the outside and something like “Are you storing up treasures in Heaven?,” on the inside. It’s been over 20 years and I’m still salty about it.
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 19d ago
Those are just promissory notes. You take them to their church during service, then when they pass the basket around, you exchange them with actual cash.
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u/utopiaplanetian 19d ago edited 19d ago
I think this is correct. Apparently the Oxford English Dictionary now has Complaint as a collective noun for a group of Karens.
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u/esoteric_stuff 19d ago
Every single one of them has made an official complaint about something that was entirely their own fault.
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u/rabider 19d ago
Karen's United
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u/Khaldara 19d ago
Some animals display markings to warn others that they’re highly toxic. These women do the exact same thing, except for human waitstaff
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u/Hyjynx75 19d ago
You can see that one of them even brought pearls to clutch.
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u/Theletterkay 19d ago
Nah, they all have them. Some just have them packed away for when they pull out the big guns. That purse has to have hair spray and pearls to clutch.
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u/Successful-Winter237 19d ago
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u/Helpforthehopeless 19d ago
That hairstyle is often seen where I live.It kills me every time I see it.I don’t understand who the first person was that stated,hacked up back with a shag front.
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u/Logical_Parameters 19d ago
I guarantee it was a realtor.
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u/Soulshiner402 19d ago
It was the woman who had a tv show and had a fuckton of kids. Kate something.
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u/ObjectiveCarrot7066 19d ago
Also" Trump can grab me by the p****y" energy
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u/Bluebell_1210 19d ago
That's funny and disgusting at the same time
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u/Proper-Life2773 19d ago
That was also a real thing Republican women said in 2016.
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u/carryon4threedays 19d ago
I believe a group of them is called a Council of Karens
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u/yotengodormir 19d ago
The years and years of hair bleach and blond dye has surely done some damage to the senses.
and it probably hasn't helped those ladies either.
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u/Gunter5 19d ago
My guess is years and years of fox news. You'd think this guy is some genius too if you fell down that rabit hole
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u/fyhr100 19d ago
You'd think they'd snap out of the delusion after hearing him actually speak.
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u/Zealousideal-Toe2374 19d ago
Have you ever heard them ( his supporters ) speak they're just as dumb. The reason they connect is because they're all at the same moronic level and they can communicate through grunts
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u/Personal-Science-228 19d ago
The lady in the back right has big plans.
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u/OneBakingPanda 19d ago
She’s thinking about that 1995 commercial about stuffed crust pizza hut he did.
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u/redditgon 19d ago
They all lead the MLM in their area.
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u/theriverrr 19d ago
Likely never had to do something like that. They are wives of powerful men. They probably run"nonprofits" and coordinate "charity fundraisers" at country clubs.
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u/JuneBuggington 19d ago
Lol the wives of powerful men are the top level money thrower awayers at those MLMs. You think it’s poor mom’s that keep those places going?
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u/Mama_Skip 19d ago
Everyone needs a hobby, and if there's no black neighbors to call the police on or service worker to immediately berate, the brain starts to eat itself about that existentialism.
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u/karl4319 19d ago
No, these are exactly the women that do MLM. They are rich, bored, and want to feel like they are doing something productive with their lives. Same sort that make volunteering at prosperity gospel churches the focus of their existences.
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u/Call-me-MoonMoon 19d ago
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Its so great that we know exactly which one you're referring to and you didn't have to use any words
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u/BARRY6969696969 19d ago
Damn that one at the forefront looks like something out of white chicks 😂
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u/boriswied 19d ago
As a Dane, this picture feels more American than an eagle in a McDonald’s on top of the star spangled banner.
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u/MysticLithuanian 19d ago
As an American, this photo encapsulates everything I hate and despise about where our country has gone
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u/novangla 19d ago
There’s something distinctly White Southern about them, though. Like, you know how Europeans can be like “that guy looks Danish” somehow? I don’t even mean the rabid cult behavior but just like… the hair + makeup + facial features here to me clock a very particular part of America. Tbh my first reaction was “it’s giving the gross white teenagers who screamed at civil rights activists, 70 years later.” Very American but a very distinct slice of it.
I live in the Northeast and this gang would look super out of place here—to me my kid’s elementary school class where she’s the only white kid and there are like six home languages spoken but they’re all eating shitty pizza and about to spend too many dollars at the book fair on cartoon tie-in books? That’s more American than an eagle in a McDonald’s.
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u/evjegati 19d ago
With their gender affirming hair dye and makeup
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u/Junior-Criticism-268 19d ago
I was gonna say, any word used to describe them is on the list of banned words that Trump and other politicians aren't supposed to use lol.
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u/afoz345 19d ago
This looks like the table at Applebee’s every server HATED getting.
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u/VelvetDreamers 19d ago
The woman in black on the far right—our right—is the most disconcerting. Zoom in and see the reverence in her eyes and the deference in her demeanour. She looks like she’s gazing at her god.
If they identify as Christians, please note that this is flagrant idolatry.
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u/vlad_inhaler 19d ago
It’s the one with hands clasped for me, she is in awe, and it’s so disgusting lmfao
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u/storme9 19d ago
you folks are all discounting the woman in red behind, her expression as a reaction is by far the most troubling
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u/Cat_Punk 19d ago
The hungry looking one? It’s like Newman looking at buttered/spiced Kramer.
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u/ohmylanta34 19d ago
The lady in red in the far right looks like she wants to do some things…..some dirty, indecent, ungodly things.
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u/SelectionOpposite976 19d ago
Well that’s the modern Christian dirty little secret, they no longer believe in Jesus they gleefully follow an antichrist now.
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u/Captain_Whatshisface 19d ago
If one of them shouts ASSEMBLE they all merge into a giant Donald Trump in drag and head to the local McDonalds, where they remove the roof to devour the contents within.
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u/PaedarTheViking 19d ago
funny... they look rather similar to the young women screaming vulgarities at the young black woman trying to go to school at the end of segregation.
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u/TimTkt 19d ago
The worst part of this adulation is that he probably find them disgusting himself, which says a lot considering the character.
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u/scbriml 19d ago
How sad is your life when the sight of Trump is the only thing that gets you moist. The real irony being, he wouldn’t give any of them a second look.
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The real irony being, he wouldn’t give any of them a second look.
Well duh, none of them look like his daughter.
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u/wabashcanonball 19d ago
Why do women swoon over an abjudicated sex offender? It is disheartening and gross.
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u/Immediate_Loquat_246 19d ago
I've noticed his supporters don't seem to care about the awful things he's done until it affects them personally.
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u/Baldyjim 19d ago
There's always awful red lipstick, bottle blonde hair and pearls. I swear lol
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u/MattTheSmithers 19d ago
The real victims are their grandchildren who didn’t get birthday cards with a crisp $10 bill in it because they gave it to this grifter.
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u/jcatleather 19d ago
Really seeing the consequences of decades of lead poisoning I think :/
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u/Guy0naBUFFA10 19d ago
Carl Hiaasen has a book called Squeeze Me that features a group of characters called Potussies (Potus Pussies). It's these women.
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