Minions

Minions

This post is about minions, this continues my series on authoritarians rulers. Your typical authoritarian ruler stays in power by having minions.  In this post we will go into how to recognized them.  How to avoid being one, and lastly how to deal with them.

What are Minions?

First, they are not cartoon characters.  They range from being a silent supporter, to being a brutal thug and lastly killers for the strongman ruler.  There are many easy ways to recognize them.

1. They can’t say ‘NO’ to the authoritarian ruler
2. They don’t have good interpersonal boundaries therefore are easy to bend and use by the Machiavellianism of the dear leader.
3. They are insecure emotionally thus easy manipulated by the narcissistic part of a dark triad leader
4. They admire the Strongman ruler and believe his/her untruths – they become part of his cult
5. They don’t fight back the dark triad leader’s humiliation – but step into line by it thus suffering learned helplessness
6. They supply what is called “narcissistic supply” for them.  They love the control and attention.

Hollywood vs Real minions

In Hollywood, they present minions like  Marty below and in cartoons show minions as harmless goofs.  This is the exact opposite of what real minions are!

Now for today’s authoritarian ruler type minion.  Some are attention seeking gits, other work to subvert the elections.  Subverting elections started with Mussolini.  As the prime minister of a democracy for three years.  During that time, he degraded the democracy in ways that are very familiar today world wide.

And for the brutal authoritarian ruler who has people who challenge his authority.  We have these minions.

The dark triad leader road map and play book

The modern strongman authoritarian ruler playbook outline a la Mussolini:

• The dark triad leader promises a bright national future, but the emotions they elicit are bleak and fearful. The line between everyday life and horror in their states becomes razor-thin.
• They create a climate of extreme anxiety, extreme anger in other people who don’t like this progress.  Thus they use fear to create learned helplessness in their followers with this fear.
• Weak followers are great – those with skills they fear the most and attempt to isolate!
• They ally with conservative elites and make them minions (examples – Koch brothers and conservative organizations).
• Uses different forms of machismo to interact with their people and with other rulers.
• They require total loyalty from the minions to get them to do there biding.
• They bend democracy around their own needs to enrich themselves.
• Blurring the distinction between true and false (i.e. the standards of thought) no longer exist.
• Uses modern misinformation tool on media.
• Constantly doing off color jokes.  Degrading and humiliation of others.  This is extremely important for ushering in this new right-wing political climate.
• Degrade equal rights – for women – the poor and minorities.
• Work to take away freedom and create economic chaos.
• In later stages mass detention becomes common as does murder.

The list could go on.  The best way to study the play book requires reading and education.  This knowledge can be found  in books like this one.

Psychohistory a la Issac Asimov

At the start of my second year at university in summer school, I found a section of science fiction books in the library.  I began reading the books of Issac Asimov.  Started with Issac’s robot books but then found his Foundation series.  I had just taken my first statistics course that spring.  My first psychology course was also fresh in my mind.  This book opened up the idea of predicting the future!  My first master degree was a dual major in statistic and biology.  My second masters degree was in counseling psychology.  I admit it, I am a nerd.  My minor was in computer programming.  But, I made a friend in a man called Glenn Duncan who was a computer and math wizard back then.

The MIT Professor who predicted the future

Glenn introduced me to Jay Forrester, professor at MIT.  He developed system dynamics that predicted the future.  Therefore I got his books and read and used his methods.   I was able to apply his processes to biology project I was working on at that time.  Later, I applied his system dynamic methods to programs for businesses.  The reason I bring this up as that psychology was way far behind in studying human behavior then.  All the psychologist were stuck on B. F. Skinner in the 1960’s to the 1980’s.  Skinner’s work lead to a dead end for advancing knowledge of bad behaviors.  However, some of the bad behaviors were documented in the DMS Manuals.  In the late 1990’s, research on bad behaviors moved forward.

The study of authoritarian dark triad types comes out in the early 2000’s.  Later, historians began to apply a practical version of psychology to history looking at Authoritarian Leaders to see what behaviors they have/had in common.  I will side step a bit here the Christian bible if one looks at some parts not as history but allegory.  It gives some pretty good suggestions on recognizing dark triad rulers.  In high school in my religion class, Reverend Turner taught us to look at the writings in some books as allegories.  When I read Revelation’s I saw a great deal of symbolism.  The literal crowd does not see the symbolism.  However, I found I could apply the symbolism to what happened in history and now.  Lets see how this works now!

Revelation 13:16-17 King James Version

Many biblical scholars think Trump is the anti Christ.  They are missing the bigger picture via history.  We have had many authoritarian rulers in history.  Their stories provide a road map for next generation of strongman authoritarian rulers.  What the biblical scholars miss occurs in this passage.

•  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:   Sounds like conservative elites minions!  Brain washing by modern misinformation on media
  
•  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.   Thus Z – 45 – 47 and MAGA are used to mark the minions! 

Thus we have codes for hand signals and wearing a hats or symbol of the strongman authoritarian dark triad type.  Thus the mark of the beast and the minion merge with Revelation predictions!

How to Deal with Minions

Dealing with misguided people is difficult.  They often have what we call a Rigid Personality Type.   Rigidity is a personality trait characterized by a lack of flexibility and an excessive need for order and control. They value predictability and routine and often have trouble adapting to different situations.  While there is no single “right” way to live, people with a Rigid personality may find it difficult to enjoy life’s spontaneity.

Here are some of the most common characteristics and traits of someone who has a Rigid personality type:

1. People with a Rigid personality type are often very opinionated and set in their ways
2. They like to be in control of everything and don’t like change or surprises
3. They can be inflexible, stubborn, and unyielding when it comes to their beliefs or opinions
4. Rigid types tend to have skewed analytical and logical in their thinking, rather than emotional intelligence
5. They can be rigidly structured in their lives, with little room for spontaneity or flexibility
6. They may have difficulty adapting to new situations or dealing with different types of people

Thus, they make very good minions.  What this shows is that they are difficult to deal with.  Like the other personality disorders they are skewed and believe in myths.  They are easy for the dark triad leader to brain wash and bully  because they are fearful.  They watch news that reinforces their world view like Fox News or the state television.

Is there a coping skill?

So the best coping skill is to avoid them.  They are difficult to educate.  So it waste your time attempting to change them.  They also suffer what we call the Dunning Kruger effect.  They think they know more than others.  The putdown statements are used often to degrade other people’s knowledge.  A typical phase – “I watched 15 YouTube videos on the COVID vaccine not working”.  When asked if they have read or taking classes in subjects they are often clueless.  Their fear prevents real learning.  Many are very bitter distrusting people.  So the take away – avoid them!  Unless they have a weapon they don’t effect your life.  Spend your time getting others to vote.  If you live in other authoritarian states, these are the people you report to the underground freedom movement.

The Summary

How do you summarize minions?  In this post, we have the dark triad ruler playbook out lined.  We discuss the use of minions to appear powerful.  Without them – they are nothing!   Thus illustrating the minions behaviors and looking at the psychology of the cults they joined in the past and at current times.  You fight dark triad rulers by exposing their game.  A game that was predicted in Revelations and other past writers and current writers studying bad leaders.

Therefore by exploring history, psychology and careful study of their bad behavior. We can determine they do not produce good outcomes for our planet!

Share and enjoy this post.  I hope you’ll all open to integrating and continuing to learn more.  This is how we fight them.

I leave with this from Thomas Paine:

• These are the times that try men’s souls;
• The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
• but he/she that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of future men and women.
• Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;
• Yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Dedications

This post is dedicated to those who stood up and died to fight dark triad leaders in the past.  May they be remembered!  To Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, who worked to inspire an American revolution against tyranny.