this chart — so it was a chart of cult behaviors — and then add that Trump thinks he's above the law, very cult-leader-like, and then he lies incessantly, also very cult-leader-like, the answer is clear. Trump is acting like a cult leader. Americans are being manipulated.

So here's the central claim. I'll read it again. He says Trump thinks he's above the law. So it's a cult expert telling you that he can read Trump's mind and that when he reads Trump's mind inside there there's something that says he's above the law. Based on what? Have we seen any evidence that he thinks he's above the law? Now you've seen evidence of every human you've ever met that they'd like to maybe weasel around the law. You've seen people who wish they didn't get caught. You've seen people do all kinds of stuff. But in the entire history of people, unless somebody is actually claiming to be descended from a god, is there anybody who's a leader who's claiming they're above the law? It's not even a thing. It's just not even a thing.

So cult expert, mm-hmm. I would say that the cult expert is in a cult and that he left one cult and went into another. And it could be the new cult is the anti-cult. So it's a cult expert who escaped a cult, became an expert on cults, and joined another cult, doesn't know it. And he's writing publicly that other people are in the cult because they're not in the same group he's in and doesn't realize he's in a cult. So that's ironic.

New York Times had an article about how there's more depression and suicide since Trump came into office. Many problems with this. One is that how do you know how much depression and suicide there would have been if somebody else had won? I mean I'm willing to believe it's more likely that the Trump administration has caused more depression and suicide than normal. I'm totally willing to believe that. I mean it passes the sniff test. You know, you can observe people very upset about his administration. So what surprised me if it's true that there's more depression and suicide than there's some Trump-related thing.

But here's the problem. The New York Times assigns the blame, if you will, to Trump and his supporters. I don't know if they say it directly but that's the implication. If it's true that the Trump administration is a cause — we'll say it's one of the variables as part of the cause of people's greater depression and anxiety and suicide — is that the whole story? Because the way I see the world it's the press's treatment of the administration that's causing the mental illness. And that's a big difference.

And here's the thought experiment I use all the time and it work