A noted Yale psychiatrist warns that those protesting the lockdown measures put in place by state governors appear to have some of the same characteristics of “child soldiers” and that if Donald Trump loses the election in November, they could become “armed troops in the streets.”
As Salon reports, Dr. Bandy X. Lee, who has taught at Yale Law School, says that she sees similar behavior in the pro-Trump protesters as she did in child soldiers in Africa.
Lee says that Trump demands a sort of loyalty from his supporters that could evolve into something more violent.
“Subconsciously, it is a loyalty test for the people,” she said.
She explained that in Africa, child soldiers were forced to kill a family member to show that they were loyal to the government and not their family. She said that there is a similar behavior in the United States between urban gangs who are forced to kill a police officer to prove that they’re loyal to the gang and not society.
“When Donald Trump suggests that the virus be taken as a ‘hoax’, that people gather in churches or that people protest for their own sacrifice, he is actually testing people’s loyalty to the ‘laws’ of his mind over the laws of nature, or even impulse for survival,” Lee said. “The more he abuses them, the greater their devotion grows, since the psychological cost of admitting their mistake is ever higher — and so it becomes easier to dig a well of unreality than to see the obvious truth.”
Lee, who led the World Health Organization Violence Prevention Alliance, added that while individual violence is rarely predictable given that people who become violent are not violent a majority of the time. But societal violence is something that can be predicted.
Trump has both supported anti-lockdown protesters and has urged governors to take whatever measures necessary to protect their populations. Lee says this sort of misleading rhetoric will have a long-term mental health impact on the country as he seeks to cover up his mistakes with misleading statements.
Lee says that Trump has managed to convince some of his supporters to “idolize” him and when he loses, those people may take up arms on his behalf. If things take a negative turn for him in November, he could use his authority over them to incite violence.
“We would be mistaken to believe he will leave, or even let a losing election happen in the first place,” she said.
Lee has also said that she believes Trump has the emotional development of a 5-year-old .
