Actress and activist Rose McGowan drew from her experience of having grown up in a cult to explain how she realized the cult-like aspects of extreme politics, “most especially” among Democrats.
McGowan, who famously spoke out against Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse, explained to Fox News host Tammy Bruce how she had been raised in The Children of God cult, which she claimed has given her the “superpower” of discerning “the control and propaganda machine” of politics on both sides.
“I am not here to make people feel bad about their political choices,” McGowan said. “But I am here to say that you might be in a cult too if you don’t know the signs. And I do believe Democrats, most especially, are in a deep cult that they really don’t know about and aren’t really aware of.”
After claiming the Democratic Party “masquerades” as a party that wants to help people, McGowan said, “My persecution and awakening from being a Democrat was so much about what I do and what I say now and so much about realizing how hardcore of a cult it is. And how much it does to women and the people it says it’s going to help. Then why haven’t they achieved anything?”
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“What part of it is organic to you and what part has been implanted either by Hollywood, or the media, or your leaders?” McGowan advised her listeners to ask themselves. “What part of it is truly yours? What’s organic to you? And see what’s the polyester and pull it out of your fabric. We have to examine what we believe and why.”
“Look at your own belief systems and get free,” she added.
McGowan later went on Twitter to defend herself for going on Fox News, “I did an interview on Fox News that it causes such a cognitive dissonance as someone who was, you know, at least basically from when I set foot in America, a Democrat, because that’s what my mother was, never questioned that Fox is the enemy. And tonight they’ll run with, you know, Rose McGowan says Democrats are in a cult, but I also said Republicans were, too.”
“If you lean deep into anything and refuse to hear anything else, and you’re serving a master that there’s no evidence is serving you, then maybe you’re in a cult,” she added. “And that was my message.”
In a response to the video that some Twitter users claimed was an example of the mindset McGowan was talking about, former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann tweeted, “If you can’t tell the difference between the Republican Death Cult and the Democrats, let me summarize for you: you’re full of sh*t. And blocked.”
If you can’t tell the difference between the Republican Death Cult and the Democrats, let me summarize for you: you’re full of shit. And blocked.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) April 27, 2021
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, by contrast, extolled McGowan for her interview, tweeting Tuesday morning, “Good morning to everyone from the brave and brilliant @RoseMcGowan, who liberals turned into a hero until they realized they couldn’t control her, just like they do to anyone who doesn’t fully submit to Party orthodoxies[.]”
Good morning to everyone from the brave and brilliant @RoseMcGowan, who liberals turned into a hero until they realized they couldn't control her, just like they do to anyone who doesn't fully submit to Party orthodoxies (read about Cindy Sheehan to see that playbook): pic.twitter.com/s1jG1FFvD7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 27, 2021