‘It’s Really Scary!’ Mary Trump and Star Trek Picard’s Jeri Ryan Compare ‘MAGA Cult’ To The Borg
Ex-presidential niece Mary Trump and Star Trek: Picard star Jeri Ryan compared members of ex-President Donald Trump’s “MAGA cult” to the Borg, calling the phenomenon “really scary!”
Trek Politics podcast co-hosts Mary Trump and Bob Cesca hosted Ryan, who plays recovering Borg Seven of Nine in several Trek properties beginning with Star Trek: Voyager, for their second episode.
In among the granular Trek nerd talk, Cesca asked Ryan if she had suggestions to deprogram once-normal friends and family who have been “assimilated” into what he called the “MAGA cult” and Ryan revealed that she has personal experience with the premise:
BOB CESCA: And this is kind of a loaded question, so forgive me in advance, but there’s this obvious cult-like thing with the Borg, which makes Seven a kind of apostate to that cult having withdrawn from that, whether it’s someone escaping from Scientology or there’s a particular political cult that I think we all are aware of. So her story arc is partly about deprogramming herself from that collective.
And in the kindest possible terms, we all have a family member who seems to have been assimilated into one of these cults that I, shall go nameless via the Internet or social media. How do we, in your experience, playing this character, that escaped from this collective, how do we deprogram these people who we know, or are they lost? Is there some secret formula that you’re aware of? Is it empathy or kindness or understanding, or is it some sort of more disruptive thing that shakes them out of their torpor on this? And what is it?
JERI RYAN: Honestly, I wish I knew. I wish that playing this character had given me some insight and that I could do it because it’s personal experience in my own family. And it’s constant brainwashing by propaganda that is nonstop. And it’s getting worse instead of better. And I don’t know how to deprogram or counteract that. It’s, it’s scary. It’s really, really frightening.
MARY TRUMP: And I think part of the problem is that there is this ability to absorb hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance and never feel challenged. So the fact that there are people who love Star Trek and miss it, the message of it entirely.
JERI RYAN: They just like looking at the pretty spaceships. I think that must be what it was…
MARY TRUMP: Ya think?
JERI RYAN: They haven’t watched this show. Did you, did you switch the sound off or…
MARY TRUMP: Because this is as subtle as William Shatner’s acting. I mean.
JERI RYAN: Yes! I love Bill. But yeah, I mean.
MARY TRUMP: Oh, he’s amazing. He’s absolutely amazing.
JERI RYAN: Well, this was very direct.
MARY TRUMP: Yeah. If you listen to him recite the preamble to the Constitution, there’s nothing subtle going on here. So it is a little bit challenging, shall we say.
JERI RYAN: I don’t know how to counter it. I wish that I knew how to counteract that because it’s really scary!
Watch above via Trek Politics.
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