America’s fascination with evil and iniquitous acts is nothing new and makes a lot of sense. We are told at a young age that America is a shining country, a country full of opportunity, and if there is any evil in the world, we have a military to protect us from it.

Thus, despite what we tell ourselves, we get a thrill when we hear about events or people that go against our conception of good and justice, for it seems so completely unordinary we just have to talk about it. And Charles Manson’s death is one example of this, where even decades after his followers committed what would be known as the "Tate-LaBianca Murders" his death received a fair amount of attention from the media and people.

But our fascination with Manson doesn’t always lie in the acts of evil themselves, but how these acts were carried out. Manson was never present at the seven killings of the “Tate-LaBianca Murders” that happened in a span of roughly 24 hours. Rather, he merely convinced his followers that these murders must take place, and before you know it, seven people were killed.

Now this raises the question why did these people listen to Manson. I know there are some who believe that these people were just as bad as Manson himself, and to those people, I would like to say you are completely wrong.

Many of Manon’s "family"

were people who felt neglected in their life and believed no one cared about them. Manson, being a fantastic cult leader, knew this and specifically sought out people who felt this way. Doing say, Manson, with his charisma and tact use of language, was able to convince these people that there was someone who cared about them: himself.

This goes to show how much humans need compassion and a sense of belonging. These people didn’t commit these murders because they were evil humans, they did so because they truly believed they would receive compassion and have some sort of a purpose. Even if what they were asked to do was terrible, they didn’t see it that way because the person who asked for it, Manson, was a good person in their eyes.

But this makes Manson that much more of an enigma, for if we can understand why these people followed him, we still can’t know the specific reasons why Manson behaved the way he did. I will not attempt to answer this, but would like to point out that what Manson did to his followers isn’t that unordinary.

As I somewhat mentioned, there are some conditions

that allow people like Manson to manipulate others. One of them is the psychological well-being of the person being manipulated. If they feel their situation/life is hopeless, pointless, or dreadful, there are very susceptible, for manipulators can come in and offer them help, meaning, or protection. Also important is how neglected or alone these victims feel, as they are more likely to follow a leader as long as the leader offers them some form of human relationship.

Now, Manson was an extreme case, but don’t these tactics seem familiar? If they don’t, let me remind you what has been going on the last year and a half or so. During the last presidential election, there was a candidate who would love to use fear-mongering during his campaign. By doing so, this candidate would then go on to say how if they were elected, they would offer protection and give hope to those who have been neglected. Forget having detailed plans of how they would go about this, but by offering to end the “evils” of the world, like ISIS and immigration, the American people would have nothing to fear.

So, if you’re wondering if I’m comparing Charles Manson to Donald Trump, the answer wound be a resounding yes. Fortunately, Trump isn’t nearly as charismatic, but nonetheless he primarily used the same tactics Manson did to gain a following. It’s also hard not to compare the two when both of them clearly had/have some sort of God complex.

This also means I believe there is a comparison between Trump supporters of the people who committed Manson’s murders. Before you call me a piece of shit and insane liberal, I will remind you that I do not think the people who followed Manson were evil. Rather, I thought they were people in need of help and found it in a promising leader. Now Trump supporters are obviously in way less need of help, but nonetheless I still think you can see the similarities. Lots of people who support Trump were fearful of America’s future and thought Trump would fix it. It doesn’t matter if he didn’t offer specific ways to fix America, because it was common thought that Hilary would just be more of the same and America’s troubles would continue.

If you still don’t believe that there are any similarities, just see how some liberals view Trump supporters. Many of us think that Trump supporters are terrible people, just as everyone thought the Manson murders were committed by terrible people. In reality that isn’t the case, but our lack of empathy made us believe it was so.

I think it's pretty clear the American people are entertained by egomaniac leaders like Manson who seemed to do the impossible of convincing others to join his cause. This, I believe, is also why we are so obsessed with the one and only Donald J. Trump.