“...members of Peoples Temple included some of the most intelligent, talented and socially committed people you’d find anywhere. These weren’t dummies just falling into place; they really believed in what Jones was preaching.”
Yes, people who really BELIEVE communist blather from an insane tyrant, leading inexorably to their own poverty and death are GENIUSES OF THE AGE. Give them a collective Darwin Award.
there are Harvard professors who’ve given tens of thousands to Nigerian email scammers.
“...members of Peoples Temple included some of the most intelligent, talented and socially committed people you’d find anywhere. These weren’t dummies just falling into place; they really believed in what Jones was preaching.”
They were not the most intelligent people... they were easily led. Jim jones once brought 3 grayhound buses of his people to our small town where he grew up. Every person on that bus was black. They also are committed democrats... guillable and won’t change. He found them easy to recruit when he started out in Indianapolis.. He did start out trying to help those who needed help, but he quickly found he could tell them what to do and gained power.. which seems to be an addictive trait we see in politics.
jim jones came from nothing and power was a solution that satisfied him and made him somebody.