The oldest trick in the book

To the Editor:

One night, I listened to Harold Camping on the radio. He was explaining how the significance of four candle sticks in the book of Revelations helped to confirm his prophecies. Later, he famously predicted the date of the End Times.

Some of Camping's followers who reorganized their personal and financial lives to spread the word and prepare for the Rapture suffered severe losses when the world did not end in 2011.

How could they have believed him?

When I served in the National Guard, I met a young man whose mother had been a follower of Jim Jones. He told me about the hold Jones had on his congregation. Sometimes, he performed faith healings when he would pull an awful smelly mass of evil out of a sick person. My friend was afraid of him, and he was glad that his mother did not go to Guyana with the others where Jones convinced them to kill their children and to commit suicide with poisoned Kool-aid.

What were they thinking? Donald Trump, a self-promoting playboy con man with a string of bankruptcies behind him, starred in a TV fantasy in which he portrayed a successful businessman after a ghost written book had made him out to be a savvy deal maker. People did find him curiously entertaining, and he appeared on talk shows spouting his opinions, including lies about Obama's birthplace.

He ran for president as a publicity stunt and surprisingly won by bullying his opponents during the primaries and then cultivating a loyal following that believed his falsehoods about himself and his capabilities. Even today, for so many, his numerous lies go unchallenged, and his mythical status remains intact.

How can that still be possible? What should we say to them? John Watson

Columbia