Rose McGowan calls Democrats a “deep” cult “against changing the world for the better” on Fox News

Rose McGowanPhoto: Shutterstock

Actor Rose McGowan, known for her prominent role in the #metoo movement, went on Fox News last night and said that Democrats are a “deep cult.”

Now she’s getting criticized by liberals on social media and praised by conservatives.

Related: Rose McGowan throws a privilege-tantrum after being called out by a trans woman

“I am not here to make people feel bad about their political choices,” McGowan told Fox News host Tammy Bruce. “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.”

“They’re against changing the world for the better, and they’re for keeping a system in place that is for so few people and benefits so few, but they masquerade as the helpers,” she continued.

“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 hard-core of a cult it is.”

She drew criticism from the left.

And support from conservatives, rightwing media, and Fox News personalities.

In a later video posted to social media, McGowan defended calling Democrats a “deep cult” on the far-right cable network.

“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 said.

While the exact definition of the word “cult” is often debated by sociologists, it generally does not refer to people who “lean deep into anything.”

When discussed by laypeople, the word “cult” usually involves unorthodox spiritual or philosophical beliefs, following a charismatic personality, and a destructive level of devotion demanded from followers. The two major political parties are generally not considered cults.

Even though McGowan has associated herself with liberal politics and became a prominent voice in the #metoo movement after she said that Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her, she has a history of problematic statements about LGBTQ people and generally confused politics.

Last year, McGowan, best known for her work on the TV series Charmed and the film Grindhouse,  tweeted that she was a registered Republican and “cannot vote Democrat.” She later deleted the tweets and said that she wrote them only because she “freaked out” over the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and thought that it would lead to war.

In July 2017, McGowan talked about trans women on RuPaul’s podcast What’s the Tee? with Michelle Visage. She said trans women “assume because they felt like a woman on the inside. That’s not developing as a woman. That’s not growing as a woman, that’s not living in this world as a woman, and a lot of the stuff I hear trans complaining about, yeah, welcome to the world.”

She also complained that trans women never ask her what it’s like to be a woman.

A trans activist called her out for those comments at a New York City Barnes & Noble in 2018, and McGowan implied in her response that cisgender women face more oppression than transgender women.

She then accused the trans activist of being a paid plant sent by Harvey Weinstein and quit touring for her book because “I have given beauty, in return I was VERBALLY ASSAULTED for two full minutes.”

In 2014, she said that gay men are more misogynistic than straight men and gay men spent the last century fighting “for the right to stand on top of a float wearing an orange Speedo and take molly.”

In 2011, McGowan stirred controversy for bi erasure when she talked about how she “freaked out” when her sister started dating men after she had dated women previously.

“She was scared to tell me that she was going out with a guy,” McGowan said. “It actually freaked me out, and I stopped speaking to her for three months. Now, thank God, she’s back to women, and life is good again.”