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If anything, I think he's the exact evidence of how this usually functions: it's a fad. An extremely dangerous fad. But a fad. People are just very poor at judging which fads are worth investing in.

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It's interesting to me because it doesn't seem to push that many of the usual buttons for beliefs like this; if we look at the range of human emotional needs a fully-evolved religion (or even some less well-defined lifestyles) provides, this stuff is pretty weak.

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It's too narrow a topic for people who don't have a religious/pseudo-religious background, so it has limited community benefits. It doesn't provide comfort, but also doesn't provide a regular dose of fear. The risk is that other conspiracy theory type stuff is the next step.

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Yes, which mostly tells you how weak our institutions and social fabric have become - most people are barely even duct taped together. This is what people inside establishment bubbles can't understand. It's a jungle out here. Nobody actually believes in anything anymore.

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Well, Bannon and people like that understand it.

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Bannon is in a bubble? The guy's a total psycho, but he's anything but sheltered.

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No, I mean he understands that nobody actually believes in anything anymore.

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Not sure if that's as much an understanding as a thing that ASPD types project onto their environment.

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"Well, -I- only see exploitable meatbags. Why would anyone else see anything else?"

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I don't know; Ian's covered him pretty well, I'm not sure how much of Trump's gaslighting is based upon a Bannon game plan. The early (orchestrated?) chaos has certainly built up an army of people who will praise him for literally anything he does.

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Not saying the guy isn't smart. Just saying insights and attitudes aren't necessarily the same thing, although functionally they might be.

12:02 PM · Mar 4, 2019Twitter Web Client

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So I guess my point was relatively pointless and can be safely ignored. ;)

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Nah, the level of intent is interesting to contemplate. Even more so with Trump himself. Absolutely amazing that we've got to the point where he can stand up and not only say anything and get away with it, but be able to /say/ that he can say/do anything and get away with it.