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   John (johnzajac@dice.camp)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 03:20:40 JST John

   A problem is that there are three kinds of person in any anti-social ideology: the marks, the grifters, and the masterminds.

   The marks literally think the thing is a totally different thing. They're MAGA folks who think MAGA is all about "ending tyranny" and giving their kids a better future. They're Dem voters who think Democrats are just frustrated progressives who care deeply about people

   Even politicians can be marks! There are Dem pols and GOP pols who really believe their propaganda

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   • Rich Felker repeated this.
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     John (johnzajac@dice.camp)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 03:22:20 JST John

     in reply to

     The grifters know that none of it is actually true and spend all their time farming the marks for money and clout. Pundits, most politicians, most consultants, many high-level executives at corpos, most of the top 5%.

     This is where you get stuff like US healthcare and corporate welfare, bank bailouts and most of the tech industry. A lot of SuperPACs and political NPOs are also graftastic money pits. I'd guess three-quarters of all Christian pastors are in this class.

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     Rich Felker repeated this.
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     John (johnzajac@dice.camp)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 03:22:39 JST John

     in reply to

     But the grifters really just think it's that way because, well, that's the way it is. They're opportunists with a *kind* of savvy and loose morals that position them well to take advantage of people. They aren't particularly curious about why, or how, it all got to be this way; or why, or how, it seems to stay this way no matter how badly they behave.

     Trump and his goons are all grifters.

     The masterminds know better: they can see the meticulous interconnected systems...

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     Rich Felker repeated this.
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     John (johnzajac@dice.camp)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 03:24:45 JST John

     in reply to

     ...and know how to use them to exercise power. (And gain wealth, but that's not really the point for them, usually - it's a perq)

     Neofascism is an authoritarian system that used the auspices of democracy and liberalism to hide while it quietly rearranged literally every element of society and government to support what was supposed to be an indomitable power base built on obfuscatory cultural and economic conflict.

     Masterminds planned, implemented, and maintain it.

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