The two modern political cults are uniquely powerful. Both of them can vacuum the brains out of previously clear and rigorous thinkers on any subject.
A few months ago I saluted historian Robert Sandel for debunking several myths. I liked his work so much that I bought and read his book. Most of it is equally good and rigorous, but in a preface written in 2024 he destroys his own reputation by adopting standard DNC crap. Climate, DEI, hating Trump for the wrong reasons.
Noam Chomsky fell into the same D trap after a long career of careful modest objective science.
The R cult has snatched the brains of nearly all the activists who had built reputations by defending real science in 2020. In 2024 they switched. After spending three years opposing everything Trump DID, they joined his cult.
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It’s normal for activists on one side of a moral or religious issue to switch. When you’re obsessed with one religion you can switch from loving this religion to hating this religion. Militant atheists become militant Christians and vice versa. Militant anti-aborts become militant pro-aborts and vice versa.
Until recently political support was practical and businesslike. Pay for value. Most Americans had a lifetime loyalty to FDR and his party because FDR literally saved their lives. WPA gave them useful paid work and a productive skill when they were starving. In a less dramatic way people supported the party that had brought more defense contracts and Army bases to their state, or controlled crime in their city.
Since 1970 neither party has improved the lives of anyone except billionaires. Both have been working equally hard to ship our economy to China. Both have systematically defunded police and ruined the court system. So there’s no practical reason to support or oppose either one. Trump turned them into religions centered on Trump himself. He’s God to one side and Satan to the other side.
Polistra's Mill 