Joshe

Exactly

Imagine your average bible-thumping young American. Now imagine they have the gift of gab. Now imagine they earn millions of dollars with that gift. Now imagine they rise to a high level of fame. Now imagine they're heavily depended upon by the highest government office on the planet. How could the ego not be massive? "We are God's chosen, which is why we are blessed. Not only do we believe we're God's chosen, but we have a whole community of Christians who affirm this to us daily. On top of that, we prove to ourselves daily that we are the most righteous via debate and our superior gift of gab. Also, we have massive influence over the world, we MUST be superior. We have millions upon millions of dollars. This also confirms we are superior. We are so important that the highest levels of government depends on us." If we plug an underdeveloped ego into the scenario above, we can make some educated guesses about what we're dealing with.

Preempting your "but he genuinely thought it was stolen" ChatGPT: Claude:

I'm not so sure Trump and Elon are comparable here. Trump is not an ideologue who cares about conservatism or capitalism. He cares about his power. And he cares so much about it that he would undermine and uproot democracy to keep it, just as he did in 2020 when he sent fake slates of electors to try to rig the election. Clearly.

Oh yeah, I don't doubt at all that she thinks she has forgiven the shooter. Thing is, most Christians would admit to themselves they don't have the ability to forgive someone like this the way that Jesus could. Especially not so soon. Any Christian who demonstrates this ability is either highly spiritually developed or incredibly delusional. I think we can safely remove the first option. Her "forgiveness" points to a massive ego. Combine this with her performative bullshit like fake crying interspersed with real crying, silently praying to God in front of thousands, moving her lips to let everyone know she's praying, her excessive flashy jewelry.... I could go on and on. It's clear to me the ego on this one is massive, and she's obviously delusional as hell. Put this into the context of who she was married to, and it basically confirms my read.

lol, I'm not assuming! I'm using real-world data. There is a small amount of reading between the lines, but not much.

She could have written it herself. I'm surrounded by Christians. I know how they virtue signal. And I know an actor when I see one. I can snuff bullshit out a mile away, and she was full of shit. Her spiritual ego is fucking massive. Blows my mind how people didn't see anything other than that.

MAGA is not representative of conservatism. Normal conservatism is nowhere near as repulsive as MAGA. MAGA is authoritarian, which is clear. Concentration camps are a strawman of what we're saying about MAGA. We're saying they want power and control and they're willing to be authoritarian to get it. This is 100% true. Can you admit this to yourself? If you can, now you can ask the question, to what ends would they be willing to go to achieve their goals? That all depends on how things play out. Will they setup concentration camps for their political opponents? No, because the optics would be too bad. But would they do other things like send them to prison for no good reason? Abso-fuckin-lutlely. And it's already in the works. Everything I've said here, as far as I know, is a fact. If these are facts, do you side with it or against it, and how strongly would you side with or against it? If you side with it, this gets you the "fascist" label. If you side against it but take no strong stance, this gets you the "conflict-avoidant moderate" or "passive enabler" label. If you strongly oppose it, this gets you the "common sense, reasonable, decent person" label.

She didn't forgive shit. It was totally performative - signaling virtue as if she's some saint. These people operate under delusions that are hard for more conscious people to fathom.

And he was applauded for it all. The biggest applause that I saw was when he mentioned retribution.

I actually think this is gold for their movement. There's no telling how many fence-sitters will now become Christian or right-wing. This is a culture war and the right is getting unprecedented exposure where the they're being painted as good and the opposition evil. No matter what happens to TPUSA, this feels like a huge win for the right in terms of bringing more people over to their side.

Yes. I live amongst them. Ironically, for me, Christian funerals are like spiritual warfare to attend because not only am I dealing with grief from loss, but I have to watch them administer their poison and pretend like nothing is happening. IME, these types of events give you firsthand experience of a very toxic phenomenon.

This shit is repulsive. Imagine being in that arena. lol. Traumatized by cringe.

I hope he starts talking about his new ballroom. lol.

It would be funny if Trump turns it into a political rally where his ego takes center stage.

Haha, bro, you're demonstrating the model's point about conflict avoidance. You're resisting taking a stance against authoritarianism. Think about that. You think you're arriving at your both-sides, no-stance position via good reason and wisdom, but you're not. You're arriving at your position, not from reason, but from unconscious psychological forces. If you could be truthful with yourself about this, you'd see the absurdity in the idea of seeing the merits of authoritarianism. A true tier-2 thinker could analyze the merits of authoritarianism, but they would be conscious enough to take a strong stance against it.

@DocWatts I think a better name for "Peripheral Supporters" is "System Supports". Here's an updated graphic.

That'd be awesome - no attribution needed. I'm just glad if it helps others make sense of things. Thank you!

There is some overlap but religion formed over centuries, whereas post-truth forms in real time. Maybe religion was the post-truth of its time. I'm attempting to map out how the mass delusions of our time form and spread. Simply calling it "delusion" doesn't explain anything. You can say "it's just lack of consciousness", but what use is that? I think you should take a closer look at the model - specifically, the conflict-avoidant moderate part. 😝

Yeah, solving the disconnection problem makes a lot of sense. @DocWatts Thanks for sharing. I'd be interested in reading your book when it's finished. Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I thought about turning it into an interactive web page that goes deep into it - maybe even provide real-world examples in the form of a walk-thru to build the case. I think that could be useful. Feel free to take any or all aspects of it and modify it in any way you'd like, if you'd like to share it on your own Substack.

Thanks! 100%. I wish more people would start acknowledging these things rather than just dropping their jaw and resorting to condemnation or refutation of surface-level points every time they're confronted with it. I need to do more to integrate this knowledge myself. I get the sense that even those with the clarity to see the pattern might want to avoid this topic because they might intuit "I do this too, just with different content.". But even if this were to become widely discussed, it would be like understanding drug addiction in a society flooded with dealers. Understanding would mitigate the issue somewhat, but as long as dealers are dealing, the problem isn't gonna go away. These shame-avoidant technologies like Tucker Carlson are on the rise. lol

lol, could be. If so, this is not good, as the right wing talking point that the killer was radicalized by the woke mind virus will be seen as correct and their divisive rhetoric will be seen as justified truth-telling.

Maybe. America is all I really know. I could still see it applying to any other country, given the right circumstances.

Each core pillar is huge, but I think shame-avoidance might be the biggest. Just to demonstrate how shame-avoidance works, using conspiracy theories as an example: "The Shame-to-Conspiracy Pipeline Conspiracy theories medicate shame through several mechanisms: 1. Transformation into special knowledge - The shame of being "ignorant," "left behind," or "unsuccessful" transforms into being one of the few who "sees the truth." You're not a failure; you're awakened. The shame of exclusion becomes the pride of insight. 2. Externalizing the cause - If you lost your job, your status, your sense of cultural relevance - that's shameful. But if a cabal of elites deliberately destroyed your industry to control you? Now you're a victim of evil forces, not a personal failure. The shame dissolves into righteous anger. 3. Retroactive meaning-making - Past humiliations and failures get recontextualized. That bankruptcy wasn't poor decisions; it was "them" keeping you down. That divorce wasn't personal inadequacy; it was "their" attack on traditional values. Shame transforms into evidence of persecution. 4. Community of the knowing - Shame isolates, but conspiracy theories create instant belonging with fellow "truth-seekers." You go from shamefully alone to proudly connected. Example: Someone whose small business failed during economic changes could face crushing shame - "I'm a failure, I couldn't adapt, I'm worthless." But if they believe globalist elites deliberately destroyed small businesses? The shame evaporates. They're not a failed businessperson; they're a warrior against the New World Order. Admitting error would re-activate shame, which is why counter-evidence is blocked. The conspiracy theory doesn't just distract from shame - it performs psychological alchemy, converting shame's poison into the medicine of purpose, belonging, and specialness." You can almost view conspiratorial thinking, Tucker Carlson, and many other right-wing figureheads as "shame-regulation technology".