re: #22 Dr Lizardo

What we’re seeing with these people is the externalization of their ego: God and Trump exist as external voices that confirm their internal voices and little else. This isn’t even ideology, because there’s no actual standard they will hold themselves to: the “rules” continuously evolve to (1) create exceptions such that they are not held to their own standards, (2) novel forms of transgression are invented to justify further cruelty assertion of control over others.

The harder part to winnow out is that there’s a feedback loop between the absolute cynics—the ones who know they’re acting in bad faith—and absolute believers—who have sublimated themselves to their authorities—but most of these Trumpist types are oscillating between the two poles: if you don’t have any standard of “truth” then your sincere beliefs can change constantly while you don’t acknowledge the transition. It’s Super Turbo Ship of Theseus.