There are two forces working against Trump here: institutional inertia and questions of trust. The first is just what we expect. Trump is an outsider and a government reformist. He doesn't have an established political machine to draw from, and he faces resistance from a behemoth state that doesn't want to be reformed. If the system was easy to reform, it wouldn't need to be reformed.
But the even more profound problem here is a matter of trust. How can he know who to trust? This is an area where we are completely outmatched by the left. Why? Because the left is a cult. Recalling from Religions, Cults, and the Alt-Right, which gave one definition of a religion is an organization where members profess logically improbable beliefs to gain acceptance. A cult demands purity. It is a religion characterized by a virtue spiral, wherein the more improbable one's beliefs, the more social status one acquires within the organization. Look at today's other big headline: Man gives birth to baby boy. These people are clearly trying to outdo each other.
A religion may be a type of a more general organization where people engage in self-harm to signal loyalty. Call it a trust signaling network. Think of the monks of old engaged in self-flagellation, or Jesus fasting in the desert. Stating logically improbable beliefs is a form of self-harm: it opens one up to ridicule from outsiders. Engaging in socially taboo behaviors is a form of self-harm because it puts one at risk of ostracization or punishment from the larger society. Which brings us to the deep state elites. How do they signal loyalty to the in-group? At the higher levels, by participating in occult rituals and pedophilia. If you've seen Bob worshipping Moloch at Bohemian Grove, spirit cooking with Marina Abramovic, and diddling children at Jeffrey Epstein's Lolita Island, you can be pretty sure he isn't a traitor to your cause. Here we see the value of a cult. There are many downsides (e.g., it can be destroyed by its own virtual spiral), but the major benefit is that it serves as a trust network. The cult trickles down through the entirety of the organization. For instance, if you're a liberal Democrat president, you can be fairly sure that, if an intern says that a woman with a hormonally induced beard is a man who can give birth, they aren't going to leak your private conversations to the Washington Post.
They have the advantage that their most dangerous signaling is done in secret. Trump doesn't know if Bob has secretly proven his loyalty to the liberal elites through salacious behavior. It is possible to infiltrate their organizations, as shown by Project Veritas, but getting to the higher levels would take years or even decades, which would require a large and persistent political machine to accomplish. The right doesn't have the benefit of secrecy because the left uses the largest and most persistent political machine there is -- the state -- to infiltrate right-wing trust circles. 25% of the Oregon standoff militia were informants. I think of the joke that there are no Ku Klux Klan members anymore, just FBI agents who don't know the others are also under cover.
As it turns out, the alt-right doesn't need to build shadowy institutions to determine its trust circles. We can just let the left do the job for us. Look at what's happening with the leaks. A lot of people think McMaster is leaking. Many others think it's Priebus. Both men were plucked from the established political machine. No one thinks Bannon is the leaker because we know the press hates Bannon. There is a simple heuristic here: if the media hates someone and Politifact gives them "Pants on Fire" ratings, they can be trusted. If the media rushes to defend someone, they're traitors. Look at McCain.
If Trump wants to hold off the deep state sabotage he needs to start ejecting everyone the media does not despise. In fact, being despised by the media should be the number one job qualification. Scaramucci went overboard and torched his audition as communications director, but he also displayed his allegiance by enraging the political establishment. Trump should find some role for him.
Only the alt-right can survive against the liberal establishment because only the alt-right is a trust signaling network. The moderates & Rinos sell out or they get shredded. They are constantly at the mercy of leftist sabotage and negative media coverage. The media can't destroy the alt-right. In fact, being attacked by the media raises one status within the ranks. It's going to be alt-right nationalism versus communism. Pick your side.
A religion may be a type of a more general organization where people engage in self-harm to signal loyalty. Call it a trust signaling network. Think of the monks of old engaged in self-flagellation, or Jesus fasting in the desert. Stating logically improbable beliefs is a form of self-harm: it opens one up to ridicule from outsiders. Engaging in socially taboo behaviors is a form of self-harm because it puts one at risk of ostracization or punishment from the larger society. Which brings us to the deep state elites. How do they signal loyalty to the in-group? At the higher levels, by participating in occult rituals and pedophilia. If you've seen Bob worshipping Moloch at Bohemian Grove, spirit cooking with Marina Abramovic, and diddling children at Jeffrey Epstein's Lolita Island, you can be pretty sure he isn't a traitor to your cause. Here we see the value of a cult. There are many downsides (e.g., it can be destroyed by its own virtual spiral), but the major benefit is that it serves as a trust network. The cult trickles down through the entirety of the organization. For instance, if you're a liberal Democrat president, you can be fairly sure that, if an intern says that a woman with a hormonally induced beard is a man who can give birth, they aren't going to leak your private conversations to the Washington Post.
They have the advantage that their most dangerous signaling is done in secret. Trump doesn't know if Bob has secretly proven his loyalty to the liberal elites through salacious behavior. It is possible to infiltrate their organizations, as shown by Project Veritas, but getting to the higher levels would take years or even decades, which would require a large and persistent political machine to accomplish. The right doesn't have the benefit of secrecy because the left uses the largest and most persistent political machine there is -- the state -- to infiltrate right-wing trust circles. 25% of the Oregon standoff militia were informants. I think of the joke that there are no Ku Klux Klan members anymore, just FBI agents who don't know the others are also under cover.
As it turns out, the alt-right doesn't need to build shadowy institutions to determine its trust circles. We can just let the left do the job for us. Look at what's happening with the leaks. A lot of people think McMaster is leaking. Many others think it's Priebus. Both men were plucked from the established political machine. No one thinks Bannon is the leaker because we know the press hates Bannon. There is a simple heuristic here: if the media hates someone and Politifact gives them "Pants on Fire" ratings, they can be trusted. If the media rushes to defend someone, they're traitors. Look at McCain.
If Trump wants to hold off the deep state sabotage he needs to start ejecting everyone the media does not despise. In fact, being despised by the media should be the number one job qualification. Scaramucci went overboard and torched his audition as communications director, but he also displayed his allegiance by enraging the political establishment. Trump should find some role for him.
Only the alt-right can survive against the liberal establishment because only the alt-right is a trust signaling network. The moderates & Rinos sell out or they get shredded. They are constantly at the mercy of leftist sabotage and negative media coverage. The media can't destroy the alt-right. In fact, being attacked by the media raises one status within the ranks. It's going to be alt-right nationalism versus communism. Pick your side.
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