@cdarwin@c.imThe neoconservatives,
who dominated the Pentagon and the White House after 9/11
believed the US could use force to remake the Middle East,
and their project left us with two enduring concepts that still shape American military power and politics today:
creative chaos and strategic deception.
These are the intellectual doctrines of neoconservatism,
an ideology that bears constant re-examination.
Legacy One: Creative chaos
The intellectual arch…
@kexpmusicbot@mastodonapp.uk🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SonicReducer
The Earaches:
🎵 Ignorance Is Ideology
#TheEaraches
https://open.spotify.com/track/6AyciMF5zPzoXVHmDWt1JE
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.ioRE: https://discuss.systems/@dan/116496481489796871
Note how it’s adopting corporate business-speke to sound all “rational” when it’s really pushing conservative ideology
@hex@kolektiva.socialAs salty as I am about it, there's also another way to think about this. For anyone who still has connections to folks on the right (which is perhaps unlikely for anyone on this server, I digress), the cult that has consumed them thrives on isolation and grievance.
The words "you were right" have the potential to cut through the programming and open up an opportunity for reconnection. The modern conspiratorial cult of the Right has been built partially around people who were told they were wrong or were crazy. In the vast majority of cases, they were wrong and even when they were right they completely misunderstood why, but we'll skip that for now. Liberals making fun of them (even the times when they definitely earned it) has pushed them further and further into their ideological hole.
The thing about those words, "you were right," in this context is that the way they offer reconnection also requires them to take one little step of betraying their ideology to accept them. So they must choose between maintaining allegiance to a pedophile or finally getting to feel superior after years of living in an illusion of persecution.
Under the ideology of the Right, admitting one is wrong is a weakness. It is admitting defeat. They have to "own the libs" by saying things, things that they know aren't true, in order to feel dominant. But these things are often so absurd that they end up being made fun of, feeling even more weak and pathetic, reinforcing their fear and alienation.
Offering what they're looking for can offer a way out, but only if they're willing to start to recognize the thing they've supported for what it is.
And they were right about some things. They were right that Bill Gates was a terrible person. I've had plenty of liberals defend him based on his philanthropy washing, but he's awful and always has been. The Epstein links make that blatant. They intuitively recognized him and didn't trust him, even if they were wildly off base about *how and why* he shouldn't be trusted... Even if their correct mistrust was leveraged into one of the most destructive conspiracy theories ever (vaccine denial and COVID vaccine avoidance).
They were right about Bill Clinton. He was always shady as fuck. Sure, the people who attacked him at the time turned out to be even more shady but that's not the point right now. He was connected to Epstein and that was always creepy as fuck.
And the Epstein thing was an open secret that liberals ignored for a long time. It was seen as some weird thing that right wing nutjobs believed about the Clintons. But it was true. Not all of it, and there has always been an antisemitic element to the right wing interpretation or Epstein stuff, but his whole pedophile conspiracy was always kind of real.
The whole "Illuminati"/deep state thing is a vast oversimplification, an attempt to make comprehensible an incredibly complex set of interlocking and emergent behaviors. But Epstein did very much want to remake the world, to create a new world order, and he absolutely played a part in it.
The Right wing nutjobs talked about global authoritarianism, Blackhawks flying over American cities, masked men with guns disarming and executing legal gun owners in the streets. That's all happening right now.
The "FEMA concentration camps" are not actually that far off. ICE and FEMA are sister agencies, both under DHS. I'd be more than happy to call that one "close enough" in order to hear some MAGA admit that ICE is, in fact, building concentration camps.
There was always a huge millennialist element to these things. They tended to be connected to "the antichrist." It was absurd, especially for me as someone who no longer identifies as a Christian. But I'll even acquiess that to a degree. The "the number of the Beast" is 666. That's just the sum of the Hebrew spelling of "Nero." Revelations focuses a lot on Nero coming back to life after his death. His death that involved a head wound, thus the line from Revelation 13:3:
> And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
The parallels between Trump and Nero are easy to draw, and Trump's ear wound feels pretty on-the-nose for this. I don't believe in "prophecy" in this way. I think that there are patterns, and useful patterns can become encoded in beleif systems. But I will, again, happily call this one "close enough" for anyone on that side willing to also acknowledge it. I'm happy to meet on that common ground, because anyone who accepts it must recognize that their duty is to fight against it.
A lot of these correct nuggets are embedded in a framework of religious extremism and antisemitism. The vast majority of the beliefs holding these together are wildly wrong and incredibly toxic. But by giving some room to feel validated, listened to, understood, can give some room to admit things that were wrong.
Cult de-programming starts with an opening. People have to talk through their own thoughts, hear their own inconsistencies. Guiding questions can help them untangle these things for themselves. And it all starts by having enough room to feel safe, to not feel cornered, to not feel stupid. Admitting mistakes means being vulnerable, and the MAGA cult is built on fear. It's built on exploiting vulnerability and locking it away.
De-programming takes a long time. It's not easy. It takes patience. But every person who comes out does so with a powerful perspective, a deep understanding, that can be turned back against it. The best people at getting people out of cults are former members. Some of the most dedicated antifa are former fascists who understood their mistakes and dedicate their lives to fixing them.
@mapto@qoto.orgRegarding the extremely insightful exchange between @… and @… that unfolded yesterday, there is a bit too much of ideology in it for my taste. However, I couldn't help noticing that arguably the strongest point of Tante about the ideology of LLMs is based on an …
@scott@carfree.cityGood example of how ads promote market ideology and not just specific companies. Don’t bother seeking mutual aid from friends when you need help moving. Buy help on the market.
This ad is considered nonpolitical, but the opposite message would be “political.”
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.orgI think it is because so few have bothered to learn the history culture of our Eastern European friends. But in that sense it's hardly surprising that an invasion seemed such a frankly *bizarre* idea.
But Brexit had already taught us that weird misunderstandings of history ideology trumps logic
@cdarwin@c.imIn the new book,
Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed,
authors Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff look at the worldview that shaped Elon Musk
and the ideology that has coalesced around him.
They call Muskism “an operating system for the 21st century.”
Musk runs rocket company SpaceX, AI startup xAI, electric car maker Tesla and the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Musk’s political influence extends from his use of X to advance controversial ideas,
@aral@mastodon.ar.alDear reply-and-block hasbara bot at @coffeebits@101010.pl (please feel free to report and block),
Zionism is not a race.
Zionism isn’t even a religion.
Zionism is a settler colonialist, genocidal ideology.
Not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews.
And it’s not libel if it’s true.
#israel
@ErikUden@mastodon.deA handy chart into right wing ideology:
🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻 = normal society
🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏿 = slippery slope
🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏻🧑🏿🧑🏿 = white genocide
@davidaugust@mastodon.onlineNo philosophy, ideology nor belief. Just tribalism and blind loyalty.
#USpol #Kimmel #MichaelKnowles #maga
@cdarwin@c.imTrump’s constant
self-aggrandisement,
his grudges against political adversaries,
the fury at being challenged by the press,
the revenge he promises to wreak on the Iranian regime.
All are ways to erase and avoid what is a permanent terror of humiliation and obsolescence.
“Think of Benito Mussolini,”
wrote the journalist Barbara Grizzuti Harrison in the LA Times,
“jackbooted,
lantern-jawed,
squeakily bombastic,
posturing from…
@gwire@mastodon.socialTechdirt piece suggesting that Palantir has gone so far into Trumpist ideology, that they may have become untenable for any government that seeks to show itself as distinct from Trumpism.
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/04/20/palantir-goes-mask-off-for-…
@cdarwin@c.imWhat is so bewildering about Trump’s cruelty is how it has been allowed to pass, its casualness.
Donald Trump hovers above the circus of death and chaos.
Trump defies attempts to make his actions cohere with any particular strategy.
His wars, killing of innocents, and indeed, the threatening of entire civilisations are reshaping the world,
but without him even having orchestrated some master plan.
He is animated by little more than momentary impulses and resent…
@roland@devdilettante.comIt's 2026.nothing changed ss is ss is platforming fascists.
https://kolektiva.social/@weyoun6/116030672331063336
@fgraver@hcommons.socialRevealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other…
@cdamian@rls.social"Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters" | Substack | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
…
@kctipton@mas.toRevealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@thesaigoneer@social.linux.pizzaTo all those worthwhile bloggers on Substack (yes, there are still): do you want to be associated with this platform? I have already abstained from reading anything that's published there some time ago. Time to take your scribbles somewhere else?
https://www.
@hex@kolektiva.socialRE: https://glammr.us/@jessamyn/116064378371973762
I think a lot of anarchists miss the utilitarian paths because we are blinded by ideology. Like, yeah, you can't really reform the government into being good. Government is bad as a thing.
But you absolutely can infiltrate and subvert the system in ways that produce positive outcomes. It's easy to miss the subtle difference.
There are also other strategies that become available when you don't just flat-out refuse to interact with the state. Like, you can use pincer strategies where you organize in the community and subvert in the government.
We can do more and be more creative.
@cdarwin@c.imWhen you look at Trump's foreign policy
—from Greenland to Iran
—there’s little ideology,
but lots of self-enrichment
and glory-seeking
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/72662/the-trump-admini…
@cdarwin@c.imThe Heritage Foundation,
author of the Project 2025 roadmap guiding the second Trump administration’s legislative agenda,
has a new policy platform chock-full of ideas that could steer mothers out of the paid workforce.
In January, the right-wing organization released a 168-page report called
“Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years,”
which suggests that U.S. women have gotten a raw deal thanks in large part to contemporary femin…
@gwire@mastodon.socialCan't wait for the seemingly inevitable revelation that McSweeney advised the Prime Minister to open a Substack account.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newslet…
@cdarwin@c.imThe Military Religious Freedom Foundationhas received a litany of complaints about religious ideology seeping into military orders since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran,
independent journalist Jon Larsen first reported.
Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of MRFF,
a nonprofit group established 21 years ago that focuses on ensuring constitutional protections for service members,
spoke with HuffPost by phone Tuesday morning and illuminated some details of the…
