Thread by @Semiogogue

In the recent fuss between Academic Agent and @KeithWoodsYT we see an exemplary illustration of those who seek to understand the actual problem (and set a foundation to address it) vs. those who wish to act out from a 'more sure than right' position.

@DavidofShirgar

Academic Agent is actually doing the hard work of disentangling the strands (knotted with malice aforethought) of a highly complex web of manipulation, in order to develop the strategy necessary to address the problems this snare has created for everyone.

Academic Agent has moved his project forward in his recent video, which (along with those that preceded it) I recommend everyone view and consider carefully.

Perhaps @KeithWoodsYT will show the good grace to admit his errors & move towards productive cooperation rather than further efforts to embarrass himself. However that may be, since AA hints he'll be exploring how elites took control in the first place, I'd like to do MY part.

Any attempt to understand how elites first took control MUST go back to the 18th century. Burke (or Burke's son in this case) provides us with an important clue, which I'll quote here in full. It is taken from Burke's classic work, "Reflections on The Revolution in France"

BEGIN QUOTE:

The literary cabal had some years ago formed something like a regular plan for the destruction of the Christian religion. This object they pursued with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only in the propagators of some system of piety.

They were possessed with a spirit of proselytism in the most fanatical degree,—and from thence, by an easy progress, with the spirit of persecution according to their means.

What was not to be done towards their great end by any direct or immediate act might be wrought by a longer process through the medium of opinion. To command that opinion, the first step is to establish a dominion over those who direct it.

They contrived to possess themselves, with great method and perseverance, of all the avenues to literary fame. Many of them, indeed, stood high in the ranks of literature and science.

The world had done them justice, and in favor of general talents forgave the evil tendency of their peculiar principles. This was true liberality; which they returned by endeavoring to confine the reputation of sense, learning, and taste to themselves or their followers.

I will venture to say that this narrow, exclusive spirit has not been less prejudicial to literature and to taste than to morals and true philosophy. These atheistical fathers have a bigotry of their own; and they have learnt to talk against monks with the spirit of a monk.

But in some things they are men of the world. The resources of intrigue are called in to supply the defects of argument and wit. To this system of literary monopoly was joined an unremitting industry to blacken and discredit in every way, and by every means, all those...

who did not hold to their faction. To those who have observed the spirit of their conduct it has long been clear that nothing was wanted but the power of carrying the intolerance of the tongue & of the pen into a persecution which would strike at property, liberty, and life.

The desultory and faint persecution carried on against them, more from compliance with form and decency than with serious resentment, neither weakened their strength nor relaxed their efforts. The issue of the whole was, that, what with opposition, and what with...

success, a violent and malignant zeal, of a kind hitherto unknown in the world, had taken an entire possession of their minds, and rendered their whole conversation, which otherwise would have been pleasing and instructive, perfectly disgusting.

A spirit of cabal, intrigue, and proselytism pervaded all their thoughts, words, and actions. And as controversial zeal soon turns its thoughts on force, they began to insinuate themselves into a correspondence with foreign princes, – in hopes, through their authority,...

which at first they flattered, they might bring about the changes they had in view. To them it was indifferent whether these changes were to be accomplished by the thunderbolt of despotism or by the earthquake of popular commotion.

The correspondence between this cabal and the late king of Prussia will throw no small light upon the spirit of all their proceedings. For the same purpose for which they intrigued with princes, they cultivated, in a distinguished manner, the moneyed interest of France;...

and partly through the means furnished by those whose peculiar offices gave them the most extensive and certain means of communication, they carefully occupied all the avenues to opinion.

Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind; the alliance, therefore, of these writers with the moneyed interest had no small effect in removing the popular odium and envy which attended that species of wealth.

These writers, like the propagators of all novelties, pretended to a great zeal for the poor and the lower orders, whilst in their satires they rendered hateful, by every exaggeration, the faults of courts, of nobility, and of priesthood.

They became a sort of demagogues. They served as a link to unite, in favor of one object, obnoxious wealth to restless and desperate poverty.

As these two kinds of men appear principal leaders in all the late transactions, their junction and politics will serve to account, not upon any principles of law or of policy, but as a cause, for the general fury with which all the landed property of ecclesiastical...

corporations has been attacked, and the great care which, contrary to their pretended principles, has been taken of a moneyed interest originating from the authority of the crown. All the envy against wealth & power was artificially directed against other descriptions of riches.

On what other principle than that which I have stated can we account for an appearance so extraordinary and unnatural as that of the ecclesiastical possessions, which had stood so many successions of ages and shocks of civil violences, and were guarded at once by justice...

and by prejudice, being applied to the payment of debts comparatively recent, invidious, and contracted by a decried and subverted government?

END QUOTE

It will be quite clear, I hope, that this strategy of subversion of the elites did not originate with The Frankfurt School and similar machinations as verminous as they were audacious.

Futher, I would suggest that in addition to the HOW, of all of this, we also give careful thought to the WHY.

In furtherance of this aspect of the greater project, I've shared my thoughts on that WHY in the following clip: