Thread by @davetroy

1/Americans need to learn about "political technology" — specifically how groups, religions, and cults function as levers of control over the masses.

Many have noticed that many American "Christians" don't seem to be following the teachings of that religion. Like, at all...

2/And that is correct. That's because American "Christian" factions have been weaponized for political purposes. The point of these groups is to reify themselves around their own social in-group, and against enemy out-groups.

That's it. Jesus, etc is window dressing.

3/Religions also have the advantage of operating tax-free and being self-sustaining. So they are very capital efficient in terms of organizing people into weaponizable factions. While some of these groups do have 'dominionist' and messianic designs in mind, they are controlled...

4/by people higher up in the pyramid who give zero sh*ts about Jesus + the Bible. They're interested in raw power. Natural resource extraction. Energy. Intelligence gathering. Deregulation. Crime. Tax evasion. Sovereignty. Jesus can f*ck right off, with respect to these concerns.

5/While religion is one major vector of political and societal control, there are countless other cults and groups through which this kind of influence can be wielded: QAnon, new age nonsense, yoga (destructive sects), bitcoin, NFT's, MLMs... the sky is the limit.

6/Any kind of group that funnels people into social milieus where they are put in service of higher goals they 1) may not understand, 2) can't exit from without harm, is a potential vector of political technology. This is why every other conversation these days is about 'cults.'

7/And that's correct. But the cults are not just cults for their own sake, they are instruments of political technology, aiming to break us down into atomized, cynical factions of 'all against all,' as Vladislav Surkov has said in "Without Sky." So, we need to wake up...

8/We need to recognize that most often, when we are engaging with political opposition, their "face value beliefs" are usually NOT what is motivating them. Frequently, people are being used as part of massive systems of political control and influence.

9/And that is true for everyone from "religious leaders" to CEOs to politicians to crazy online movements. Ignore the literal payload (Jesus? Satanic pedophiles? Italygate?) because it's never about that, actually. The language is only an instrument used to bind people...

10/into social factions of control that can be wielded by political technologists. This is why talking about "those crazy people with their silly beliefs" is a counterproductive waste of time. Focus on how each functions as a faction; as a force in a broader game of influence.

11/Apocalyptic beliefs are useful in that they serve as a way to help harden in-groups against enemies and to dehumanize them — dispense with their existence. But again it's the *effects* of that language on the social milieu that matter most. Literal belief is but incidental.

12/Once we begin to see more clearly how social control and in-group/out-group dynamics can be engineered by political technologists, we may have a better shot at managing this moment in history. Until then, we're falling for the magician's trick of misdirection.

Vladislav Surkov is, along with Aleskandr Dugin, one of the chief architects of Putin's political technology strategy and has had a major influence on Steve Bannon also. This story gives an idea of what he's after. His background is postmodernist theater.
bewilderingstories.com/issue582/witho…

This is especially evident in the Abraham Vereide "The Family" group, and also in Opus Dei. "Jesus plus nothing."

The rituals are put in service of a global network of trusted contacts for the purposes of modulating and trading power. That's it.

Religion simply provides cover.

We get this wrong with respect to groups like the Federalist Society. Yeah, it's putting a lot of Catholics into the court, but the line between theocracy and wielding of raw power is blurry. They may pursue doctrinal goals, but that's secondary to holding power for the faction.

And so no, I don't believe the goal is "theocracy" exactly. Some factions may do stuff that presents this way, but ultimately the people truly at the top have real power to act unencumbered by governments or democracy. And they want more of that kind of unlimited raw power.

If "religion" can help them get there, great, then it's part of the portfolio... If peanut butter helped them get there, they'd use that. Always, always look at where power resides and how it manipulates people to retain and gain it. "Words" are but instruments of control.

Here's a good article on Surkov from 2014. Also dig into Dugin. And Bannon of course has pulled things from them both and expanded with his own ideas.
theatlantic.com/international/…

And this piece I wrote in 2017 is one I refer people to a few times a week, describing this cast of characters.
davetroy.medium.com/the-people-beh…