Thread by @IntuitMachine

Americans are a very odd lot. You have a deadly weapon, that is purportedly manufactured by a known enemy, yet many have become a catalyst for the spread of this deadly weapon. In political jargon, they call these 'useful idiots'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_id…

I could be talking about the covid19 virus or anti-democratic Russian tactics, which would apply to the same set of Americans. There is something odd here where so many find it to be their duty to work against their own interests.

It's also interesting that the pandemic is still at its peak in Russia. So perhaps to understand a useful idiot, we have to understand how people in Russia tick. Why is it that Russia is so backward as a nation?

This is an excellent read that covers the Russian psyche. russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-a…

Certain Americans share a Russian spiritual tradition of fatalism. A lot of American Christian sects look forward to the Apocalypse (aka The Rapture). Many spend their entire lives as "preppers", waiting for the eventual collapse of civilization.

In other words, they seek an outcome where they are individually proven to be right while everyone else (the collective) is proven to be wrong. Individual gain is a consequence of social losses. It is no wonder that they close of community swimming pools.

But avarice (or greed) is acceptable only if society condones this behavior. But how is it that society has made acceptable "Greed is Good?" Why is it that a person the personified this (i.e. Trump) is treated like a god? That is because we worship people who are like us!

I suspect that if you live in Russia that corruption is everywhere. Fatalism and corruption reinforce each other. If your efforts are stolen arbitrarily by people that are in positions of trust, then why even try?

However, Americans who live in a world of abundance and rule of law have a very different kind of corruption. It's the corruption of truth. It's baked into the belief system of many who grew up in the bible belt. It's part of the culture to be willfully ignorant.

So here we are today in America. A country whose politics have been hijacked by a fatalistic and truth-denying mob. It's no surprise that the bigger problem (i.e. climate change) is also treated with the same denier logic as the pandemic.

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