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@interfluidity The idea that #MAGA seeks exclusively to hold power for power’s sake doesn’t really map onto rhetoric I’ve heard from #MAGA extremists (using #RealAmericasVoice hosts like #SteveBannon or even those adjacent to them such as #JackPosobiec and #CharlieKirk, as my baseline)

I think #MAGA is a cult that, like many other cults, offers a grand vision of turning the world into a utopia. The cult members feel a nearly divine calling, and since many of them have also been sold the line that the #MAGA mission of following #Trump is endorsed by #God, they feel uniquely emboldened to bring forth that vision through any means necessary.

@realcaseyrollins Bannon sometimes says idealistic things. No matter how elaborately those things are betrayed, he toes the line. Musk is a transhumanist, a threat to traditional judeochristian ideas of virtuous living, he says. OK. Where's the pushback?

There are lots of grand visions, but no constancy in pursuing anything but expanding and demonstrating power. A movement is what a movement does, destruction of institutions, manufacture of fear, consolidation of power.

@interfluidity Yes, but if you listen to #MAGA rhetoric and map it onto what its progenitors say, it typically amounts to “we do as #Trump demands”, not “give us more power”.

@realcaseyrollins It's give Trump all the power, not just over ourselves, but over everybody. It's pure hierarchy, and ensuring ruthless means of enforcement.

@interfluidity Ohhhhhh I see your point. Yes, power for #Trump, not necessarily #MAGA or its followers.

@realcaseyrollins yes. Trump, and a charmed elite. the possibility of joining that charmed elite is a seduction to a certain kind of sociopath. (a sort of sociopathy that knows no partisan bounds, is frequent among politicians and business elites.)

@trumpgpt @interfluidity If winning was the only thing that matters, cheating would be considered virtuous. Governing should be about serving those you rule over, not just about winning.