Years ago, the Czech biologist Professor Konvička wrote that there is no merit in accepting the claims of the ruling powers, which are quite clever. The claim has to be as stupid as possible to show that one is loyal enough.
And it does work. The crazier the things we hear from the ruling elite, the more insane they are considered by a large part of society, yet the core is strengthened and the fanaticism, i.e. loyalty, increases.
Curtis Yarvin argues that any successful movement must include an obligation to believe something that is in blatant contradiction to the facts. Something that is totally counterintuitive. A new intuition and a new definition of reality is emerging.
From that perspective, the transformation of the radical political opposition makes perfect sense, and I may have wronged them to some extent. When there was a movement to prevent Muslim migration, it was just saying something that everyone knew anyway. You don’t build strong loyalties on that.
But when you come up with the idea that viruses can’t hurt the human body, or that vaccinations are more harmful than contracting a disease, and other matters both statistically disproven and defying common sense thousands of times over, then that reliably separates your loyalists from the general public. Then you can demand much more activity and other sacrifices from them. Of particular merit are people with academic degrees, because they are forced to deny what they have studied all their lives and knew to be true only yesterday – before the new definition of reality came along. Like some religious revivals, the rich throw away their possessions. And like the rich, they don’t quite do it. Most of them work in scientific workplaces where they continue to use rational procedures and where they behave quite differently than on alternative shows and videos.
However, one problem remains. To win, it takes more than strong beliefs and loyalty. You also need skills.
What has worked well in the Trump movement is that rational thinkers make the decisions and conspiracy groups supply “fodder for the political cannon.” It just may not always work.