the church of the subgenius got a lot of things wrong but damn if they weren't dead right about the "conspiracy of the normals" -- the theory that the "conspiracy" is just the result of all the stifling, visionless decisions made by neophobes who won't do introspection or self-criticism

i tried to tell y'all this back in the LJ days but people just called me an elitist and assured me that the typical, oh say, Republican voter was surely a very deep and sensitive human being with a rich inner mental life and vast wells of compassion we only haven't tapped because we're so different.

i was _completely_ wrong about the idea that this quality correlates with social class, hobbies, or even is necessarily limited to one part of the political spectrum. and i also failed to take into account that this mentality was something clearly THRUST upon most of these people by interested sociopolitical forces.

still. i still believe there is something very different between people who cultivate a rich intellectual and emotional life -- yes, including some of the shit that we do with identity and narrative, that was the whole point -- and those who don't, and the latter is the biggest active threat to humanity, even if they themselves comprise the bulk of it.

it's 2020 and i just can't bring myself to repent of this idea.