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Dorota Mosiewicz-Patalas's avatar

My daughter sent this article to me last night via Messenger. In the morning I sent it to my sister. Immediately after, Facebook crushed. Could this have been a coincidence? I think not! (Just kidding.) Whether or not "they" at FB headquarters realized I am spreading dangerous truth you speak, and are trying to stop it, truth will never be stopped. And it is dangerous. Excellent article. It helps to know that the Author is out there. Also, I am proud of my daughter for choosing to follow your work. My sister already read it, over in the UK, and she confirms: Some people are a mix of the types you recognize and name. We think that the four categories correspond with reality very well. But - says she - I am not a mix. I am the despicable pariah 100%. My joy at reading you calling them flying monkeys out, is equally intense. Your insights are not shared by many.

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Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

I’m supposed to be finishing my own upcoming article, but I couldn’t stop reading yours. I really think you have the seeds of a book here. You have identified and articulated the four archetypes with exceeding clarity, and your perceptions are spot-on in every category.

I especially love the term “coincidence theorists” and think that is an ingenious way of inverting the framing. I will definitely be keeping that in my back pocket for future use.

Have you read Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland”? It is a fascinating analysis of how ordinary human beings (the Folk) can be contorted into psychopaths by the machinations of the Parasites and Flying Monkeys. Browning quotes the conclusion Philip Zimbardo drew from his Stanford prison experiment: “‘Most dramatic and distressing to us was the observation of the ease with which sadistic behavior could be elicited in individuals who were not “sadistic types”.’ The prison situation alone, Zimbardo concluded, was ‘a sufficient condition to produce aberrant, anti-social behavior.’”

By the same token, it is the Idealists/Dreamers—a tiny percentage, sadly—who possess the ability to see through the mass deception and resist the coercive efforts designed to manipulate them into committing atrocities. Browning cites Zygmunt Bauman’s explanation that “‘cruelty is social in its origin much more than it is characterological.’ Bauman argues that most people ’slip’ into the roles society provides them, and he is very critical of any implication that ‘faulty personalities’ are the cause of human cruelty. For him the exception—the real ‘sleeper’—is the rare individual who has the capacity to resist authority and assert moral autonomy but who is seldom aware of this hidden strength until put to the test.”

Thank you for being one of the Dreamers and for your gentle efforts in our joint mission to unmask tyranny and awaken the sleeping before tyranny triumphs.

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