“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” Hannah Arendt.
You are right: They are no longer a part of our reality.
They exist in a twilight zone of their own making; able to be convinced, either by their paternalists or their own community, of any lie.
The rational were pushed out or scapegoated over time until only madness remained—as it does now.
The only good thing about cults of personality is that they tend to collapse when the personality does. One of the bad things is that they tend to take everyone with them on their way to collapse.
Exactly. The only ones allowed to post (and have their comment seen) are the ones vetted by their mods. It’s a true echo chamber; every thread is flaired users only—and the only way to get a flair is to be “gifted” one by their mods.
It’s the blind leading the blind.