Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is the prevalence of useful idiots. We all know that this is what comprises the vast majority of the Leftist base, but several things make me think that it's what a lot of the Right is as well. Essentially, what causes a lot of people to choose their political side isn't introspection or analysis, but a combination of emotional factors. Feeling themselves into a position instead of thinking their way into it.

We see a lot of similarities, or flipped polarity versions of the same thing, on the Right and Left. Maybe their parents taught them their values and they just carried it on, or conversely they hate their parents and went as far in the opposite direction as possible. Maybe they grew up somewhere where one political view was the dominant view, and people being people, they echoed the same things in order to blend in and not be othered, and over time that's all they've always known so it's really become their own view though they never stopped to ask why. We see Leftists who are often part of some degenerate group that was ostracized for a good reason, but to them they feel persecuted, so attaching onto any movement that preaches acceptance and tolerance of anything to be seductively attractive. While on the Right, a knee-jerk gut reaction of disgust towards something is enough to settle which side they fall on without thinking about it.

That is not to say that because useful idiots on the Right and Left found their way to their respective camps via similar mechanisms that the views are relative and there is no right answer. I believe that the Right is, for the extreme most part, on the side of what is correct, logical, and moral. Just that some people sort of accidentally stumbled into being on the right side, or had membership on the right side handed to them in their earlier years without ever considering why. Because their membership on their side is based on emotion, consensus, or just going along with what's popular, it leaves them open to being pushed in other directions.

A great example of this is the Right's perspective on masks. Objectively, masks are great for shielding your identity, especially if you're doing things that will draw the Eye of Fed-Sauron upon you. If you want to go to a protest, wearing a mask is a smart thing to do, just in case. Never mind whether you'll catch the attention of the State, it could be as simple as not wanting to be doxxed or have some 23yo blue hair with nose piercings spend all day emailing everyone at your workplace to get you fired. And yet, the overwhelming opinion of the right is "masks are for commie fags". It's such a blatant appeal to emotion, disgust at being associated with commie fags and that weird sense of caveman "come at me bro, I aint got nothing to hide" pride, that just so happens to perfectly set the Right up for making a tactical blunder while encouraging the Left to do something that will shield them, that it has all the markings of a psyop. The majority of the Right was not only willing to throw away a tangible tactical advantage, but not even stop to think about the tactical advantage, because their emotional response was "hurr I aint some kind of antifag, I aint wearing no mask".

There are many other examples of the Right gleefully running into the open arms of an obvious psyop because their emotions were manipulated to make it appealing, but masks are one of the most obvious. And then you throw in all the reliance on memes and being a "meme warrior", the truck and boat parades, the stickers, getting into arguments with their brother's in law on Facebook, and all the rest of the performative outrage that essentially achieves nothing, but feels good. We just saw another example with the Kyle Rittenhouse shit. To the Left, Kyle shoots some commie pedos, they feel rage and anger. He comes out against Trump for a day, they feel smug condescension. For the Right, Kyle shoots some commie pedos, we feel pride and elation. He comes out against Trump for a day, we feel betrayal and anger. At no point did the vast majority of anyone try to lock down their emotions and just think about it. The result of that being that he's basically a D-list celebrity from a few years ago, what he says on Twitter won't really matter or affect anything, he's a dumb kid thrust into the limelight by others and has been led by likely malicious actors ever since, and it's really not that big of a deal. What Kyle Rittenhouse Tweets won't win or lose any election for anyone. It's not that big of a deal. If you feel it is, it's because you feel it is.

It seems to me at least, that the overwhelming majority of people are useful idiots. For one reason or another, they emotion their way into one political camp or the other, and get the emotional payoff of cheering for that side like they're at a football game, but without ever really taking the time to think their way through why that side is right and the other is wrong. And because they were led into it by their emotions, they're easily led by their emotions into other things as well, often turning on a dime, feeling zeal for something or someone one minute and blinding rage for it the next. It's very obvious to see from outside, such as looking at the Left when they do it. But I wonder how many people look at the Right and see that many are doing the same thing, just for positions we happen to also agree with.

And it also makes me wonder why the Left seems to be so much better at managing their own stable of useful idiots to direct them towards actions and causes for great effect, while the Right's useful idiots seem to just bumble around and are more often than not, led by malicious actors into harming their own cause.