[CorsiHockeyLeague]

All the Loomer vs Musk drama is just this alliance falling apart now that it's served its purpose. They got their election result and now that the Democrats are out of the way they can fight each other for control over the government.

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I actually think you're conflating two allied groups. There are the kleptocrats - guys like Peter Thiel and to an extent David Sacks - who may have some views about how government should work but are essentially just in it for the money. They want a system they can exploit. Then there are the true believers, who think their ideological priorities are SO important that anything can be justified in their pursuit. The former don't really care about abortion rights, for example - they just want to use the influence of the people who do really care about that to improve conditions for the increased aggregation of wealth.

The current GOP is essentially now controlled by the wing of people who fall into the ideological side of this alliance, which is why there's even MORE religion at the RNC this year, and why it has less of a "I am a humble man of faith who cares about family and my local church community" tone now and more of a hucksterish, fire-and-brimstone, "GOD HAS PLACED US HERE TO FULFIL HIS DIVINE MISSION" tone. That mission is so important that they are willing to look the other way for the porn star affairs and other similar un-Christ-like behaviour to get to the ends they want. Similarly, the kleptocrats are willing to pretend to adherence to the religious nonsense they don't actually give a crap about to get to their end goal.

I mean, ultimately, Putin isn't a dictator in the sense of being an omnipotent king-like figure, he presides over a complex web of oligarchs that is deliberately set up to leech as much as possible off the Russian public. That's why guys like Thiel make anti-democratic comments, they want to live in that world.