I think the funniest thing about the “shock, horror, you mean people who went to good universities might also be prone to cults” thing is

Have you ever been in a room with someone who went to Harvard for example

They’re *primed* for cults. They exhibit those behaviors.

I mean if we’re thinking about cults as a broad grouping there’s a few notable trends: for example, telling cult members that they are a select few that are capable of understanding truth. Or that belonging to said cult is the pinnacle of a cultist’s existence and formative.

Or, and this is the one that gets me, that only fellow cultists are trustworthy and well-informed

I mean.

Anyway it’s hilarious to see people - particularly established journos who went to legacy schools - wondering gamely how it could be that educated people might buy into bullshit

When you are trained to think of status as truth, you tend to believe anyone who oozes status.

Which is how you get people now saying things like “but nobody would believe trump, he’s NEW MONEY! So GAUCHE!”

Well, okay, but a bunch of well-connected assholes said to support him to stop socialisms and they said it over lukewarm chicken at a gala benefit, so...

All that’s happened here is that some people thought they’d found a useful idiot and they went around telling all their friends to hop on this bandwagon, and then a bunch of people did, and now folk are shocked SHOCKED that anyone would fall for that