The only conclusion that makes sense is that some humans simply value tribal loyalty more than truth.

Uh, that is normal. Tribal loyalty is an instinct and survival trait. Truth is an abstract concept. The reason truthfulness is such a big thing is that it puts you with the largest tribe: lies fragment people into incompatible camps with shifting separation.

The scientific process does not work because everybody is capable of delving into matters to the degree necessary for verification: it works through a network of ultimately relying on experts determined by a common trust.

Truth is complex concept that enables you to be part of the largest and dependable tribe because it is the only thing that will stand up to any amount of scrutiny without having to back down. But it is a constant hassle to pursue and keep track of.

Enter Trump.

Mike, as one of those highly intelligent people you mention, I have to say your rhetoric is quite ignorant of a number of things.

The article sticks to a us vs them loop (false dichotomy), which is circular which follows a structure similar to what’s called a struggle session of caustic criticism which is borderline Woke. Incidentally Woke-ism/DEI today is largely an amalgamation of elements from both Maoism and Post-Marxism.

The modern structures like it that are used today are mostly based in Mao’s thought reform variations. Basically torture through overwhelming circular compulsion/coercion loops until people break.

People break in three distinct stages. First stage rational thought diminishes, confusion sets in exhibiting symptoms similar to schizophrenia until one cannot cope. Second, involuntary hypnosis and adoption of distorted reflective appraisal elements are adopted in similar manner to cults at a core identity level, and third disassociation (thousand-yard stare/hollow) or a semi-lucid psychosis seeking annihilation and capable of planning usually targeted at a specific agitator responsible for said torture.

Quite a lot of people today are brainwashed to be willfully blind to a lot of things, which is fueled by the indoctrination of centralized education during vulnerable development and media.

If you’d like to read up on this I’d suggest starting with Joost Meerloo/Robert Lifton/Robert Cialdini. The former will cover the common things and overview quite well. The latter two cover elements, structure, and clustering of blindspots. Even addiction plays a role in suggestability in such altered states which the people themselves don’t often realize.

Your vitriol towards intelligent people is based more on fallacy or your own ignorance than anything else.

You don’t recognize torture, or what torture does to people, and blame the people that would know correctly what’s going on.

Intelligent people who retain their reason recognize what’s happening, and equally recognize that they can do nothing to change it because of how society has warped and blinded perception through science.

Communication and Perception in many respects has been broken by such brainwashing techniques, and their derivatives. Education has been withheld so you don’t recognize it happening (rhetoric/critical thinking) and thus have no defense. A state of complete dependency and total compromise of the individual in favor of the State.

What you do not address is the tragedy of the commons.

It is a widely held opinion among intelligent people that by the time you see there is a fascism problem, its too late to do anything about it. The time to stop is dependent on power structures which quickly degrade; it is within a very narrow period of time after which it self-sustains because fascism is a positive feedback system which continues until circumstances align for catastrophe.

Some Historian’s have surmised that the circumstances that allowed Hitler’s rise to power came about primarily not because of the reparations alone but because of the Communist/Marxist subversives who had sabotaged and interfered in all aspects of common life using common tactics to inflame the population, alongside the economic repression of WW1, to bring the country to crisis.

The common regime-change playbook is about demoralization to drive a public platform, destabilization to make a resilient system brittle, the split cohort will then bring to crisis where a small group can sieze power, and then renormalize (often through fatal means towards those who have been induced to cause chaos in the first few stages).

The crisis is often orchestrated and intended to force everyone into only two camps. Its irregular warfare. Those camps being Fascist or Communist.

Given the choice, fascism is preferable to communism because modern communism drives the intelligent population insane, and destroying the means to resist towards greater control which then inevitably through flaws within destroys themselves in the end in total socio-economic collapse. A spiral of madness where the longer it persists the greater the chance at extinction.

The indirect loop results in shifts ever closer to failure are inherent in Communist ideologies. They can persist as a parasite so long as they have a host.

There’s a longstanding conjecture that when socialist/communist (leftist) movements are unable to sieze power like this, then fascist/autocratic movements are the outcome as the adversarial movement becomes existential threat and all constraints are lifted, and with recent events that seems almost certain.

The intelligent people who retain their reason understand the futility of resisting a runaway system, and the masses have been brainwashed to the point where those intelligent people cannot be understood by the masses; sheeple. These situations are similar to historic events like the Inquisition where brain drain occurs dramatically.

Intelligent people have a cumulative effect on making those around them more intelligent. Elevating everyone. When there is a war on the intelligent, where they are targeted in a myriad of ways, these effects diminish to the lowest common denominator, as happens in any centralized power structure like government and actual work done.

What follows from the point of crisis is the same outcome of all empires. When you examine what allowed this to happen, you have to go to incentives and constraints. The people who should have become leadership were not allowed to because of systematic manipulation. In more recent years this appears to be through money-printing in the form of debt, and a population that over time becomes less capable because of the subtle war inflicted on the masses and intelligent by the average through torture.

Intelligent people’s awareness let them see more, and thus are more susceptible to such tactics.

When the rule of law fails historically, its too late to do anything to stop the fall because of hysteresis. There is nothing to force action on those in power thereafter, and that leaves only the inevitable reversion to the rule of natural law based in violence. This is commonly understood with a bit of background on the social contracts.

If you want to have a further discussion on this please feel free to reach out. I’ve done a lot of research on this, and my professional background is IT System’s Engineering; where many of the things I’ve learned apply to all forms of systems.

When you fall into the rhetoric of left vs. right, you neglect the truth in favor of psyop manipulation.

The truth is each side contains two cohorts, those that use it as a platform for election calling out the opposite side, and those that pretend to be the opposite side and then sabotage the party they pretend to be, and that sabotage often aligns towards one favored groups. The bankers/Fed because that is how they get funded and maintain political capture. The math is that two parties exceeding 33% of the voting population guarantees no third party can ever be in power.