Rebecca

This is not a new observation, but the stories that Americans tell valorize revolution but demonize change. A seemingly nonsensical combination, but one that can be made sense of if one imagines the status quo as perfection, and revolution only needed if one steps away from it.

It's why American stories of revolution are "everyman" centered, when that has not once, ever, been the people who foment revolutions. Real revolutionaries have been many many things, but they are far far from "could be anyone". (Though I suppose post revolutionary reframing would support this, though that didn't happen in the US revolution. We still know the "founding fathers" as wealthy land owners, despite everything, instead our propaganda valorizes being wealthy.

Observation: People who believe in meritocracy and see themselves as high in the hierarchy conclude that they're smarter, better than others. This hubris leads to them thinking they are immune to grifters, which then, ironically, results in them being more vulnerable to grifters.

This is why so so so many of the SV royalty are so so gullible.