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Comment by ndsipa_pomu | Hacker News Reader

> “Imagine calling yourselves the ‘master race’ but forgetting to secure your own website — maybe try mastering to host WordPress before world domination,” Root wrote.

It's ironic that supremacists tend to be the worst examples of humanity.

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I think most of them suffer from deeply rooted insecurity. Like, consider: you're BAD at stuff. You know, in your heart of hearts, that you're the bottom of the barrel.

You can accept that, or you can get swept up into an ideology that says "the subgroup I'm in is better than all the other subgroups", and then, WOW! You're automatically better than most other people without having to do anything!

Some folks are looking for anything to be proud of, and skin color's about it.

There was a TED Talk some years back from a guy who was part of it, talking about how he ended up in it and got out. He was a lost kid who didn’t know where his life was going, and someone took advantage of that and gave him a place to belong. It doesn’t sound much different than the playbook of most cults and even many religions.

https://www.ted.com/talks/christian_picciolini_my_descent_in...

It's also terrifying. Look at the average competence their group displays on a daily basis, and now consider how far they've been able to get just with this level of knowledge and curiosity. Far-rightists rule the world and are continuing to become ever more powerful. Now imagine what happens if among their masses appears an actually scarily intelligent figure. If they're already able to exert so much power, that intelligent figure would probably be able to make us all suffer for the rest of our lives.

Certain views on human "races" are incompatible with intelligence. A highly intelligent individual may instrumentalize useful idiots through emotional and conspiratorial agitation, but they wouldn't be honestly convinced by these narratives themself. Not these days, there is too much scientific evidence to the contrary. The far right mob is easy to rule, if you can free yourself of empathy, dignity and honor. The people in power are not true believers, they are psychopathic opportunists.

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