It could be, but it really depends on what level of meta one is laughing at.
If nothing else, he was defined by fixed, persistent, and permanent beliefs in direct reaction to progress and that's what supporters followed. There are some other comments on this thread that go into the weeds, but the essential point I was making was that the article missed the opportunity to provide a key insight about the cultural influence of the CIA by choosing to focus on rightist bugbears like Bannon instead of the one guy who planted the seeds of subversion in the minds of every campus activist of the last 50 years.
I'm saying the virus that that escaped from a weapons lab and derailed western civilization wasn't covid, it was Marcuse.
But just like every other kind of control mechanism it is easier in the present to focus on the visible symptoms than on the root cause, and some individuals are a bit of both. Bannon and Stone serve(d) as lightning rods but there were a lot more people active than just those two though much less visible.
The OSS and later the CIA did more damage to the world through their meddling than we will be able to fix in several generations, and it isn't over yet. I'm not quite clear on whether they really believed their motivations were pure or if they were just very cynical in the way they went about their business. They have set the stage for confrontations for many years to come, and that's the world over, not just in the United States.
The problem is that the world now needs a stable United States, one that is able to project power across the globe in a predictable and efficient manner. You can't have a policeman on the block for years and then suddenly have them abscond and leave a power vacuum. Such changes should be made gradual, not suddenly or chaos will ensue, there are a multitude of wanna-be dictators waiting in the wings to take over should the United States stumble or fall.
And I wished I would be confident that they would not fall but right now looking out across the next 25 years or so I would not put better than even money on that not happening, way too many things that should not have happened have already happened.
If nothing else, he was defined by fixed, persistent, and permanent beliefs in direct reaction to progress and that's what supporters followed. There are some other comments on this thread that go into the weeds, but the essential point I was making was that the article missed the opportunity to provide a key insight about the cultural influence of the CIA by choosing to focus on rightist bugbears like Bannon instead of the one guy who planted the seeds of subversion in the minds of every campus activist of the last 50 years.
I'm saying the virus that that escaped from a weapons lab and derailed western civilization wasn't covid, it was Marcuse.