In the minds of the authoritarian wolves, history is a Manichaean struggle. It’s not between left and right or rich and poor; it’s between the warriors and the weenies. The warriors see themselves as the strong ones, the men and women of steel, the masters of aggression.
Imagining What’s in Trump’s Brain www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/o... People like Trump and Putin are not politicians; they are artists who create alternate realities. They tell stories, invent alternative facts, enact daily dramas, construct show trials and reinvent religions — they build a world.
Opinion | Imagining What’s in Trump’s Brain
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:47 PM
In the minds of the authoritarian wolves, history is a Manichaean struggle. It’s not between left and right or rich and poor; it’s between the warriors and the weenies. The warriors see themselves as the strong ones, the men and women of steel, the masters of aggression.
Warriors and bureaucrats. In the minds of the authoritarian wolves, history is a Manichaean struggle. It’s not between left and right or rich and poor; it’s between the warriors and the weenies. The warriors see themselves as the strong ones, the men and women of steel, the masters of aggression.
November 8, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Warriors and bureaucrats. In the minds of the authoritarian wolves, history is a Manichaean struggle. It’s not between left and right or rich and poor; it’s between the warriors and the weenies. The warriors see themselves as the strong ones, the men and women of steel, the masters of aggression.
Tony Soprano: The Manichaean Candidate
November 7, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Tony Soprano: The Manichaean Candidate
manichaean tony soprano is canon
November 6, 2025 at 11:46 PM
manichaean tony soprano is canon
Tony Soprano as a character is Manichaean-coded, so you might want to tone down the loathing.
November 6, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Tony Soprano as a character is Manichaean-coded, so you might want to tone down the loathing.
I cannot believe I am giving Douthat credit here, but he does ask the extremely basic question about the contradiction that makes this entire line of argument nonsensical.
November 6, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I cannot believe I am giving Douthat credit here, but he does ask the extremely basic question about the contradiction that makes this entire line of argument nonsensical.
OMG this person doesn't have a single reasonable opinion, every issue in the universe is Manichaean
The 3 great evils are GenAI, COVID, and Israel. A failure to guard against one is a failure against all, and it's infinitely transitive.
It was entertaining for a short while.
The 3 great evils are GenAI, COVID, and Israel. A failure to guard against one is a failure against all, and it's infinitely transitive.
It was entertaining for a short while.
November 6, 2025 at 4:19 AM
OMG this person doesn't have a single reasonable opinion, every issue in the universe is Manichaean
The 3 great evils are GenAI, COVID, and Israel. A failure to guard against one is a failure against all, and it's infinitely transitive.
It was entertaining for a short while.
The 3 great evils are GenAI, COVID, and Israel. A failure to guard against one is a failure against all, and it's infinitely transitive.
It was entertaining for a short while.
The reality of this action expresses precisely what immigration extremists want so desperately to deny when they try to make the issue simple. Small children experiencing the trauma of militarized men forcibly taking their teacher away is the immorality they exclude from their manichaean mythology.
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM
The reality of this action expresses precisely what immigration extremists want so desperately to deny when they try to make the issue simple. Small children experiencing the trauma of militarized men forcibly taking their teacher away is the immorality they exclude from their manichaean mythology.
In the new Manichaean world BBC favors good over evil. Fine by me
November 3, 2025 at 11:46 AM
In the new Manichaean world BBC favors good over evil. Fine by me
“We will protect Christians anywhere *except* the Caribbean” I guess… unless the five dozen fishermen Hegseth has murdered so far were all part of a Manichaean colony I wasn’t previously aware of. 🤔
He is planning to start wars everywhere. Nigeria is next, I guess can no one stop him?
November 2, 2025 at 1:47 AM
“We will protect Christians anywhere *except* the Caribbean” I guess… unless the five dozen fishermen Hegseth has murdered so far were all part of a Manichaean colony I wasn’t previously aware of. 🤔
When your hands feed a starving baby, that's the divine spark acting in you and through you. And when you starve the baby, that's the manichaean opposite, satan in christocentric terms, acting in you. The gnostics got it right, no one alone is god but collectively we make up all the shattered parts.
October 31, 2025 at 2:13 PM
When your hands feed a starving baby, that's the divine spark acting in you and through you. And when you starve the baby, that's the manichaean opposite, satan in christocentric terms, acting in you. The gnostics got it right, no one alone is god but collectively we make up all the shattered parts.
Down-thread, I agree w/folks that groups should be labeled w/their preferred name & agree to use 'trans folks'/'trans allies'.
I was at the character limit & used TRA to stay under it.
I ❤️ how Manichaean internet discourse is. /sar
I was at the character limit & used TRA to stay under it.
I ❤️ how Manichaean internet discourse is. /sar
October 30, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Down-thread, I agree w/folks that groups should be labeled w/their preferred name & agree to use 'trans folks'/'trans allies'.
I was at the character limit & used TRA to stay under it.
I ❤️ how Manichaean internet discourse is. /sar
I was at the character limit & used TRA to stay under it.
I ❤️ how Manichaean internet discourse is. /sar
4/ “Liberalism, be it classical or modern, challenged such Manichaean distinctions and restricted the ability of a political community to govern by centralized decree.”
October 30, 2025 at 5:44 PM
4/ “Liberalism, be it classical or modern, challenged such Manichaean distinctions and restricted the ability of a political community to govern by centralized decree.”
“My Favorite Schismatic!”
Gnostic Beaver: Gee dad, Wally says Abraxas is the Demiurge!
Gnostic Fred Mc Murray: Son, I don’t know anything about it. I’m a Manichaean. Or is it a Mithraist?
Eddie Haskell: Hey Lumpy, let’s burn Beaver at the stake for heresy!
Lumpy: Cool, daddy-oh!
Gnostic Beaver: Gee dad, Wally says Abraxas is the Demiurge!
Gnostic Fred Mc Murray: Son, I don’t know anything about it. I’m a Manichaean. Or is it a Mithraist?
Eddie Haskell: Hey Lumpy, let’s burn Beaver at the stake for heresy!
Lumpy: Cool, daddy-oh!
October 29, 2025 at 9:31 PM
“My Favorite Schismatic!”
Gnostic Beaver: Gee dad, Wally says Abraxas is the Demiurge!
Gnostic Fred Mc Murray: Son, I don’t know anything about it. I’m a Manichaean. Or is it a Mithraist?
Eddie Haskell: Hey Lumpy, let’s burn Beaver at the stake for heresy!
Lumpy: Cool, daddy-oh!
Gnostic Beaver: Gee dad, Wally says Abraxas is the Demiurge!
Gnostic Fred Mc Murray: Son, I don’t know anything about it. I’m a Manichaean. Or is it a Mithraist?
Eddie Haskell: Hey Lumpy, let’s burn Beaver at the stake for heresy!
Lumpy: Cool, daddy-oh!
The underlying Manichaean (!) worldview remains the same.
October 29, 2025 at 7:40 PM
The underlying Manichaean (!) worldview remains the same.
for some reason everybody is trying to build a manichaean ai instead
October 29, 2025 at 12:00 AM
for some reason everybody is trying to build a manichaean ai instead
THATS NOT WHAT SKEUOMORPHISM IS CAN WE PLEASE STOP
October 28, 2025 at 1:10 AM
THATS NOT WHAT SKEUOMORPHISM IS CAN WE PLEASE STOP
It seems like UI design is one long Manichaean battle between #skeuomorphism and flatness, and the skeuomorphs are winning right now? E.g., our butterfly just became a 3d appliqué on Wedgwood jasperware.
October 27, 2025 at 9:45 PM
It seems like UI design is one long Manichaean battle between #skeuomorphism and flatness, and the skeuomorphs are winning right now? E.g., our butterfly just became a 3d appliqué on Wedgwood jasperware.
No amount of manichaean television can prepare someone to how cartoonishly evil billionaires are.
October 27, 2025 at 2:27 PM
No amount of manichaean television can prepare someone to how cartoonishly evil billionaires are.
It's an insight into their manichaean view of history. There are the good guys (conservatives, especially the ones who do cocaine and beat their wives) that must defeat the great evil (anyone on the left).
October 26, 2025 at 1:08 PM
It's an insight into their manichaean view of history. There are the good guys (conservatives, especially the ones who do cocaine and beat their wives) that must defeat the great evil (anyone on the left).
Ultimate vindication of the 'everything is gender' thesis that the forces of history pushed American politics into being a Manichaean struggle between brutish anti-modern blood-and-soil reactionary barbarism and the enlightened cooperative feminised professional bureaucrat-technocrat axis
October 25, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Ultimate vindication of the 'everything is gender' thesis that the forces of history pushed American politics into being a Manichaean struggle between brutish anti-modern blood-and-soil reactionary barbarism and the enlightened cooperative feminised professional bureaucrat-technocrat axis
Word of the Hour: Manicheist - Manichaean. #WordOfTheHour #WordOfTheDay
October 24, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Word of the Hour: Manicheist - Manichaean. #WordOfTheHour #WordOfTheDay
mf looks like a depiction of a sage in a manichaean illustration
October 21, 2025 at 6:21 PM
mf looks like a depiction of a sage in a manichaean illustration
The old EU really captured the duality of the Star Wars setting: you have both a Manichaean struggle of good and evil (Jedi v Sith), & a galaxy-wide political conflict (Rebels vs Empire). The first is great for exploring "family trauma," the second for telling "war stories" like the X-Wing series 1/
I actually think the complaint that Star Wars as a franchise is too focused on revisiting the same characters is based on a category error
that’s only some kind of story immaturity if you think Star Wars is about the Galaxy as opposed to being about a particular family & how trauma echoes thru it
that’s only some kind of story immaturity if you think Star Wars is about the Galaxy as opposed to being about a particular family & how trauma echoes thru it
October 19, 2025 at 7:37 PM
The old EU really captured the duality of the Star Wars setting: you have both a Manichaean struggle of good and evil (Jedi v Sith), & a galaxy-wide political conflict (Rebels vs Empire). The first is great for exploring "family trauma," the second for telling "war stories" like the X-Wing series 1/