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>Personally, in-group / out-group mentality is the easiest to manufacture and exploit, and serves as a fantastic emotional distraction from other areas.

My personal conspiracy theory is that the current shit storm of identity politics is the product of exactly this sort of psyop.

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That conspiracy theory could be accurate, but humans are perfectly suited to lapping up tribal shit. You don't need to do any serious work after casually throwing a landmine into a peaceful debate. Social media is the worst drug.

That's an evidenced conspiracy. Check out Space Communes "Will the revolution be funded?" It is a research piece about think thanks that do exactly this, although it focuses on the "leftist" liberal ones there are also the right wing, conservative or libertarian ones to play as the counter strike to these. Creating a cycle of culture war that serves to distract the population from more pressing perspectives.

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