Wednesday, June 2, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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A few years back, a snake oil salesman came to town. He was excellent at his job and sold many his cure-all elixir. The more they drank, the more they wanted. It was a very addicting brew.
Few bothered to read the label, though, and those who did, didn’t care that the ingredients were a witch’s brew of poisons for the soul. The elixir contained heavy doses of audacity, pride, hate, bigotry, racism, lust for power, anger, resentment, mendacity, greed and, most of all, a high dose of cognitive dissonance.
Over time, the addicts grew to adore and fear the snake oil salesman, for he gave them the fix they could find nowhere else. They could let their most vile selves come out for all to see and revel with kindred spirits. They were happy to sell their souls for another bottle of the elixir, another feel-good high at the expense of others.
They rallied together. In large numbers they felt righteous, even unstoppable. They crowned the snake-oil salesman a god and worshiped at his feet. They forgot all about what was in the elixir they had so willingly swallowed, the addiction they had succumbed to. He was the best conman the world had ever seen, but like a bug to a flame, they were willing to be burned.
