Perfect symmetry
For many years I've been noting examples of Symmetrical Scapegoating. It's a clever technique. Old-fashioned unilateral scapegoating always fails because a scapegoat BY FUCKING DEFINITION is not the cause of a problem. Ruling tribes are the cause of problems. A ruling tribe will never blame itself for the problem, because that would lead people to remove the ruling tribe.

The defect in unilateral scapegoating is that you have to exterminate the scapegoat group, or at least imprison and disempower the scapegoat group. After the scapegoat is dead, or removed from power which it never had in the first place, the problem remains. People may see the truth.

Symmetrical scapegoating avoids the disappearance defect by dividing the country into two roughly equal groups, each blaming the other for the problem. The ruling tribe is still out of the loop, and the groups will mutually exterminate without any effort by the ruling tribe. Wonderfully efficient.

SS works even better when the groups are blaming each other for PROBLEMS THAT DON'T EXIST, because a PROBLEM THAT DOESN'T EXIST is automatically unsolvable. It remains active and useful until the ruling tribe gets bored and invents a new mythical problem.

Previous examples of delusional SS:



and



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Now the symmetry is finally perfect!



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Footnote 1: In all of these cartoons I gave Danbo the role of stubbornly advocating for ACTUAL SOLUTIONS. One of those solutions (tariff on stuff) may be getting closer to reality if Trump isn't just playing the usual mythical games.

Footnote 2: "BY FUCKING DEFINITION" may not be immediately obvious. Only powerless groups, who can't pose any threat to the ruling tribe, can be blamed for problems. Any group that is strong enough to respond with force and blackmail is not going to be scapegoated, and the ruling tribe obviously won't blame itself.

Update: Just after posting the above, I watched the latest Anglican Unscripted podcast. Kallsen and Conger are discussing a new "report" by some Congressional monstrosity delusionally claiming that the Keystone protests were funded by RussianMeddling.

Good old Orwell. All previous myths must be Rectified to validate the current myth. (Unfortunately Kallsen and Conger believe the myth, which downgrades my respect for their intelligence.)
  ¶ 1:18 AM