It does not escape my amusement that we're talking about smart nazis and imperial fascists (the neoliberals) as also smart... But in the context of the past they're dumb as shit.

I think the strongest illustration of this has been how we got to watch Kissinger get shunned for being pragmatic and coherent about the Ukraine war and situation with China.

Part of the reason these people are doing badly and have also not really organised very well at all is that they have no competence and shun one another much too hard for not following this dogma or that dogma.

I think a problem that exists for empires once they become large enough is that when you become the makers of reality your leadership can't keep up with the pace of change when that is no longer true. They are still trying to bend reality, to make and invent it. They had the power to do so before, they could just make it so. They still try to but it doesn't work anymore and those that have tried to point this out have been cast aside as they fruitlessly try to make-reality even harder.

This blinds them to the need to accept and follow the changing material conditions.