The most useful political model

Did you know there is a foolproof yet dead-simple model that will help you understand what happens in politics, with enviable accuracy, and even predict the future?

It goes like this:

1. Almost every politician (and many a bureaucrat) is a charismatic, malignantly narcissistic, psychopathic liar.
2. When he makes a promise to you, he is lying — he has almost no interest in fulfilling the promise (except perhaps if he directly benefits).  Any truth he may utter is tactical or accidental.
3. If you oppose him effectively, he would feel zero guilt ruining or taking your life, particularly if he can get away with it at low risk to him.

If you model political reality by applying this model, all of a sudden things that seemed inexplicable before start making a lot of sense.

It is not necessary that this model be 100% provably right, for the same reason that "make is a biped" doesn't preclude births of people with one leg — the important thing is that the model is useful.

We also don't need to get to the details of why the model is accurate, in order to derive utility from it — you don't need to know how a fuel injector works in order to predict that hitting the gas makes you go faster.

You must pay no attention to the foolish people who say this model is "childish" or "immature".  That's pure projection, always from people with either hidden self-serving  motives or, more commonly, deficient intellect — the direct explanation for why they continue to believe politicians' lies (much to their detriment).  Keep in mind: many people have been successfully programmed with the Big Lie that politicians have their best interests at heart — watching these people be constantly betrayed by politicians and bureaucrats is a timeless guilty pleasure that never gets old.

My advice for smart people:

Apply the model.

Do you choose to reject the model?

Then take the ultimate corollary of the model with you:

If you believe what politicians tell you, then you are a stupid idiot who deserves all the disillusion and betrayal you signed up for.   May you continue delighting the rest of us with your self-inflicted suffering.

As always, what you do is your choice.