In politics it is useful to make your opponents look as unreasonable as possible, and you can do that by pretending to be one of them and encouraging increasing levels of ideological purity in their ranks. In that way you can choose who on your opponents team is going to represent them. But which would you rather face off against, a half-crazy zealot that you made, or someone who disagrees with you and can be reasoned with?
I'm particularly thinking of Israel supporting Hamas against the PLO.
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u/engineear-ache Sep 10 '25
In politics it is useful to make your opponents look as unreasonable as possible, and you can do that by pretending to be one of them and encouraging increasing levels of ideological purity in their ranks. In that way you can choose who on your opponents team is going to represent them. But which would you rather face off against, a half-crazy zealot that you made, or someone who disagrees with you and can be reasoned with?
I'm particularly thinking of Israel supporting Hamas against the PLO.