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On the mystery of why conservatives adore liberals who became "conservatives":
People who cannot love themselves cannot respect people who love them.
The entire "why do women love bad guys" thing can be explained that way. "Treat them mean, keep them keen".
Someone who cannot love himself looks at someone who loves him as an idiot, and someone who doesn't care about him (or hatet him) as desirable. The former is below him, the latter above.
They want someone who is above them, but can be tricked into being with them anyway.
Conservatives find former liberals so irresistibly attractive, because they used to hate them, which means, in their minds, that they are better than them, but talk to them anyway.
This explains why most conservatives are spell-bound by a bunch of liberals who have infiltrated their ranks (Trump, Musk, Rogan, Peterson etc etc).
The "we are totally not the establishment" establishment.