Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
That may be what YOU are talking about. I wouldn't go putting words in anybody else's mouth, though.

I've said roughly the same, except that I go further. Even in that definition, there is a group. They may not be working in concert, but there is still a group with at least roughly defined membership. I don't believe that at all. I think the group is FAR larger, if you can even call it a group at that part. I would say that it encompasses more than everybody who works for the government. It encompasses a fair portion of society outside of government, as well. Everybody tugs in whichever direction they choose with whatever force they care to, and are capable of, exert...ing (darn, that sentence has two different endings, depending on how you get there).

After all, to a true believer in the flat Earth idea, everybody who believes the Earth is round is part of the deep state that is acting against them. Some are acting strongly, such as by putting things into orbit, manufacturing globes (if those still exist), or teaching children. Some are acting weakly, such as by just rolling their eyes or wandering away. All are pulling in the wrong direction, as far as the flat-Earther is concerned. They aren't doing nothing, they are actively pulling in the wrong direction.

You could make the same case for less extreme positions. You could make the same case for EVERY widespread belief system, commonly held or not (smaller things, like what you want on your pizza, have a different calculus to them). However, I would say that when Trump or his supporters talk about the deep state, they are not talking about, "a mass of people that may well make up the majority of the country on any given issue." They're almost always talking about the deep state because it frames the battle in a way that is worth fighting. It's not, "you're a minority trying to overthrow the will of the majority", which could be a valid objective, but instead it's "you're the spear tip of a majority trying to overthrow a relatively small minority out to thwart your wishes."
Nice!!

I enjoyed reading that.