"𝑾𝒆’𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒖𝒕𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈. Then they claim victory, declare the crisis over, and their cult members cheer as if something brand new was achieved.
𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅, 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈’𝒔 𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅—𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔: make the people feel like they’ve won while giving them back exactly what they already had.
Kind of like taking a dog’s toys away for a month so he remembers who controls when playtime begins—𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆." - WJ Lundy