Although the outrage industry failed to materialize in California Democrats’ recent campaign against In-N-Out Burger, it has scored many victories in the past and can look forward to more triumphs in the future. The pattern is very familiar: Some person, business, or institution departs from the party line, triggering the explosion of an outrage mob that shrieks with indignation and threats, forcing its target to recant, usually with a slobbering, humiliating confession. It works every time, or nearly so.

Which brings up the question: What is a mob, anyway, and why should we be concerned about mobs and politics? A proposed taxonomy is in order, followed by comments about why mob rule is so ominous. In fact, mob rule reeks of totalitarianism and threatens the destruction of American democracy.

Outcast Mob.

Hannah Arendt’s reference to “the mob” in her classic Origins of Totalitarianism doesn’t include the modifier, outcast, which captures her meaning, as the European mob consisted of the social detritus, misfits, and declassed outcasts of societies that emerged from the tumult of the Great War. Fascist movements relied on the mob, and Arendt’s analysis remains useful in understanding contemporary mob actions and totalitarian politics.

Street Mob.

Back to America, a street mob comprises thugs, demonstrators, and bored, miscreant college students seeking the excitement of threatening the social order by rioting in cities, vandalizing property, and disrupting institutions, such as universities and commercial establishments. Though stunningly ignorant and barely literate, street mobs spout slogans supplied by elite mobs to justify their actions. Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and assorted social justice warrior groups are examples.

These groups may be considered “shock troops” of elites, who, as Arendt pointed out, derive enjoyment witnessing and occasionally condoning their destructive rampages. Naturally, American elites will not admit harboring sympathy for street mobs, but consider the fumbling words of Don Lemon from CNN, who insists he’s not excusing the acts of antifa:

It says it right in the name, Antifa, Anti-Fascism, which is what they’re fighting. Listen. There is, you know, no organization is perfect. There is some violence. No one condones the violence. But there are different reasons for Antifa and for these neo-Nazis to be there. One, racists, fascists, the other group fighting racists, fascists, there is fascists. There is a distinction there.

Without question, political street mobs must be taken seriously. Joachim Fest’s study of the Nazis leaves readers easily imagining him shaking his head in puzzlement about how they succeeded. He stated, “The chronicler of this epoch stands almost helpless before the task of relating so much incapacity, so much mediocrity and insignificance of character, intelligibly to their extraordinary results.”

Elite Mob.

Usually referred to as outrage mob, this term refers to any assemblage of elites that rule the country from perches in academia, entertainment, media, politics, sports, and higher reaches in corporate America. Weaned by leftist academicians immersed in Marxist terminology and National Socialist sentiments, elite mobs are fanatically committed to a fictitious world and ferociously condemn others for questioning their “reality.” Here are a few tenets of elite phantasmagoria.

America Is Hideous.

Belief that America is the worst country in history, afflicted with dozens of phobias and malevolent isms, is considered “normal,” while defending the Constitution and American traditions is denounced as racist and white supremacist. Gov, Andrew Cuomo’s unintentional blurting out that America was never that great is only a pale reflection of a belief that permeates elite mobs in America.

Multiculturalism.

It is an article of faith that all the world’s cultures should be considered equal in their contributions to the improvement of humanity, regardless of their variegated belief systems and practices. What’s to choose between, say, North Korea, Venezuela, and the United States? Apparently, nothing. Only generations of political brainwashing can produce such a supreme contempt for facts.

Anthropogenic Climate Change.

If one subscribes to multiculturalism, one will believe anything, especially radical environmentalists’ climate cult.

America’s Endemic Racism — “In our DNA.”

These are Barack Obama’s words, of course, and they mean that nothing can be done about America except imposing a transformation of every citizen’s thoughts. In short, totalitarianism.

Whiteness as the Source of All Evil.

Whites are to America and the world as Jews were to Nazi Germany. Whites must therefore admit their guilt, “check their privilege,” and take courses on “Ending Whiteness” (Yes, there are such courses).

Trump Stole the 2016 Election with Russian Help.

Consult the “stab in the back” accusation made by German apologists after losing World War One for a similar fabrication.

Moral Superiority.

Benjamin Disraeli observed that “what is a crime among the multitude is only a vice among the few.” In the United States, it’s worse than that: Elites are so convinced of their moral superiority that they’re unwilling to admit they have any vices at all. Only the benighted multitudes — the rest of us — are subject to the frailties of human nature, especially racism, sexism, and patriarchism.

Retrograde Tribalism.

Elite mobsters reject universalist moral tenets of America’s Declaration of Independence in favor of returning to primitive belief systems based on tribal loyalties. The result of such “progressive” desires will be an ancient oriental despotism presiding over a multiplicity of tribes.

What is needed to bring these political forces and commitments to critical mass is a new Caesar, a sort of Barack Obama OS11. This must be an even bolder version of the glib mediocrity that triggered a “slobbering love affair” by the elite media, especially since too many of his efforts seem less permanent than anticipated. Most important, the next supreme leader must somehow engineer a way to prevent the rise of another Donald Trump, ever. Mob members at all levels wait breathlessly for that person.