Gato: kindly review "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness" by Lyle Rossiter. (warning: it is longwinded and difficult to get through). He touches on the issues referenced in your essay. I cannot vouch for the scientific accuracy of his work, but, a fair reading would point a normal person to look in a certain direction to discover the cause of the political madness we suffer through today. I believe you have hit the "nail on the head" with the control analysis. But to keep it as simple as possible, I might add that the primary cause of this madness is narcissism. The reasons for opting for the paternalistic state as referenced in Category #1 listed above are classic symptoms of people who would be considered to be "covert/introverted" narcissists. Category #2 would be the "overt/grandiose" narcissist. While i am referring mainly to personality types, to a certain degree, both types of people may or may not have a full blown case of narcissistic personality disorder. They are definitely on the spectrum. Type #1 is neurotic, has fomo, and hence is jealous of other people, therefore want others to be as miserable as they are. Type#2 is malignant, bordering on psychopathy. Regardless, both live in their "own" world and want to make the rest of the world conform to "their own" fantasyland, because they can't control the real world, but can control theirs (or their delusion of what is their world). They are truly damaged people. That is not to say there are no conservatives that are on the narcissism spectrum, but those folks seem to have a different world view (one that focuses more on their own individuality and independence). I would argue that being a narc is more prevalent on the left than the right though. In any event, this cabal of control freaks are clearly in need of a rude awakening. Unfortunately, with the advent of social media (a haven for narcissists), and the fact that the vast majority of the legacy media have the same affliction, i am not optimistic there will be a change, and more likely, it will get worse.