That’s why, while it’ll be satisfying to tar and feather Cambridge Analytica et al, we can’t get distracted from the need for systemic defenses against these kinds of attacks. Take out CA and another dozen corrupt political consultancies will step up.

It’s like gun control: The only thing with any chance of working is to address the instrument by which the crime is committed. You can’t change human nature to eliminate uncontrollable rages, but you can make sure there’s not a gun handy when they occur.

Similarly, I think the rising tide of demands to regulate the hell out of social media corporations is about the only way we can protect our society from these attacks. Social media is the attack vector, not to mention basically a corrupt business model: What else can you do to make money if you own a social network than to sell information about your users?

Once again, look deep, and advertising is the root of all evil. Pursuit of ad revenue is what made Facebook et al into such destructive propaganda platforms, and why they see reform as suicidal. My vision of paradise includes living in a world that’s figured out how to pay for worthy things like journalism, and elections, without whoring to corporations.

But I get the impression these guys would just as easily ply their trade and work for the other side. They have no commitment, no dedication, they are totally mercenary. This is what I find so disturbing about the business mentality. All that matters to them is their financial success, and that success is not merely a means of providing them with security and comfort, which (after all) we are all concerned about. For them it is their means of self actualization, this is how they define themselves as human beings. This is how they keep score. And I suspect that they have nothing but absolute contempt for anyone else unless they share that same conviction and motivation.

This is pathology. Its like a soldier who does not fight for his country, or because he is honor bound and sworn to duty, but only fights because he enjoys killing and humiliating and torturing others.

“These are things that, I mean, it sounds a dreadful thing to say, but these are things that don’t necessarily need to be true, as long as they’re believed,” he said.

In a separate November 2017 meeting filmed by Channel 4, Turnbull appears to admit that the company is in the business of preying on people’s fears. “Our job is to get, is to drop the bucket further down the well than anybody else, to understand what are those really deep-seated underlying fears, concerns,” he says in the video. “It’s no good fighting an election campaign on the facts because actually it’s all about emotion, it’s all about emotion.”