how did rural crackers ever take any of this shit seriously it sounds like it's ripped from Dungeons and Dragons ... but like it's just wild to me that that, in this case, meant calling a bunch of nerds "exalted cyclops" and "great titan" at their weird cult meetings

Maybe they didn't and it was like a high fantasy for them. Obviously it's only policy that actually matters and in this case it's harming minorities but admittedly having silly titles like that is such a good parody of the legal system and civil religion that I kind of want actual government titles to be like that now