Look how high they sit on their imaginary horses, the faceless riders of a self-righteous cavalry, galloping into the town square to point fingers and curse others.

In their opinion, what Oregon State and Washington State did in decapitating the Mountain West is no better than what Oregon and Washington, UCLA and USC did to the schools left in the lurch by Pac-12 entitlement.

Hypocritethey storm off breathlessly! Charlatans! Realignment Raiders of the Night!

The Beavers and Cougars are no better than their former brothers, who mocked them and bitterly accused them last year.

They say this with what we would assume is a smug grin.

What an incredible level of privilege or delusion one must experience not to see the difference between the two things. Not to distinguish between trophy hunting and hunting for survival. In a pile-up on the highway, to blame the driver of the car that slammed into yours rather than the one who started the chain reaction.

The hypocrites are the fans of the fugitives, defenders of the free market only when it suits them, who want to rid themselves of contempt and probably guilt because the Pac-12 dared to play in the mud. As if that mud wasn’t actually quicksand that wants to swallow them into a merciless and soulless underworld.

“The difference is,” Beavers athletic director Scott Barnes told Nick Daschel of The Oregonian/OregonLive, “we didn’t have a home. We had to find a home. And others had a home.”

Oregon and Washington will tell you they had to leave the Pac-12. That they had no choice. Fine, although there is a difference between jumping from a canoe to a catamaran and being lost at sea without a oar.

But for once, it’s not even about the Ducks. Try USC and UCLA. If you’re looking for hands dripping with the blood of the Mountain West, look there, not Corvallis and Pullman.

“There’s a domino effect,” Barnes said. “When a conference is dissolved, it creates problems.”

Yes, the Pac-12 took a bite out of the Mountain West, severely damaging that conference and destroying its credibility, if not threatening its very survival. Anyone with a conscience can look at that with a reasonable amount of remorse.

“I hate the fact that schools are being left behind,” Barnes said, “because that’s what we’ve been dealing with for the last year.”

But let’s be honest about the world we live in. As Michael Corleone said to Carlo: “Don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because that insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.”

The Mountain West was formed when five members of the Western Athletic Conference, led by BYU and Utah, planned to split off and form a new conference, abandoning UNLV, Fresno State and TCU, among others. The WAC itself was the product of a betrayal, when Utah and BYU (them again) abandoned Montana and Colorado State and the rest of the old Skyline Eight.

And so it goes on, through the entire corrupt history of college football, all the way back to Judas and Jesus of Nazareth.

Speaking of inflation, it used to cost just 30 pieces of silver to betray your friends. The Pac-12 is handing out checks for $10 million.

There are no good faith actors in this world. No altruists. Perhaps OSU and WSU were once pristine and falsely believed they were protected from the dangers of realignment by the rest of the Pac-12. But they have learned.

Oregon State is no longer a mere passenger on the rollercoaster of realignment. The state is an active participant.

It’s ironic, yes. They’re pillaging the conference they had an alliance with. An unthinkable double-cross — if the Pac-12 hadn’t done exactly the same thing to the Alliance, George Kliavkoff’s widely derided handshake syndicate with the Big Ten and the ACC, which didn’t even last a year before it made its first underhand attack.

The new Pac-12 has learned survival techniques from his environment and put them into practice.

Michael was the sweet, innocent Corleone, you’ll remember that. He only became evil when there was no other choice. For the survival of his family.