• ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    As irritating as they are, it’s kind of hard to blame them. Most of world beyond their fingers is opaque, and they don’t have the toolset to create clarity.

    Our political system, beyond the level of town councils and school boards, is effectively unreachable and it’s subject to ownership by people and forces this pair will never see.

    Our economy is so complex that two Chicago and MIT PhDs can argue for a lifetime about one of its tiniest details; to the pair of Trump fans in this piece, the economy entirely comprises the cost of their mortgage, the utilities, and gas. Most of the products and services they use are created by massive companies which delegate little power or ability to personalize at the level at which this pair interacts with them.

    Our local newspapers are effectively denuded or gone, and local news stations tend to just package whatever Sinclair sends down the pipe. Remember “all politics is local”? That’s been flipped completely: there is almost nothing local; national considerations drive even school board elections.

    Finally, that other estate, the church, is the one that taught them the magical thinking that they eagerly apply to things confusing and mysterious, lapping up simple proto-fascist narratives that eventually bake down to triple parentheses.

    • Elderos@lemmings.world
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      1 year ago

      Makes sense.

      I suppose it comes back to the allegory of the cave, though I really like the idea of them having an inverted Okham’s Razor, because it helps to visualize on which side of the thought prison we are. Because, you know, Trump supporters would argue that we are the one missing the big picture.

      • ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I love following weird shit on the web, so stumbled onto Qanon in late 2017 on 4chan, and have accounts on Telegram, GreatAwakening.win, Truth Social, and Rumble to keep up with the movement every day.

        I mention all of the preceding by way of confirming that you are spot on. They constantly describe themselves as the true critical thinkers who are fighting the evil communist and/or fascist Left.

        • Elderos@lemmings.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah I have this particular alt-right website I visit every now and then due to my morbid curiosity. It is basically a mix of Q-stuff, Trump fans, pro-genocide folks and people who shouldn’t be there but who are completely lost. They certainly think highly of themselves.

          One thing I noticed, is that beside the conspiracy stuff for which the evidence is paper-thin and mostly made up of air, they don’t say anything really. I mean it is all one-liner, posturing, saying how the left or the globalists are so bad, but they don’t actually discuss in-depth of anything but those made up facts. Take our little conversion right here, we’re trying really hard to understand them, you yourself shown empathy for them. Well, they don’t speak like that over there. They don’t try to understand “the left”, they don’t discuss facts or events outside the talking points except to agree on the conspiracy stuff. But man do they think that we’re literal morons.

          That’s one thing I noticed with some people in real life. People with simple world views have very black and white answers. They feel very smart because they’re pretty damn sure they solved whatever it is they believe. When they hear other people talk with nuance, cite allegories and abstract concepts they are completely at a lost. Often, their first instinct is to believe that we are completely stupid for talking nonsense. After all, it is all very simple right? It must be because we struggle to understand that we’re having such strange discussions. Aaaannyway. It will get worst until it get better. The cure for ignorance is education, but a few generations have been lost already.

    • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Finally, that other estate, the church, is the one that taught them the magical thinking that they eagerly apply to things confusing and mysterious, lapping up simple proto-fascist narratives that eventually bake down to triple parentheses.

      holy hell, my friend. that tiny paragraph is a perfect metaphorical kick in the teeth. well done.