You would think so, wouldn’t you? I have had the distinct displeasure of viewing Reddit’s r/conservative subreddit though, and to them this is just Trump “trolling.”

What’s that narcissist’s prayer again? “He didn’t say that. And if he did, it wasnt that bad. And if it was, it’s not a big deal. And if it is, that isn’t his fault. And if it was, he didn’t mean it. And if he did, America deserved it.”

I legitimately cannot get out of this country fast enough. I already have a plan in motion to escape, as a minority I can’t escape the constant anxiety that something terrible is going to happen to me here…

I mean, to play devil’s advocate, there are some subjects in which the person vouching for something being biased because they’re “too close” isn’t a concern: whenever there’s an objective benefit to whatever they’re doing

For instance, a person who runs marathons and has experienced runner’s high might say running is super fun once you get good at it and you should try it, and maybe you will and maybe you won’t, but trying to get good at running wouldn’t be a permanent life changing decision like having a child, and it would benefit your health rather than harming it like drugs

There are lots of thrills in life outside of drugs and instinctual hormone soups. Admittedly runner’s high is the healthiest example, but stuff like video games, sports with minor risk taking like snowboarding or mountain climbing, etc also fit the bill

As with many things, the underlying problem creating conspiracy theorists is the mediocre high school dropouts need to feel superior to others in a world that values you for your skills and education. American Psychological Association: “The researchers found that overall, people were motivated to believe in conspiracy theories by a need to understand and feel safe in their environment and a need to feel like the community they identify with is superior to others.”

If you can’t develop a sense of pride by working hard to create actual merit, why not just fake it by grouping together with a bunch of other flunkies to be like “actually, we’re all better than you, because you’re all just sheep who believe what the government tells you!”

Bonus points if you combine this line of thinking with some other forms of discrimination, but even traditionally marginalized groups can fall prey to this trap. I’m not sure how to solve it, perhaps a stronger social safety net would prevent people from losing their grip on reality just to feel safe from perceived threats. Then again to quite a few people “black people” and “women” and “people from other countries” and “trans people” are threats so perhaps nothing we do can make them feel safe enough to stop being annoying online

I agree! Wnt-1 truly is worth gold, we wouldn’t survive without this crucial developmental hormone :)))))))))))))

This election in particular was very suspicious. Not the inordinate amount of bomb threats, not only the statistically impossible high numbers of bullet ballots only in swing states just enough to push the vote counts over the ‘automatic recount’ limits, not only the guy who lost the popular vote twice winning all the swing states and the popular vote, not only Elon knowing the results hours beforehand, and not only how much Trump & Elon openly bragged about how easy the election was to hack:

“[Elon] was very effective. He knows those vote counting computers very well, and we ended up winning Pennsylvania, like, in a landslide.” - Donald Trump (https://www.reddit.com/r/somethingiswrong2024/comments/1i5bnpp/trump_praising_elon_for_well_he_knows_vote/)

Even still, the point does remain that a good plurality of our society is openly fascist even if you factor out those ridiculous bullet ballots, I guess. It’s frustrating how it seems like everyone is just ignoring all the improbabilities just because Republicans have gaslighted us into believing that any and all election skepticism = stupid conspiracy theorist.

I have to wonder, this has to be a uniquely American problem, right? I mean, the sheer quantities of stupidity in our society? Somehow I feel like I gotta hold onto hope people are like this just because of “a poor education system” or “propaganda” or “leaded gas” etc and it’s not just innate human nature for a portion of the population to be so goddamn stupid.

They should’ve, but… it seems a lot of Americans just aren’t compelled to perform their civic duty. I personally could never understand it, I obviously voted Harris, but in my experience (With Examples!) the average American is not:

1) solution-oriented

• “I can’t eat healthy to improve my health, it costs too much money! Oh, beans are incredibly cheap? But some people (not me) are allergic to soy!”
• “Everything costs too much money, I have no savings for retirement! Oh, I can dedicate even just a small portion of my income ($50 or so) to a retirement account, just to get into the habit of saving? But I’m already being as frugal as I can and it’s just not possible!”
• And of course “Politicians are all evil and corrupt! Oh, since I live in a democracy I can vote for candidates who aren’t or, if there’s truly no good candidates, run for office myself? But that’s too much effort and I’m too tired from work!”

2) interested in learning

• “I don’t think I can vote, since I don’t understand politics (never mind the fact it takes maybe max 4 hours to research which candidates you like)”
• “I can’t go to a climate rally, because I don’t understand the issue enough (never mind the fact I hold the Library of Alexandria in the palm of my hand)”

3) capable of caring for others in their community at potential cost to themselves (even if that cost is just “effort” or “time”)

• “Communism is bad bc imagine if everyone’s grades in school were equalized!” (heard this one in high school, the guy who said this was infuriatingly praised by the whole damn class. Regardless of any discussions of Capitalism v Socialism v Communism, this terrible analogy always irked me because it really emphasizes just how infantile most criticism of socialist/communist policy really is. You know what? If “getting a bad grade” because you “didn’t work hard enough” in this analogy led to you literally dying because you couldn’t afford healthcare, I would share my damn grades with you. And I was a straight A student lol)

4) capable of thinking with their logic rather than their emotions

• See every single person who abstained from voting because they were single-issue voters over Palestine even though Trump was way worse on their single issue. Once someone even told me something to the tune of “If you’re thinking with logic and doing anything other than outright crying at everything that’s going on, you’re an awful person” (susceptible to propaganda much?)

Idk. This got long lmao, didn’t realize how many gripes I had bottled up. This is all stuff I have actually heard or seen ppl say. People in the US frustrate me, and I am hoping this is an effect unique to America, perhaps because of American exceptionalism or the massive quantities of Russian/Chinese propaganda aimed to destabilize the US or too much individualism or something, because I really want to just leave the country and be done with American culture forever.