• Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I’m just perplexed how kids are still religious in 2024 with vast amount of free information out there. I thought this cult bullshit was about to end with my generation when we got free, unrestricted information exchange invented.

      I guess you can’t fix irrationality with rationality huh

      • FractalsInfinite@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        From my perspective its because people won’t change their beliefs unless they stop benefiting the believer. For people who live in a religious community, there church’s sunday social event is enjoyable, there friends are all religious, there denomination provides a entire moral framework and worldview they don’t even need to think about. Confirmation bias plays a major role in preventing alternate thought to block out other worldviews.

        Only when someone does not gain much benefit from there religion or has a important part of there religion proven wrong, can they process alternative ideologies and either switch to a more useful denomination or stop believing entirely.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          But being closer to more “true” metaphysics and rationality is benefiting, though I guess that’s probably not obviously apparent to everyone.

          • prole@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            But being closer to more “true” metaphysics and rationality is benefiting,

            What does this even mean. What are “true” metaphysics? Please tell me you’re not just going to spew pseudoscientific nonsense at me.

            • FractalsInfinite@sh.itjust.works
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              4 months ago

              The funny thing is that those words somehow have actual meaning. Metaphysics is the philosophy of existance. I believe the “true” metaphysics he refers to is the fact that it is unknowable if anything other then you exists, because there is no guarantee you are not a bozmian brain or living in a simulation along other things.

              This ability combined with rationality can allow you to adapt to changes in your perception of reality, while other frameworks can’t (for example there are still people who don’t believe in evolution because there interpretation of god is dependent on god creating all species at the start)

          • FractalsInfinite@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            Agreed, though for most believing in irrational things is “fine” (in that it doesn’t harm them) until someone shows up to take advantage of it (I’m guessing at least one person is using ai to make it look like they can perform holy miracles on Facebook).

            • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              But isn’t that harm them? maybe indirectly but restricting your world view will restrict your agency. i.e. people will take advantage of you.

        • Resonosity@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yep I have a friend who joined a church after not going to one for years because of the social aspects of it. Lots of people their age to relate to.

          We just need better secular groups to join with those benefits that aren’t tied to religion. It’s one of the reasons I’m always apprehensive about volunteering because I don’t want the connection to religion. I know it doesn’t matter my intent for those who benefit/what benefits from the volunteering, but it affects my long term commitment to the cause.

          • FractalsInfinite@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            Its a shame as well because many of the old social places such as rotary club and the masonic lodges have died out, and the new “third places” are online and/or expensive to access (vrchat comes to mind). Its no wonder so many people use social media these days.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        Inoculating believers against rational counter-arguments is a powerful tool. Do it right, and the vast amount of information at their fingertips might seem like the whole secular world is conspiring against them.

      • Lemming6969@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Most people are not actually people, they are people-like imposter automatons and they are dumb as hell and can be manipulated like clay.

      • Kalysta@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        A lot of them need to be actively exposed to other views and opinions to break free. So usually when they go to college.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          but internet does all that too. Especially more immersive social media like Youtube or podcasts. I’m generally very optimistic but the progress of our information network as someone who lived through it turned out much weaker than we thought it’d be. Maybe that human exposure of college is much more powerful thant basically infinite knowledge at your fingertips.

      • TK420@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        By bro still believes because they get you so early. I basically tell him he’s an idiot for being a christian, also fucking his kids up, but jesus says it’s cool. So that is how it happens.

        • FilterItOut@thelemmy.club
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          4 months ago

          My friend got sucked into it because of a girl. His parents weren’t religious. I don’t think he had gone to church more than twice in his life by high school, and he, just like the rest of us, trash talked our school’s requirements to have a ‘chapel’ hour once a week. He was as blasé as they come about religion, perhaps an agnostic in the christian hemisphere at best, but when he started dating a christian girl, he went to church with her, made friends with her friends at church, etc. Now 15 years later he’s indoctrinating his kids with her, and a deacon at his church. The power of social influence is enormous. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to break free, or even just consider information that is contradictory, if you have the combination of early influence and the later social influence from family, friends, and the wider social circle that is part and parcel of a church.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        That’s taking it too far, in my opinion. I realize it’s supremely unpopular to be a person of faith nowadays, especially online, but you can’t say that anyone with faith is stupid and it’s all bullshit as a blanket statement. You don’t know what happens after we die, and neither do I. I can’t prove that God definitely exists and I’ll probably never convince you of it, but by the same token, you can’t prove that God doesn’t exist.

        Where we diverge is I think it’s okay that you believe that. And yes, of course you can point out the shitty people that use religion to persecute and restrict others’ rights, to punish, and worse. Many people do this, but they are still the vocal minority we hear about. And it’s not like there haven’t been terrible atheists/agnostics who have done awful things not motivated by religion…

        Me, personally, I also won’t attend any church that tries to be political or tell its members how to vote. I am a Christian, but I try to model my religious activity on the Sikhs: quiet, respectful, loving outreach to improve the world. So I can acknowledge the problems, but no, I don’t think all religion is bad nor every person of faith stupid…

        Edit: spelling

        • flerp@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          They didn’t say stupid, you did. They said irrational, which it is. You’re right no one can prove that there is no afterlife, but believing in something that there is no evidence for is the definition of irrational. That doesn’t mean I’m saying you’re stupid, I’m just saying that it’s irrational. No need to get offended, that’s just what words mean.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          It’s not the belief that makes you “stupid” is the irrationality of the whole package. If you’re looking for metaphysics answers - we got them. People tried to figure out this stuff since the beginning of time with rationality and logic and even experiments rather than blind faith to words they never even heard personally. That’s the difference.

          I don’t discriminate against the religious but it’s really easy to argue that reglious approach is taking the easy approach to metaphysics and it’s something important to consider here.

      • Adi2121@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        I’m a Zoomer, and one of my best friends is very religious precisely because of the internet. He reads the Bible online a lot, and is in a bunch of Christian Discord servers, and often reads up theology. To be fair, he is very progressive on pretty much all issues except birth control, he isn’t a blind authority-obeyer, and is totally fine with me being agnostic.

      • TFO Winder@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Religion is not always a cult. All religions are not like Christianity.

        See Hinduism, Buddhism, confussionism

        • JimboDHimbo@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          If I didn’t know about the Hindus and Muslims “beefing” (pun intended) in India, I’d be inclined to believe you.

        • AuroraZzz@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Religions are cults that have grown bigger than normal cult size. Just because a religion isn’t a Western religion, doesn’t mean it’s any better than a big cult

        • TK420@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Religion is always a cult. Those people are no less delusional than the chrstians.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Nah they’re still cults. People have this morphed view that religion is not a cult when it is by the very definition of it:

          cult n: followers of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices

          Not to say that cults can’t be net good in some form but once they grow past local community I think it’s just impossible to not lose the mission to bad actors.

          • DrQuickbeam@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I prefer this view. Limiting the definition of cults to “small” or “based around a person” is missing the point that all religions are self-preserving in-groups that offer “truths” that will limit your worldview by excluding others, and practices that differentiate followers behaviorally.

            But also beliefs can be useful. For example, the idea of an afterlife or reincarnation can help reduce the fear of death. The belief of forgiveness for sins, can offer redemption. That random events have meaning. That we are not alone when we are alone. All cognitively useful and therapeutic.

            Opposing beliefs can be held at the same time. I can know that probabilistically, or based on personal experience, or empirical evidence, that death is either an ending or an unknowable, and still choose to believe in reincarnation because it does give more meaning to my actions and reduce fear of death.

            And cult practices are often as good for the individual as the beliefs. Having community and regular social interaction is critical to human health. Conducting rituals and ceremonies give structure, meaning and comfort to the parts of our days and lives. Praying and meditating. Charity and service and on and on. These are all useful, healthy to the individual and to society.

            When we can learn to adopt these things without closing our minds to other worldviews and possibilities, without in-group fear and defensiveness, without superiority and proselytization we’ll be in a better world that’s still full of cults

            • Soggy@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              I disagree that irrational beliefs can be net good. Belief in the afterlife isn’t the only way to make peace with death, but the normalization of magical thinking makes people easier to deceive and more likely to try alternative-solutions (as opposed to vaccination or chemotherapy).

              • DrQuickbeam@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                I understand your point, but I think that magical and mythical thinking are fully part of how our minds evolved and still work, and if we fully develop our faculties of rationalization, almost everyone still thinks magically. Think about ideas like luck, or a fear of something improbable, or most of our expectations in life. Or why many masters of logic still believe in mythical beings and afterlives.

                If you talk to someone from an animistic culture, they don’t need to question or have a structure of reasoning in place to explain why the waterfall has a spirit. It just does, it always has and it’s obvious. However, if a person who lives in a wealthy country today, had public education and believes that vaccines are dangerous. They will believe it rationally, not irrationally, and have a slew of rationalizations for the belief. These are two types of magical thinking, but the former has a magical worldview and the latter does not.

                Rationality is weak against many types of thinking and motivation, and there are many more steps in the maturation of a mind. I do personally agree that a solid foundation in rational thinking should underlie whatever beliefs, morals, ethics, and insights a person adopts. But it is also highly likely that in my examples the former person is healthier and happier than the latter person, and both could be just as gullible.

            • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              It still pushes the “us vs them” mentality that any religion does, which in my opinion makes it no better than others. And truth be told, scripture and dogma has nothing to do with it either, it’s all just tribalism.

              The Indian government under Modi pushes a nationalist Hindu agenda which encourages violence against religious minorities like Muslims and Sikhs. This causes religious extremism, directed towards establishing a national Hindu religion in India like you see with Islam and Judaism in the Middle East.

              And before anyone says Buddhism is different (I was raised in a Buddhist household, to clarify), see Myanmar’s conflict with the Rohingya which is perpetuated by militant Buddhists. Sri Lanka has also long been dealing with similar acts of violence against the Tamil Hindus and Arab Muslims perpetuated by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority.

              Any religion has the propensity to become “cult-like” based on social circumstances, and this is heightened all the more when nationalism is thrown into the mix.

              • A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                The name of a single character from their religious stories tells me nothing about their behavior

                She’s a god, represents time, change, power, creation, preservation, destruction…she’s a mother figure… You haven’t given me any useful information. Maybe give a link or something with information about her relevance to cult behavior?

                • owen@lemmy.ca
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                  4 months ago

                  Hmph. Maybe look up “Hinduism is a cult” and then scroll until you read a preview that fits my beliefs

        • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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          4 months ago

          Nah, religion is always a cult.

          Imo cults have more to do with in-groups and out-groups and their relation in your mental space.

          If your in-group is worth more to you than the total sum of all out-groups; you are in a cult.

          Humanity is one race, subdividing it and labelling all the chunks is where we went wrong. The fact we have a word to describe this outcome shows we are pretty far down this tube.

    • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Exactly. My nephews seem to complain about the shit their dad told them to vote for. It’s rather hilarious.

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The fuck happened to the rebelliousness of youth?

        Should kids be doing exactly not whatever their parents tell them to?

        Kids these days… GET ON MY LAWN!!

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          4 months ago

          They might think they’re rebelling against the normality of voting for basic human kindness and decency.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          The fuck happened to the rebelliousness of youth?

          Pure propaganda. Kids are more than happy to follow behind their older peers and always have been.

          It’s “rebellion” if the kids literally anything at all. Speak up? Question anything? Show any kind of agency? Mimic what your elders are doing? You’re out of control.

      • WeeSheep@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Well, if you question it, you are a bad person and going to hell. It’s not that God doesn’t love you, but you are forcing God to send you to hell because you are closing to question.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      4 months ago

      Yep. They were taught to hate people and that “Trumps” voting to improve things, or bring down costs…

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        The hate and negativity is such a big part of it. It’s kind of the foundation, really. It sounds simple, but it is the main thing I had to train out of my brain while figuring out wtf I want out of life and how to enjoy the journey.

        If I’m hanging out with family still stuck in that mindset and discussing an acquaintance? You bet I’m going to hear what race they are (if not white, which is the default human in their minds), how big of a house they have, how much money they make, and of course how stupid they are. Nothing of substance.

        All that negativity, paranoia, and anger makes it much easier to get the conservative base to not spend time thinking about the suffering of others, and instead think about how much stuff they’ve acquired and how the “other” people want to steal it.

        It’s a strange position for me to be in, personally. I can see how somebody would stay immersed in that shitty mindset for life without exposure to the wider world, because I know the feeling of living in that mindset (let’s call it high school). However, I also have eyes and ears and access to the internet, and I think all available information should be considered even if reality has a liberal bias.

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      See also: reactionary movements.

      I sometimes really want to show those reactionary gamers a trial version of the authoritarian society they stive for…

      • Kalysta@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        So send them a documentary on what happened in NAZI Germany.

        But don’t be surprised when they tell you that’s exactly what they want because they’re white men and it puts them at the top of the heirarchy.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Being born into a conservative household can be a hard hurdle to clear. I grew up with the unquestioning belief that the left was straight-up evil (shocker: that was projection) but then moved around a ton and worked alongside a huge diversity of people after highschool cuz I joined the military and didn’t have a choice: that exposure was a real shock, but since our brains don’t like being wrong, I resisted it for a good while before finally acknowledging that I was acting like a moron and started thinking more critically about politics and what political decisions meant for my community.

    Not everyone gets that healthy slap-to-their-senses. Doesn’t excuse shit, but that’s the ‘why’.

     

    It’d be interesting to see some actual political metrics on other service members. The military is always seen as being SOLID red, and while yes it does lean that way, the tiny bubble of the military that was my personal field of view seemed maybe a 60-40 split; and I personally went in red, and separated borderline radical blue. I know at least a handful of others who did the same… no idea if it’s always been that way, or if this is a developing trend. Or if I happened to be stationed in an uncharacteristically blue slice of military. /shrug.

    • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This is my exact story to a “t”. I grew up in a heavily conservative household, joined the military as a conservative, and 15 years later I’m pretty fucking blue.

      I think it’s a combination of a few things that does it to us more often than not:

      1 - Exposure to people from all walks of life/escaping your “bubble” 2 - Access to tax payer funded social programs that the rest of America desperately fucking needs and going “Why can’t taxes do this for EVERYONE!?” 3 - If you’ve been deployed to certain sections of the world, you see first-hand what unfettered religious extremism can potentially do to a country.

      I’m happy to say, that at least for the Air Force, I’ve run into far, far more Active Duty Dems/Libs than I have any Repubs. Now, when the retired veteran GS employees come in, it’s a completely different story. My whole circle save one is fairly left-leaning, and the one who isnt is…fucking weird/all over the place on his stances.

    • Ashe@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      Every single person I know who has gotten out of the military has come out blue. With one (medically discharged) exception.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      In my experience 20 years ago, it was mostly split between people who didn’t care or at least didn’t talk politics (the majority) and people who were very loud in thinking a Democrat would reduce the pay of enlisted service members.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      I’m sure conservatives would love this, but we should be using the military in this way as a de-radicalizing force. We should be leaning into it.

    • credo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      30% of your time being red. 30% of your time coming to your senses. 40% of your time trending towards borderline radical blue.

      There is your 60/40 split.

      Anecdotally, this was somewhat my experience as well, except my parents didn’t talk politics much and they certainly didn’t show the extreme hate towards the left that fox and rush have since incited. I went more from voting on surface level attributes (speaking ability, apparent warmth, etc) and social pressure, to actually [eventually] looking at policy. I was a registered independent when I joined, but I didn’t know enough about actual politics to understand the details of what I was voting for. I.e., I was going with the flow. It has the same effect at the ballot box though.

    • Colonel Panic@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Well put.

      I think a lot of your political beliefs start with your parents and people around you, but then are shaped by what happens to you. If you get hit with the hard reality of life in some way (debt, health, etc) it tends to push you to be more progressive/empathetic toward others because you see just how truly cold and cruel the bottom of our society gets treated. If you have coasted through life and have parents and friends supporting you financially and we’re lucky enough to get a good job and have relatively good health and such then you may not know the horrors of what can happen if you hit a few rough patches.

      Similarly in military service, if you get injured and now have to go to the VA and fight to receive the most basic of medical care you were promised and denied it tends to push you left/progressive because you want things to be better. If you are still in the service or left it relatively undamaged then you could easily still see things from a conservative and right leaning perspective.

      When you or people close to you get (denied medical care, denied housing, denied work, pushed into poverty and/or homelessness, used by the system and then discarded like trash) you tend to see things more progressive and want to provide some basic levels of support and humanity and empathy toward others as opposed to exploiting them for profit.

  • heavyboots@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    To be fair if you’re anything past Boomer, at this point you should be too embarrassed to vote for any GOP candidate. When the party decided to support Trump—a guy with proven sexual assault charges, pending fraud charges, pending classified document charges, a penchant for insurrection that he happily acknowledges, and more and more video surfacing of him unable to be coherent, hopefully most everyone with any connection to reality has realized it’s time to kick him and the GOP to the curb.

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The Boomers should be mortified. Their parents were the one who sacrificed their young adulthood to eliminate the Nazis 80 years ago. They’re spitting on their parents’ graves by supporting Trump.

      • flerp@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        The problem is, boomers are the most selfish generation. The other name for their generation is the Me Generation, because after the war, after the depression, their parents had done all the hard work, been through all the hard times, and started to get money and financial security and so they gave their children everything they wanted creating the absolute selfishness we see today. They don’t care a lick about their parents sacrifices because they had everything they ever wanted and for them it’s all about “me, me , me!”

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Then the Boomers tried to give that moniker to both Gen X, and The Millennials. I’m glad they have short attention spans.

      • heavyboots@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        You’re absolutely right on that one! Hadn’t thought of it from that perspective, but hell yes.

  • nxdefiant@startrek.website
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    4 months ago

    It’s embarrassing for everyone gen x and after. It’s especially disappointing to see in gen z

  • gibmiser@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    A lot of our current brand of conservatism appeals to people’s notion of unfairness. People taking things from them. They have been told over and over that liberals are lazy and want to take things from them.

    Remember that these are young people who don’t have a lot of experiences in adult life, but have experienced basic, uncomplicated unfairness. Fighting against that simple, unnuanced unfairness appeals to them.

    • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Conservatives tell you a whole list of people who are supposedly stealing from you to distract from the fact that they’re currently picking your pocket.

    • workerONE@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If your values can only be justified by shock news and lies then you’re going to want more of that type of news.

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    If they’re wealthy they usually vote Tory, that’s one reason for sure.

    We’ll get the conservatives out of government soon, but I don’t think Labour are much better, just two sides of the same coin, unfortunately.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      We’ll get the conservatives out of government soon

      You’ll still be stuck with Keir “I agree with my friends across the aisle but wish they’d go further” Starmer. Labor was completely hollowed out after Corbyn. It’s just careerist flaks and corporate shills, with anyone who defies the leadership getting punted off the ticket.

      • SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Who could have guessed that if the party systematically annihilates anyone and anything who dislikes the status quo you’d be left with Tories with red paint.

      • hanekam@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Corbyn was the worst thing that could’ve happened to Labour. The man just did not understand the role of Party Leader and could not prioritise party or country over his own nostaligia-tinged ideological pet causes

    • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      If you’re in the U.S or a lot of places, both sides of the government are conservative. There is literally no left option. Not sure what Labour is like in the UK.

      • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That’s the thing with a republic - those who vote Democrat in NYC or LA have to compromise with those who vote Democrat in other places like Virginia and Oregon, for the type of median representation they get in federal government.

        Democrats used to have the South they could count on, and eventually the nation got FDR for four consecutive terms and the New Deal.
        Then the LBJ administration - from Texas, of all places - and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, and Democrats lost that electoral advantage they had in the South.

        All the ingrained racist simpletons in society shifted towards the other side - "That republican fellow might screw me over, but at least he’s one of ours, a good patriotic christian (read: white) American that talks to me in MY (racist dog whistle) language!"

        What so many people don’t seem to ever get is that permanent changes in Washington work through inertia and take voting in every election, because the safer any party can feel in office, the bolder they can afford to be in that slow-moving, change-resistant place.

        Democrats did it before because they had the South they could rely on, including Texas. Now Democrats don’t have the South.

      • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The current leader has been whipping his MPs to vote with conservative policy and is generally in agreement with them. They’ve been some of the weakest opposition I’ve ever seen. The Scottish national party (SNP) has been the only genuine left wing party with any significant presence in Westminster. The Labour party leader recently threatened the speaker (who is labour but is supposed to be impartial) to stop a SNP debate day when they wanted to pass a recognition of genocide in Gaza.

        They’re selling point is they are more competent and less cruel than the conservatives. The keep on dropping their more progressive policies. Recently they’ve dropped their reform of the house of lords, an unelected chamber that currently places religious leaders and Russians with KGB ties in unaccountable legislative roles for life.

        • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          Sounds like they’ve been bought then. Usually when a party starts throwing their weight around for morality policy (which shouldn’t be a thing in politics anyway) it means rich people are paying the bills.

    • eatCasserole@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This is a really big part of the problem, I think. Politicians on the “left” tend to be actually just more moderate right wingers, or unable to accomplish much of anything meaningful.

      It’s much the same in Canada too, our Liberal party is supposed to be the mainstream “left” option but they’re just doing moderate right politics with pride flags.

      Then there’s the NDP which actually has some leftist elements, and I’m grateful to have a meaningful 3rd party, but they’ve still never formed government at the federal level.

      And we’ve ingested so much cold war propaganda that if you just say “socialist” people start getting freaked out.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    4 months ago

    For men, a lot of it has to do with personal frustration and several “sources” or “influencers” pointing to communism, cultural marxism, feminism, etc, as the culprits of everything bad going on. Attacking a scapegoat you’ve been led to believe is “the reason” you can’t get a job or a girlfriend is easy and emotionally satisfying.

    Thinking, rationalizing and realizing how and why shit’s fucked up, down, left and right doesn’t fill you with good vibes.

    • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      If you want an honest answer, it’s that young boys are feeling left behind, and in many ways they are right. This is a longer video (~30min) but it seems in line with much of what I’ve been seeing, that the boys are not alright.

      Essentially, as any system begins to give equality to all, it will appear as a loss for those who used to solely benefit from it. That said this is still something to take seriously.

      The gender gap is reversed in several areas: in education girls do better than boys. There are more women in university than men. Real wealth of women has been rising while in many demographics (especially poor young men of color) wealth has been decreasing. This is not a 0 sum game, so these are real concerns. 75% of suicides are men, and in their notes it is common to see words like “useless” “unwanted” and “worthless”. They feel that the world is leaving them behind.

      This trend is not happening to those in the elite class- that is still very much male dominated, however for many poor men without college degrees, their lives are no longer looking like what they were raised to expect. That same demographic is who you are more likely to see at a trump rally.

      This is fertile ground for people like Tucker Carlson and Andrew Tate to bring these young men into their world view that women are taking away their futures.

      This is where I would say men who are in places of being role models (teachers, mentors, fathers, coaches, pastors, etc…) need to come in and show that there is a new reality for men and that it’s not only okay, it’s better. Being a stay at home dad can be freeing as you may be able to pursue other interests. Showing what leadership is is important, but also showing how to work as a team and under the leadership of a woman is important too and can be fulfilling.

      I’m an educator, and one thing I think about is that I want to teach the girls that men are not to be feared, and to teach the boys not to be men to be afraid of. There is a better future ahead, but only if we take action and support the next generation of boys as well as girls. Without this support, we are handing a large portion of disaffected youth to a toxic mindset that will have horrible consequences.

      Oddly enough, I could see one of these boys looking at this post and thinking “the left doesn’t care about me, so why would I care about them?”

      • yarr@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        I’m an educator, and one thing I think about is that I want to teach the girls that men are not to be feared, and to teach the boys not to be men to be afraid of.

        Thank you. I’m sick of seeing “white men need to step back”. “Oh god, another white man trying to force his opinions on us.” This stuff would be horribly racist if you replace white with black. (except for the black people can’t be racist meme…)

      • TheFrirish@jlai.lu
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        4 months ago

        I really needed to read this this is the best comment I’ve read on this platform and it hits right home. I fell within those circles of alt-right the only thing that saved me was my willingness to accept being wrong and my pragmatism.

        • yarr@feddit.nl
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          4 months ago

          Being able to be convinced is a good character trait… there’s such a large amount of people today that have already made up their mind regarding various issues and will not listen to any contrary arguments.

    • Teodomo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      cultural marxism

      As someone who lost a friend to that rabbit hole, I really think we should put that far right conspiracy theory between quotation marks when named alongside things that actually exist. Communism and feminism are real (even if they are perceived as demonic by these people, they still at least exist). “Cultural marxism” doesn’t even have entity, it’s just bullshit entirely made up by the usual grifters

    • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      But you don’t need a scapegoat. The problem is literally the billionaires. You only need a scapegoat to justify white supremacist hierarchy building.

      • yarr@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        But you don’t need a scapegoat. The problem is literally the billionaires.

        Talk about whiplash. You really think the SOLE cause of the problems are down to tens of individuals?

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Or are the billionaires the scapegoat caused by a system we helped create? They lobby and use greed to get where they have gotten but we enable all of it. If we believe capitalism is beneficial to society we have to accept regulations to keep the money flowing back down. EVERY person that votes against such should be afraid for their lives at every moment period. If they are not it is our failure, not theirs. The lives of the majority are suffering not because Elon Musk is a douche, but because we created a system a douche could take advantage of.

        • Jtotheb@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          The flaw in your argument is that “we” the majority did not make the system

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      For me it has to do with having evaluated various political philosophies according to my personal experience and chosen the one that best matches what I think is right.

    • RickTofu@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      For men, a lot of it has to do with personal frustration and several “sources” or “influencers” pointing to capitalism, fascism, racism, etc, as the culprits of everything bad going on. Attacking a scapegoat you’ve been led to believe is “the reason” you can’t get a job or a girlfriend is easy and emotionally satisfying.

      Thinking, rationalizing and realizing how and why shit’s fucked up, down, left and right doesn’t fill you with good vibes.

      • reinei@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Did… did you just copy their comment word for word and posted it as a reply‽

        Why? (And now don’t anyone suggest a bot, because that’s stupid programming for a bot so unlikely, hopefully)

        • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          I mean, I’ve seen Reddit bots copy and paste comments from the same post as replies, so, assuming the bot has an equal chance to reply to every comment, I guess replying to the same comment wouldn’t be unheard of if there’s not enough replies.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Why? (And now don’t anyone suggest a bot, because that’s stupid programming for a bot so unlikely, hopefully)

          Actually it’s not stupid programming.

          Bots are studying how certain people here on Lemmy (and elsewhere) do comments, and then mimic what they’re doing, to try to blend in. You’ll even see bots replying to bots in like kind, to try to add credibility to the original comment being replied to.

          AI bot models have to be created from something. It’s not just a human being explicitly telling a bot to do X or Y, they study how other humans make posts, and then mimic them based on their models.

  • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    I dunno but for some reason they’re on this platform too (dunno why all things considered). Go ask them.

      • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        Like, if you get dunked on everywhere on the internet you go maybe take the hint your beliefs are generally frowned upon and may not be correct.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          Orrr you could use that to strengthen your persecution complex and feed your conspiratorial thinking!

        • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          But it’s easy to say “it’s the corrupt society that is wrong” or that social media is full of bots or commies etc, it can serve to validate their views. Like the hero in a dystopian story, they are one of the few that see the truth.

        • Moneo@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Pretty sure this is a bubble view point, look at how many right wing populists are successful in the world right now. Conservatives are not a small group and I’m sure their views are considered good and normal in many spaces.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    4 months ago

    It’s tough being young. Jobs don’t pay what they used to. Rent costs too much. Even the food is a struggle.

    You know who is the blame for this?

    Brown people.

    This message is brought to you by the conservative party of your country. They’re all the fucking same.

  • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Indoctrination, propaganda, alt-right playbook recruitment through targeting the disaffected… these aren’t young people who’ve turned to conservatism, they’ve been actively targeted by right wing factions in order to bolster their position.

    Edit: Oh, and also Reagan era neo-liberals are the fucking worst and when they shit on progressives and their ideas, they basically push away people who would otherwise be politically left leaning.

  • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    None of you want to face the fact that alt-right campaigns like Gamergate and Qanon has brought a fucktonne of youth over to the cuntservative side. It’s going to be a real problem now that they are old enough to vote.

      • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Nearly every American college and university offers free adult literacy classes, I suggest you take advantage of that.

        • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Idk who you think you are or what you thought I meant and I don’t really care, but you’re kind of an asshole for literally no reason. I suggest you practice what you preach and throw in a bit of therapy.

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            4 months ago

            No, I’m an asshole because nearly everyone I meet or talk to is a fucking idiot that I have to spend twice as long explaining everything that I tell them, and I have EDS.

            And using therapy as a barb is an insult to everyone that goes to therapists for legit reasons.

            Lastly, what the fuck do you even think I am preaching? Because there’s nothing in my comments in this thread that is anything like that.

            You just threw it in as a thought terminating cliche because you LITERALLY have nothing to bring to the discussion.

            edit: downvoted in 7 seconds? Fuck you too buddy. Now I’m haunting your post history.

            edit the Second: And now also reported for sockpuppetry and vote manipulation.

            • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              If everyone around you seems like a problem, it’s most likely you. I can already tell. Now, earnestly, please go get therapy. Nobody wants to join your pity party or provide anger management for free on a public forum.

              And using therapy as a barb

              Ah, but using lack of education as a barb is ok. And so is using your medical condition as an excuse.

              you know literally nothing about me

              Hilarious, seeing your condescending replies.

              Edit: Brb, redirecting my bot army that I didn’t know I had to this thread 😂🤣

              • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world
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                It’s funny but that little pithy soundbite doesn’t actually work in real life. If it did then all the lemmy users complaining about abusive workplaces are the problem.

                Ah, but using lack of education as a barb is ok

                That wasn’t a barb, you literally responded with a one word misspelled reply for a sentence fragment. I legit thought you were semi-literate.

                Hilarious, seeing your condescending replies.

                What assumptions have I made about you that aren’t source in your ridiculously useless comments? I’d love to see you post links.

                • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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                  Nah, I see it clearly: you’re assuming shit about people you don’t know based on a single-word reply, you have delusions of vote manipulation or sockpuppeting on an active thread, you’re using your medical condition to excuse your shitty behavior, and you’re here pretending that you have the high moral ground on anything or higher mental sharpness after all this… I’m quite sure the problem is you.

                  What assumptions have I made about you

                  Better question is, what assumptions have I made here? 😂

                  you literally responded with a one word misspelled reply for a sentence fragment

                  Again, hilarious that that’s what you thought happened but I’m the one who needs more education. It’s frankly embarrassing.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      4 months ago

      Yep, there’s a reason Andrew Tate has a huge following. There’s something attractive about these guys and their worldview to a giant chunk of boys.

      • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I blame 2 generations of failed father figures, every public perception of ‘manhood’ contains toxic elements.

        This isn’t a new problem either, google China’s ‘bare branches’ problem. We have historical records of unmarriable men forming into bands to rape and pillage since the 1200s.

        And every one of them acts the same way as tate and his degenerate edgibois.

  • TheFrirish@jlai.lu
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    4 months ago

    Do not underestimate the power of algorithms. I feel like instagram or YouTube are constantly trying to pull me back into the far right rabbit hole.

  • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I am always surprised at how little credit is given to the relentless onslaught of radical fascist propaganda over airwaves, in MSM, and online…all of which do their damnedest to reach young people, teens, and even primary school kids. Very few people have any idea how powerful AM radio and Salem Media Group are. These are all the result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

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    4 months ago

    As progressive values become more mainstream being an edgy conservative becomes a form of counter culture.

    This shows in those god awful conservative memes people make that say shit like “Im not like other girls, I dress modestly, dont drink or do drugs and the only man I get on my knees for is JEsus” type shit. or the male equivalent where they talk about how theyre the only real man left in a world where people drink soy lattes and dont beat their kids.

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      And the trad Cath thing where they will keep women barefoot and constantly pregnant, yeah. Those are super creepy.

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      As progressive values become more mainstream being an edgy conservative becomes a form of counter culture.

      This. There’s this idea that ‘the counterculture’ is inherently progressive. It ain’t.

    • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      See also: fucking embarrassing.

      Destroying your own economic interests and quality of life to own the libs.