When I first encountered Trumps tweets in 2014ish, I thought he was a comedian satirising conservative politics. I thought he was laying it on a little thick.
My old boss was a flat earther. He used to say the dumbest shit ever, and I would respond along the lines of “You can easily prove the earth is round yourself with a stick and a tape measure.” and he would go “I’m not doing that. You have to.” “But you would just say I lied about the results.” “Because I’m right.” Then he would get this big grin on his face like he won.
Found out that a bunch of people in the initial push used it as a prompt to exercise their debate skills, they didn’t believe it themselves. He was one of these insufferable twats. But if enough assholes lie about something, idiots will parrot them in earnest.
I kind of hold both positions at the same time. On one hand, I'm kinda disappointed that a lot of people don't know some things that I think they should. But on the other hand, we're also better-educated than in the past, and have much more access to information, and I think that things will continue to get better.
Maybe the Fediverse is just the shape of things to come - our opinions are malleable, but given a choice people might gravitate towards better sources of information.
For example most people look at ads and think they're immune to advertising. Given an actual choice, they'd probably want the same experience but with no ads. They're going to use a website that works with the website(s) their friends use.
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It took me a couple of years (of barely paying attention) to realize they weren't being satirical.
When I first encountered Trumps tweets in 2014ish, I thought he was a comedian satirising conservative politics. I thought he was laying it on a little thick.
He is… and he is.
This was my buddy with r/thedonald. It took a bit of convincing -.-
Ay, one more thing I don’t miss about Reddit.
My old boss was a flat earther. He used to say the dumbest shit ever, and I would respond along the lines of “You can easily prove the earth is round yourself with a stick and a tape measure.” and he would go “I’m not doing that. You have to.” “But you would just say I lied about the results.” “Because I’m right.” Then he would get this big grin on his face like he won.
Found out that a bunch of people in the initial push used it as a prompt to exercise their debate skills, they didn’t believe it themselves. He was one of these insufferable twats. But if enough assholes lie about something, idiots will parrot them in earnest.
They dont want the truth. They just want to feel special by holding forbidden "knowledge".
Same with technology. I thought we were going to keep getting cool stuff like at the turn of the century. Everything now is ad tech in disguise.
Hey this technology we're using right now is cool!
While you were pretty late to the party by only realising that in your 30s, at least you got there (which a lot of people never do).
When I see a carbonated ocean I'll agree Earth isn't flat
Don't worry, due to rising CO2 levels, the ocean's getting more carbonated by the day.
I'll go prep the syrup
The earth isn't flat, but it will be soon.
Because I'm going to MAKE it flat!
With a mating press.
In her fifties she will start channeling her inner Cylon. "All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again."
I kind of hold both positions at the same time. On one hand, I'm kinda disappointed that a lot of people don't know some things that I think they should. But on the other hand, we're also better-educated than in the past, and have much more access to information, and I think that things will continue to get better.
Unfortunately it's seems much more prominent that people have access to incorrect information, and increasingly believe it
Maybe the Fediverse is just the shape of things to come - our opinions are malleable, but given a choice people might gravitate towards better sources of information.
For example most people look at ads and think they're immune to advertising. Given an actual choice, they'd probably want the same experience but with no ads. They're going to use a website that works with the website(s) their friends use.