theneverfox

I think there's a few core reasons

Some people would act like him if given the opportunity, so they identify with him or think he'd give them opportunities

Some people just feel isolated and know the world is getting worse but not why, so they latch onto the guy giving easy answers and simple solutions

And some people are just drawn to the idea of fascism or authoritarianism, even if they don't realize what that entails

I'd put the self loathing in the first camp - many of them get through life through projection. They think everyone is like them

By getting in early, and having a lot of child branches on the tree of life

It does help that "actually they haven't destroyed a single work of art" is a pretty good entry point to explain how protests are just a way of displaying group outrage

Civil rights were won by relentlessly challenging the courts, exhausting the public so much it blew back on the government administration, and with the armed black Panthers present as an implicit threat - "if you decide to throw out the law, so will we"

I once got on the topic of the moon lending with a creationist co-worker. He said he wasn't sure, but that if it happened we should be able to see it from satellite pictures. So I said "yeah you can", pulled it up, and zoomed in on a landing site. You couldn't see footprints or anything, but you could see the shadow of the flag next to clearly man-made debris

I showed him exactly what he agreed would be proof in a difficult to fake form, and it just temporarily nudged the needle for him

Now, I fight conspiracies with the opposite conspiracies.

Earth is a 4D hypersphere, the earth isn't hollow, Agatha is just another part of the surface reached by holes

The elites are hiding all the best vaccines, like the ones that cure cancer

I respect it. We think of the Olympics as this Grand international unity thing, but it's not. It's a for profit entertainment company

It's not the best in the world, it's hundreds of feeder organizations that submitted the paperwork, and the people they chose to select

No one had submitted paperwork for Australian breakdancing... So she and her husband did

It's art - intentional or not. Skilled or not (it was not). I don't even know what county won breakdancing... But that couple made an impact on the world, undoubtedly. I could do some of her moves and anyone would instantly recognize it

I don't disagree with that position... As a next step, it seems pretty sensible to me

To truly understand where you stand, you have to break false dichotomy - political platforms aren't one or two dimensional, they're multifaceted. IMO you have to pick an end goal, and chart a course towards it

Personally, my end goal is solar punk. I want to live in a green world with technology. To get there, I full throatedly resist authoritarianism or centralization of any kind- I believe the larger it is, the more it'll attract sociopaths seeking power for powers sake

Eco socialism is a step in my desired direction - I have no issue with it. It's a sensible waypoint and I'd gladly join hands with those who see it as the end goal. But I'd encourage you to chat with gpt (or better yet, local AI) in the context of your end goal and the next step to get there - LLMs are an extension of the user, and I think this is a proper use of the technology

That's what makes you a leftist. Noticing we waste 1/3 of food and less than 1/5 are starving, and thinking "clearly there has to be a better way, let's figure it out" is what separates leftists from liberals

Yeah... That's not going to work, because it turns out people will in fact pay a premium for green choices

Which sounds great, except it's a lot cheaper to lie and misdirect than to be green

And you have to be real, companies will do anything before producing less. Like plastics - the companies making them won't make less plastic just because we stop using straws - they'll pivot. They'll make them cheaper, ship them further, or cut back the straws to make more disposable cups - the only way they're cutting back on plastic is if the same processes and machinery can make a biodegradable version, if the government forces them, or if they shut down in whole or in part

It depends on the bottle, but they're also more work to recycle than make new ones. Even with us running low on usable sand - there's companies turning glass back into sand at this point

The upside is you can sterilize and reuse them, and if you make them a little thicker they're pretty strong

What is that in human units? I know 30C is balmy and 20C is pretty crisp...

The aluminum ones have a plastic liner, and aluminum is cheap to make - recycling is incomparable to reuse, and a world away from reduce

Recently, a bunch of people on tik tok found this "bug" in their banking app where you can write a bad check, then withdraw the funds before it clears... Then started crying about it when their balances updated

Dude definitely thought he discovered a cool new life hack