It is times like this I am glad that my parents are mostly net illiterate…
4 Likes
Always wonder about the critical factors to the statistical-psychology of falling for a cult. I’m constantly told (and admonished) that attained level of education or personal wealth is not among them (hmmmn); But what about age? It seems, this posting included, that it’s less an affliction of the young, and more the middle-aged (or older). Also it seems to correlate quite well with being a non-urban white male with a tendency toward gun ownership? Oh for a factor analysis of the capitol insurrectionists(!) (“also fox"news” is a big-time gateway drug")
I think it’s not on the level of education itself or the lack logic capabilities bus a mix of phycological effect, especially the confirmation bias and the idea to be in a club of initiated.
I’m curious if there is correlation between religious people that have actually faith are more or less prone to get caught on cults.
One thing The Road got wrong is that everyone would be suffering (and dying) from scurvy and other vitamin deficiencies
1 Like
If this kind of thing is your thing, may I recommend:
Freshly baked family tragedies from the apophenia-inclined cult of Trump. It’s not my thing but I subscribe as a good reminder to myself that when you tread into the weird, watch your step because it can tread back hard.
1 Like
Did the Q folks give a solid date when they will retreat to their bunkers? Would be good to know when the a’hole Q/KKKpublican quotient will radically decline…
2 Likes
It was 1/20/21. Now it’s 3/4/21. After 3/4/21 passes without incident, there will be a new date.
10 Likes
I mean she says in the video that it’s in the freezer
Chicken of the Sea™?
3 Likes
Gosh, I hope so.
1 Like
I do think @VeronicaConnor as it right about a lack of critical thinking skills (as distinct from logic capabilities) being the main factor. But yes, there are a lot of lonely and isolated people, people damaged from their upbringing, and people with rock-bottom actual (as opposed to performative) self-esteem who are prime marks for woo-peddlers offering secret knowledge and power if they don’t possess critical thinking skills or if those other factors have overwhelmed the ability.
6 Likes
It’s times like this i’m glad my parents only brought into the brexit bullshit, not this orders-of-magnitude-worse qanon cult…
I can understand why that happened (they only got their news from the TV, and UK TV news blamed the EU for failures caused by UK government for four decades…) but the qanon thing is relatively magnitudes more insane…
5 Likes
Pemmican will keep for years.
8 Likes
Now it’s full-on Crank Katamari Damacy!
6 Likes
They are freezing canned meat?! /s
You need to keep the spam in the freezer to block the rays, duh.
2 Likes
Definitely, all of the above. Humans are messy, and when we’re in pain, we reach for all sorts of things. I wouldn’t be shocked to learn, for example, that the rise of income inequality is directly contributing to conspiracy belief.
My hope is that if we get better at teaching critical thinking, at least this particular outlet for people can be closed off, because conspiracy thinking does tremendous damage to society (as we’ve now seen in dramatic fashion). It also makes people victims and tools of those in power. Republicans love QA-n-n because it gives them a powerful lever to continue to undermine democracy and good governance. All to their ends of concentrating power and serving billionaires. Making people resistant to disinformation is the only hope we have of fighting that, because the press is now failing in its role of protecting people from this tactic.
10 Likes
And why they consistently oppose teaching critical thinking skills to young people. Specifically stated, by them, as “it may lead to the questioning of received wisdom.” Said as though that was a bad thing. Of course, from their standpoint, it is, so Q.E.D.
12 Likes
It’s certainly a meat product
3 Likes
What’s also interesting is, of someone has crank magnetism, they are also very likely to believe in multiple mutually contradictory pieces of woo.
It’s pretty clear to me crank magnetism is a thinking disfunction. People have such poor critical thinking faculties they seem to not even notice their cognitive dissonance.
6 Likes
