“My Brother Is So Far Gone”: How Male Influencers Turned The Men In These People’s Lives Toxic ( www.buzzfeednews.com )

TemporaryBoyfriend , 10 months ago

It’s not just men. My mother was pushed down the FaceTube YouBook weaponized disinformation rabbit hole.

It’s outrage porn… They LOVE being angry at ‘the system’ or ‘corporations’ or ‘the WHO’ etc. etc.

Yes, there’s a lot of stupid corrupt shit going on, but posting on social media is the most impotent thing a person could do to make a difference. (Yes, I appreciate the irony.)

hauntology , 10 months ago

It’s not just being angry at the system, but getting to feel morally superior to everyone else who isn’t clued into their “secret” knowledge. That’s the main allure of conspiracy culture. You always get to be right, and the people you hate will always be wrong. Conspiracies melt brains.

TemporaryBoyfriend , 10 months ago

Oh yeah, phonecalls with my mother would start pleasant and turn into her bullshit about ‘the great reset’ or ‘the great barrington declaration’, and when I expressed doubt in the accuracy of her information, she’d go full-on smug asshole and say shit like “Well, I guess we’ll know which one of us is right soon enough.” or “Don’t come crawling back to me when your investments all go to zero.”. It was 100% ‘escape to the future’ fallacy, all day every day.

I eventually got tired of the bullshit and went zero-contact, filtered her eMails to the spam folder, blocked her number, etc.

I anticipate that I’ll get the call one day that she’s in the hospital and nobody will come pick her up, but until then, my sanity remains intact.

ininewcrow , 10 months ago

Classic comic that describes this by ‘Poorly Drawn Lines’

poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/mad/

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/670e60c2-6610-4a04-ad39-a84a9aafe7bb.png

TemporaryBoyfriend , 10 months ago

Yup, we had a disagreement about the electrical grid, and she insisted that green power would result in province-wide blackouts every night or whenever the wind stopped blowing. I sent her the power generation mix from the Electricity System Operator, showing that renewables accounted for a single-digit percentage point of the generating capacity of the province… Nope, “Why can’t you just respect what I believe?” “Because you’re full of shit?” click

1993_toyota_camry , 10 months ago

Ontario has a lot higher percentage than that, and we don’t have nightly blackouts

…just in case you want another data point :P

live.gridwatch.ca/home-page.html

TemporaryBoyfriend , 10 months ago

“single digit” means “under 10%” But yes, the point still stands, and that website was super interesting. +1! :)

1993_toyota_camry , 10 months ago

No confusion about percentages. You don’t count hydro as renewable I guess?

TemporaryBoyfriend , 9 months ago

Hydro is the oldest city-scale power production method in Ontario. Yes, it’s green, but it’s a proven technology. I’m talking about solar and wind.

PostmodernPythia , 10 months ago

Frankly, I don’t trust anyone who’s not angry at corporations, but otherwise I tale your point.

TemporaryBoyfriend , 10 months ago

Posting on Facebook don’t change shit though… It’s just impotent outrage.