This has been the major talking point in our house today. Rewinding the time, how did first-time 18 year old voters spend their very formative teenage years? What media did they consume at the time, and how?
Also, a question to the open because I can’t remember exactly: When did yall learn about the holocaust in american high school? For me it was maybe sophomore year? Weren’t these kids either social distancing, “attending” virtual school, being nutrient-deficient all the while, and also possibly running for their lives from a school shooter?
It’s possible these kids don’t even know what the holocaust is, and a large portion of eligible youth that only hears news from the Joe Rogan podcast just voted to repeat hell because “orange man funny, woman didn’t go on my favorite show”?
Even if you learn about the holocaust, nobody really learns about the rise of Hitler and how a sympathetic judiciary and law enforcement gave him the lightest possible sentence for trying to do a coup. You get the impression that Hitler was a bad man who just showed up and singlehandedly invented anti-Semitism and somehow got the whole country on board with the holocaust.
That’s a really good point about distance learning, but the most troubling thing is that this is a gigantic insidious thing that is affecting a billion people around the globe with no regard for demographics, and in our breadth of knowledge, we don’t even have any frame of reference. We have a good understanding of what happens when someone’s put in solitary confinement for a long time, or blasting a group with propaganda for a long time, or small groups that decide to turn away from society, but nothing in the world has ever happened on this kind of scale, not remotely close, as if a billion people are just turning feral, for lack of better word to describe it. We don’t know how to guide them back or anything. At some point it’ll have a name, it’ll be a syndrome. Is it gonna get worse and worse? We’ll find out
Edit: I think I should elaborate just a teeny little bit further. The crux is that this group spurns any Socratic dialogue because it’s too obvious, and Occam’s Razor is so simple that they choose to believe it’s what ‘they’ want ‘you’ to think, and opt for Occam’s Space Laser every single time. That’s what I meant by ‘feral’. When the majority behave like that nobody knows what’ll happen because you can no longer bother to integrate them, they’re the society now
I’m glad someone else sees it. Honestly I’m completely uncertain this will be reversible sans dire, dire consequences. We could agree that a syndrome exists, to the tune of generating masses of cultist followers, but even if we did, said followers would call it fake news and think nothing more. What combats that??
And remember the bystanders, the people listening but not participating. Especially the teenagers and young adults. Some of them may be coming from an environment where everyone around them spouts propaganda. You may be the first true voice of reason that they have ever heard.
You never know when you will help someone not only recognize that there’s a net wrapped around them, but also that it’s possible to escape between the knots.
An education system sufficiently funded to actually do what an education system is supposed to do would be a start. I’m sure the cult profiting from getting free sheep from the status quo will immediately get on funding the department of ed-
At some point it’ll have a name, it’ll be a syndrome.
If history repeats itself then it almost looks like we could be entering the modern dark ages. So how do we fast track to a New Age of Enlightenment? A new age of reason. How do we excise ourselves of the scourge of christofascism?
almost looks like we could be entering the modern dark ages
It was never guaranteed that society post-industrial revolution will eventually progress into a utopia. The past 150-200 years of relative decency and attempts at a democratic and fair civilization may have been an anomaly in human development. It may have been as short and fleeting as democratic Athens…followed by a couple thousand years of tyranny.
Nothing is guaranteed. But what would you like to see happen? What world would you like to live in and to hand off to the next generation? Focus on that and keep your eye on the prize
Hopefully not WWIII but usually a country pulls its head out of its ass and embraces unity and exceptionalism when a very imminent and palpable existential threat is visually confronting them. If not probably brain drain and all that slow bleed stuff
This has been the major talking point in our house today. Rewinding the time, how did first-time 18 year old voters spend their very formative teenage years? What media did they consume at the time, and how?
Also, a question to the open because I can’t remember exactly: When did yall learn about the holocaust in american high school? For me it was maybe sophomore year? Weren’t these kids either social distancing, “attending” virtual school, being nutrient-deficient all the while, and also possibly running for their lives from a school shooter?
It’s possible these kids don’t even know what the holocaust is, and a large portion of eligible youth that only hears news from the Joe Rogan podcast just voted to repeat hell because “orange man funny, woman didn’t go on my favorite show”?
Even if you learn about the holocaust, nobody really learns about the rise of Hitler and how a sympathetic judiciary and law enforcement gave him the lightest possible sentence for trying to do a coup. You get the impression that Hitler was a bad man who just showed up and singlehandedly invented anti-Semitism and somehow got the whole country on board with the holocaust.
Yep. I said it then and it’s only become more true that Jan 6th was Trump’s Beer Hall Putsch and we’re set to repeat history.
That’s a really good point about distance learning, but the most troubling thing is that this is a gigantic insidious thing that is affecting a billion people around the globe with no regard for demographics, and in our breadth of knowledge, we don’t even have any frame of reference. We have a good understanding of what happens when someone’s put in solitary confinement for a long time, or blasting a group with propaganda for a long time, or small groups that decide to turn away from society, but nothing in the world has ever happened on this kind of scale, not remotely close, as if a billion people are just turning feral, for lack of better word to describe it. We don’t know how to guide them back or anything. At some point it’ll have a name, it’ll be a syndrome. Is it gonna get worse and worse? We’ll find out
Edit: I think I should elaborate just a teeny little bit further. The crux is that this group spurns any Socratic dialogue because it’s too obvious, and Occam’s Razor is so simple that they choose to believe it’s what ‘they’ want ‘you’ to think, and opt for Occam’s Space Laser every single time. That’s what I meant by ‘feral’. When the majority behave like that nobody knows what’ll happen because you can no longer bother to integrate them, they’re the society now
I’m glad someone else sees it. Honestly I’m completely uncertain this will be reversible sans dire, dire consequences. We could agree that a syndrome exists, to the tune of generating masses of cultist followers, but even if we did, said followers would call it fake news and think nothing more. What combats that??
Call them out. Call their weird cognitive dissonance exactly what it is. Throw it back in their little snowflake faces
I don’t have hope that we can defibrillate america back to life 😭
All you can do is try. One conversation at a time, one step at a time. Don’t give into despair, that’s what the fascists want you to do.
And remember the bystanders, the people listening but not participating. Especially the teenagers and young adults. Some of them may be coming from an environment where everyone around them spouts propaganda. You may be the first true voice of reason that they have ever heard.
You never know when you will help someone not only recognize that there’s a net wrapped around them, but also that it’s possible to escape between the knots.
An education system sufficiently funded to actually do what an education system is supposed to do would be a start. I’m sure the cult profiting from getting free sheep from the status quo will immediately get on funding the department of ed-
Oh.
If history repeats itself then it almost looks like we could be entering the modern dark ages. So how do we fast track to a New Age of Enlightenment? A new age of reason. How do we excise ourselves of the scourge of christofascism?
It was never guaranteed that society post-industrial revolution will eventually progress into a utopia. The past 150-200 years of relative decency and attempts at a democratic and fair civilization may have been an anomaly in human development. It may have been as short and fleeting as democratic Athens…followed by a couple thousand years of tyranny.
Nothing is guaranteed. But what would you like to see happen? What world would you like to live in and to hand off to the next generation? Focus on that and keep your eye on the prize
Hopefully not WWIII but usually a country pulls its head out of its ass and embraces unity and exceptionalism when a very imminent and palpable existential threat is visually confronting them. If not probably brain drain and all that slow bleed stuff
It’s almost as if the GOP has been systematically dismantling our education system for 40+ years.