"I dont want to be properly informed, I want to be angry" was for a long time mostly the purview of the internet-poisoned right, but its been clear for a few years year now that there is a growing internet-posioned left cohort that are very much defined by this as well.
-Did you see this? I'm so angry.
-I'm pretty sure that didn't happen. Source?
-Hey, I'm not a journalist, I'm a regular person and FURIOUS.
Saw an unironic exchange like that, and the idea that it's not real so you don't need to be mad about it offended him.
Illustrates something about discourse.
Similar. But in some ways, "I don't want to hear that the thing I'm mad about isn't real" is worse than "I don't want to hear a solution to a real problem." At least the latter is grounded in reality.
Yeah. Like, when you're at the point where someone's going "Biden hates students, he personally blocked student loan debt!" and then respond to you pointing out the literal billions in student loan debt he's forgiven with some weird conspiracy theory shit, they're unreachable.
I've seen people claim that the student loan debt forgiveness is literally all fake and is being used to fund Israeli weapons shipments, and just... how can you talk to someone who seriously believes in that about politics? How can you talk with them about *anything*?
It's just a position that's entirely divorced from reality on, like, a fundamental level. They might as well be talking about black helicopters and FEMA camps.
There was someone the other day defending the Stonehenge protest by suggesting that doing it to the property of oil companies & their executives would get the activists put on the CEOs' kill lists.
The evidence? Well, they can't give you any because the people it happened to have been disappeared.
Sincerely think these people are missing a lot of deserved “shut the fuck up, you don’t know what you’re talking about” encounters in this society we’ve built. Taking them seriously and trying to have a real convo about their nonsense just makes them worse, they can tell it’s condescension anyway
This, 1,000X. When I'm feeling snarky I'll sometimes respond, both online and in real life, with "What color is the sky on your planet?" You might as well be talking to someone from Neptune or wherever at that point.
A lot of people seem to be madder about Biden trying and failing than they would be about him not trying at all, and I think they should be very careful about what that will imply for the behavior of future presidents.
Anyone can support or oppose Biden's policy on this (or any other issue).
But yeah, they should base their opinions of Biden's policies on Biden's actual policies.
