this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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US Authoritarianism

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[–] Diplomjodler3 76 points 1 month ago (2 children)

But the ignorant yokels are absolutely playing their part.

[–] disguy_ovahea 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They’re force-fed propaganda by their favorite media sources. They’re far less to blame than those generating and disseminating the propaganda. Pointing the finger at them is exactly how we divert our focus from the problem.

[–] Diplomjodler3 31 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Well, no. They're wilfully ignorant, i.e. they deliberately ignore reality in order to maintain their twisted world view. The yokels are absolutely to blame.

[–] disguy_ovahea 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Some are. Most are skeptical of anything outside their own understanding. It’s more of an issue of fear-induced loyalty than a choice made with the understanding of both sides. How often do you read Truth Social or Fox News? They’re heavily drenched in fear-mongering.

[–] Viking_Hippie 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most are skeptical of anything outside their own understanding.

Not true. They will readily agree to a lot of things that they don't understand as long as the "right" people tell them to agree.

You're right about the fear motive, but pure authoritarianism is a huge part of it too: if the leaders say it, they'll tend to not even consider disagreement an option.

[–] disguy_ovahea 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Exactly. They only implicitly trust their select media sources. That still puts the blame on those sending the message in my opinion.

[–] TexasDrunk 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Let's not forget that their poor understanding starts with poor education. I wonder if anyone in particular is working towards making education worse.....

[–] disguy_ovahea 3 points 1 month ago

Absolutely. School vouchers will only make things worse for the affected areas. All the more reason we should be focused on those sending the message over those repeating it. Their goal is to keep us fighting with one another instead of focusing on those creating the problem.

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[–] captainlezbian 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah an elite never rolled coal at me, just a ton of yokels

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] Diplomjodler3 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes. That is exactly what I think. All the relevant information is out there and easily accessible. You need to very much make a decision to ignore all this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

spoilersdfsaf

[–] rayyy 1 points 1 month ago

Absolutely! Oligarchs, who control most of the MSM, lie to the poorly educated to instill fear to control them.

[–] TrickDacy 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why is it so hard for people to understand that there can be more than one cause of an issue?

[–] Donkter 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yeah. It's a very small group of some of the richest educated capital holders swindling the relatively very large group of ignorant yokels.

[–] TrickDacy 5 points 1 month ago

Well yes, but also the "them educated people are dumb as shit" idea is very real and doesn't need to be taught. probably goes back over 100 years now. I've heard my own family spout shit like that. It's not necessarily even stupidity in every case, it's just the idea that "you're not better than me" taken to an extreme

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Because nuance doesn't lend itself to becoming a viral Twitter hot take that gets jpg'd and reposted to hell.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)
[–] brlemworld 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But the rich aren't getting less richer. They are rich and wealth begets wealth. They divest move their investments and leave their bribed politicians as the bag holders and so we're fucked even more

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

spoilersdfsaf

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gasp, that's completely infeasible! /s

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Viking_Hippie 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not THAT one, the gilded one!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

spoilerasdfasfasfasfas

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

They will simply invest in renewables. It's the short-term profits that they worry about. Rest assured they will continue to profit when things evolve.

[–] simple 15 points 1 month ago

Okay but why is the tweet flashbanging me?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

It is also very much ignorant yokels.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (4 children)

But if they understood the science they wouldn’t get tricked by propaganda?

[–] RGB3x3 14 points 1 month ago

Nah, even really smart people can be tricked by propaganda. Human brains love patterns and propaganda works best by shoving information into your face multiple times over multiple sources. And when you see things from multiple sources saying the same thing, you're very likely to believe it.

[–] SlopppyEngineer 3 points 1 month ago

When the science part of the brain sees information going against the beliefs held dearly, the science part just short circuits and starts twisting logic and facts into a pretzel until it fits the beliefs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Very few of us are actually climate scientists. So ultimately we end up putting our trust in people who know more about it than we do.

Only some basic science knowledge is required to get the gist of what climate change is about. So it is easy enough for a non-scientist to understand what the causes are, roughly how it happens, and what the likely effects are. But it is also easy to 'understand' various alternative arguments about how the evidence is flawed or the effects won't matter, or that it is actually caused by something else, or whatever.

Each person can be manipulated at the point where their own understand starts to get blurry. For many people, that's means they are manipulated by some really basic crap - because they don't know much in the first place. But people who know more about science can still be tricked and mislead by just some more advanced contrived science-like reasoning just on the boundaries of what the person already understands.

And that's why the anti-action arguments seems to have an endless number of layers. Including 'its not happening', 'it's happening by it is due to natural cycles not humans', 'it is caused by humans, but it is not harmful', 'it's harmful, but manageable', 'it's harmful and totally unavoidable and therefore we should ignore it'; and so on. The arguments are often contradictory, but they are actually aimed at different groups of people.

[–] CompostMaterial 9 points 1 month ago

Why not both?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The "yokels" are often the victim of Right Wing policies, not the cause of them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Victims and often the right wing supporters/voters, sadly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

They don't know any better, the Right has them brainwashed into thinking "Think things are bad now, the scary liberals will make it worse you temporarily embarrassed millionaire you."

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

why is the light of god behind the text in this one? Internet posting formats are getting weird.

I miss when the internet was just videos and text.

[–] ByteJunk 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure I got this background image in a PowerPoint back in 97.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

yeah that sounds about right ngl, lmao

[–] sep 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I do miss when the internet was just text..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

emoticons were the correct answer, emojis never should've been invented.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Sometimes it's just being ignorant though

[–] Adalast 1 points 1 month ago

Utilitarianism: burning down their capital makes a lot of emissions in a short period of time, but we can restrict them more as they rebuild so it eliminates far more future emissions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I mean there are two types:

Active denial and passive denial

Passive denial is simply people going about their lives, too busy to care. Active is in the tweet

[–] daltotron 0 points 1 month ago

Well yes, but have you considered that it makes me feel better to believe that the cause of this is something beyond my control, i.e. everyone else being more stupid than me, more susceptible to the wrong propaganda, etc., instead of being something I could take action over, i.e. a protracted, not particularly well protected portion of the population being more powerful?