r/technology • u/marketrent • 1d ago

Site altered title “ALL HAIL CHAIRMAN TRUMP! WITH HIS GLORIOUS 10% PURCHASE OF INTEL, THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF AMERICA ENTERS A BOLD NEW ERA” -- California governor Newsom riles Republicans with Trump-trolling posts

https://www.barrons.com/news/meme-lord-newsom-riles-republicans-with-trump-trolling-posts-05b74794
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u/cantadmittoposting 1d ago

It's whatever's going on in our culture that's the carcinogen. MAGA's just a tumor that's metastisized.

yeah i think a lot about how ubiquitous peer to peer global communication (i.e. internet, social media) exposed existing cultural rot, versus how much of that rot was introduced by this reactionary right wing growth.

 

Prior to widespread internet, i think many of the "middle american conservative evangelicals" may have legitimately been unaware how outdated bigoted their whole culture basically was.

So they showed up to "the internet" and got absolutely inundated with all these supposedly awful or immoral cultures sort of openly just existing and posting, and got metaphorically punched in the face with a rejection of their insular religious bigotry.

 

So religious and conservative strategists of course jumped on that fear, and weaponized it, and also, via botnets and paid influencers and all that other jazz, recreated the safe space on social media networks by overloading algorithms with "safe" messaging.

so people like poor innocent grandma now logs on to facebook and thinks all is right with the world again because she sees AI generated croissant jesus instead of second cousin billy's pride parade photos from the big city. And the angry people get a whole tiktok algo convincing them they're "winning."

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u/mmlovin 1d ago

I’m starting to think the internet in general is a mistake. I mean, I’ve known that about social media for a while, but idk man the internet seems to have started to reverse humanity’s progress backward.

All scientific studies say humans are more lonely than ever, it’s a health crisis. That’s humans existing right now. All the studies say none of us like to online date, that we don’t know how to make friends without relying on social media. Like the majority of us would rather be talking to people in the coffee shop, but we aren’t cause we’re all on our phone in the coffee shop. It’s nuts to me. It’s actually changing our brain development.

Like I’m 34, I remember what it was like to have to be present in the real world all the time without a computer world to escape to. You HAD to be with people. & I’m lonely as shit & rely on the internet for socialization cause of depression.

Now what does is a lonely 34 year old look like 30 years from now? Someone who literally never had to have that human interaction to have relationships?

TLDR: The cons of the internet are getting really close to outweighing the pros & it’s being reflected society

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u/Ok-Primary6610 1d ago

The "time before the Internet" wasn't all gravy train. Some of us don't live around people where we fit in. As a geek, growing up in the late 80's and through the 90's had its rough moments. Now try being a POC, non religious, pansexual AND a geek. Pretty much everything that the right hates and "normal" people made fun of. Imagine how lonely that was before being able to find similar people online to talk to. Something to think about.

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u/Pseudonymico 1d ago

Disagree. It's all down to the shitty social media platforms, not the internet itself. It can be an absolute lifeline if you can't just get out of the house and keep up with the kind of social life you could manage as a relatively healthy 20-something or just a random student with no responsibilities. Overworked in a shitty job, stuck home looking after kids, disabled, elderly, moved away from your friends by life circumstances, a persecuted, isolated minority, or even just too damn introverted for it to be worth it to go out? The internet absolutely made all those things easier to keep socialised enough with before social media companies decided to ruin their products to make line go up.

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u/mmlovin 1d ago edited 1d ago

Like I said, there are absolutely pros. I don’t mean to sound cold hearted, but the cons have now outnumbered them.

It also gives suicidal people advice on how to kill themselves. They even can be encouraged by online strangers. Or someone previously completely happy can be driven to suicide by online bullying. It enables lonely people’s behavior, & even spreads it to people not lonely. There were ways for people like you are describing to interact with the world, with phones & snail mail. But the reality is they are in the minority. The cons have now infected the majority of the population. It’s actually begun to make society worse.

The internet used to make people more informed, everything you wanna know at your fingertips. You can take free online college courses, you can learn skills like art & carpentry & mechanics. You can even learn a new language. You can be an expert on current events. Now it brings criminals together like pedophiles. Now child pornography is shared around the world, & will never be eradicated. Those victims are permanently on the internet.

But now it’s turned the truth into being subjective & having the “facts” you want to believe confirmed by others. A big chunk of the population now lives in an alternate reality. It used to be we all agree on a set of facts, & the debate was how to solve problems. Now we are actually arguing about what is true. AI is going to make all of this even worse. Like, SO much worse we can’t even imagine it right now. It’s gonna be like the damage caused by the creation of the nuclear bomb. The internet has ceased to make society better, it’s all downhill from here.

I used to think if Trump is ever gone, things will calm down. But..it won’t. Why would it? The mindset is already entrenched. Each administration is going to get more & more extreme. The wedge is going to get wider & wider. How could we possibly fix this?? One side is not going to just come back to reality.

It’s just so sad. The ones in control are not reflective of most of us. Most of us want to get along & have our leaders just compromise & admit when they are wrong. Act like the human beings they are when no audience is watching. But it just doesn’t wind up that way. & it won’t.

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u/Pseudonymico 1d ago

It's disturbing how the impractical fantasy you seem to prefer is, "sacrifice a bunch of regular people including the one you're directly replying to" as opposed to, "stop like 8 guys from making everyone's life worse so they can keep feeling like big men."

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u/mmlovin 1d ago

Huh? What 8 guys? I was talking about a giving philosophical opinion about the internet & how human nature has warped a tool that should have advanced us overall as a society. Now it’s doing the opposite. In an ideal world, no one would have to rely on the internet to have social connections. But that’s impossible, so we have to go by what helps the majority overall. Thats my opinion.

& I think the internet, overall, has become a negative influence. It’s deteriorating every facet of society. It’s sounds like your opinion is different. I’m part of that group btw, I don’t have any friends lol & the internet has enabled me to isolate myself from the world. I even gave you a list of reasons of why it also harms the same people in that group.

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u/Pseudonymico 1d ago

My philosophical opinion on social media is it would be a lot better if it weren't just there to make a profit, and having seen the differences between a society where most people were offline, the web 1.0 and early social media era, and today, the offline era was worse in almost every way for anyone who couldn't fit in.

It's not even that human nature automatically wrecks everything, it's only when you mix that with too much inequality.

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u/Rough-Age6546 1d ago

Nothing can exist in this world without being maximized for profit

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u/Pseudonymico 1d ago

Bullshit. Plenty of things can exist in this world without being maximised for profit and do so every day. Some assholes will always try, and our current socio-economic system encourages them instead of trying to keep them under control even when it's clearly doing more harm than good, but that doesn't mean it's inevitable.

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u/Rough-Age6546 1d ago

The way the world is run right now, it’s all about profit. I wish it wasn’t. I’ve seen good men w good ideas get slaughtered in this world while the sleaziest con men get rich

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u/mmlovin 1d ago

Ok I understand. We just disagree that’s all

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u/NiceTryWasabi 1d ago

That's the crazy part, with all of the power of information available at their fingertips, it's caused people to double down on their localized beliefs since clearly everyone else is crazy. There's no way that their entire life has been a farce.

Every openly MAGA person I've met has been the least traveled or diversified in their upbringing. They simply cannot accept that their lifelong opinions are wrong. There is no logic, just pure hatred for someone telling them that nana was a piece of shit.

There is a very strong correlation with big city's and democrats. Because they have legitimately known people of other colors and class that are good people. It flips the script real quick.

Farmer John who married his high school sweetheart and never moved out of the 5,000 person town can't even fathom anybody else being an equal. It's disgusting. The few who I grew up with that leaned right moved out to the country where nobody knows any better. And guess what? None of them have ever had a passport.

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u/Standard-Fail-434 1d ago

You mention the internet and right wing has used bot farms etc to push messaging. Are we doing that? If not, why not?