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It's a one-two punch. One one hand, mesianic movements tend to re-occur throughout history whenever populations are under prolonged stress for various reasons.
by Florin_Andrei 6y ago
It's a one-two punch.
One one hand, mesianic movements tend to re-occur throughout history whenever populations are under prolonged stress for various reasons. Then you get the same thing all over again - some powerful figure shall rise, and is indeed rising as we speak, to deliver us all from our bondage.
On the other hand, yes, the internet and social media have made it a lot easier for bullshit to spread out and take over the minds of millions.
I don't think that combination was ever tried before.
What have we done, indeed.
- spiderfarmer 6y agoSeeing the downvotes and other comments in this thread, even part of the otherwise intelligent HN crowd wants to belong to this particular movement.
- Florin_Andrei 6y agoEngineering and the tech community are notorious hotbeds of radical, irrational politics and beliefs. Simply possessing a very sharp but very narrow analytical thinking is not enough to give one a clear picture of reality.
- prox 6y agoAnalytical thinking par excellence can be very dispassionate and lack empathy. All disinformation has in common it never talks about coming together as a whole. It is never truly compassionate or empathic to the plight of others. To build bridges. Instead othering is a way or tool to direct hate and increase polarization. Thats the true manipulation.
- Nasrudith 6y agoThat is assuming the wrong causation - downvotes are often because of disagreeing with the details even if they agree that QAnon are a bunch of fruit loops. It would be like saying people are pro-pedophile because they don't support requiring all primary school teachers to be spayed or neutered. No they are against it because it is a horrifyingly bad solution.