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There have always been flat earthers. The internet lets the freaks meet and tell each other that they are normal. Now the algorithm fuels it and the media ampli

There have always been flat earthers. The internet lets the freaks meet and tell each other that they are normal. Now the algorithm fuels it and the media amplifies it. And yet the earth is still not flat, and somehow, still spins. Things are not stranger now, you just hear more about the strange people and unusual things.

DarylZero 5y ago
I don't think it's only that. Things are stranger now because of increasing complexity.
ineedasername 5y ago
Sure, ironic flat earthers bear some resemblance to past cultural touch points like SubGenius, and some people take them too seriously. That isn't the strangeness I'm talking about. Or rather, it's only a part of it: Awareness of it by rank and file average young people is new and has an impact on their worldview and whether or not the world around them makes any sense. But you're cherry picking things like that which are not part of the strangeness that I mean: I'm not sure you can look at lockdowns, quarantines, fundamental shifts in how we talk about socializing, a generation of students losing 1-2 years of normal academic and social development, mass shortages of basic items, the emergence of countless strange digital currencies based on mixtures of ideology, economics, and memes, politicians using the rhetoric of murder against their colleagues... How much more should I go on? I don't think you can look at all of that and reasonably say "things are not stranger now" Even if all of that had been going on previously (it has not) then greater awareness alone would still be enough provocation to push people into seeking the escapism of "RS". Perhaps we are misunderstanding each other on the point that I'm making?
- recuter 5y ago
  I think you should go for a nice long walk and read a good book or two and worry less. Swings and roundabouts.
  - Apocryphon 5y ago
    You best start believing in absurdities- you’re in one!

DarylZero 5y ago

I don't think it's only that. Things are stranger now because of increasing complexity.

ineedasername 5y ago

Sure, ironic flat earthers bear some resemblance to past cultural touch points like SubGenius, and some people take them too seriously. That isn't the strangeness I'm talking about. Or rather, it's only a part of it: Awareness of it by rank and file average young people is new and has an impact on their worldview and whether or not the world around them makes any sense. But you're cherry picking things like that which are not part of the strangeness that I mean: I'm not sure you can look at lockdowns, quarantines, fundamental shifts in how we talk about socializing, a generation of students losing 1-2 years of normal academic and social development, mass shortages of basic items, the emergence of countless strange digital currencies based on mixtures of ideology, economics, and memes, politicians using the rhetoric of murder against their colleagues... How much more should I go on? I don't think you can look at all of that and reasonably say "things are not stranger now" Even if all of that had been going on previously (it has not) then greater awareness alone would still be enough provocation to push people into seeking the escapism of "RS". Perhaps we are misunderstanding each other on the point that I'm making?

recuter 5y ago
I think you should go for a nice long walk and read a good book or two and worry less. Swings and roundabouts.
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  You best start believing in absurdities- you’re in one!