this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
614 points (97.4% liked)

Technology

59269 readers
4068 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The right in general follows the Wrestlemania principle, wherein they exist in a strange quantum state of both believing the narratives and storylines with all their heart, while at the same time understanding enough about the world around them that they can function and understand complex concepts. IE: the vaxxine-skeptical nurses and climate-change denying scientists.

If you're old enough to remember having to argue with your friends that wrestling is scripted, and your friend doubles down that there really are necromancers and supernatural powers in professional wrestling events, but you also know that point where trying to convince them becomes less enjoyable because you see for a moment that their connection to this fantasy storyline is all they have and you just let them believe that the fantasy and spectacle is real.

Because for wrestling fans and Trump fans, it's not about logic and reason, it's about emotion and validation for those emotions, and that validation doesn't necessarily need to make sense to provide comfort for fear and anxiety and sadness.

Those people never grew up and grew out of their magical thinking. We all have magical thinking about something, but this segment of the population stands out more because their belief is being steered by powerful criminal minds and shaping international policy.