I took a like journalism 101 course in college as an elective, and we had a couple lessons on this. One of them, the teacher gave us a bunch of websites and was like “Tell me which of these are legitimate.” Some were crackpots, some were satire, some were just weird news. When we went over the assignment in class, we talked about strategies for figuring it out.

I think a lot of people never had that class, or they slept through it.

Sometimes I’m really optimistic about humanity, but sometimes I remember the stupidest kids from school. No attention span. No curiosity. A lot of them are probably out in the world making decisions right now.

Group membership matters to all of us. It’s like one of the primary drivers of belief. We might think we’re rational and cool logical people but that’s a lie. We trust people we see as being in-group, and we trust facts from them.

For some people, like many republicans, it’s also the only thing that really matters.

This may have been a viable strategy in like 3000BCE when you had to stick with your group of idiots, because otherwise you’d be left for dead or worse by the enemy tribe. It’s not really a solid strategy in 2025CE.

But that’s really the whole problem. People (often but not always republicans) put their group membership ahead of everything else. This is happening like deep in the emotional part of their psyche. There’s no easy fix. You’d probably have to get them to join some other group and see that as primary, like maybe appeal to their sense of being American, but it’s going to be hard when there’s a lot of them. It’s like gravity, they all pull each other into the group.

I don’t know how to fix this.

One of the frustrating things is the people responsible for this brain drain, the conservative idiots, will never really suffer for this. Not in a way they understand.

If we get through this, every conservative needs to go up against the wall.

Anyone who says they are a “free speech absolutist” is a liar or a fool.

It might come to that. People should organize and arm now. Even though that’s kind of hard and scary and I don’t know where to begin.

“Why should I care about other people?” is a question that comes up a lot, and I am deeply suspicious of people who don’t care about others.

Feel like we should not make disposable plastic anymore.

Everyone is dangerous.

Kind of shitty to oppose systemic changes that would help them and reduce danger

Assuming they’re American: they’re an idiot. Sorry. They don’t understand how things are intertwined, and you can’t have social justice for free. If you let laissez-faire policies be, you don’t get socially liberal outcomes. You get capitalist dystopia.

I’m inclined to agree, that might be a problem. I don’t think it’s the only problem, but the capitalist hell scape of “trust no one everyone for themselves” isn’t helping

Any plan that depends on “and then the common person develops discerning taste” is doomed to fail. Especially considering that even people who are usually picky might enjoy something basic from time to time

Why is that valid but “the US should have no qualms about footing the bill and doing it” not?

You don’t want to see them because you want them to be housed, or you want them to be forcibly moved so they’re unhoused out of sight?

The government should be doing more for the housing crisis, but a first step for that is getting people aware of the issue and on board with solutions.

Eradicating infectious diseases (that don’t respect borders) is a net positive for everyone.

Probably also need to really invest in education. People don’t just magically know political theory, and a lot of bad ideas can sound good at first

Interestingly enough, it’s mostly the right wing that is anti education.

I see this a lot in all sorts of things and it drives me crazy. Why can’t people just care a little more?

Like playing guild wars 2, big group boss fight. If everyone does a stun attack when the boss is vulnerable, it interrupts it and we’re more likely to win. But no, half the people can’t be assed to hit “5” on their keyboard instead of “1”.

Or littering. There’s a trash can just down the block. Just hold onto your trash for a whole minute. Nope. Can’t be bothered. Onto the street it goes.

I just want to shake people and ask them what the fuck is wrong with them. What is broken inside that you can’t just be a little better. I don’t need heroics or big risks. Just a tiny bit more. Just be a little bit more alive and awake.

We need more than resignations. We need actual punishments. Can’t have them just resign and go on to be a private consultant or talking head.

It’s also funny to me when people say they are Christian but don’t want to help the poor. The good Samaritan is very clear. So is the bit about the sheep and the goats.

But you can use the Bible to justify anything, I guess.

I was going to say something similar to that too. Specifically, the consolidation of power means there’s less smaller companies taking risks. You’d think a big company with Disney money could afford to be weird and experimental, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I say this despite enjoying superhero movies

Others have touched on this but this also feels downstream from the capitalist hellscape. Most people don’t have a lot of spending money. Movies are pricey and a bad money:time ratio.

I bet if wages were up, more people would go to the theater. I don’t want to spend $40 to watch a movie and eat popcorn, but I’d consider it for $3.