This is my unironic assumption of how flat earthers happened, honestly. Before the pandemic I’d have said antivaxers, too.
Also exactly how Qanon started, it was just trolls trolling trolls until a non-troll found it and ate the onion (or chan) hardcore
Yeah, the online-style thing where you’re only ironically into a thing, unless we both agree it’s not ironic. But we don’t do we? Or do we? We don’t, of course we don’t. I never did.
It’s a bit nuts that we nuked the entire political system by weaponizing the way middle aged couples propose having a threesome.
Your last sentence is the most insightful thing I’ve read here in a while!
Problem is with today’s world, no matter what wild assumption you put out (e.g. smurfs are real!) you’ll find people who believe and support you.
Supposedly, flat earthers started as a thought experiment for scientific skepticism; acknowledging assumptions your knowledge is based on, even the most basic things.
Yeah, and how did that work out, then?
For the record, I have no idea if that’s true and a quick search doesn’t provide any sources, so I feel if you have one, sharing it would be in the spirit of the conversation.
If i had one, I’d give it. Unfortunately, it’s a claim I found a source for once and now lives in the back of my mind, which is why I can’t commit more than a “supposedly”. Amusingly enough, that’s exactly the kind of casual acceptance the organization was supposedly designed to combat. So it goes.
I mean the positive of a thought experiment is almost anyone can do it.
The negative is that most people don’t have the scientific rigor to draw proper conclusions from their hypothesis, and may leave out very important data because it’s outside their perspective to even consider.
Easily tainted, and not reproducible.
It’s a good first step, and in the right setting can be very valuable.
Jim Bob musing on the nature of the universe is fine, until we start basing real world action on simple musings without actionable data.
A few times I’ve seen it claimed that this was how “bronies” happened (when My Little Pony suddenly got very popular with childless grown men).
As a former brony (there, I said it): The show is fine, it’s a tiny bit of escapism with decent writing, funny characters, neurotic “girly girls” (even if they come in pony-form) and used to be nothing but a guilty pleasure in the same way people watch Adventure Time or Gravity Falls.
The fandom only started to take a darker turn when some outside criticism and trolls started to imply an underlying sexual aspect that absolutely wasn’t there before. MLP was about escaping a lonely and at the same time sexualized world into a world of innocence. But like with all things obsessively online, part of the brony fandom ran with it and new people arrived in the fandom drawn explicitly by those rule34 aspects and they brought a very 4chan-and-furries-vibe that absolutely caused me to leave the fandom behind.
Most of the OG bronies retreated into safe spaces like closed servers or just watching the show without gushing over it on the net as to not look like those new icky bronies and that largely spelled the end to a formerly very innocent, colorful and accepting fandom.
What IS a Juggalo?
Imagine if the Deadheads that follow The Grateful Dead decided to wear cringy clown makeup and listen to even shittier music.
Well, he ain’t really dead, but he ain’t like anybody that you’ve ever met before (never cares)
The man then continued to dump a two liter of diet faygo all over the nurse and yelled “whoop whoop” as he leaped through the window.
D9NT TRY THIS AT HOME, I HOPE YOU LIKE IT
WOOP WOOP
AH SHIT RUN FRIM THE LIGHTS
