Because theres a decent chance that at some point that after some discussion, one of the more violent and stupid ones will form some nonsense opinion about how they actually have a superior and more correct view of how this process actually works, then assume they are correct, then go be violent at a customer service deck when it doesnt work.
You have to understand the kind of mindset that arises in and is attracted to communities like this.
Long ago now I was an Alex Jones listener.
Despite getting two bachelors degrees simultaneously, being very intellectually curious about the world and scientifically minded about many things, I had a lot of loony beliefs (and arguably still have at least a few, haha) that I arrived at via what im gonna call conspiro-logic.
The conspiracy world is exceptionally good at herding people toward utterly absurd and contradictory behavior because its proponents are extremely good at rhetorical framing with emotion and narratives that many socially awkward or less socially inclined people do not even realize are being used against them.
I eventually realized that I was a hypocrite in using certain logical frameworks to justify some of the things I believed, with other beliefs that I could not actually justify and could in fact /disprove/ using the same approach that I valued as more reasonable.
For me my breaking point actually was AJ’s initial reporting on Sandy Hook. That was when I realized… this guy is at this point saying that basically every single shooting that occurs in America that gets any news coverage is a false flag, to the point that the powers that be must seemingly be orchestrating basically everything bad that happens and is newsworthy, despite that simply being logistically impossible. His explanations are getting more and more out there even by his own standards, and now he is basically just shilling nonsense supplements all the time (he did not actually used to do this), and its not hard to verify that they are nonsense, ie, the whole insanity around soy actually being a primary ingredient in most of them while also deriding soy in food making us all feminized.
Anyways, to attempt to circle back: I got out of that scene, but lost a lot of my social circle. Unfortunately… I personally know people who never got out, and actually have an extremely concerning history of violent rhetoric, access to firearms, and these people I personally know /would be exactly the kind of people to do a domestic terrorist plot/.
I guess basically I have a relstively uncommon perspective from a lot of first hand exoerience with this stuff, hence my much more concerned opinion.
My own dad now is a q anon nut who believes antifa did jan 6, that tom hanks son kills and eats babies for their adrenochrome, and before i got the fuck away from him, he showed me in great detail how he manufactures ghost guns, assault rifles, with no serial numbers, in his garage.
That’s intense. Both your experience and the stuff about your dad. I’m sorry he went down that path.
But I’d argue that pulling this kind of joke wouldn’t encourage the type of violent behavior at all. The circle itself is doing that 100%. Introducing a little conundrum into the discussion might even, like I said it’s incredibly unlikely, but if anything maybe it’d push people the other way. The troll in question wouldn’t inspire violent behavior. The blatant lies going around these circles, yes. But telling them how you sold your car for one of their magic papers might even make some of them think, “they shouldn’t have done that—wait, why do I think that?”
Again, super unlikely. But I’d argue there’s no risk in inciting violence by asking a question they don’t have the answer to.
Because theres a decent chance that at some point that after some discussion, one of the more violent and stupid ones will form some nonsense opinion about how they actually have a superior and more correct view of how this process actually works, then assume they are correct, then go be violent at a customer service deck when it doesnt work.
You have to understand the kind of mindset that arises in and is attracted to communities like this.
Long ago now I was an Alex Jones listener.
Despite getting two bachelors degrees simultaneously, being very intellectually curious about the world and scientifically minded about many things, I had a lot of loony beliefs (and arguably still have at least a few, haha) that I arrived at via what im gonna call conspiro-logic.
The conspiracy world is exceptionally good at herding people toward utterly absurd and contradictory behavior because its proponents are extremely good at rhetorical framing with emotion and narratives that many socially awkward or less socially inclined people do not even realize are being used against them.
I eventually realized that I was a hypocrite in using certain logical frameworks to justify some of the things I believed, with other beliefs that I could not actually justify and could in fact /disprove/ using the same approach that I valued as more reasonable.
For me my breaking point actually was AJ’s initial reporting on Sandy Hook. That was when I realized… this guy is at this point saying that basically every single shooting that occurs in America that gets any news coverage is a false flag, to the point that the powers that be must seemingly be orchestrating basically everything bad that happens and is newsworthy, despite that simply being logistically impossible. His explanations are getting more and more out there even by his own standards, and now he is basically just shilling nonsense supplements all the time (he did not actually used to do this), and its not hard to verify that they are nonsense, ie, the whole insanity around soy actually being a primary ingredient in most of them while also deriding soy in food making us all feminized.
Anyways, to attempt to circle back: I got out of that scene, but lost a lot of my social circle. Unfortunately… I personally know people who never got out, and actually have an extremely concerning history of violent rhetoric, access to firearms, and these people I personally know /would be exactly the kind of people to do a domestic terrorist plot/.
I guess basically I have a relstively uncommon perspective from a lot of first hand exoerience with this stuff, hence my much more concerned opinion.
My own dad now is a q anon nut who believes antifa did jan 6, that tom hanks son kills and eats babies for their adrenochrome, and before i got the fuck away from him, he showed me in great detail how he manufactures ghost guns, assault rifles, with no serial numbers, in his garage.
That’s intense. Both your experience and the stuff about your dad. I’m sorry he went down that path.
But I’d argue that pulling this kind of joke wouldn’t encourage the type of violent behavior at all. The circle itself is doing that 100%. Introducing a little conundrum into the discussion might even, like I said it’s incredibly unlikely, but if anything maybe it’d push people the other way. The troll in question wouldn’t inspire violent behavior. The blatant lies going around these circles, yes. But telling them how you sold your car for one of their magic papers might even make some of them think, “they shouldn’t have done that—wait, why do I think that?”
Again, super unlikely. But I’d argue there’s no risk in inciting violence by asking a question they don’t have the answer to.
In general, when these kinds of people are asked questions they do not have answers to, they become irrational, angry and violent.
Stochastically, anyway.
I dunno. Im too tired to discuss it further than ‘I wish I was capable of your optimism.’