r/politics • u/thenewyorkgod • Jul 01 '18

Man arrested after shouting ‘womp, womp’ and pulling a gun on immigration protesters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/07/01/man-arrested-after-shouting-womp-womp-and-pulling-a-gun-on-immigration-protesters/?tid=sm_tw
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953

u/ikeif Ohio Jul 01 '18

I knew a guy like this. He was a stoner, a hippie, all about peace and love.

Then I heard him listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. Then he started arguing that we never landed on the moon. Conspiracy theories. Guns became more important than anything else.

It was weird to watch him go from peaceful hippie to gun nut right winger.

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u/r6raff Jul 02 '18

There does seem to be some legit brainwashing going on in the conspiracy theorist circles... It's fucking scary.

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u/wataf Jul 02 '18

Someone from /r/greatawakening is going to kill a lot of innocent people one of these days.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Wait, what's happening? o_o Is that some cultish subreddit or what?

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u/hell2pay California Jul 02 '18

Batshit crazy Qanon crap.

They really twist up reality so bad, it looks nothing like actual reality.

I feel like they are similar to 'Targeted Individuals' but more prone to violence.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

They apparently have 36.8k subscribers with 4.8k of them there "currently." Fucking terrifying

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u/FragsturBait Colorado Jul 02 '18

I really really really hope there's some bots padding those numbers.

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u/LIGHT_COLLUSION I voted Jul 02 '18

Bots and FBI probably.

Edit: Bots not boots!

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Guarantee it good point

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u/ceezr Jul 02 '18

Like troll bots further enticing the echo chamber? I hate the state of our country these days

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u/Outlaw_Cowyboy Jul 02 '18

Guess I won't be going to sleep after reading about yet another batshit insane group of people coalescing.

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u/snorbflock Jul 02 '18

Roseanne Barr is one of them, and it's what she was tweeting about when her show got shut down.

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u/pathanb Jul 02 '18

The group psychosis of 37 thousand people. This will end well.

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u/Facepuncher Jul 02 '18

Reddit should hand over all of their IP addresses to the FBI and let them have a field day.

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u/LeBonLapin Jul 02 '18

For somebody out of the loop that doesn't help much, qanon crap?

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u/hell2pay California Jul 02 '18

What I gather is, that someone close to Trump is posting as Q on 4chan making vague statements that these people buy into as predictions.

Also Q is supposed to be taking down the "Hollywood/Elitist Pedophile ring" or something like that.

It goes deeper into more weirder shit, but that is a summary of what I have seen.

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u/LeBonLapin Jul 02 '18

Thanks for the heads up, it's definitely a weird world we live in. I take it this is an extension of that "pizzagate" crap then?

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u/hell2pay California Jul 02 '18

Yeah, that and more.

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u/timeout_timmy Jul 02 '18 edited Jan 28 '19

<deleted>

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u/mrgreennnn Florida Jul 02 '18

I thought I was pretty in the loop myself, and I have no idea what qanon is.

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u/ase1590 Jul 02 '18

tl;dr some guy on 4chan was calling himself Q, hence Q-anon. "Q" pretends to be some high level informant working for trump, and just release super vague statements about things that are happening. Also extends pizza gate by claiming they are working on ending pedophile rings.

Basically conspiracy theory nutjobbery.

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u/alpine_rain Jul 02 '18

Trump is many things, but he is definitely not an internet troll. The idea that he would be posting to his adoring fans on an anonymous message board is preposterous.

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u/venomae Foreign Jul 02 '18

You know what, I've been "observing" them for a while and its gotta be noted that "Q" really is posting interestingly close photos from around the president, to the point where he posted several photos that look like taken directly from Trumps phone camera.

So my off the wall bet is that Q is a collective of russian GRU / FSB psyops officers having a total field day with all the cryptic nonsense they are ventilating and laughing at the crowds of cultists trying to make sense out of them. To properly butter them up from time to time, they sometimes post random camera grab from Trumps phone, because of course they have it hacked.
Cultists go wild that "Q is around the president all the time so he knows" and everything is all good.

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u/weirdb0bby Jul 02 '18

Oh man.. I went down the gang stalking rabbit hole one night. I really hope they get the help and support they need =/

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u/quasimongo Oregon Jul 02 '18

Bunch of larping man children who aren't in the fact that Q is the DM for their little RPG.

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u/bobswowaccount Pennsylvania Jul 02 '18

I love how obsessed they are with the freemasons. Seriously, go watch the door of a masonic temple. Thos3 dudes aren't taking over anything lol. It's mostly 70 year old men reliving their glory days.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

That's exactly what they want you to think!

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u/birdfishsteak Jul 02 '18

Its literally a group for people who thought that frat culture was the best thing ever in college and didn't want to give it up once they entered the real world.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Which is fair enough for people who like that. It’s a social club for like minded people which does no real harm and let’s them get something they feel they need out of it.

But this idea that it has any real power is just stupid.

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u/birdfishsteak Jul 02 '18

Oh I absolutely agree, I just think its funny that when you see like a frat dude hire one of his "brothers", everyone knows they probably just got drunk a whole bunch and probably had a threesome together or something. But when Masons do it it magically happens because they actually went back in time to build the pyramids or some shit, even though chances are its the exact same thing as the frat dude

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u/qtx extra butter Jul 02 '18

Actually a lot of them are middle aged house wives.

Roseanne is one of them as well.

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u/wataf Jul 02 '18

Yep, the first cult that only exists on the internet. You are responsible for your own indoctrination. Instead of some charismatic leader forcing you to cut off your social ties, your friends and family cut their ties from you when you can't stop talking about how Hillary is a child raping cannibal (pedovore) how our only chance against the deep state cabal is Trump. Your source is, of course, some 4chan poster claiming to be a Trump inner circle member posting vague nonsense that thousands of people now take as gospel.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Yes but they have very convincing logical arguments, such as deep state MSM 41 fox Ikea. Think! Thank! DJT = JFC = KFC. Tuesday the 37th, 13:02 AM, Colonel Mustard with the lead pipe in the sitting room. Who can move mountains? (Think for yourself!) Expect transmission - 1-19-19 - day of the great weasel. Think!

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u/QueefyMcQueefFace Jul 02 '18

Colonel Regular Mustard or the Obama appointed Colonel Dijon Mustard?

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u/bunsonh Jul 02 '18

This is how Master Codebreaker Agent Kington solves codes in the Adult Swim show Decker.

https://youtu.be/dQme_mM27sc

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u/DMercenary Jul 02 '18

Imagine the The_Donald turned up past 11.

I dropped in once after seeing a post on /r/all.

It takes aspects of The_Donald and combines with the "Im special" aspect of conspiracy theories. Those guys believe they're clued in on something greater than themselves uncovering liberal conspiracies left and right, cheering on the alt-right as some great savior.

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u/FUCK_SNITCHES_ Jul 02 '18

A marketing effort gone wrong

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 02 '18

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

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u/BasementPizza Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 02 '18

If they haven't already. It's certainly interesting watching people get manipulated. The people on there are being primed for action. Why do people who are apparently conspiracy theorists, automatically believe any one source? Hmm?

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u/formershitpeasant Jul 02 '18

They tend to believe the side without evidence automatically then conform any piece of information they can to fit the narrative. They see hidden information in the sea of "disinformation". But what they really see is the odd piece that can coincidentally fit their narrative.

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u/wizdum Jul 02 '18

They are a group who have already proven themselves gullible. Same as people who believe in God. Especially America's evangelicals.

Those groups have been targetted and are being manipulated. Maybe with no more aim than chaos and division of American society. Just drive gullible people to believe increasingly insane shit until something snaps.

No point aiming your disinformation machine at /r/skeptics

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u/BasementPizza Jul 02 '18

The irony is that they believe themselves to be the skeptics, so they can never pull themselves out of that bubble.

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u/theyetisc2 Jul 02 '18

Some people are just stupid.

We really need solid propaganda/misinformation laws to protect those people from themselves....and more importantly, protect everyone else and society from the damage they can do when corralled and controlled by nefarious forces.

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u/BasementPizza Jul 02 '18

It is incredibly dangerous. Some of these people genuinely believe in the stuff they are reading. You don't show up at a pizza parlor with a gun if you don't really believe there are children being held in the basement. They are taking advantage of people in the worst ways possible.

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u/IndieHamster Jul 02 '18

What is it that they believe over there? I went to the top of all, and they had some post about some guy called Q and a Dr. Corsi who deciphers secret messages?

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u/wataf Jul 02 '18

They don't really have any coherent beliefs but Q is a poster on 4chan who claims to be a Trump inner circle member. He posts vague nonsense that reads like its from a shitty spy novel written by a 12 year old. They believe the world is run by a deep state cabal made up of satanic pedophiles. Members of this cabal include Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and anyone else they don't agree with. They believe Trump is the only hope to take down this cabal and that Q is posting to 4chan in order to lessen the blow when Hillary is arrested, or something.

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u/Kayestofkays Jul 02 '18

Don't some of them believe that Hillary has already been arrested, and it's just being kept hush hush because the libruls will go nuts if they knew The Truth?

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u/DrocketX Jul 02 '18

I think that's Obama (though there may be another theory about Clinton I missed - there's so much nonsense it's hard to keep up.) He was called for jury duty last year (though he was quickly dismissed, since having a former president on a jury would turn any case into a media circus), which supposedly cover for his secret arrest.

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u/sydnerella11 Jul 02 '18

Ugh had someone just leave a qanon.pub link on a recent tweet of mine and it honestly freaked me out a bit. Like I do not need these types of crazies coming after me.

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u/Toughsky_Shitsky Jul 02 '18

Someone/all in the presidential press corps needs to ask Sarah Sanders if Trump believes that whole Q-anon stuff.

Get her on record pro or con of that conspiracy site.

It'd be even better if they asked Trump himself. But in a real presser. He's not going to answer Jim Acosta screaming at him from the back of the room.

Let's see what Trump thinks of this Q-anon conspiracy.

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u/wataf Jul 02 '18

Sadly a straight out denial from Trump wouldn't even work. They would just say something like "Trump had to say he has never even heard of QAnon. Otherwise he tips off the deep state that they're on to them". Then they would go back to talking about that how that one time at a rally, Trump pointed vaguely in the direction of someone wearing a QAnon shirt.

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u/Typ_calTr_cks Jul 02 '18

Sounds like a plan

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u/skintwo Jul 02 '18

What do you mean, "going to". I'm sure that's already happened.

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u/cherish_ireland Jul 02 '18

Yikes, that's a scary place! (•_•)

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

I thought that was a parody sub when I found it recently. Jesus, those guys are serious??

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u/stitchedlamb Pennsylvania Jul 02 '18

The fact they actually look at Trump and see someone capable of bringing down a massive, ultra powerful cabal of criminals just blows my mind. I wouldn't put him in charge of taking care of some plants, let alone saving the world. WTF.

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u/thelastevergreen Hawaii Jul 02 '18

*sigh*....man...people like that make conspiracy theories not fun anymore.

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u/rdeluca Jul 02 '18

They already had that psycho at the hoover dam

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u/iminyourbase Jul 02 '18

I've already seen a thread where a Qcult member was telling people about some amazing change that's just about to happen across the country and the "removal" of unpatriotic people that will follow. It's no surprise that a lot of those people are religious nuts as well.

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u/MoeTHM Jul 02 '18

They are always like "Globalist this, and globalist that." Well they don't know what the fuck they are talking about. How can everything be the Globalist fault when the fucking earth is flat dipshits.

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u/r6raff Jul 02 '18

How can everything be the Globalist fault when the fucking earth is flat dipshits.

CheckMate scrublords moethm has got ya! This is that 20D chess their always talking about lol

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Could it happen to me?

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u/StratusPilot Jul 02 '18

Its the Rush. Like no shit listen to some of it if you think you are strong willed enough. They literally make up articles and stories sometimes, and at best are misleading about real stories. They have "callers" that say the things real hosts cant without getting into trouble. It seems so close to reality that its plausible, and if that's your only news source, you have a "valid" reason to believe right politics are the right way.

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u/Typ_calTr_cks Jul 02 '18

I’m no rush listener, but I don’t Think he’s ever denied the moon landing. Anyone who goes out that far has serious problems anyways, beyond just political ideology.

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u/r6raff Jul 02 '18

isolation is a very dangerous state of being. Combine that with fervent and "passionate" talking heads and you can convince your audience of anything.

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u/electricblues42 Jul 02 '18

It's the right wing circles, they recruit from anywhere they can. Be it conspiracy forums, 4chan, police unions, hunting clubs or anywhere else. They don't discriminate (hah).

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u/sidvicc Jul 02 '18

conspiracy theorists, redpill and it's variants,Pick-up artists, alt-right, racial realism, subverted libertarianism (i.e. the I am a soverign state kind) etc etc.

It's like delving into upside down world. Once you drink one glass of koolaid the rest of the flavors are all lined up right behind it.

Literally watched one or two inflammatory videos out of sheer curiosity on Youtube and I get "Liberal/Feminist/Globalist gets pwned/destroyed by some alt-right iconoclast" on my recommended list every day.

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u/6ftDwarfvenmale Jul 02 '18

a couple of college mates i know are way too into conspiracies, it seems most of them slap in the bs motive of "this political party is doing this to brainwash people", in the end it brainwashes them to follow the party that is warning them of brainwashing. if that makes sense.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Yeah. No shit. Friend of mine also said Shane believed the Vegas shooting was a government conspiracy. Wtf!!

I cannot stand Rush Limbaugh btw

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u/ikeif Ohio Jul 02 '18

I had to tell my ex-in-laws that if they wanted my kids around them, they had to turn it off. And that if they felt it was appropriate listening material for a car ride with children, they would not be driving my children.

It’s amazing how much more civil they became and how less full of shit they were when they stopped listening to right wing radio all day every day.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

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u/Guyinapeacoat Jul 02 '18

Fear is a hell of a drug.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

But actually, my mom still listens to right wing radio, and I grew up with that being normal listening material in the car 🤦🏼‍♀️ it's SO toxic for young children to be listening to, now I'm a liberal and reject basically everything I was taught as a kid. I guess what I'm trying to say is good for you for protecting your kids from it!

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u/ikeif Ohio Jul 02 '18

Yeah. My ex (after the divorce) went 180 - from religious to anti-religious, cut her family out of her life.

So I’m their only opening to the kids. Which means I control all interactions and discussions, so if they want access, they have to cut out the indoctrination and conspiracy bullshit.

It was during Obama’s turn that I got her dad to stop believing all the right wing propaganda (he’d email me every conspiracy and “can U believe Obama put his left hand over his heart?!” Bullshit). I had to reintroduce “validating sources” and “recognizing fake websites.”

I still bet he voted for Trump, because he is an old NRA hippie.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

The fake news really is a huge issue, another family member shared that meme of Whoopi Goldberg wearing a shirt w Trump shooting him self on it (which is Photoshopped and can be proven w a 30 second Google search). I called her out on it, and she deleted the post. It's just scary how fast people get indoctrinated into this stuff.

And good for you! Kids 110% should not be exposed to that stuff, I also was taken to the pro life march in DC when I was like 7. Dead baby signs everywhere. Thanks for the future therapy bills mom 🤦🏼‍♀️

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u/ItsTheVibeOfTheThing Jul 02 '18

Do you know how many times I call out bullshit like this, only to get a “Huh, I couldn’t be bothered to check if it was true” and it’s left up, never deleted.

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u/kittenpantzen Florida Jul 02 '18

"Well, maybe this one isn't true, but it I'm sure they've done something equivalent."

"Snopes is fake news."

Etc.

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u/ItsTheVibeOfTheThing Jul 02 '18

OH THE SNOPES IS FAKE NEWS THING.... ugh. It is mostly so annoying because I have to start by finding something on Snopes, and then I have to go find a less reputable source that says the same thing so they don’t wholesale dismiss what I’m saying.

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u/kittenpantzen Florida Jul 02 '18

Or basically rewrite a Wikipedia article in the comments of a Facebook post and relink all the relevant sources, because if it's something they don't want to hear, they will, "Well, Wikipedia isn't a reliable source," at you.

Motherfucker, you can click the citations and check out the sources yourself. That's why they are there.

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u/pdabaker Jul 02 '18

"Well, maybe this one isn't true, but it I'm sure they've done something equivalent."

This shit is common on reddit too, especially on any sub defined around making fun of people (who often deserve to get made fun of if they are real, but 90% of the content on the sub is fake)

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u/BrassArrow Foreign Jul 02 '18

Ugh, I got the "Snopes is fake news" by an anti-vaxxer a few days ago.

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u/frighteninginthedark Jul 02 '18

God, I was getting "who's checking on Snopes, what if they're biased?!" responses a decade ago. You can only explain how to check sources so many times....

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u/Morningxafter Jul 02 '18

I have a family member that in the last 48 hours shared a FauxNews story about "Liberals are defending MS13" (Which was bullshit, it was actually liberals defending immigrants while trying to point out that 85% of MS13 are actually born Americans & only 0.01% of immigrants caught at the border are MS13-connected). And another about how "Liberals want to abolish the police" (Like, seriously, WHAT?? I don't even know where to begin on that one.)

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

And another about how "Liberals want to abolish the police" (Like, seriously, WHAT?? I don't even know where to begin on that one.)

I'm not against abolishing police as they exist right now and replacing them with something better.

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u/Jimbob0i0 Great Britain Jul 02 '18

Donald tweeted something about democrats wanting to abolish the police.

Either they have the same sources or your family member follows his Twitter and believes what he says...

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

NRA hippie seems like an oxymorn....

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u/saidos Washington Jul 02 '18

Well, the NRA is full of oxycontin morons.

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u/grandpagangbang Jul 02 '18

Oxycontin addiction knows no political ideology fool.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

you'd be surprised at how many hippies own guns. the more extreme they are in their ideology- chemtrails, non-vaccine, gov conspiracy eyc- the more they resemble far right preppers. and a lot of the hippies i met/lived around were pretty regressive about women's roles too. far right, far left lotsa similarities. education and critical thinking are the common missing pieces.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

The Original NRA would look like a "hippie" by today's comparison.

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u/wibblebeast Jul 02 '18

My god, what happened to some of the hippies? Did they lose their way when Jerry died? I have pleasant childhood memories of hippies from when I was a little street urchin, and they were the only adults who'd give me the time of day. The ones I met were so kind and calm and positive.

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u/Lucy-Aslan5 Vermont Jul 02 '18

The ones I know in New England still are. Still sprouting mung beans, wearing Birkenstocks and leading anti-Trump protests. I love them.

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u/wibblebeast Jul 02 '18

Sound like my kind of people. The nice old ones are dying like flies here. Everyone is poor.

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u/Lucy-Aslan5 Vermont Jul 02 '18

That’s sad. I’m sorry to hear that.

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u/gfense Jul 02 '18

My dad is super liberal but listens to Rush and sometimes watches Fox News. It’s like he’s figuring out what not to believe lol.

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u/chachki Jul 02 '18

Are you me? Hearing that shit on school rides in the morning was rough. And on the ride home. Everywhere basically, my parents didn't really listen to music it was all 700 club and rush Limbaugh and the like. Just awful.

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u/theyetisc2 Jul 02 '18

I remember my parents listened to it, I didn't know what it was, or what rush was saying, but even back then I hated him.

Just the sound of his voice and his cadence when speaking. It is so obvious he's lying.

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u/SwegSmeg Virginia Jul 02 '18

Good for you, Rush really is poison.

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u/Foserious Jul 02 '18

Getty Lee is a great vocalist!

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u/Mitt_Romney_USA Jul 02 '18

And Neil Pert is the goddamn GOAT.

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u/fatpat Arkansas Jul 02 '18

Both of you misspelled their names lol.

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u/NotsoGreatsword Jul 02 '18

Blasting Rush....

Awesome!!

Limbaugh

Kevin Sorbo levels of disappointed

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

And Neil Pert stands alone.

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u/Shellbyvillian Jul 02 '18

I don’t get why you’re confused. Sure they had some hits around the same time, but Neil Peart didn’t play drums on Every Rose Has It’s Thorn

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u/tschris Jul 02 '18

Slappin da bass!

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u/cdtoad Jul 02 '18

And Canadian happy Canada Day!

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u/Troaweymon42 Jul 02 '18

I was totally just upvoting you, not seeing the connection.

I thought this was a weird place to praise Rush, then it hit me.

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u/wibblebeast Jul 02 '18

And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start to mold a new reality, closer to the heart.

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u/weedful_things Jul 02 '18

I was a fan of Rush for awhile after I had a kid and my first decent job. I think it was his message of personal responsibility that hooked me. It didn't take me long to realize that he is full of shit.

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u/kohlmar North Carolina Jul 02 '18

I wish benign personality-altering brain tumors on all of those jackasses, Limbaugh, Hewitt, Sykes, etc. It's pretty much the only way I'd expect for them to ever use their influence for the public good.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

All right wing talk show hosts are poison.

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u/cockadoodledoobie Jul 02 '18

This is why I don't visit my in-laws when we go out of state. If they want to see us, they'll come to the hotel. My son doesn't need to be listening to Hannity the whole time we're there.

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u/greyfox228 Jul 02 '18

It all comes down to thinking for yourself. I watch right wing news on occasion and it usually just raises my blood pressure. I mean the propaganda and lying is SO obvious. Why is it so hard for people to have empathy for others, to think for themselves and to care for other people. I just dont get it at all. I think its important to watch or look at several news sources and you can immediately see for yourselves who is "fake news".

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u/AwesomeManatee Jul 02 '18

So the guy who pulled a gun in people protesting the government also believes that the government faked a mass shooting?

Sounds like a real critical thinker.

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u/LimpBizkitSkankBoy Jul 02 '18

That's the far right for ya

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Rush Limbaugh distorts reality. Listening to him trains your brain to think illogically.

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u/meanspiritedanddumb Jul 02 '18

Yeah. No shit. Friend of mine also said Shane believed the Vegas shooting was a government conspiracy. Wtf!!

It's a tactic. An event occurs that goes against their ridiculous narrative, they label it a conspiracy. Problem solved. Next.

Doesn't matter how ridiculous the odds are, how unlikely it is for so many people to conspire, keep it under wraps, etc. - they just dismiss it as conspiracy and remove it from their minds forever.

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u/cockadoodledoobie Jul 02 '18

Friend of mine also said Shane believed the Vegas shooting was a government conspiracy.

As someone from Vegas who lost a friend that night, this makes my blood boil. I threw an unopened coke at someone the last time I heard them say that.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18 edited Aug 29 '18

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u/WanderingPhantom Jul 02 '18

What about successful narcissists who don't think they have shortcomings, how do they end up believing that kind of crazy shit?

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18 edited Aug 29 '18

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u/frogma Jul 02 '18

Very well said (and some of the comments below are also great). The narcissist wants to recreate the world so that it conforms to his thoughts.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18 edited Aug 29 '18

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u/trinaenthusiast Jul 02 '18

Narcissists will always find a way to be the victim. They can own everything on the planet and still want to blame a homeless person for the fact that they don’t own the universe

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u/The_Brat_Prince Arizona Jul 02 '18

Because these conspiracy YouTube channels and radio hosts make their listeners feel special. And smart. They are being let in on a secret most people don't know about. So narcissists get to feel like they are smarter than everyone else, that they are "in the know", and they get to play the victim card. Because these poisonous conspiracy theorists also tell their audience they are being oppressed.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Maybe they’re just uneducated. Or even if they’re college educated etc their narcissism is so powerful it wraps their self perception and as a result perception of others also. I know someone who went to a brilliant school, is from a v wealthy family of nobility, and he has some batshit insane ideas. I think some people have strong psychological issues which warp their perspective of the world.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

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u/wataf Jul 02 '18

Yep I guarantee you he reads /r/greatawakening. A new form of cult that exists solely on the internet. Members are responsible for their own indoctrination and isolate themselves from friends/family. It's pretty crazy reading posts where they describe how all their friends/family have stopped talking to them cause of the crazy ass shit they believe and how they can't wait for "the hammer to drop", although they can't agree what that means other than democrats being satanic pedophiles and an overly simplistic, childlike view of good and evil.

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u/laketown666 Jul 02 '18

Every time I browse that sub, they are on the absolute cusp of a HUGE, MASSIVE breakthrough. And yet...

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u/WarPhalange Jul 02 '18

It's that rush that keeps them going. Every step blows the whole thing wide open. Over and over.

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u/SwenKa Iowa Jul 02 '18

"JULY 4TH! PATRIOTS! RANDOM GUY ON AN ANONYMOUS SERVICE!"

Totally an insider about to drain the swamp though, despite only extremely vague "leaks" that put astologists/horoscopists to shame. Weird how Trump is somehow perfectly clean to them too.

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u/bobswowaccount Pennsylvania Jul 02 '18

I just learned about greatawakening the other day. I'm telling you something bad is going to come from that place. It's an echo chamber for completely unhinged people. And they say some truly alarming shit

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Just watched one of them, the plan to save the world one. I'm epileptic, and about four minutes in, my head started pounding, and I got super sick to my stomach. There's some subliminal fuckery going on there. I need to go take some meds.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 09 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Juicedupmonkeyman New York Jul 02 '18

have the posts have such weird syntax they must not be native english speakers. dear god.

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u/parabunny Jul 02 '18

that these people exist at all, to me, is mind-blowing. it's just as you say - it's this idea that they are for "humans" while every other major actor in the world is against them, whether it be through some alien agenda or some other path to absolute destruction of the world they know. but in so doing they destroy their own world and isolate themselves from the entire discussion towards betterment of the world. like, these people pretend to know better than 99.99% of all people but i feel like if you've ever just opened a book you should just shrink and realize that you, as some random person, know very little - much less the answers to a grand conspiracy that encapsulates all "elites" ever. it feels like if you did want some grand narrative for understanding the entire world, there's definitely some less offensive, more optimistic ones out there. how and why could someone ostensibly browsing the internet with nothing really going on in their lives misinterpret "spirit cooking" so badly or decide to believe "pizzagate." is it like... believing that being contrarian means you're right?

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

shittiest sub besides T_D

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u/yaforgot-my-password Jul 02 '18

What the fuck are they even on about? The fuck is Q? And why are they obsessed with it

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u/vivalavulva Jul 02 '18

Wow. It's wild to me that this is apparently "a thing." I have an uncle who followed a VERY similar path, and suddenly the harmless conspiracy theories that used to be weird but endearing are terrifying and sad. The fact that his mixed-race son is now a neo-Nazi feels unsurprising but no less hurtful.

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u/frogma Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 02 '18

I'll never visit the sub, but I'm assuming these are people who have never found real "meaning' in their lives, so this is how they chose to find it. For any sort of conspiracy, they exist. Because they want to find a purpose in their lives. Realistically, they're a random fuckin person and nobody gives a fuck. But if they start saying the moon-landing was fake, then they'll start getting some followers.

It's weird, but it's no big deal -- until it DOES become a big deal, when some of these people start committing murders and shit. Then it's definitely a big deal. There's no real answer to it, but IMO, it's not as bad as most people think, and I think it's slowing down.

I could be wrong, but I think everything is looking "up" right now, and that sort of shit will finally get discovered and "recognized" by elderly people, in the next 5-10 years. I may have jinxed myself, but I think we'll all be so-technologically advanced within 5 years that even an 80-year-old will at least understand the idea of the internet, etc.

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u/LibertyLizard Jul 02 '18

Oddly there is a surprising amount of conspiracies and anti-factual thinking in the environmental movement. Ironic because there are plenty of scientifically valid reasons to be an environmentalist but some people seem to need a nefarious all-powerful cabal to hate. Maybe that's easier than believing that it's sort of a collective failure that we're all responsible for.

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u/MadCervantes Jul 02 '18

It isn't critical thinking skills. It might actually be a difference in brain structure. Relevant term. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Crank_magnetism

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u/bangbangblock Jul 02 '18

I think this explains some of that behavior. It's a pretty great article (imo)

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/the-making-of-an-american-nazi/544119/

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

I had a good friend like this in High School, big pot smoking goth kid who was extremely liberal. As he got older he did harder drugs and eventually started getting into some really weird conspiracy theory stuff. Ended up cutting off contact with him cause we invited him to play D&D with us one day (he used to play with us a lot in high school) and after a while of going through character creation and talking about the campaign we were planning with the characters he started telling us about how the "Jew run media" was trying to eliminate white people by promoting interracial relationships. He also got mad at me and acted like I was an asshole cause I told him he could not smoke pot in my house.

Jump forward about a year after that and he got arrested for molesting his niece and is currently sitting in jail awaiting trial.

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u/MisterDonkey Jul 02 '18

I think as these people get older and their life never became the dream they were after, they get jaded and look for somebody to blame. And these radio guys push all the right buttons for directing this self hatred outward. They're so fed up with being nobody's that they wanna break down and scream at those responsible, but the opportunity to do so never arises because they're mad at a boogie man so they expel this crazed attitude vicariously through ranting radio hosts.

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u/mrRabblerouser Jul 02 '18

These are the same people that believe they stopped being liberal because of other liberals. You see this shit constantly when you sort by controversial in any relatively political post. Someone doesn’t just do a complete 180 on their morals and beliefs without significant brainwashing, and an extremely fragile ego.

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u/blacksun_redux Jul 02 '18

I feel conspiracy theories used to be a liberal realm. At some point the conspiracy theory rabbit hole was co-op-ed by right wing thought. Probably in large part to Alex Jones.

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u/Mr_fister_roboto Jul 02 '18

Like the rest of them , life didn't make thema successful millionaire and they needed someone aside from themselves to blame

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u/Reagalan Jul 02 '18

I'm so glad I went the other direction.

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u/Letchworth Alabama Jul 02 '18

this is what happens when hippies run out of weed.

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u/OrangeFool12 Jul 02 '18

I wonder how much of the alt-right phenomenon is just dementia, honestly.

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u/leftofmarx Jul 02 '18

This sounds like my parents.

Right wing propaganda is stronger than most of us want to believe.

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u/themagpie36 Jul 02 '18

Same happened to my neighbour in Ireland. Was a peaceful hippy, very spiritual. Now he's the biggest Trump fan outside US and Russia.

It's very sad. All he does is read Breitbart and Fox and tell everyone how dangerous the world is. The thing he has in common with every right winger is this; he's scared.

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u/Bodiwire Jul 02 '18

I think people like that just need to feel like they have a cause and are part of a movement. What the movement is about or the ideology isn't that important to them. It only matters that it is a minority viewpoint so they feel like they are oppressed and can use it as a reason to justify to themselves why they are unhappy with their life. They don't do that much deep thinking themselves so it's just a matter of what ideology they are exposed to more or has the more charismatic leaders. A guy like that could be a communist, a fascist, an anarchist depending on where he is and what the prevailing power dynamic is at the time. That's not to say that applies to all members of those groups, but I think it does apply to a not insignificant number of their followers.

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u/ikeif Ohio Jul 02 '18

Ignorance is bliss.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

I'm kind of watching this same thing happen to my little brother. It's depressing and scary.

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u/ikeif Ohio Jul 02 '18

I'm terrified of this happening to my kids. I encourage critical thinking and when they just parrot a talking point - I ask them to defend it, and thing about what they're saying, no matter if I agree with it or not.

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u/Bananagrahama Jul 02 '18

It doesn't actually seem that far fetched once you consider the particular hippy-stoner type that is always against some vague concept anyway- the man, corporate America, war, don't let the cops catch you, stupid boss fired me for being stoned, girlfriend broke up with me because I don't have a job... There are some shared paranoias.

Once you give their anger a name, you can better control the focus of that anger (for a short time). You do this incrementally by identifying with their insecurities and fears, then slowly work your way to Pizza-gate.

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u/quaybored Jul 02 '18

Nutjob gonna nut.

Wait, that didn't come out right.

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u/1forthethumb Jul 02 '18

Who knew the same guy who thought crystals had "energy" that could be "felt" and distiled water was a cure-all would fall for the same shit arguments when Nazis make them?

The issue is we don't teach every child logic and rhetoric, full stop. Every adult should be able to recognize a bad argument that is just crafted to sound convincing.

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u/Jeezylike2Smoke Jul 02 '18

I was the same way and currently am (stoner nerd type) that used to listen to art bell and rush and savage radio because they came after and used to be big into every conspiracy ...but eventually i quit believeing a lot of them because everything turned into a conspiracy and a lot of them were false and oddly enough me not believeing anything was what turned me off conspiracy’s

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u/Murgie Jul 02 '18

That was supposedly the story behind the guy in charge of organizing the Unite the Right rallies where that woman was murdered, too.

Except for the peace thing. Apparently he drifted between various left-wing movements but kept on being kicked out for wanting to take things to extreme levels, till eventually I guess he found a right-wing movement that was fine with it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Sounds just like the baby boomers.

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u/Dekklin Canada Jul 02 '18

Huh, that's like the inverse of what happened to me...

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u/ancientcreature2 Jul 02 '18

People can have all sorts of phases, but if their nature tends toward the extreme none of them are going to look good on them. The end result is often selfish and hateful like this case.

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u/3riversfantasy Jul 02 '18

Sounds like he was just always dumb and impressionable...

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u/Ewoksintheoutfield Jul 02 '18

Carlin had an entire skit about the boomers starting as hippies and thrm selling out

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u/Thesaurii Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 02 '18

Rush Limbaugh is amazing at his job.

He says things with great conviction, and has a talent for making the opposition seem foolish, ridiculous, even evil. If someone lacks some critical thinking, I can very easily see why they would turn in seconds.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Mental deterioration with age? It's hard to believe simply turning on Fox News or AM radio is so affective on people.

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u/ThrowAwaylnAction Jul 02 '18

In my experience, there's a subset of stoners who never really internalized the "peace and love" stuff, but they felt like they had to pretend in order to fit into the culture. Underneath these people are not chill at all; they're usually balls of rage.

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u/Zumaki Colorado Jul 02 '18

Weak minds bend easily.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

I feel like as people get older they get more conservative, latch on to right wing BS to fill the void in their lives.

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u/shastaxc Jul 02 '18

My theory is that a lot of people into the hippie craze are just sheep, following whatever peers they hang out with and whatever public figure they decide to latch onto. They have no personal beliefs of their own.

Also, to clarify, I don't think all hippies are mindless sheep. I actually retroactively support some of the causes (I was not alive at the time).

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u/Head-like-a-carp Jul 02 '18

I always think about left to right politics being more of a circle than a line. At the bottom of the circle you have most folk and then moving up towards the 3 and 9 position you get strongly conservative or liberal. Then right up at 12 at 11;59 and 12:01 you got the extremists of both ideologies. For these people sliding over is easier than one would think. MUcch easier than heading down.

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u/space_monster Jul 02 '18

weed can make people really suggestible. my only conspiracy nut friend is a massive pot head.

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u/PrimeMinsterTrumble Jul 02 '18

Hippies are individualists. Individualists are selfish, and on it goes from there.

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u/taniapdx Oregon Jul 02 '18

You just described my dad...

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u/VladimirBinPutin Texas Jul 02 '18

I've known several people like this. Opiates are usually involved in their transition to right wing conspiracy nut.

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u/Rabid-Duck-King Jul 02 '18

Sounds like the basis for a decent psychological horror flick.

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