I see Weinstein has finally stepped off the cliff, after staring into the abyss these last few years. Deep down inside he probably couldn’t handle the fact his own career has been one big fat lie.
"what if the Matrix was real, but instead of a massive, all-encompassing virtual reality simulation, it was USAID subscribing to Politico newsletters."
This reminds me of listening to old Coast to Coast eps and I assume you can draw a straight line between late night AM callers in the 90s and this mess
One of the most surreal experiences in my life is getting a 3am uber back home from the hospital the night my grandmother died and sitting there with my mother while the driver played coast to coast fm
The entire time I was reading the screenshots I was thinking "isn't this one the physicist? I wonder what crackpot idea he had that didn't pass peer review", and sure enough, a bad theory of everything counts.
I have had multiple jobs that include sorting through mail from people who clearly have delusional disorders. In terms of coherence, this is like a half step above the median letter
Dave Rubin was literally funded by the Russian government to just keep doing the propaganda he was already doing. Is he just outraged that he didn't get paid our that the US government was the source of this made up controversy
Ideology has similarities to mental illness - it involves delusion - but it is not mental illness. For one thing it is a group phenomenon
And often functional
Oh yes. Ideology can include self-delusion about physical facts. The only limit is, ideology so delusional it interferes with aiming artillery accurately is no longer functional. As Orwell put it.
this is why we need social media. if folks aren't allowed to post the most unhinged imaginable feedback loops in the context of homestuck memes they become Politicians
Probably true but Weinstein is an old fashioned crank. He has a nonsense theory of everything, and has created a narrative that evil forces in science and government are suppressing him
I wouldn’t say “mass” bc I don’t think the median person who reads these posts is literally psychotic. I believe a small number of influential people in the right wing media ecosystem are literally psychotic, and their right wing credentials influence relatively psychologically normal people
Shared delusions / shared psychotic disorder is a real thing, usually with people who are very close to a person with psychosis. It doesn't seem too far-fetched that people, especially ones who get most of their social interaction online, might pick up other people's delusions.
Especially when, as you pointed out, some of these delusional people have a lot of influence in these spaces. And there's others who are happy to go along with and boost their ideas if they see something to gain from it.
That is very fair, I think redemption is possible, but they committed the original sin of giving us so many of the Federalist Society judges that brought us to this point. I think that should not be forgotten, however we are going to need allies to get back from this brink, and you are right.
Eh. Rubin I give credit for having maybe actually questioned herself and learned some things, but most of them haven’t changed at all, the landscape changed around them
there is some credit to be given for consistency, but not that much
Explanation is never excuse, but it’s clear a small subset of them were genuinely naive enough to believe at least the gist of what they were trying to sell. I still have no time for the likes of Kristol or Frum, but they weren’t just abusers looking for allowable targets. They just enabled them
I think if you’re like Kristol and you actually care about foreign policy (even if you have bad views on it) it’s harder to go insane in this specific way because you understand that the world outside America does actually exist
Please don't politicize a legitimate illness by comparing it to an absolute lunatic and prime example of how healthcare goes unrecognized and underfunded everywhere in our society. Besides, mentally ill people get to stay in camps soon. Won't have to worry about them much longer. Unless they rule.
Comments
Everything the left does is divinely inspired and infallible!
The government has never sought to suppress ideas.
Kayfabe is what pro wrestling does. There is nothing theatrical about politics.
No one has ever funded bad science.
And often functional
never thought I'd die next to an elf, etc
there is some credit to be given for consistency, but not that much