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The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

blog.andymasley.com

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Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#201

Post by m463 »

TrackerFF wrote: post #106

For the past few years, I've seen a dozen of friends or acquaintances turn "ideologically crazy", and they can be roughly grouped into: A) Onset of schizophrenia or other serious mental illness, followed by psychosis. This is actually the most common I've seen. But it is also the easiest to spot. B) Some crisis event in life, followed by finding / joining a community. Some were hit hard by this during COVID. I've yet…

> it could be that they just hide it better.

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation"

I think we need decent third places back, because the post-internet replacements are sub-par.

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#202

Post by pavel_lishin »

positr0n wrote: post #200
jst1fthsdys wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Charlie Kirk's killer > the guy who killed the United Healthcare CEO. Allegedly. Neither have been convicted.

Well I mean someone killed them. So whoever did it is who OP is talking about.

Assuming the perpetrators are left-leaning.

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#203

Post by jrflowers »

miyoji wrote: post #14
jrflowers wrote: post #12

I like that the author doesn’t clarify what constitutes an extremist idea aside from suggesting that he doesn’t believe in any. “Extremism is when people, who are dumb, don’t know facts unlike me, who is very smart” is a kick ass theme for an essay

"I’m not against extremist ideas on principle. I have my own, the main one being that animal welfare is a much larger urgent catastrophe than most people believe."

“I have exactly one ‘extremist’ belief that I’m willing to share and here’s why I think it’s correct” doesn’t do much to clarify what constitutes extremist other than stuff the author is too smart to believe

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#204

Post by marjancek »

bot403 wrote: post #97
hackernud3s wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all learned what the 3 branches are in grade school. Some people forgot it. Liberals are more likely to remember it because liberal discourse (this thread for example) reminds them of it. It's a biased litmus test in other words.

It's inconceivable to me that you could forget the three branches. There are still headlines and news articles about the president , congress, and the supreme court. Those three things , talked about constantly, are a basic reminder of the most visible aspects of each branch.

Yet a lot of people forgot about the most important thing about them: that they must be independent.

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#205

Post by reverius42 »

inigyou wrote: post #199
jst1fthsdys wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a rational response to the corruption and inhumanity of the police and jails, though.

You think that because you're left wing. A right wing person would think the arson threat was reasonable too.

Giving the police a smaller budget is the same level of extremism as murdering a bunch of refugees?

And before I get piled on for saying "smaller budget", think about what calls to "fund the police" would mean (a bigger budget), and think about why it's called "defund the police" and not "abolish the police".

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#206

Post by reverius42 »

jdubs1984 wrote: post #151
inigyou wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm noticing a lack of any concrete examples of left wing extremism in this comment. Right wing extremism is like, that lady from the UK who made a tweet asking everyone to burn down a hotel full of migrants.

uni bomber.

The Unabomber was anti-tech but not left wing in any coherent way.

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#207

Post by graceful6800 »

jayGlow wrote: post #160
inigyou wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm noticing a lack of any concrete examples of left wing extremism in this comment. Right wing extremism is like, that lady from the UK who made a tweet asking everyone to burn down a hotel full of migrants.

the various assassination attempts against the president or the multiple attacks against ICE agents and facilities? https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-antifa-cell-members-no...

Dunno, I'd mostly frame that as self defence from an increasingly hostile and authoritarian government and the actual, literal secret police.

Fighting back against people who straight up murder civilians in broad daylight is not something you can classify as extremism with any good faith.

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#208

Post by zahlman »

jhbadger wrote: post #90
hackernud3s wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is clearly a cool take though and author knows it. This is not a polarizing view in the sense that anything about Epstein / Gaza / Trans athletes would be.

Maybe not as polarizing as those, but by "animal welfare" he doesn't mean volunteering at the local animal shelter, he's a vegan. That's pretty polarizing to a lot of people who see veganism as an attack on their whole existence because they like meat.

> a lot of people who see veganism as an attack on their whole existence because they like meat.

I haven't met anyone like this.

I have met people who don't like exposure to pro-vegan propaganda (which comes across as moral scolding). Also, one time I was taken to a vegan restaurant and I felt like I was being gaslit about the taste of the food.

I have also met (or at least encountered on the Internet) vegans who conflate the two.

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#209

Post by zahlman »

jhbadger wrote: post #123
duncangh wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Veganism is so polarizing because on some level I think most if not all people understand that they are philosophically correct and that veganism is thus the morally right thing to do and those (like me) who still refuse to do it must live with themselves and their immoral choices every time they are confronted by a vegan or reminded of the feasibility of veganism

Perhaps. I suspect it may have more to do with the idea that many non-vegans think (whether or not it is true) that vegans believe themselves superior. It isn't unlike how learning that someone is an atheist angers many religious people -- they think the atheists think that they are superior (whether or not they really do).

> many non-vegans think (whether or not it is true) that vegans believe themselves superior.

It's hard to imagine a reason why someone is vegan, that wouldn't logically entail such a self-image.

> they think the atheists think that they are superior (whether or not they really do).

Atheists do not present atheism as an abstention from religion, and generally describe religion as irrational or illogical, not immoral.

Of course everyone who consciously makes a socially difficult choice has a well thought-out reason for it (although atheism is not particularly socially difficult in my environment). But they aren't all directly comparable.

Re: The main way I've seen people turn ideologically crazy (2025)

#210

Post by zahlman »

duncangh wrote: post #122
jhbadger wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not as polarizing as those, but by "animal welfare" he doesn't mean volunteering at the local animal shelter, he's a vegan. That's pretty polarizing to a lot of people who see veganism as an attack on their whole existence because they like meat.

Veganism is so polarizing because on some level I think most if not all people understand that they are philosophically correct and that veganism is thus the morally right thing to do and those (like me) who still refuse to do it must live with themselves and their immoral choices every time they are confronted by a vegan or reminded of the feasibility of veganism

This sort of rhetoric is exactly where the moral stereotyping of vegans comes from.

As for "feasibility", that is clearly not the same experience for everyone.

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