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whatsaphoto t1_iumx3gr wrote

Reply to comment by Jazzbo64 in Little Compton residents react to town-wide hate-filled mailer with love and solidarity by GhostOpera406

200 years ago they would have simply been considered the town square idiot and cast aside as such, but now because of social media their insane thoughts and opinions are constantly being reinforced by thousands of other town square idiots every day on town square idiot forums across the globe day in and day out with absolutely zero sense of self awareness to be found.

edit: To be fair, this person almost certainly has some form or another of mental illness, and while I hope they somehow find some peace I also really, really hope they keep themselves and those around them safe by not doing silly things like storming the US capitol.

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JimmyHavok t1_iumzw24 wrote

Unfortunately, these town square idiots are being funded by people who want to use them to get their taxes cut and their polluting unregulated.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_iun00ai wrote

I think it's more than just social media amplifying it. It's pretty clear that people go down rabbit holes and get increasingly radicalized. I'm not sure I'd dismiss it as mental illness.

It's closer to someone who's been sucked into a cult. I do think that online spaces and discourse have warped people's brains where it is a lot easier to get sucked into more extreme ideology and logic and harder to stop the tumble down the rabbit hole.

And, no, this is not a phenomenon limited to one party or political ideology.

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