this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Shit's getting really bad. I mean I'm not sure what I think on the judgement, but the fact that there's people here walking around with Nazi symbols and openly literally becoming members of the National Socialist Network. How has it all gone so wrong and so... Weird.
We've always had odd balls, arseholes, pointlessly angry people, racists, homophobes, all varieties of people out on the fringe of generally acceptable behaviours. Modern technology has allowed them to find community and sort of glob together much easier, be much louder and more visible, spread their particular brand of thought.
Just my musings anyway. They were always there, the regular people were just more numerous and those on the fringe couldn't find each other so easily.
I think we surpassed the "finding community" part long ago.
These days white extremists are manufactured by other white extremists on social media -- the closest thing we've ever built to mind control.
The underlying grooming strategies aren't much different to the ones Islamic extremists have been using on budding young suicide bombers for decades, they just throw in a few more memes.
Oh and most importantly, profits. There's a lot of ad impressions and user engagement on the path from human being to far-right terrorist, eventually culminating in gun-based mass murder that is like Christmas for the gun lobby and for-profit media.
The brain washing Nazi funnel starts at the main stream media especially the Murdoch media empire. Social media just finishes the job.
I think there's also just good old poverty and hopelessness.
It seems like life is just getting harder for younger generations. No homes, shit jobs, fix the planet for us, etc etc.
Frustration and feelings of persecution breeds this kind of tribalism and manifests as some kind of hatred.
Targeting young, disillusioned men isn't a new invention -- Islamic extremists have been doing it in the Middle East for decades.
But America has brought modern convenience to the process. Fresh meat is easy to find and they only need a few hundred bucks to buy a gun for maximum damage and minimum risk.