It’s definitely stuff like this that interests me. I think eventually - when the dust finally settles - people are going to have to start talking again.

I think I’m done doing this though. I’ve done the work of being a patient debater for too long. I just want to give into hedonistic mud slinging at this point because I kind hate to say it but I think the world might be politically doomed anyway. I might as well get my jollies.

I just burned all my patience to nothing obsessing for so long. Decades of my life. And even if I somehow recover my political energy, I’ll still be living with the knowledge that my country let Trump win a second time. That 70% either voted for Trump or failed to vote against him and let him win. Its really hard to have hope with that knowledge. I’ll probably just kind rage for a bit, and then when I save enough money I want to flee to some other country if possible.

You don’t need to worry about insulting me. I probably deserve some insults.

I hope you manage to avoid the bitter void that I’ve fallen into.

There was one dude who was an antisemitic rightwinger and seemed to start adopting softer stances like “You can’t really blame Jews for being bankers historically, its just kind of where they ended up being pushed into by other religious groups. It doesn’t make sense to hate them for that.” or something to that effect. And he even started mixing some left & right leaning econ together.

That is the most notable example I can think of at the top of my head. But there were little bits and pieces that got chipped away I think for each interaction for the more open minded debaters I argued with.

Some were extremely stubborn though. I remember an anarcho-capitalist that was just dripping with disgust for socialists and basically never budged. He was a Youtuber too, I don’t remember his name though. Motherfucker hated me lol.

I have no idea what the specific goal was but it seems like it was just a place for interesting debate. I only know I got invited because of my advocacy for UBI on Reddit back when I was a (otherwise pro-capitalism) liberal and then from spending time there I morphed into a Mutualist/Market-Socialist.

It was literally the opposite of an echo chamber. It was full of people with vastly different ideologies and included even “sub flavors” of said ideologies. Liberals/Neoliberals/Social Democrats, Conservatives/NeoCons/PaleoCons, Libertarians/Anarcho-Capitalists, Communists/Socialists, Monarchists, Fascists/Nazis/Strasserites/Neoconfederates, every flavor of Anarchist. Hell, it had an unironic Anarcho-Primitivist somehow (yes they got the “But you’re on the internet, doesn’t that make you a hypocrite?” a lot).

It was a dedicated invite-only debate arena on Reddit. Moderated by Libertarians, who might have fucking stupid beliefs but apparently make for very relaxed moderators.

Treating everyone you disagree with like they’re stupid is coping emotionally. Instead of taking the time to, idk discuss things with people they’ve written them off as dumb before they ever speak to them.

You don’t know fuck all how much I’ve done precisely that. I obsessively debated various political and economic ideologies for like a straight decade of my life in invite-only forums specifically designed for such debate. I changed my own mind over time, and changed other people’s minds. I’ve done it.

But I promise you, the people supporting these ideas proposed by the Trump administration are not just stupid, but WILLINGLY IGNORANT for their own selfish purposes. The amount coursing hatred I feel for them burns like the accretion disc of a quasar.

They are not people I would bother to debate. They are quite literally just my enemy. Mortal enemies. I don’t want middle ground with them. I want something else.

As an American who has avoided joining the American military because I’ve been afraid of dying in a war, I’m almost leaning into wanting to join the Canadian military at this point. As I’m much less afraid of dying now that I’m nigh suicidal and Canadian sovereignty sounds like a viable cause to actually fight for.

Platforming is perhaps the wrong term, maybe “selective reporting” and “cherry picking” fits better.

But I will say that this model of yours that says people do these things because they are stupid or “dumb” might help you cope emotionally, but it prevents you from reaching any genuine insight.

I’m not the person you were responding to but I just wanted to make perfectly clear that you are 100% full of shit.

It doesn’t give anyone ANY measure of “cope” that so many people are fucking stupid. Its terrifying, despairing, and awful. I would rather delusionally believe I could convince them of rational stances, now that would be cope.