this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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Oh no, it's the consequences of their actions! Conservatives can continue to own the libs by continuing this trend.
To be fair here, it is pretty sad that people were manipulated into believing conspiracy theories and died a potentially avoidable death as a result of it.
In my view, this is on the politicians and "influencers" who used those conspiracy theories for their own gains, often knowing fully well that what they are claiming is bullshit..
I'm not saying that those who fell for it are innocent or holy, but I can't help but to feel at least a little bad for a potentially unstable person falling for a scam artist and dying as a result..
To be fair, their cult devotion to a widely known conman and penchant for believing crazy conspiracy theories is kind of their own doing.
Republicans or conservatives as a whole? I assume you’re talking about Trump, whom I and many other conservatives very much dislike, even if his interactions are entertaining. I’ll believe a “conspiracy” if presented with enough substantial evidence.
I of course can’t speak for every conservative, but neither can you.
I can only speak for myself, but me specifically, I'm talking about the conspiracy theorists who were tricked into believing that the COVID vaccine is some kind of evil plan to genocide everyone and stuff like that.
Of course it's their own actions.
But what if somebody is part of a cult who believes they will be picked up by space aliens and taken to heaven, but they have to drink magic poison for that to happen. Is it just the fault of the person who fell for the lies of the cult if they kill themselves? Or does the cult leader also have at least some responsibility for manipulating people and exploiting people's vulnerable mental states?
The sad thing about cults and cult-like behaviour (I'm not talking about conservatives overall, I'm talking about the "QAnon" hardcore Trump supporters) is that everyone, regardless of intelligence, can potentially be manipulated into believing the wildest stuff. People are capable of telling incredible lies to themselves, especially when they are in a vulnerable mental state.
I used to think this was just a matter of dumb people falling for dumb tricks, but I know somebody who is intelligent, but who was having a very rough time in his personal life (losing somebody close to him).
He managed to fall for a random con artist (sort of a fortune teller thing) and lost 10'000s of dollars within a short time. Before that, he wasn't spiritual or religious at all, he was as rational or probably more rational than the average person.
He snapped out of it after a couple of weeks. I'm glad that he told me, even though he was incredibly ashamed to fall for it, because it completely changed my outlook on what kind of person falls for those tricks.
So again, I cannot help but feel a little bit sorry for some of them being manipulated and exploited.