• TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Back when I was a young man, I loved stupid conspiracies. I thought it was like the old nosleep on Reddit. Everyone who was saying these things were in on the joke and everyone who took it seriously and complained about it was just stupid.

    I learned better. I was joking but a lot of people weren’t. I realized one of my exes was a serious conspiracy theorist and not just playing along with me. It was a sad day.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      A sad moment in my life was when I watched my beloved shit posting flat world Facebook group went from a place where we had debates using incredibly flimsy science about flat earth to real people not realizing it was a joke and taking it as fact.

      The smirks and winks lead to shouting matches. Silly banter ended up being personal attacks and threats. The monthly “long rant” became daily.

      The crazy conspiracy theorists folks won.

      AndbThe “birds aren’t real” folks are going to get it next.

      • WashedOver
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        10 months ago

        And the scary thing is many of these flat earthers moved on to the Q world. It was like a gateway entrance to Qanon. Once you’re going down the slippery slope territory…

    • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      This is the conclusion I came to years ago being an edgelord. I used to make all sorts of off color, shit jokes to lampoon racists, sexists, etc. When I realized some people laughing were doing so for all the wrong reasons because it’s actually been normalizing it… shit. Whoops