memes

I grew up in an entire family who had fallen down this slippery pipeline of magical thinking. For some of them, it cost them everything.

It's almost entirely bullshit designed to prey on people who are desperate for something better in their lives, desperate to feel less alone, desperate to feel hope that the universe is bigger than it seems and that they won't die or have to say goodbye to everyone someday.

That's where it does the most harm, along with religious beliefs like the rapture or Armageddon fantasies, it's just magical thinking that makes you feel like nothing on Earth here and now matters. No need to worry about the climate, Jesus/Aliens are coming. No need to get educated and invest in your future, Jesus/Aliens are coming. No need to value your every moment like it may be your last, because Jesus/Aliens are coming, you have all the time in the world to ignore the people and precious memories around you.

The most fucked-up part of it all is I think there may be something weird going on, but it's not aliens or jesus, it's not an escape, it may not even be an "objective" thing, but maybe some natural phenomenon that our brains are recontextualizing. But this kind of "maybe there's something real" event seems to be exceedingly rare and without a way to study or replicate it, without valid, unambiguous evidence, it's like any of our own subjective experiences, it takes place inside you and can't impact the world around you. If you think it will, you will end up alone and disappointed.

I used to be a 9/11 Truther 😭 Turned out that I, too, was mentally unwell and socially isolated even worse than that hairy fella on the island with a face painted on a football. It's crazy (if I can use that word in this context) how your brain can look at something and be 100% convinced of it, and the exact same information can look ludicrously and obviously bullshit a year later when your psychological well-being is in a better place.

Advice: don't bother debating conspiracists on their 'evidence', but when they hopefully emerge from their pit of psychosis, welcome them back with open arms. And, perhaps most importantly, ensure they know that that non-judgemental welcome is there for them whenever they want it. The less social friction/cringe/embarrassment they feel is awaiting them, the easier and quicker they can transition into some sort of normality again. Debating the details of whatever conspiracist horseshit it happens to be is like trying to cure schizophrenia by proving the person's hallucinated demons wrong with FACTS and LOGIC. You'll just make it worse.

grifters exploiting the mentally ill

Reminds me of r/gangstalking.

I spent a few minutes there once and it's the biggest mindfuck. Impossible to distinguish between schizophrenics, possible authentic level-headed victims, exploiters, and trolls.

😵‍💫

Don't joke. I was at my wilderness cottage in northern Ontario about six years ago.

Bright blue sky, beautiful sun, warm air, no bugs ... I was alone ... the world was my own. Then a round white object the size of the full moon slowly drifted overhead. I thought maybe it was just some thing that was blowing by ... a piece of garbage, plastic or even a party balloon. So I ignored it.

It stayed in place for an hour and I thought it was weird.

After hovering in place as clouds slowly started to move overhead ... I became worried. It's freaky to see an object stay in the same spot in the sky for eight hours and it isn't the moon or the sun.

It stayed until sundown, then finally moved away.

I researched it and asked around about it days after.

Turns out it was a new experimental balloon system they launched from Timmins, Ontario. Some new system someone was developing to raise rockets into high altitude and launch them from there.

But for a few days I was really freaked out.

I thought the ufo craze would subside a bit now that’s it’s become obvious it’s all just man made drones

But I severely underestimated the power of choosing to be paranoid psychotics.

It’s just too fun a subculture for these people I guess

What do the grifters have to gain that way, though? Maybe it's just mentally ill people all the way down.

There is no “Reddit.” You are delusional.

nothing but grifters exploiting the mentally ill

You have an incomplete data set.