• @Vespair@lemm.eeEnglish
    81•6 days ago

    Real talk, we have to figure out how to handle this kind of chronic fear and paranoia, because this shit ain’t normal, but it is frighteningly common.

    Like yeah this is a hilariously over-the-top example, but the amount of people you and I both know who go through life genuinely thinking that they’re going to be the victim of a kidnapping or worse at any given time is astounding. And it’s not without impact either, because this is exactly the unfounded sense of fear that conservatives/fascists seize on to manipulate the population.

    I don’t know the solution, but a world where everyone is afraid of their own shadow is a literal hellscape.

    • @BreadstickNinja@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41•6 days ago

      If I were a betting man, I’d wager this woman spends a lot of time scrolling through right-wing posts on Facebook about the “invasion” of Britain. A Brexit type, if you will.

      That’s just speculation in this specific case, but the amount of fear-mongering right-wing content on social media is absolutely a contributor to this kind of worldview more broadly.

    • @JcbAzPx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14•6 days ago

      There were people who went out and shot at water towers during the radio airing of War of the World’s. Floridians will routinely try to make hurricanes go away by shooting at them. Police get hundreds of calls about Venus every year.

      There’s no fixing this type of stupid. All we can hope for is to keep it from spreading too far.

      • @aramova@infosec.pub
        7•6 days ago

        God damnit, stop making the case for eugenics already. Let RFK’s absurd health advice do its thing, weed them out, and we can hand out the Darwin awards in a few years.

    • @Toneswirly@lemmy.world
      17•6 days ago

      The solution is multi-factorial and will take a generation to implement. Expand the social safety net, expand public education to encompass critical thinking skills and researching skills, restrict private media monopolies that hold public consciousness in a deathgrip.

    • @MithranArkanere@lemmy.world
      14•6 days ago

      The way to handle it is to find the “The Architects of Fear”, getting rid of them, and making sure no new ones take their place.

      • @iii@mander.xyzEnglish
        3•5 days ago

        I don’t think you’ll ever be able to get fully rid of religion and terrorists

    • @Plesiohedron@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      13•6 days ago

      My thoughts as well.

      It makes me wonder about my own fears. How many of them were put there by propaganda?

      • @iii@mander.xyzEnglish
        2•5 days ago

        For one, there’s journalists picking the dumbest tweets and pretending it’s news. Then screenshots of the “news” article of a dumb tweet getting propagated on other fora.

        It’s ragebate, conditioning us into a default distrust in and condescension of others.

  • okgurl
    17•6 days ago

    for a second I thought this was a fucking onion article lol

  • @zazous@lemmy.funami.techEnglish
    28•6 days ago

    That picture is not Doncaster, It’s Devils Dyke in Sussex, UK. It is facing East toward Chanctonbury Ring (furtherest hill in the distance). Behind the photographer will be a pub and a carpark. Its a drive of about 230 miles between there and Doncaster. #justsaying

  • @Ghosthacked@lemm.eeEnglish
    9•5 days ago

    These are the same types of idiots that think they’re going to be targets of a terror attack in some small backwater town.

    These types of propaganda methods really resonate with boomer types.

    I remember someone that thought that they were going to be mailed anthrax back when they had the anthrax scare in the US.

    1. How much anthrax do you think terrorists have that they could afford to mail it to you, a random person in the US?

    2. Why do you think you’re so important that you’re going to be targeted?

    You need to either be clueless or really full of yourself to think these scenarios apply to you.

    The only time you’re possibly going to be caught up in something is if you’re going to an important or significant place, or you’re interacting with people much more important than you are.

  • @hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    38•7 days ago

    Ah yes, because paragliders obviously are a very good invasion method. How indoctrinated do you have to be to think this???

    also before i clicked the imagine i thought it was the flag of estonia of a sec