It feels like topics I used to only see on r/conspiracy—like Epstein and the deep state—are now all over mainstream subreddits.
The US is doing what it always has done, only now the pretexts are weaker than ever. Did things really have to get this obvious before people finally realized that western governments only care about what’s best for the oligarchy?
So back when Snowden told everyone that the u.s government had mass surveillance on the people there wasn’t very much outrage.
And I remember a discussion on reddit I posted. I asked if because this idea of “the government is spying on me” has long been associated with cooky crazy paranoid people, that when we learned it actually was all true, that we still were reluctant to engage with it because of its ties to being a paranoid crazy person.
A few people commented but not much could be determined because there is no research on this.
But I speculated that people are apprehensive about engaging in proven conspiracy theories because of the association with conspiracy theories and personality traits that are less socially acceptable (only nut jobs talk about conspiracy theories).
Most people will only engage with the topic once it has become socially acceptable to do so.
How such a topic moves from “only cooky people talk about it” to “everyone talks about it” is not clear. But possibly it is the result of enough people with pull talking about it enough to encourage others.
What are your thoughts on this ?
No OP, but with Snowden, a lot of the general outline was already known by those that pay attention. The specifics were new, but also largely filtered with “the government’s side”.
That’s also true here.
People knew trump raped girls. Years ago. Many years.
But if you said anything you were seen as an alarmist. Or exaggerating. Even though legal documents and victim reports were out there and freely available. I remember telling others of this when he ran in 2024 and people were like “idk if that’s true” and questioning me even when I told them there are public records of him going to court for it.
There are always a few people paying attention. But most aren’t. They only hear of things and only become concerned about things when someone of influence tells them it’s something they need to be worried about.