Never fails to amaze me how a scene which was born out of underground gay seventies disco catering for the marginalised now - 40-odd years later - seems to attract so many alt-right, Reform-endorsing, climate denying, misogynistic, homophobic conspiracy theorists.
Agreed, though as you mention in another comment, it's less present in real life than online on forums like this, or on Discord. For some reason, the forum warriors are overrepresented by men in their 20-40s, with a libertarian streak, not always, but often with a red pill vibe. Ever since the pandemic , this voice has gotten louder and louder. I used to think it was caused by Trump in the US, but I am pretty sure that voice would have come up without him. I truly think the pandemic response changed people and the narrative fundamentally. The anger from that period has supercharged certain voices and thoughts. That, combined with human disconnection, is such a terrible recipe. People's entire social habits changed, more inward looking, less friendly to those who are different. I think the voices you hear out there are quiet, or more open in person. I have friends from all over the spectrum, Trumpers, you name it. And in person discourse is quite awesome. I push on them, they push on me. And they see points IRL that they'd never agree to online.
In some ways I get it - modern political parties on all sides don't really help the average working middle class folks thrive. Things cost more than ever, people are struggling, politicians seem more corrupt than ever, and the media helps polarize everything from immigration to social issues to a degree I never would have expected 10 years ago. Everything is getting caught up in the polarization storm now as folks retreat to their echo chambers driven by algorithms designed to amplify the echo. In 2016, I could almost get that people would buy in to the Trump narrative as an outsider, he could fix it. But his hold remains even now with him doing nothing to fix it, only making things worse!
I would just like some sort of balance, especially on topics like immigration and climate science. Like, it's perfectly rational for conservatives to say that climate science is real but we don't think it will be effective to take measures to fight it, instead of denying it's real. Climate science was pretty widely accepted 20 years ago by the left and right, it was more a question of what to do about it and how hard we push. Today, it's a conspiracy theory for many people. Or on immigration, frame the conversation in ways that don't incite folks who think one side wants pure open borders when that is not the case. It used to be evidence vs evidence. Now it's more an argument of what is a fact. How can that help anything when people believe non-facts so strongly?
For me, since I am from the USA, I've just come to despise our current right-wing system so wholly as it's transparently anti-American. From Gerrymandering, to buying up media empires and slowly turning them in to Hannity, the positions on Climate science and immigration enforcements, racking up huge debt for future generations, making lies and falsehoods so common in politics that real scandals are our of the media landscape in 1-2 days, the list is so godddamned long. Oh and HORRIBLE foreign policy to boot. The democratic left are corporate shills but still seem intent on helping people even if their policies cannot be enacted with gerrymandering and the senate voting structure. The state I am from is known for not really being beholden to one party or another, and it was a point of pride (and still is to some extent). But for me to vote republican, I would have to accept so much policy position that goes (for me) against the core of what it means to be an honest human. There are no more independent voices on that side of the aisle unfortunately. With Cassidy and Massie out, it's Trump shills from top to bottom. Not a good recipe for competing ideas that are intended to help people. And the opposite side of power is bad too - look at California. Dems there are so out of touch with the electorate and getting shit done. Much less of an 'empire' vibe at least, but there is no yin to the yang to balance.
all you can do is resort to "whelp you juzt can see the twoof!"
logic ladies and gentlemen