Let me explain the question:
If fox news and religious propaganda are exactly that, propaganda, then they are victims.
If, however, every person is free to listen to what they want and then rant against liberals, migrants, Muslims, Arabs, trans, gays, atheists, you name it, then they are just gullible.
I’d have more patience for a victim than a gullible person.
Everybody is free to believe what they want to believe. What I don’t get is why they have to stir things up and why they believe they are the only ones getting it and everyone else is dumb, woke, a communist or is going to hell. Why can’t they keep their opinions to themselves?
I don’t think it’s an “or” situation. They are both.
This is the answer.
In many ways people are the product of their surroundings. Even if these people are “just gullible”, that’s because they don’t know any better, which makes them victims also.
Maybe I’m missing some nuance of the word but if they believe the stuff because they are gullible… isn’t that what makes them the victim?
The gullible often become victims. I don’t understand the distinction you’re making. Between personal failing and societal failing? They feed into each other. Both warrant correction.
I’d put them on the same level of victimhood as followers of people like Charles Manson. They probably wouldn’t have done what they did without his influence but they’re still culpable for the damage they’ve caused.
Or are they bigots looking for confirmation bias?
Being abnormally gullible can be a symptom of some types of mental health issues. Extremely gullible people, especially, deserve compassion.
I think the “people are free to believe what they want to believe” is a mistake. This is the very statement that relativitises opinions and belief systems with facts and creates the illusion that they are all equal.
Look at the “facts don’t care about feelings” crowd that believe wholeheartedly that statements pandering to their feelings are facts and disregard any actual facts as fake news. I don’t think it’s because they decided one day to pick and choose what is a fact and what is not, but they actually can’t tell that there is a difference in opinions, beliefs and facts in the first place.
People need to accept that sometimes the truth is painful, that it contradicts what you want it to be, and worst of all - that you may have been wrong.
Edit: that said, I think people are free to believe whatever they want to believe when it comes to unprovable existential esoterica like personal values, afterlife, religion, whatever. As long they accept it is a personal belief and not an universal truth.
People should grow up and take responsibility for their lives.
That’s the main thing.
A grown up, responsible person can have opinions, and can change their opinions.
A grown up, responsible person can spend their day as they want, and can also understand that it is probably unhealthy to watch news a whole day long.
A grown up, responsible person can utter a rant when it feels neccessary, and can also apologize afterwards if someone got hurt from it.
People should grow up and take responsibility for their lives.
We SHOULD all get free unicorns too.
But if you actually want to fix the problem, as opposed to just should’ing it, that requires that we see these people as victims. And this means we don’t blame the victim, we help them with their situation.
The wonderful part about the train of thought that you’ve started, is that eventually you realize that people not only need to take responsibility for their own lives, but also need to take responsibility for the society they impose on other people’s lives. And if we’re unhappy with that society, we have to actively do something about it. That is our responsibility. Just as much as it’s our responsibility to fix ourselves.
Tldr “In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my intelligence”
They’re absolutely NOT a victim. A victim is an unwilling participant in an act committed against them.
Stupidity isn’t not a viable excuse to be a victim.
It absolutely is. Consider elderly people getting scammed. You really want to defend the fact that they aren’t victims?
They are falling for engagement strategies all news media outlets use. They will say things that pander to a specific group pointing the finger at the other side so you’ll stuck with their station. Both liberal and conservative sites do this. Journalism is dead
Blame is not a finite resource. Just because 2 people are involved doesn’t mean they’re both 50% to blame — they can both be 100% at fault.
So to answer your question, the person is responsible for their onerous views. They chose to watch that trash and believe it. We can have compassion for them without absolving them of blame. At the same time, they are a victim of the people lying to them. So it’s fine to blame the person consuming the bullshit and the person producing the bullshit, and the fact that there are 2 people to blame doesn’t make either of them any less to blame.
“If somebody spends the whole day watching fox or religious propaganda, gets worked up and all he can think of is owning a liberal or converting an unbeliever, is this person a victim or just gullible?”
Neither. Such folks (Along with their “enemies” on the opposite end of the sociocultural continuum, who get all of their intell from The Daily Show and Vox)are case studies in the willfull devolution of modern humans. The sooner all of them guzzle down a gallon of Draino each, the saner this planet will be
there a victim as not everyone is the same and there’s always unknown mental disorders some people have or exposed to lead that fucked there brain up, poor childhood, other reasons.
People are not born evil. Nobody just is born and wants others to die. All of it is a learned trait and often times from these organizations is how these evil things spread.
They are gullible because there a victim of The propaganda and what they learned (usually by force without consent) growing up.
Saying people are dumb or need to “grow up” just is another way to put it into aggressive “us vs them” mindsets.
Nobody is born to be evil or cruel. No body. It is learned behavior and we should destroy the organization and practices that create these behaviors regardless of what political side there on. (Although conservative ones have the absolute worst ones though)
Think that anyone who would find that stuff compelling is not in a good place emotionally or mentally. Now, ideally they should be pulled out of that, and you do occasionally hear stories about people leaving extremist groups like Qanon because they found a healthy hobby or community. On the other hand, I don’t think humans can really be separated cleanly between victim and victimizer, and the people this questions describing often become a danger to other people.
