Another great read from @pluralistic about the reason that disaster fantasies are popular among the right: it replaces actual disasters caused by *systemic problems* with imaginary disasters to be solved by *individuals*, which in turn elevate the status of the prepper to a one-man (let’s face it, it’s usually a man) hero who saves the day.
It also strikes me that the #TESCREAL nonsense that #AI techbros seem to gravitate to is just another flavor of this prepper story: why bother saving eight billion real humans today when you can save countless trillions of potential humans tomorrow by building a treasure trove that you deploy into your favorite technologies? You’re not a profit-driven resource hoarder—you’re a #longtermism one-man superhero!
https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/24/mall-ninja-prophecy/#mano-a-mano
@pluralistic And tangentially, it jibes also with why Critical Race Theory and Wokeness are perceived as such a threat by the right: these concepts rightly call attention to a broken and perverse *system* which cannot be fixed by individual action. I can see how this may be deeply offensive to people who fear giving up their main-character status in their head canons, and balk at the prospect of being forced to cooperate with others to solve a problem.