It really depends. A lot of them are hurt in some way shape or form and in a desperate situation like qooqie mentions and get pushed back into a corner over and over until they violently lash out, and a lot of others have a genuine disdain for other people or a warped personality/prespective on something (like Elliot Rogers and his entitlement to a girlfriend/sex) and rather than try and quell it or get help, they let it fester until they eventuallty also lash out.

The end result is the same. Either they get inspired to do heinous actions because there’s no other option in their head to stop whatever they precieve as a problem, or they look at someone else that did them before and think “they had the right idea” and emulate them.

And you could have asked this in a dozen different ways without resorting to the same misuse of words that the overly radicalized ignorants of both side of the democratic or republican spectrum choose to throw at each other. But fair, I didn’t answer your question.

It’s more to do with both the politics (Cali is a Blue State, meaning the majority of those that vote lean more towards Democratic, Liberal, more progressive/open-minded values. Texas is a Red State and leans in the opposite way. Republican, Conservative, more “old fashioned” values. Note that this isn’t always the case, and you can and will find a mixture of idiologies across it. Well, i can only personally speak for Texas since I live there, but that’s everywhere in the US, i want to say, not just these two titianic states) the cultures of the two places (both in the American side and Mexican side and how they mingled with each other throughout thier histories), and what region they’re located at. And there’s probably more factors I’m missing that contribute to why they are the way they are, like difference in educations of the two states, and just how different living in one place is to the other that yeah, it’s very complicated and can’t be distilled down to just “the gays” or “the artists”.

Holy massive oversimplification, Batman…

Also:

Fascist

Communist

Outta all the words you could’ve chosen, you went with the two that people throw at heavy Conservative and Heavy Liberal places because it makes them sound worse than they actually are (and, i’m going to guess, because they don’t know what either a facist state or a communist state actually look and function like). Interesting.

Oh yeah, on the level of Extinction Events, we haven’t survived one yet. Hopefully we will in some way, shape or form (hopefully as ourselves), but you never know. That’s why i said, or tried to say, “worry, but don’t claw your hair off because of it just yet”. Because if that punch is coming, there’s no sense in worrying about it–better to brace for it as best we can, you know?

When i said “we’ve survived worse before” tho, it was in response to the OP’s worries of the state of the United States. The question itself was kinda broad and they didn’t really get specific, but at the same time…i highly doubt this is the worst it’s gotten for the States (or any country, really) besides in the area of climate change, but that’s not exclusive to the US, that’s everwhere.

By reminding myself that unless some space rock suddenly hits us or the sun decides to explode super early, we’re fine. And if you look at our history as a species, we’ll continue to be fine. We’ve endured far worse things than this before and we’ll do it again and again. We’re good at that. Stupidly good. Whatever rough spots we’re facing now is going to pass. It’s always passed. Can’t be bad all the time, after all. As for global warming causing a potential extinction event? It…more than likely won’t happen in our life time, so, worry, but don’t, like, believe it’ll happen tomorrow or that we’re already actually facing The Great Dying 2.0. We’re maybe at the crossroads, but not there yet.

Other than that? I do as a few have already mentioned here and try and make the world just a slightly better place. Helping others in my community out, being kind and considerate to the people around me, trying to not get frustrated at drivers out on the road (this is tough NGL), that kinda thing.

Can’t speak for everyone, but I’d love to see more personal projects done by others posted on Lemmy–whether it’s something god-teir or mediocre (because well, what you may call mediocre, some might call pretty good. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and all that).

No words should be cheapened. None of them. Not Nazi, not Fascist, not woke, and not anything else.

They all have meanings for a reason. Better we all learn them and use em correctly instead of throwing the word at something irrelevant just because we don’t it as if we were children.

“There are no bad words, but there are several bad ways to express what you mean”

–Me (tho I’m sure someone way smarter than I has put out the same idea, but better worded, ironically enough)

We can only hope the ones that sparkle are powerful enough to outshine the waves of those who would drown us all in violence, crime, and stupidity.

Indeed. “Wait, and hope” as the Count of Monte Cristo says (at least I think. Haven’t dusted off that book in a while), but also, if possible, become one of the few that sparkle among the masses.

Appreciate that we ended this discussion amiciably in the end!

Don’t really wanna play the “no, YOU don’t understand” game here, but I dunno, from what I’m seeing in both society and nature…the way the world works is that there is no objective good and evil in it. Those are labels humans made up to feel better about some actions we see around us that we don’t like or find abhorant. Not saying some of the things we and animals have done onto others isn’t straight up horrible, some of it ABSOLUTELY is (as someone who has deep roots down South of the USA, yeah, I’ve seen some of the horrible things the cartels have inflicted on others for various reasons), but I’m also not going to sit here and pretend it’s something only humanity does or that they invented to be evil. Animals can kill and torture for fun and sport too, that’s been documented several times over. Doesn’t make em evil tho. The whole “but we more often choose to be cruel anyway” is a fairly narrow mind generalization that dismisses the fact that just as much people choose to do the exact opposite of what you claim, but don’t get a spotlight on them because they’re not stirring things up, and so nobody actually cares about what they do.

That the Trump Supporters “regret it now” kinda proves my point too, actually. If the people rioting really were these evil monsters like you want to claim they are, they’d have zero regret or remorse about their actions and would be proud of what they did. And yeah, i know there’s always going to be that one handful of people that ARE proud of their stupidity, there always is and always will be these types of people for as long as people (and animals, because yeah, some animals display oddities that differ from known behaviors and patterns of their kin) are a thing. And it’ll keep going long after we’re gone and something else takes our place. But just because some of us act a certain way doesn’t mean the entire species is deserving to be damned or automatically makes us a lost cause. That’s actually a pretty narrow minded opinion to have, actually. And again, that’s deliberately ignoring the Trump supports you yourself brought up (the ‘truly kind or intelligent person [that] would have said, “Screw that. There’s a line I’m not willing to cross, ethically or morally.”’ that you mentioned in your response), the ones who saw all that chaos and did just that: saying “this is both wrong and disgusting, and I’m not taking part in this”. Because those people do exist. I know they do, because my brother in-law is one, so is one of my former coworkers, Hardcore Republican (almost cultish IMO, but that’s neither here nor there), but was thoroughly disgusted at what she saw that day–and they can hardly be the only ones. Since you mentioned them, you yourself know they exist too. But well, nuance is nuance, i suppose. It’s much easier to try and fit everything into a small little category and leave it at that vs actually acknowledging “life is simple, humans are complicated. Sometimes stupidly so”.

I’m obligated to post this since Dragon’s Dogma was mentioned:

https://youtu.be/SZNbabKjKpA?si=b7chvHH0hHdki0RP

Dunno if I’d consider myself “younger” anymore (who am i kidding, i ain’t THAT old lol), but…

If we count really old games: the OG castlevania’s. Didn’t grow up during that era, but thanks to handmedowns, i got to play pre Symphany Vania when i was super young. Love them, wish i was better at them tho. The collections are sitting in my steam library, and maybe some day, I’ll beat at least one of the classics.

For something more recent(?) tho, i love me some Touhou. fangames, offically made games by Zun, fan games in the style of Zun, ya name it…but MAN do i suck at the actual bullethell Touhou games. i can make it past two or 3 stages, but then the boss destroys me and I’m like “I CAN choose continue, nothing but pride is stopping me…but also, if i can’t manage this far without continuing, how bad is the rest gonna be??” and wuss out lol

We’re evil, we’re sick, we’re all the same.

Screw that. Humans aren’t “evil” or “sick” or “vile”, but we can be cruel. We also aren’t peaceful, but we can be kind, and at least give it the old college try more than most people like to admit we do. All we are is just animals, and slightly smarter or otherwise, we do as other animals do.

Enslaving and using others for our benefits like ants do to other ants, competeing for resources and territory for ourselves or own little group, without consideration for anyone outside of that group, just like chimp communities and various groups, and so on, and so on. It’s not evil. Just nature being cruel and messed up, as it always is.

At the very least, (and why I abhor this take that humans are a buncha monsters and/or are worse than animals) for all our flaws, we can look at all the above and decide to NOT go through with it as hard as an incect colony wiping out their enemies to complete extermination, or even to forgo violence at all or show restraint when grabbing things for ourselves–Reptile brain be damned.

Something something “you’re paid more for what ya know/your expertise on something vs just being an easily replacable cog in a machine”.

Not saying I agree with it all that much, but I think that’s the general idea, anyways.

So we’re basically saying the same thing about the subject then. Wonderful. Dunno how you got me saying “It’s not going to affect the life of the person viewing it unless said person lets it” to mean “it applies to people who damned themselves down this road willing and people who has an actual problem with it” in the context of OP’s question

Now, “Ungenerous interpretation of what [you] said” where, exactly?

You asked “does it include compulsive gamblers?”

And I answered No, because I answered the OP’s question from a general perspective–not asking as someone who already has a compulsive urge to masturbate/drink/gamble/whathaveyou. The first one can be affected either positively or negatively by something, if they let the habit control them vs the other way around, while the other’s already affected in a negative way, so i didn’t bother bringing them up. (Not even touching on the fact that it should be obvious, or well, at least it is to me, you CANNOT advise or help an addict in the same way you’re going to advise a person whose curious/a bit green on something they wanna try)

Wait, was it in my anecdote about me deing a drunk? If that’s the case, then there was a failure to communicate on my part and I apologize. I didn’t mean to imply that you said “all porn bad”, i said it to point out how distiling something that to a basic category like “all alcohol is bad” without the nuance of “it’s less the thing and more the different people interacting with the thing” to be…well, bad, and reductive because context matters.

Eh. It be like that sometimes. Re-reading everything again, i was pretty clear in what I said in both the reply to the OP and comments back to them. They and anyone else wanting to take it as something contrary to what I actually wrote down (which itself isn’t rocket science) is on them, really.

OP didn’t imply thqt he was asking about it at an unhealthy level, so i responded to that.

The alcholic is already in a habit. What i put was not written with the idea of an addict in mind, simply that the act (porn) is not some evil, rotten thing that should be avoided like the plague, but should instead be treated as a neutral thing and viewed with moderation–should a normal, non-addicted person decide to do so at all.

Also, that you used that specific example for your comment, considering I actually did put the bottle down a while ago because yeah, boiling it down, it pretty much was destroying my relationships and not doing my already weak ass immune system any favors, made me crack a smile NGL

You’re speaking about a compulsive habit at that point, so no. That’s a completely different animal than what i meant.

I wrote the above along the lines of “Is the action bad in of itself? No. CAN it turn into a bad habit and hurt a person? Yes. All depends on the person interacting with it”

Like, as a former (recovering? Don’t drink anymore, besides, at best, 1 bottle at gatherings, if even that, and sometimes during hangouts) alcoholic, yeah I’ll call out when companies and other people try to enable someone with a drinking problem to keep going…but I’m also not gonna go around and say “all alcoholic beverages bad” because I recklessly abused something that is known to hurt the body if used without restraint and paid for it. Maybe it’s a poor comparison since porn can’t physically hurt you the way alcohol can (tho it can mentally warp a person in some ways, especially if they’re younger/have nobody to teach them properly about sexual education) but that’s the only example I can give and i hope i got my point across.

As someone else put it perfectly in another comment: it’s just porn. It’s not going to affect the life of the person viewing it unless said person lets it.

IMO, tho, as with most things things in life, just doing as the Greeks did is a good rule of thumb: you doing this in moderation? you’re good.

I meant it more in the “these guys know how to specifically do that, whereas Average Joe over there puffing up his chest and trying it unprepared is gonna go as well as you trying to evict a crackhead off some property (read: probably very badly)” but if you wanna look at it in a more cynical way, sure, that’s also entirely possible. “Never do something you’re good at for free” after all.