What's weirder is someone doing something with their free time and NOT thinking it's objectively meaningful. If you think something is a good hobby and use of your time then it would show confidence and respect to argue that it's a a good use of everyone's time. And in my case, I see someone doing something that I believe is an objectively bad hobby and because I respect and am interested in OP's ideas, I choose to share that and engage with him. What's more respectful? To talk with someone you think is making a mistake? Or to ignore their mistake and pretend everything is fine?
Replies (3)
It provides more and more meaning in an otherwise meaningless world because it shatters the illusions. Whether its analyzing marketing, influence operations, psyops, scams, technology, religion, people, politics, conspiracies. Most of what I research gives me valuable tools in everyday life.
For me, I accepted that people on the Internet will think and do things I don't think are useful, but people do it anyway because it provides them with something I may not even know or see. If none of that is meaningful, I don't know what is.
You do you, all good.
What tools does it give you? The ability to rationalize distancing yourself from people who are different than you?
Buddy we are humans. We are people. If we have a passion then it shouldn't be something that provides us with something that others don't know or see. We should be able to articulate what makes our passions great, and we should be able to justify them to others.
Rationalizing away how "uhm, well, they probably have a good reason for doing that... I shouldn't judge them if I've never been in their shoes..." DUDE! Make them TELL you the reason! If you don't know what their hobby is like then take their shoes from them by force and see for yourself!
I expect you to be better than this. If you think conspiracy theories are great then why half ass it. Have you interviewed electronics engineers? Have you designed or tested electronics yourself? If this is a good hobby then why are you so hesitant to do it right?
I work in tech and have a good understanding of how this particular scam works, which components are involved and how I could identify this myself. I also don't rationalize away anything, especially not suspicious behavior. I don't even know where this idea comes from. I was only speaking about random people on the internet having opinions and interests. If I'm curious about about someone's interest or if I don't get why they do something, I'll ask, of course. If I don't care, I scroll on.
I think I'm not really sure I grok your actual problem here or I misinterpret what you're saying. So let me provide an example and tell me if I'm completely off:
I'm not going to tell someone warning about some scam (or someone discovering and explaining it) that they should do something that's more useful in my opinion. Were you just interested in this particular interest or did you dislike someone would be warning about this kind of scam?
