Not sure I even understand your point.

And Lemmy wouldn’t be as popular as it is now (along with other sites like Tildes getting a huge spike in users) unless people switched away from Reddit. So I don’t think it was all talk.

If you want proof that a lot of power users left Reddit, just look at the front page. Lots and lots of garbage subs that have a theme of “am I ugly” or “rate me.”

Seinfeld is hilarious.

It was just so popular and unique that everything after it tried to do the same thing and we all got used to seeing this type of humor everywhere. There is a whole TV Tropes page about this called Seinfeld is unfunny.

It’s still funny though. If you just pick up a random episode halfway through, you probably won’t find each moment-to-moment interaction to be side-splitting. However, if you know the characters, you’re just waiting to see which petty societal norm is going to turn into a whole ordeal - like George and Jerry disagreeing about whether moviegoers should pick up their own trash after a movie showing or something. Of course, the hilarious part is when George inevitably loses the perfect relationship with a beautiful woman because her father worked as a movie-theater cleaner and was never home for his family due to inconsiderate movie goers. He leaves his junior mints on the ground, she storms out, and we see Kramer walking into the movie theater with a metal detector as he scours the floor for valuable trash as part of his new side hustle.

It’s not a real episode but that’s basically the formula and it just works. You are waiting to see how shitty and petty they can be while living up to your expectations of them as characters. You know they never learn a life lesson or gain any true moral clarity. Oh, and my wife especially loves that they frequently do little gags and call backs to previous episodes.

Here in Northeast USA I never see kids outside. And my students are brutally honest that they don’t go outside much. They admit to mostly sitting on their phones and playing video games. Even my competitive athletes say they don’t play outside. It’s crazy.

Where are you located if you don’t mind my asking? I am in the American East. I know this is a post in the European community, but my original comment seemed relevant since developed Western nations in North America and Europe seem to be facing a lot of the same issues.

As our online lives grow, our real-world connections shrink. I’m a teacher, a fairly young and tech-savvy one. I say that so you know I’m not coming at this like an old and out-of-touch boomer who hates technology.

Our kids do not know how to communicate as well as they used to. They don’t hang out in person, they don’t roam around town and make friends with the local kids in their neighborhood, they don’t play outside beyond highly-structured and competitive sports, and many have ZERO real-world friends.

I spend a lot of time online. Online friendships are great and can be super important for many people. That said, I don’t think it’s super healthy to only have online friends. I know many kids who literally do not interact with a single real-world friend ever. It’s all discord and video games.

I myself find that I only have one real-world friend when it comes down to it. Sure, I love my coworkers to pieces and I have my wife’s friends to some degree. But me alone? One friend. And yes, I do somewhat blame the degradation of real-world communities for that. Gone are the days when children were raised by “the whole village.”

When people feel their needs aren’t being met by mainstream political parties, they seek answers in the fringes.

This is frightening and seems to be happening all over the Western world. Personally, I think people are struggling with the social disconnect brought by technology, with the smaller family sizes required by economic and climate conditions, with the simmering dread brought on by climate change, and an increasing rage as the struggling middle and lower classes are inundated with daily news of billionaires engaging in frivolity, waste, and/or crimes against the most vulnerable members of our society. People are becoming cynical and angry. They don’t see the future as bright.

In a situation like that, people seek alternatives to the status quo. What could be more attractive than a political view based on returning to old times? They want the return of economic security, stronger family units, more disposable income for leisure, and all the other real or perceived benefits of times past. They think that getting there will require us to embrace the other things we are trying to leave behind - racism, sexism, perhaps even war and genocide in some of the more extreme fringes.

We can see it globally in the left wing too. This is where the terms conservative and progressive really shine as being good descriptors. Conservatives want to go back to the glory days. The more extreme they are, the more willing they are to embrace the worst parts of our past. Progressives/liberals want to move forward. The more extreme they are, the more they are willing to try radical new things that sound like fantasy or science fiction. Progressives are often willing to upend massive social and economic structures to try new things. I find myself in this camp, and sometimes I step outside myself and admit that I have some pretty extreme views. I once told my conservative uncle that I would absolutely be willing to eat my food in pill form, edit my genes so I could live forever, change my brain chemistry so I could be happy all the time. He was shocked and said those things were inhuman and evil.

I don’t believe that we can convert people back to the mainstream unless the mainstream starts to meet their needs. Nations with hungry, lonely, and unfulfilled people are probably good breeding grounds for revolution, in my opinion. Unfortunately, revolutions aren’t always good. Bad actors often take advantage of instability.

Thank you so much for mentioning this. Just went back and listened to Love Me Dead and Lake Pontchartrain.

Damn, they are so good. Shame they never got bigger than they did.

Ah yes, I remember when Lockheed Martin tricked poor, innocent Russia into invading Ukraine.