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Re:The Death of a Public Intellectual by raincole on Monday October 30, 2023 @04:32AM (#38066920)
It's called daddy issue.
Re:The Death of a Public Intellectual by wincy on Monday October 30, 2023 @08:37AM (#38068705)
That’s not what it is. People are looking around, shaking their heads, with an vague feeling that things *aren’t right* and waiting for someone to be like “alright everyone we’re heading off to start a new life frontier, let’s go!”, and Joe Rogan and Elon Musk feel like the charismatic alphas/cult leader you should be hitching your wagons to.

Because sometimes the crazy cult leader ends up being right, revival (much like the religious revivals of the 1830s in the US) and making a big change when society is in flux is just something in our blood. Problem is right now nobody wants to actually buy 60,000 acres of undeveloped land to get it all started, they just want to profit off of people via parasocial relationships.

Re:The Death of a Public Intellectual by pjc50 on Monday October 30, 2023 @08:52AM (#38068861)
Musk spend fourty-four billion dollars on cementing his cult leader position.
Re:The Death of a Public Intellectual by anthk on Monday October 30, 2023 @08:49AM (#38068825)
No. Just the old idolization of people.
Re:The Death of a Public Intellectual by hnreport on Monday October 30, 2023 @09:28AM (#38069219)
I’ll accept that, but what’s the prevalence of it in the adult male demographic?
Re:The Death of a Public Intellectual by twic on Monday October 30, 2023 @10:39AM (#38069981)
It does feel like something like that. Maybe not that exactly, but many people have some sort of need for external authorities to tell them what to do, what to think, who to be, etc. Some lack of confidence in their own judgement? Insecurity about making their own decisions?
Re:The Death of a Public Intellectual by mattgreenrocks on Monday October 30, 2023 @12:26PM (#38071683)
People want certainty, and many are willing to let go of independence of thought to try to get it.