Comment by Teever
4 days ago
An adjacent problem is when enthusiasts in hobby subreddits become a bit too enthusiastic about the hobby which sometimes develops into an unhealthy obsession that the community (un)wittingly becomes a part of.
I recently bought a pair of boots from a reputable brand. So I of course checked out the subreddit for the brand and while many posts are good and the community is receptive to questions but posts by weirdos with like a dozen+ pairs of $300+ boots dominate the discussion.
Can these people actually afford like $5000 worth of boots and all the accessories they come with it? Maybe. Maybe we’re all participating in their shopping addiction when they post pictures of their stairs covered in boots.
Either way there’s something unsettlingly unnatural about their posts, and I don’t mean in an astroturfing sort of way.
This is a part of the simulacra due the karmic re enforcement and feedback.
The person is buying the 10th boot because of the feeling they get showing it off and getting karma on the forums.
This is crazy represented in watch forums where broadly in the real world no one cares an iota about watches but inside the forums it becomes insanity.
> Either way there’s something unsettlingly unnatural about their posts, and I don’t mean in an astroturfing sort of way
the mentally ill are, well, mentally ill after all.