I used to enjoy conspiracy theories, because I thought it would be cool if they were true.
Things like cryptids, aliens, etc...
But now all the conspiracy groups are filled with stupid right-wing science deniers.
Weightlifters seem to hove about similar parts make up very kind people who just want others to succeed and people who listen to Joe rogan and Jordan Peterson.
I spent must of my youth fascinated by knives, still am, and this got me into classical metal working. By the time I was 18 I had built a pretty decent working forge in my mom's backyard.
Shortly after 9/11 I took a week long class in bladesmithing in Arkansas. Outside of Blade Forums and the occasional knife show, I'd never really interacted with other knife people. Not a whole lot going on in my large northern city.
The way those bastards talked openly about anyone that wasn't white or Christian turned my stomach. I pretty much kept to myself, it hung out with the one chill hippy from Oregon, or the eternally gob-struck British blacksmiths apprentice (You sell GUNS in a GROCERY STORE?!)
I learned a lot on that trip. Nowadays I don't bring up my knife hobby because I sure as shit don't want to be mistaken for one of those ignorant cretins.
Hydroponics as well I guess. My DIY automated grow room with a water pump, grow lights, heater and plant shaker (for pollination) always has people think I'm growing weed but I just want chillies and tomatoes.
Yeah I'm not here for this. I just felt this massive wave of fatigue wash over me as I read it.
Like it or not you're going to run into weirdos in just about every hobby. All preemptively judging people does is teach people to keep to themselves. We're already building up a society of loners where people struggle to connect to each other with various other causes(loss of third places for example). We don't really need something like this pushing people further apart, especially when that ultimately drives peoples empathy for each other down too.
Like, I just want to spend too much money breaking my truck to go play in the mud or camping in the middle of nowhere on the weekend, not throw massive alcohol fueled frat parties in the desert and annihilate the environment in my jacked-up, curb princess of a Ram covered in a thousand miniature suns and "Don't tread on me Please tread on me, daddy" stickers
Does programming count as a hobby? I waste my free time on it... There's this funny stereotype, of a queer programmer with long, quirky socks, and maybe even a fursona. Despite being a small percentage, such types are often overrepresented online. It used to bother me a little.
Nowadays I'm so, so glad when someone I'm talking to is part of that group. It usually means I don't need to worry about them being weirdly sexist, like women don't suffer enough in STEM already, or insisting that we need to keep politics out of tech (i.e. they want their politics to rule, unquestioned).
Silly feelings on my part? Perhaps. One less thing to worry about, though.
Not as bad, but people interested in Ancient Greece / Rome / classical studies tend to be somewhat conservative. It's (to some extent) the only part of academia which is overtly conservative.
But yeah, you can do a lot worse, that's relatively mild
These hobbies aren't necessarily a recreational activity. There are those who claim to have sixth sense only for them to make false judgements on top of false beliefs. Hobbies can involve pushing for wrong insights and most definitely include a self-absorbed vanity project. I don't judge, but I do actively take note of false judgments when they arise.
Alas, I'm stuck with one but at least she doesn't know that I've apostatized.
The first video I found on Baofeng Radio guides is on a youtube channel run by some right winger that sounds like a SovCit, who makes "jokes" about people who wear mask and have this "gay humor".
Like bruh
(I mean, I guess it makes sense. Right-wing "anarchists" are skeptical of "government control" and are the type of people to want to use radios instead of smartphones. Buts its ironic that encryption is illegal... But I assume they probably just ignore the "no encryption" rule anyways since they are a SovCit.)
What's funny is that while Vikings are mostly remembered for their warrior culture, their success as a diaspora came more from their merchant and sailing culture. THEY were the 'immigrants.'
I do home canning and a fair deal of baking. There's a lot of trad bullshit around this that makes me just go "I'm canning cause I love me some candied jalapeños, not because my husband demands I do"
Nazi punks fuck off. This is not a good example. Every metal enjoyer I know is progressive. It's one of the few communities that is still mostly sane and decent.
Anytime someone starts dropping Warhammer lore, or shows a love of Boomer Shooters, I know I'm going to despise that person or they'll be my best friend, no middle ground, and I don't even like Warhammer.
Whenever some city dweller says they like to go fishing, I immediately think "He's a right winger AND uses fishing as an excuse to cheat on his wife" - this seems to be the case often down here in Brazil
I've been collecting comics off and on since I was a pre-teen in the early 90's. I think I had less than 100 books up until about 2013 when I got back into collecting comics. I fell out of the hobby for about 4 more years and got back into it pretty hardcore in 2017 or so and have been pretty consistently involved since then. During the pandemic I learned that there was an entire community of comic collectors on YouTube that made videos about collecting. It was pretty great at first, but over time, I started to realize that a lot of them leaned right. Then more time passed and I realized it was more than a lean. After the most recent election, a lot of YouTube comic book videos became overtly political in support of this shit we're currently enduring. The people that lean left don't seem to say anything against it, and so I felt pretty isolated. I no longer watch YouTube comic videos, but I still collect comics. I just do it as a solo hobby once again.
Me with my koi pond, before I discovered that most other pond owners are elderly right wing conspiracy theorists who don't believe in crazy stuff like the nitrogen cycle or that mailing invasive plants like water hyacinth or water spangled is illegal.
I own guns. I love my guns. But I'm not weird about it, I'm all about responsible gun ownership, I don't have an entire armory, and I ESPECIALLY don't open carry.
Ammosexuals give the rest of gun enthusiasts a very bad name.
I read an interesting article about 40K Space Marines last year, the problem with them is that some people just don't get satire no matter how glaringly obvious it is
History is kind of the opposite. When someone says they like history I'll get excited and ask what period is their favorite. If they say "Romans" without any qualifiers like Early Republic or Late Eastern Empire, I get a bad feeling and they usually follow up with "and WWII"
I've had so many conversations come to a grinding halt while doing RC stuff, because I realize the person is not only veering the conversation to intentionally toward certain topics, they're expressing right-wing opinions or shoving religion in my face. I've left RC events because they opened with a prayer, or because I've seen too many red hats in the crowd.
I'm sure it's also because of the state I live in, but it's a little disheartening to see so many people in my hobby who would gladly stone me to death in the street once the government allows it.
Also weirdly mountain biking has me fucking confused. So many magats on my trails, and it was my impression that cycling in general wasn't as popular amongst the "anti-woke" crowd. Along with other things they view as a threat to their big metal death boxes that run on dead Dino and plant juices.
Lastly, blacksmithing. I do mostly bladesmithing, but like to try all aspects of it. This hobby is rampant with right-wing nut jobs and I've stopped watching MANY content creators over the years because they started making personal vlog style videos when Biden got elected bitching about how awful and hard it is to be a straight white male in America.
also target shooting but that's a hot topic no matter which way you look, but here's a reminder that armed minorities are harder to oppress
never partake of inebriating substances no matter what type while handling a firearm in any capacity. I've seen too many people at an outdoor range with a beer can beside them. This should get you banned from the premesis.
Viking depends in where you are. In my country, Norway, viking iconography is a pink flag. Yeah we have dipshit Nazis who use it, but it's fairly main stream. Viking rock is a little sus, but not necessarily as sus as elsewhere.
Lemmy collected German military regalia; he had an Iron Cross emblazoned on his bass, which led to accusations of Nazi sympathies. He stated that he collected Nazi memorabilia because he liked the way it looked, and he considered himself an anarchist. He spoke against racism many times. Lemmy said he was against religion, government, and established authority. In 2011, he identified as agnostic, saying: "I can find out when I die. I can wait. I'm not in a hurry." Jeff Hanneman, the founder of the thrash metal band Slayer, befriended Lemmy due to their shared fondness for collecting Nazi memorabilia. According to Keith Emerson's autobiography, Pictures of an Exhibitionist (2004), Lemmy gave him two of his Hitler Youth knives during his time as a roadie for the Nice. Emerson used these knives many times as keyholders when playing the Hammond organ during concerts with the Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer before destroying them. Lemmy defended his collection by saying that if his then-girlfriend (who was black) had no problem with it, nobody else should.
People who follow those “wellness” influencers who sell random supplements and shit and basically make up all sorts of shit as if it’s medical knowledge.
Those people tend to be super ableist and anti-disabled. As a disabled person whenever you interact with that sort of person they always lecture you about “not trying hard enough” to find a treatment and recommend you expensive magic powders.
These same kind of people mistreat their disabled kids, refuse to vaccinate, that kind of bs.
It was legit shocking to me to see the nascent Geek Dodecatheist neo-pagan movement be co-opted and then basically taken over by the fascists. I followed it from when they were basically tree-huggers, and last time I visited one of their Olumpus gatherings, I was shocked at the amount of fash rhetoric. Lost all interest right there and then.
Ah yes. I have this conversation occasionally. I know a lot of people who started explaining their reenactment hobby as "I'm with a reenactment for a british regiment and we do mostly ww1 and ww2, for a british group, playing allied soldier"