I think he must attract a certain amount of viewers from the “train wreck” effect. He literally was using the stench from the sun hitting a decomposing rat corpse in his attic as an “alarm clock” for a while. He has had roaches crawl across him live and not reacted.
So I can kind of understand getting some sort of twisted satisfaction that you’re doing better, or having the same sort of fascination people have with train wrecks and disasters.
What I don’t get is why anyone cares about his takes on anything. The man willingly lives in decomposing filth. He’s clearly not a source of knowledge or good opinions on fucking anything.
papalonian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So here’s my take on this, because I’ve seen similar personalities make similar pivots.
This guy is a disgusting, bumbling idiot, but he speaks with certainty and condescension. The curious onlooker will see him, get trapped by the mindset you describe (“oh man, this guy’s a trainwreck, let’s see how much worse off he is than me”), find it funny and continue watching.
After establishing some sort of “trust” with the audience (“I’m a big dumb idiot who makes you laugh”) he pulls out the manipulative speech. “You’d have to be stupid to-”; “this guy’s a retard!”; “It doesn’t make any sense”, etc. Once you get to this part of the steam, you’ve already established that the dude’s an idiot, but you also think he’s funny. You’re faced with the decision to either laugh along with his “jokes”, or “accept” that this buffoon is “more educated” on a topic than you are. The fragile, uninformed audience these people are after are much more likely to go the latter route.