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Most of my friends are artists or musicians, can’t relate to this wide brush

obviously this is 100% why right wingers moved on gamers btw

I don’t have any social hobbies atm so I’m starting a book club with some friends ☺️

Social settings have people in them tho.

Avoid the spirituality/wellness trap, it's the gateway drug to becoming a rightwing conspiracy zombie.

knitting 👍🏼

I can just give you my experience. At 63, I have few friends but a beautiful wife I love with all my heart. There is nothing on this planet that would either cause me to be radicalized by the right or to convert to ANY religion. I avoid ALL cults.

while I don't disagree, those people are also the most likely to have money and property, the two main drivers towards conservativism

Middle age blacksmiths gonna go crazy

the exact same is true for guarding against loneliness-exacerbated dementia later on everyone, get involved in ur communities and keep at it while ur still kickin!!

Hard disagree. Church groups are the worst mfers ever.

But fucking Scythe takes forever when theres 7 and people get incontinent.

The biggest reason I didn't end up being a right wing shitbag was simple, I don't hate women. Every time I ended up in one of those spaces it would come up and I would remove myself from that space.

I scroll Facebook from time to time and it’s insane the level of right wing brainrot that website promotes

Bet - ignoring socializing so I can go to loony land and have fun with all the other old white people fighting DEI things like safe plane rides

I’ve noticed this with my fully disabled dad. I try to talk to him frequently, bc I noticed back in the day that he would start going down these right wing rabbit holes the longer he went without actually checking in and talking to another person

Hey friend 👋

True! I still play D&D with my group from university, 25 years later. I'm getting more leftist every year.

Sadly this does not apply to playing golf which has the opposite effect.

I didn't join a local writing group because a member said "We find it best to avoid politics." Yeah, DIY is often the best route.

Wait is this why ND people end up on the left?

Witnessed this first hand!

Some hobbies are more at risk of being right-wing spaces though, like anything gun-related

I feel like I'm headed into The Middle Ages here.

I have a "genius" brother who's involved in lots of activities. Unfortunately, he has always been anti-government, and he watches nothing but Newsmax and Fox. I don't think there's any excuse for not doing some research on donOld and his ilk.

Hard this. I’ve heard of so many MAGA oldies that drop it the second they pick up a new hobby.

I dunno. My plan of simply eroding from public life entirely and falling into deep depression and panic as my life slowly crumbles to dust seems to be working out okay.

You either get a hobby where you help lift each other up or your hobby becomes tearing other people down.

Bring back building ships in bottles.

I heard being middle aged meant you had to live like it’s the Middle Ages. If true, the US government is certainly accommodating all middle aged people now.

I mean there's studies that when you stop listening or discovering new music your brain starts to calcify - so that explains why people who has Rage Against The Machine on repeat since 98 forget the whole point of the band. I can't help but side eye anyone that says "music sucks these days"

**laughs in Chainmail**

Its one way to starve the snazzy car market.

Gaming, Reading, craft beer, and remaining in school.

it's frustrating and sometimes sad spending time with some of the older folks in my life because you can really see how over time their lives just get smaller and smaller, and their viewpoints and perspectives shrink along with it

In my case, leftwing radicalization is driving me toward semi-social hobbies and creative pursuits.

I was into astronomy when I was younger, but my interest in it died with my mom. Rediscovering it was one of the best things to happen to me.

I DM and d&d game. The bard invented Disco My Artificer built a giant cannon We stole a horse and then used Awaken to make it sentient. His name is Mr. Ed.

Just a group exercise can be enough.

All wellness flows downstream from the divine spring of Chilling and Hanging Out

Can’t help but agree 100%

actually goes for any age group tbh

Blow it out your ear, man. Or are all those Andrew Tate followers middle-aged?

I’m the opposite. The older I get and more socially isolated I am the more left wing my convictions become.

I'm turning 30 in a few days and plan to spend the next decade collecting jazz records

Yeah, I think it’s wiring.

wizard redford

Smoke trees

Saruman was up late at night scrolling on that thing and look how it turned out!

This one

As a tech freak myself, I recommend trying to find a topic about which the both of you can talk about. Stay away from sports, music, art, games, politics. Go for travel, things each of you experienced. Novelty. Feelings, emotions. Street philosophy. Effed up things they are unhappy about.

Not if your depression is accompanied by sufficient guilt and shame. You don't go looking for an external reason you're sad and lonely. You just accept that you're sad and lonely because you are a fundamentally flawed and broken creature that deserves depression and loneliness. 🥰

Noooo. Rightwing radicalization will never beat my crushing depression. You also need to have a sense of grievance against the system… and a general lack of empathy for people you don’t know.

So glad you found your way out!

Ps - mine as a name, cockwomble

Yes and pick one with women in it like fountain pens.

This works in reverse too, if you ask somebody past their 30s what their hobbies are and they don't have any, you can safely assume they suck ass.

Watched my close relative devolve over the decades into maga. Not the kind with a red hat but the kind that watches Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN exclusively. Their large social group split in two: Republicans and Democrats. They are all immigrants.

I'm 55 and my friends and I are TTRPG nerds and we hang out three times a week online, and everyone else we know our age is a right wing psycho.

As a middle age type human, I agree. I have watched 2 husband's go through trying medical issues and wallowing in self-pity. I always said 'you need a hobby' and to get off the couch. Build birdhouse or something. Humans are creators, fucking create something besides a depression void of joy.

Only if you're stupid to start with. Intelligent people vote liberal. Silence IS Complicity. Cooperation IS Collaboration. Keep notes. (Madame Defarge style) Vive la Résistance

I get worried if I'm in the process of making a friend and he loves World War 2 too much.

If for no other reason than to observe and connect with the evolving next generation. A great deal of conservative angst is they’ve lost track of the culture and the unknown is scary

If nothing else you probably need something to keep you off your phone Hang out in the woods one day. Play guitar. Read. Whatever

Hanging out with abolitionist youths is a hobby right?

And they laughed when i said I sing in a choir

Let me get some sats, bro

Making a podcast, role playing game, writing bad fanfictions and enjoying cooking. I guess that explains why I am a big lefty. Too many hobbies.

I just wish I knew where to make friends now I'm 39

Making stuff and being social is good. Doom scrolling and consuming massive amounts of news are not good.

i went sicko mode on racing simulators. refuse to let people know how much it's cost me over the years

I think the world would be a substantially better place if everyone of all ages did this. Punk subculture made my life immeasurably better.

divorce court circuit dads would be mad at you if they could read this.

Very few fascist ceramicists

That's some bullshit right there.

Agreed.

My friend irl has fallen down alt right rabbit holes. It's very upsetting. He goes to work, plays video games, and watches alt right videos and porn. He says he wants to do stuff like make music. I've yet to see anything from him.

I took up DnD and Lorcana in my early 40s and, despite the negative impact on my finances, I'm having a blast

I have ceased attending events for my car hobby due to the overwhelming amount of brainwashed and entitled boomers that populate the events. Instead I've started playing music again with people who are not despicable.

Sign a 45 year old white guy up for some piano lessons, otherwise he’ll turn into a Nazi.

i was told that men over 30 aren't allowed to have hobbies damn, guess i'm on the neocon train

One notable exception www.theguardian.com/games/2025/j...

nice nice nice nice

more like a coin flip

No, but for what it's worth I think you'd make good right-wing grifter videos

Also good advice when young as well

Keep calm and read fiction 📚 🤓

10,000%

😂

Too bad. You'll probably want to start with something simple like Kill Team then work your way up to full 40k with a relatively robust army like Astartes or Militarum before deciding whether your playstyle suits a more shooting or melee-focussed army. A word on Detachments (THREAD 1/63)

Possibly the worst option for a hobby if your goal is to avoid right wing brain rot

I think the "semi-social" aspect is important. My father is in a very social fly-fishing group and HOO BOY that group is a funnel right into the pipeline. all they do is talk about things while fishing and there's so little discussion about the hobby and mostly it's an excuse to chat.

Fuck no! It takes a shitload of incredibly stupid predjudices that spreads from family to friends and so on,to be that bigoted and hateful in public! It’s disgusting but no I am old inactive and I don’t think that fucked up! I just curse more because fuck covers most of my disgust with it all👇🏻💦🙋🏼‍♀️🙏🏻💙🇺🇸🌎

Homes have been taken from the masses as a giant money laundromat. There are empty buildings and places to live all over the place. The government wants to tax us all to death. Money printer go brrrrrr

I feel the same. I’ve never been cool, but I have always been informed, and I’m not about to stop just because the culture movers are younger than I am.

I’m reading up on going into the cannibal hillbilly business.

I started making sun catchers and selling them to local shops. I've made hundreds at this point. I haven't _sold_ hundreds, but I keep making them.

I'm really getting into leftwing politics, is that the same problem or different?

Results may vary with Warhammer.

You are so right! I see it in the male friends and colleagues. Just not able to move away from the old b/s.

There is nothing better than retiring with your favorite activity/hobby all lined out! And nothing worse if your job was all you had to be excited about.

I feel like the "male loneliness epidemic" is related to hustle culture and the idea that everything you do needs to be monetizable, which stems from this exact tendency.

I think that was Mr. Roger's advice. "Do something, it does not matter if you are good at it." It is the process that is so rewarding.

I can’t help but feel this stupid bullshit about kids needing to immediately abandon their interests or “git gud” and be of value to adults the second they hit puberty is EXACTLY why so few adults actually have hobbies and friends who aren’t coworkers! And I never see anyone talk about it