My brother and I where talking about some psychotic episodes of some family members and its amazing how much it sounds like qanon stuff.

Because the words aren't to convey information, they're there to convey emotion

And semi-literate chuds need the key words to stand out or they won't remember the topic to be angry about

Thank goodness Truth social doesn't do # markdown or things would get insane

Reporter: [REDACTED]
Reason: ableism

Please try to frame this otherwise than “mentally deranged” next time.

They want to emphasize certain words, but don't really have the confidence and writing skills to do so in other ways

Lol. They have strong feelings about what they type, they want to emphasize the strength of their feelings, and they believe ALL CAPS is SHOUTING ONLINE. No mental derangement required.

I think that, in left-wing spaces, profanity fills a similar need. It shows you care so much about your topic that you can't or won't follow traditional rules of civility, that you aren't being polished and professional but you're speaking from the heart about how you really feel instead. Conservatives think using profanity makes you look bad (they don't consider racial slurs profane, of course) so they inject emotion into their text in other ways. Eg CAPS LOCK.

Partly it's because they are engaging with the world from a primarily emotionally framed context at all times, which results in a stream-of-consciousness style of speech and writing. Especially when they get really worked up about something and their self-control melts away more thoroughly.

It's also not just from traditional conservatives. I serve on the board of my housing community, so I see a ton of this kind of thing from the mostly liberal neighbors living near me in a primarily gay community in the USA. Conversations on our local community forum site, or maintenance requests submitted to us are frequently filled with angry ranting nonsense that is barely legible.

Sometimes someone will rant for a paragraph or two in ALL CAPS and insult everyone else living nearby, then their tone totally changes for the final paragraphs of the email. As if they became too angry to continue, stepped away for a bit, then came back later slightly calmer and continued writing with a more relaxed tone. Why they don't restart the email at that point, I have no idea, but that communication pattern is really quite fascinating and sometimes worrying.

Because their LEADER is also doing it. So it MUST be sexy and cool and HOT

I know it's popular to call conservatives dumb and while I don't like to beat dead horses, I really think the explanation for this is that they're dumb. The illiterate form of dumb, to be precise. The caps are a way of adding emphasis - which is something that can also be done by phrasing, word choice, sentence structure, and so on. But those techniques would require a beyond 4th grade level of writing and reading ability, so they do not succeed in the conservative communication marketplace.

I will add a disclaimer, my beloved Nietzsche also does all caps words sometimes, but I believe that since this is alongside his impressive eloquence, it is clearly not a sign of stupidity in that context. Likewise, it is not a sign of stupidity in many other contexts. That is to say:

Using that style of communication does not always make it a safer bet that someone is stupid, but being stupid does make it a safer bet that they use that style of communication.

For just a moment I was like, "I don't do that!" but then I realized I sometimes do. It's way of adding emphasis in text that doesn't support markdown.

Whoever talks/writes the loudest is the one in the right, haven't you heard? 😅

Facebook

They're just being considerate to people that are hard of hearing, so they yell in the comments so they are easier to listen to. I mean, obviously.

It's like they're submerged in a world of text-based begging letters. Take a faith healing correspondence, a soupcon of charitable dontaions, and a dash of chain letters. For a modern twist, blend in signs from homeless people.

Whatever the motivation, when one person is desparate enough to try and persuade you to just give your money away, there's a tone. If you grow up in that world, I imagine there's a lot of reinforcement that seeps into daily conversation.

Not entirely sure, I think it's just the way some influential people started talking and now everyone is replicating it. The origins in why people talk like this is probably partly rooted in a mix of virtually 'yelling' and old people writing in all caps because they can't see the small letters.

Because conservatives are extremists and this is how extremists type.

Probably boomers who aren't used to more idiomatic ways of typing on casual social media?

Are they constantly imagining that they are talking to MENTALLY DERANGED individuals?

Not to be mean, but their message reaxhes this way more people.