Trap sprung, and so quickly this time. It's a record.
Post an OP, and if and if someone who's not a rightist responds, you'll say "AHA!! This was a trap, bwahaha... got another MOBY!"
If a rightist responds, you'll say "Yup. I keep tellin' ya, watch the left hand, folks."
:chuckle:
Next you'll probably say I was paid to respond to your OP.
Charlottesville conspiracy theories spread, echoing ‘false flag’ claims. . . . Similar claims have arisen after nearly every terrorist attack or mass shooting in recent years.
Kate Starbird, a researcher at the University of Washington, has spent years tracking how such conspiracy theories are generated and then spread across the internet.
Starbird and her team found false flag theories surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon, and the 2016 terrorist attack at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.
“For every man-made crisis event we studied,” she wrote in a blog postoutlining her research, “we found evidence of alternative narratives, often shared by some of the same accounts and connected to some of the same online sites.”
Starbird discovered that some of these false flag narratives – such as the Umpqua Community College shooting and a mass coordinated terror attack in Paris – were being spread by networks of Twitter bots.
Fact-checking narratives that push back against these dubious narratives, Starbird found, often have the opposite of their intended effect.
“In the case of the New York Times, the newspaper posted an article explicitly denying alternative narratives of the Orlando shooting event,” she wrote. “This denial was then cited several times by those promoting those narratives – as even more evidence for their theory.”
Once someone falls into thrall with conspiracy theories, it's all but impossible to convince them to come out of them, and the more that conspiracy theories are debunked with factual information, the more the conspiracy theorist digs in their heels. They have too much invested in what they believe to give up believing it.
Leon Festinger studied the beliefs of a doomsday cult in the 1950s and their reactions when the world didn't end when they expected it to.
"A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point. We have all experienced the futility of trying to change a strong conviction, especially if the convinced person has some investment in his belief. We are familiar with the variety of ingenious defenses with which people protect their convictions, managing to keep them unscathed through the most devastating attacks.
But man's resourcefulness goes beyond simply protecting a belief. Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view."
Leon Festinger
Disconfirmed expectancy
Cognitive dissonance
Post an OP, and if and if someone who's not a rightist responds, you'll say "AHA!! This was a trap, bwahaha... got another MOBY!"
If a rightist responds, you'll say "Yup. I keep tellin' ya, watch the left hand, folks."
:chuckle:
Next you'll probably say I was paid to respond to your OP.
How's that Russian conspiracy doing?Charlottesville conspiracy theories spread, echoing ‘false flag’ claims. . . . Similar claims have arisen after nearly every terrorist attack or mass shooting in recent years.
Kate Starbird, a researcher at the University of Washington, has spent years tracking how such conspiracy theories are generated and then spread across the internet.
Starbird and her team found false flag theories surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon, and the 2016 terrorist attack at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.
“For every man-made crisis event we studied,” she wrote in a blog postoutlining her research, “we found evidence of alternative narratives, often shared by some of the same accounts and connected to some of the same online sites.”
Starbird discovered that some of these false flag narratives – such as the Umpqua Community College shooting and a mass coordinated terror attack in Paris – were being spread by networks of Twitter bots.
Fact-checking narratives that push back against these dubious narratives, Starbird found, often have the opposite of their intended effect.
“In the case of the New York Times, the newspaper posted an article explicitly denying alternative narratives of the Orlando shooting event,” she wrote. “This denial was then cited several times by those promoting those narratives – as even more evidence for their theory.”
Once someone falls into thrall with conspiracy theories, it's all but impossible to convince them to come out of them, and the more that conspiracy theories are debunked with factual information, the more the conspiracy theorist digs in their heels. They have too much invested in what they believe to give up believing it.
Leon Festinger studied the beliefs of a doomsday cult in the 1950s and their reactions when the world didn't end when they expected it to.
"A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point. We have all experienced the futility of trying to change a strong conviction, especially if the convinced person has some investment in his belief. We are familiar with the variety of ingenious defenses with which people protect their convictions, managing to keep them unscathed through the most devastating attacks.
But man's resourcefulness goes beyond simply protecting a belief. Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view."
Leon Festinger
Disconfirmed expectancy
Cognitive dissonance
Wow, you're as blind as a bat, you don't see how that perfectly describes the left wing Russian conspiracy nuts?Musty fits the latter profile to an absolute tee...
:chuckle:
I've never known anyone so whack a doodle. He's almost on a par with Alex Jones...
:dunce:
Wow, you're as blind as a bat, you don't see how that perfectly describes the left wing Russian conspiracy nuts?
Bats aren't blind though where it comes to Trump, you are.
How's that Russian conspiracy doing?
Mueller's been busy while Trump's been working on diversionary tactics.
Mueller Seeks Grand Jury Testimony from PR Execs Who Worked With ManafortWASHINGTON — Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued grand jury subpoenas in recent days seeking testimony from public relations executives who worked on an international campaign organized by Paul Manafort, people directly familiar with the matter told NBC News.
This is the first public indication that Mueller's investigation is beginning to compel witness testimony before the grand jury — a significant milestone in an inquiry that is examining the conduct of President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, among others.
It is also further indication that Manafort, Trump's onetime campaign chairman, could be in serious legal jeopardy.
7 times Trump tried to call off the dogs on Russia1) Trying to get Tillis to back off
2) Venting to Corker about sanctions bill
3) Complaining to McConnell about not getting protection
4) Asking Comey for loyalty
5) Suggesting Comey be lenient on Michael Flynn
6) Asking Comey to say Trump wasn't under investigation
7) Asking Coats and Rogers to deny evidence of collusion