Trump vs. Biden

[Siúil a Rúin]

Sleepy Joe gets shit done.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Jaguar]

Stacy needs to stop smoking crack. (Even though I don't think Stacy actually exists.)

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

If people like Stacy don't exist, how did Trump become President? It reminds me of people who thought it was impossible for Trump to win in 2016 because "nobody is that stupid." I feel like those folks live in an alternate reality. Lots of people are pretty fucking dumb.... like... have you not been paying attention? Being that unaware of things outside of your bubble, for a supposed "smart" person, must be willful ignorance on some level.

Very frustrating how centrists and even some people on the left refuse to acknowledge the "dumbass quotient" in politics, because that would make them sad or something.

Change is accomplished by working with what you have, not what you wish you had. It'd be awesome if I had wings and I can fly a few blocks to visit my family, but I don't, so I use my legs, instead of being curled in a fetal position because I don't have wings.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Well if she does exist, it's only until March or April anyway. Ostensibly.

 

[Jaguar]

A post is shown to a few users and the response that is shown will determine if the post is highlighted to more users or suppressed. Unfortunately, posts that depict extreme content or lies gain more directions and are circulated rapidly. Manipulators take advantage of this algorithm and use an “army” of accounts that are not correlated with real, existent people called ‘bots’. These bots react positively to the posts that these agencies or groups want to be circulated. According to researchers, nearly half of the Twitter accounts discussing the COVID-19 pandemic are bots.

The second way content is propagated is by use of “sock puppets”. As the name suggests, “sock puppets” are fake accounts that are controlled by a hidden entity using the face and name of a non-existent person.

An example of a sock puppet was “Jenna Abrams”, this account had 70K followers and was mentioned by popular media outlets for its xenophobic and far-right opinions, was exposed to be an invention of the Internet Research Agency.

The important aspect to understand in this is that trolls are not concerned with the issues as much as they are with creating division, mistrust, and confusion. Research in 2018 concluded that some of the most influential accounts on sides of divisive issues, like Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, were controlled by troll farms.

Fake accounts influence what you see on social media / Digital Information World

Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots | MIT Technology Review

This post is for those living in a fantasy world, believing all the posts they read on social media are actually coming from real people.

 

[The Cat]

Fake accounts influence what you see on social media / Digital Information World

Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots | MIT Technology Review

This post is for those living in a fantasy world, believing all the posts they read on social media are actually coming from real people.

I know the master of the sock puppets:

 

[Jaguar]

I know the master of the sock puppets:

That guy is one of the biggest douchebags I've ever seen in politics - along with Ted Cruz.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

That Stacy person wants people to fight unreasonably to keep Trump in office, so is intentionally getting all worked up to give people justification. Isn't this similar to pep rally mentality before sports games or what angry mobs do as they gather with pitchforks and torches. People get internally worked up for adrenaline rushes that enables violence. The subtext also shows that Trump alone isn't enough for people to actually care. They need their spooky stories to work up a hype.

It's also a measure of what is required to be worse than Trump. Abuser types do it and even just assholes do it in fights. By exerting unreasonable blame, it distracts from their own wrongdoing because then you have to spend time defending the innocent party instead of addressing the guilty party. It can also lead to distorted "even Steven" resolutions. "I won't stop doing my bad thing until you stop doing your imaginary bad thing".

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Fake accounts influence what you see on social media / Digital Information World

Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots | MIT Technology Review

This post is for those living in a fantasy world, believing all the posts they read on social media are actually coming from real people.

I know real people who believe Joe Biden is going to destroy their freedoms. Stacy is taking it a step further, but it doesn't seem that far fetched.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I guess it's important to deny the existence of people who believe like that if you think "bipartisanship" is going to cut the mustard these days. Perhaps that is why centrists refuse to admit that a lot of people think that way... if they did, they'd have to concede that perhaps they are the unrealistic ones.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

I know real people who believe Joe Biden is going to destroy their freedoms. Stacy is taking it a step further, but it doesn't seem that far fetched.

So is Biden sleepy and falling apart or an aggressive fierce destroyer of the world? The anti-Biden stuff is really shooting from the hip in all directions without any narrative cohesion, yet alone truth value. Really, if you want to accuse him of something realistically it is that he is status quo. He isn't going to do anything shocking and new.

We can look to the past as an indicator of the future. The man has been in politics for a long time and he is going to operate the same as before. This is also true of Trump operating the same as he did before, but he had more power as the president, but still, same values, tactics and goals as he demonstrated in life and business.

 

[Jaguar]

I know real people who believe Joe Biden is going to destroy their freedoms. Stacy is taking it a step further, but it doesn't seem that far fetched.

Fuck Stacybot.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

So is Biden sleepy and falling apart or an aggressive fierce destroyer of the world? The anti-Biden stuff is really shooting from the hip in all directions without any narrative cohesion, yet alone truth value. Really, if you want to accuse him of something realistically it is that he is status quo. He isn't going to do anything shocking and new.

We can look to the past as an indicator of the future. The man has been in politics for a long time and he is going to operate the same as before. This is also true of Trump operating the same as he did before, but he had more power as the president, but still, same values, tactics and goals as he demonstrated in life and business.

Just because something doesn't make sense doesn't mean people don't believe it. It is so strange to me that people cannot recognize that.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

NPR: Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn

McCord was speaking at a recent online conference, Millions of Conversations, an organization aimed at reducing polarization. Along with McCord, several other former officials who served in senior national security roles said the mass embrace of bogus information poses a serious national security concern for the incoming Biden administration.

They added that there's no easy foil for a right-wing propaganda effort that amplifies fears and grievances on a nonstop loop. Those beliefs already have inspired political violence at protests over lockdowns and racial injustice. Political conspiracies drew thousands to last weekend's pro-Trump rally, after which the Proud Boys and other violent extremist groups wreaked havoc in downtown Washington, D.C.

"Breaking through that echo chamber is critical or else we'll see more violence," said Elizabeth Neumann, who in April resigned her post leading the Department of Homeland Security office that oversees responses to violent extremism.

While it's impossible to pin down the scope of such beliefs, analysts say, the numbers are staggering if even a fraction of President Trump's more than 74 million voters support bogus claims that say, for example, the election was rigged, the coronavirus is a hoax, and liberals are hatching a socialist takeover.

Traffic numbers for right-wing outlets and livestreams suggest the support extends well beyond the margins. Recent polls also signal the spread: One survey found that around 77% of Trump supporters believe that Joe Biden won the election as a result of fraud despite no evidence to support that claim.

At the online conference, participants characterized the shift as a mass radicalization. Neumann said the issue keeps her up at night worrying about where the country is heading. She talked about family members who've gone down the right-wing rabbit hole of disinformation. She said conversations with them require patience and negotiation, such as laying out her conditions for coronavirus safety protocols at family gatherings.

Neumann said it's hard to imagine what it would take to replicate those tough conversations on a national scale, given the power and reach of conservative media.

"I am wrestling with: How do I help people that have, unbeknownst to them, they've become radicalized in their thought? They hold views they didn't hold 10 years ago because all they listen to is that conservative infotainment," Neumann said. "Unless we help them break the deception, we cannot operate with 30% of the country holding the extreme views that they do."

[...]

On the conference call, the analysts agreed that the leftist fringe also is hardening and promoting its own conspiracies. But they said there's simply no equivalency with the right in terms of the volume of disinformation and conspiracy, or in its connections to violent acts.

"There is a monetization of outrage on both sides," Neumann said, "but in particular the conservative infotainment sector makes money off of that outrage."
​

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Normalcy is canceled, folks. Sorry.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Just because something doesn't make sense doesn't mean people don't believe it. It is so strange to me that people cannot recognize that.

I recognize it, but I'm just saying. I think humanity has mass insanity and so have no problem knowing that people are not only capable of believing mutually exclusive notions, but they seem to be particularly attracted to them. Cognitive dissonance is behaving like a mind altering substance. Maybe it releases more neurotransmitters, so people are getting off on it?

Edit: I'm not proposing this seriously, but more casual wondering.

 

[Coriolis]

Just because something doesn't make sense doesn't mean people don't believe it. It is so strange to me that people cannot recognize that.

Good grief - humans believe so much that is nonsensical. After all, belief implies the acceptance of something in the absence of evidence. and most of these nonsense theories certainly qualify.

 

[Jaguar]

Stop whining, bird shit man.

 

[The Cat]

Good grief - humans believe so much that is nonsensical. After all, belief implies the acceptance of something in the absence of evidence. and most of these nonsense theories certainly qualify.

When you find yourself falling into madness, dive.