Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false
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The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.
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Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.
Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false
“Winning” means prioritizing independence from outside influence over being right.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
Believing something wrong is never a win.
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I’d settle for more Heaven’s Gate / Jonestown / Waco (this one a bit less, but the result was mostly the same)
Good ol Davey K.’s bbq bash
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The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.
[…]
Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.
Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false
“Winning” means prioritizing independence from outside influence over being right.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
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I’m tired man, can the people who want to be raptured be raptured already
rapture already happened, those people just suck and got left behind
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rapture already happened, those people just suck and got left behind
That’s giving too much credibility to their cult nonsense.
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The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.
[…]
Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.
Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false
“Winning” means prioritizing independence from outside influence over being right.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
Those who think it’s good to believe lies/misinformation/disinormation: Religious people. It’s them. That’s what they do. Make up bullshit, then believe in it when there’s zero evidence of it at all.
They don’t care about literal truth. They care about belonging to the group of liars that they fit into, because they’re liars as well. They’re lying to themselves every single day.
Religious people were the #1 cause of spread of COVID. They just had to have church services for a fictional god that’s everywhere. Why? They dont’ know, it doesn’t make sense. They just did it because someone lied to them about some stupid religious crap.
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I’m tired man, can the people who want to be raptured be raptured already
That’s not how it works. Rapture is part of their death cult, where they have to scare all their members every few months or lose them.
“Do what I say or you’re going to hell”. It’s abusive. Very abusive.
They can go to the afterlife anytime they want. The ones who actually believe that crap do kill themselves for that purpose. The ones still here are just cowards and liars.
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The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.
[…]
Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.
Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false
“Winning” means prioritizing independence from outside influence over being right.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
Really hope this starts to sink in with people more. We really gotta evolve past trying to appeal to everyone’s reason and morality all the time.
The people trying to destroy public education dgaf if they look stupid or if you have a news article that proves they’re a hypocrite
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Really hope this starts to sink in with people more. We really gotta evolve past trying to appeal to everyone’s reason and morality all the time.
The people trying to destroy public education dgaf if they look stupid or if you have a news article that proves they’re a hypocrite
Do you have links to more effective strategies?
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The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.
[…]
Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.
Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false
“Winning” means prioritizing independence from outside influence over being right.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
“Ugh, your health care advice is too trendy, so I’m not going to follow it because that would make me weak.” /s I don’t like following many trends, but this isn’t the place to make that stand.
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Those who think it’s good to believe lies/misinformation/disinormation: Religious people. It’s them. That’s what they do. Make up bullshit, then believe in it when there’s zero evidence of it at all.
They don’t care about literal truth. They care about belonging to the group of liars that they fit into, because they’re liars as well. They’re lying to themselves every single day.
Religious people were the #1 cause of spread of COVID. They just had to have church services for a fictional god that’s everywhere. Why? They dont’ know, it doesn’t make sense. They just did it because someone lied to them about some stupid religious crap.
There were plenty of non-religious people believing the lies, pretty much everyone on the right, and they’re not all religious. It was an us vs. them take.
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Do you have links to more effective strategies?
I’ve got anecdotes about deradicalizing people or I got links to videos about how the gotcha approach doesn’t work. I’m a terminally online anarchist so unfortunately my knowledge stems from terminally online spaces.
Beyond that what we have to go by is studying high control groups in the past and trying to better educate ourselves on how they operate.
My favorite example are Jehovah’s Witnesses. My favorite video about their inner workings has been removed but there’s a lot of documentaries about people who have escaped. Instead This is a channel that highlights the psychological tactics used by high control groups to erode people’s sense of reality and separate them from their families.
Innuendo Studios has a video about the grooming process into MAGA and a series on the mental gymnastics they’re using to stay radicalized. It’s important if you want to understand why the people in your life aren’t responding to being talked to like adults.
This is an oversimplification by an “enlightened centrist” who does actually do a great job of prescribing the best advice for trying to engage in debate theatrics: Stop and move on.
Philosophy Tube is another terminally online leftist but that video describes the fractured models of reality that life in America creates and why you can’t just logic someone out of a worldview they didn’t logic themselves into. This one however probably comes the closest to actual prescriptive advice on how to deradicalize people and it only works on individuals you are personally close to anyway.
Again, I’m just a terminally online agoraphobe who’s only got personal stories about my loved one’s descent into MAGA schizoid shit. But all of the videos I linked have actual sources you could track down for further reading. Let me know if you’d like to hear the synopsis in my own uneducated words, I in no way expect anyone to watch all that bullshit.
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I’ve got anecdotes about deradicalizing people or I got links to videos about how the gotcha approach doesn’t work. I’m a terminally online anarchist so unfortunately my knowledge stems from terminally online spaces.
Beyond that what we have to go by is studying high control groups in the past and trying to better educate ourselves on how they operate.
My favorite example are Jehovah’s Witnesses. My favorite video about their inner workings has been removed but there’s a lot of documentaries about people who have escaped. Instead This is a channel that highlights the psychological tactics used by high control groups to erode people’s sense of reality and separate them from their families.
Innuendo Studios has a video about the grooming process into MAGA and a series on the mental gymnastics they’re using to stay radicalized. It’s important if you want to understand why the people in your life aren’t responding to being talked to like adults.
This is an oversimplification by an “enlightened centrist” who does actually do a great job of prescribing the best advice for trying to engage in debate theatrics: Stop and move on.
Philosophy Tube is another terminally online leftist but that video describes the fractured models of reality that life in America creates and why you can’t just logic someone out of a worldview they didn’t logic themselves into. This one however probably comes the closest to actual prescriptive advice on how to deradicalize people and it only works on individuals you are personally close to anyway.
Again, I’m just a terminally online agoraphobe who’s only got personal stories about my loved one’s descent into MAGA schizoid shit. But all of the videos I linked have actual sources you could track down for further reading. Let me know if you’d like to hear the synopsis in my own uneducated words, I in no way expect anyone to watch all that bullshit.
What was the removed JW video?
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What was the removed JW video?
Jawn Louis is the channel’s name. He escaped the Jehovah’s Witness church and talked about being groomed into it as a child and how he got out. It’s just one guy’s anecdotal evidence but he does have the valid experience of actually been born into a high control group and his advice aligns with what’s been proven to help people heal from escaping those groups.
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The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.
[…]
Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.
Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false
“Winning” means prioritizing independence from outside influence over being right.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
Rather than focus purely on the group dynamic, I encourage people to read Madness by Justin Garson. It’s an exploration of the neuroprotective aspects of mental illness, the biological reasons why people cling to false hope or pursue delusions.
Considering the research that has been done by psychologists employed by the US disinformation systems producing narratives like QAnon and Russiagate, I assume these tricks are already known quantities being exploited. That’s just my read though, Garson never brings up anything like that.
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Do you have links to more effective strategies?
Focus on material arguments, find common ground on the basis of class upon which to make such arguments. Only make them if needed. We don’t need to have high degree of conformity and we’re not gonna get it either way. And all of this should be anchored to a purpose for doing it. E.g. fighting the oligarchy, reaching better alignment within a family, etc. If there’s no worthy purpose, we shouldn’t expend social capital in convincing people.
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I’ve got anecdotes about deradicalizing people or I got links to videos about how the gotcha approach doesn’t work. I’m a terminally online anarchist so unfortunately my knowledge stems from terminally online spaces.
Beyond that what we have to go by is studying high control groups in the past and trying to better educate ourselves on how they operate.
My favorite example are Jehovah’s Witnesses. My favorite video about their inner workings has been removed but there’s a lot of documentaries about people who have escaped. Instead This is a channel that highlights the psychological tactics used by high control groups to erode people’s sense of reality and separate them from their families.
Innuendo Studios has a video about the grooming process into MAGA and a series on the mental gymnastics they’re using to stay radicalized. It’s important if you want to understand why the people in your life aren’t responding to being talked to like adults.
This is an oversimplification by an “enlightened centrist” who does actually do a great job of prescribing the best advice for trying to engage in debate theatrics: Stop and move on.
Philosophy Tube is another terminally online leftist but that video describes the fractured models of reality that life in America creates and why you can’t just logic someone out of a worldview they didn’t logic themselves into. This one however probably comes the closest to actual prescriptive advice on how to deradicalize people and it only works on individuals you are personally close to anyway.
Again, I’m just a terminally online agoraphobe who’s only got personal stories about my loved one’s descent into MAGA schizoid shit. But all of the videos I linked have actual sources you could track down for further reading. Let me know if you’d like to hear the synopsis in my own uneducated words, I in no way expect anyone to watch all that bullshit.
got personal stories about my loved one’s descent into MAGA
You and me both. It’s a bit terrifying how much of this has momentum outside the US. The supporters of South Korean president that ordered military rule wearing MAGA hats, or how often the talking points pop up outside the US, especially during US election cycles, from the “free thinkers”.
who does actually do a great job of prescribing the best advice for trying to engage in debate theatrics: Stop and move on.
Thinking of my personal experience, I get that, especially on the mental health front. Thinking of societal / political implications though, doesn’t that just give time to scatter information that’s hard to dislodge? A lot of what I’ve heard is the importance of prebunking, like what’s written in The Debunking Handbook (2020).
Let me know if you’d like to hear the synopsis in my own uneducated words, I in no way expect anyone to watch all that bullshit
I’ll save this post and get back to it. I also have a long boring flight coming up soon.
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Rather than focus purely on the group dynamic, I encourage people to read Madness by Justin Garson. It’s an exploration of the neuroprotective aspects of mental illness, the biological reasons why people cling to false hope or pursue delusions.
Considering the research that has been done by psychologists employed by the US disinformation systems producing narratives like QAnon and Russiagate, I assume these tricks are already known quantities being exploited. That’s just my read though, Garson never brings up anything like that.
anecdotally all my mentally ill or social inferior friends/partners over the years… have all become full blow misinformation/delusional conspiracy theory types of people. and are no longer my friends.
their desperation in my reading is that they simple refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and rectify their behaviors… so it must be some vast conspiracy that causes them to overspending, make poor lifestyle choices, and be unable to keep a job…
and to them anyone who is mildly put together is some privledged jerk with zero empathy for them and their ‘totally unique’ situation…
i also pathologically avoid these people now, i was a lot more tolerate of them 10 years ago. But all they want to do is drag you down into their delusions and misery, they do not want to improve their own lives, let alone ours. They will also take your successes as personal attacks on themselves…
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Do you have links to more effective strategies?
yeah, metaphorically punching them in the face.
people like this tend to only respond well visceral reality right in front of their faces. just think of how addicts have to ‘bottom’ before they seek recovery… it’s basically the same issue. they have to visible see the horrible negative consequences of what they are doing to themselves. you can’t ‘win’ these people over by appealing to them… shock therapy is really the only think.
and a lot of them will tell you how they were ‘shocked’ at some point into their lives out of their previous beliefs.
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Focus on material arguments, find common ground on the basis of class upon which to make such arguments. Only make them if needed. We don’t need to have high degree of conformity and we’re not gonna get it either way. And all of this should be anchored to a purpose for doing it. E.g. fighting the oligarchy, reaching better alignment within a family, etc. If there’s no worthy purpose, we shouldn’t expend social capital in convincing people.
Aligning on a purpose is important. I’d argue that being aware of how on board people are for that purpose is important too. I recently tried to say that the family chat should have less influencer posts since we don’t all agree on the positions and it causes friction. Boy was that a shit show
