How Shadowy Groups Manipulate Internet Opinion and Debate

[JohnRoberts]

This has been going on since long before social media and tracking cookies. It is generally a waste of time to watch the weekend opinion TV shows since there are a small army of partisan lieutenants from both corners armed with marching orders to press the talking points du jour. You would have to be unconscious to not know both sides talking points. There is never any intention to have a thoughtful discussion, and many talking points are crafted to stop discussion.

In those shows every participant knows who gets paid to shout out their viewpoints. Indeed the word 'discussion' doesn't describe it. But the veil of anonymity sheds a new pale and sad depressive light on the jobs of all these salesmen.

After this recent election I was pretty disappointed and couldn't resist discussing some of these themes with people I play basketball with who drank the kool-aid, and believed the mud slinging campaigns. In every case when I tried to have a fact based discussion of any topic I ran into a wall, with my friendly discussion turning into a charge that "I am living in a bubble and brain washed by lies from the opposition".  It even got so bad that I would download and print out documentation to support one of my claims to bring in a week later, and that would be dismissed as fake.  True believers who completely reject any honest fact based inspection.

I don't suggest that these few anecdotes reflect an entire class of voters but I don't talk to a lot of them, and don't hear from many that seem truly informed. Some of the gym rats I spoke with, really need to wear tin-foil hats, some of their claims about international conspiracy (again suggesting I was uninformed) were not only ludicrous but impossible (historical individuals placed in the wrong century, etc.)  Just look it up on the internet they tell me.  There is a funny TV commercial about a woman who believes everything she reads on the internet, but i've encountered similar "did you know" discussions from my conservative neighbors. Some times I have to google their crisis du jour, so i can better explain why they are nonsense. One IIRC involved a lawsuit for more money than god had, that was just a self promotional attempt by a disbarred lawyer, but they were convinced it was real.

Caveat lector, don't just take anybodies word for something, including me. Instead please be open minded and rigorous about inspecting all important topics for yourself. Triangulate news sources, since the best will have a presentation bias for a given audience. it takes a little work, but the effort is worth it, IMO.

JR