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Scott Adams thinks he is a wizard whose voice has hypnotic mind-control powers, and that the Clinton Foundation personally bankrolls an army of trolls to harass

Scott Adams thinks he is a wizard whose voice has hypnotic mind-control powers, and that the Clinton Foundation personally bankrolls an army of trolls to harass him on Twitter. In other words, he's delusional. He is not in any sense of the term a "thoughtful person"

adnzzzzZ 10y ago
>Scott Adams thinks he is a wizard whose voice has hypnotic mind-control powers He thinks Trump is a good persuader. And he is. Trump's use of confirmation bias is very skillful and effective.
- Analemma_ 10y ago
  That's probably true! But the "he" in my sentence refers to Scott Adams, not Trump. Scott thinks of himself as a brilliant persuader, a theory that is ill-supported by the evidence.
  - MichaelGG 10y ago
    FWIW I've used Scott's arguments to get at least 2 more votes for Trump. Including one from a 20-something girl that was a diehard Bernie supporter. I know, anecdotal. What I find effective is asking people to really state exactly, specifically, what actions Trump himself is going to do that'll lead to the downfall of civilization or whatever they think's going to happen. Clinton's dirty play with Bernie also helps quite a bit. And honestly, the US accepting that kind of thing, openly (as in, act like this, have it exposed, still become president) would be much more damaging to society.
- gamache 10y ago
  It would seem to me that relying on confirmation bias means he's not much of a persuader at all.
angry-hacker 10y ago
Why attack here? You pretty much proved people on the left side do attack him. Did he ever say the people attacking him are paid by Clinton.
- BryantD 10y ago
  Yes, he did. http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152337049156/watch-the-persuasion-battle http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152337049156/watch-the-persuasi... -- "Hordes of either paid or volunteer Twitter trolls descended on me with two specific types of attacks." http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152293480726/the-bully-party http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152293480726/the-bully-party -- "We also know Clinton’s side hired paid trolls to bully online. You don’t hear much about that." https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/791855586870571008 https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/791855586870571008 -- "Apparently Clinton's army of paid Hillbullies made her anti-bullying message feel awkward."
  - angry-hacker 10y ago
    You don't have to take everything literally, do you? And Correct the Record did exist.[0] [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record
    - raesene6 10y ago
      that's hillarious. You asked the commentor for evidence of their claim, they provided it and you responded "ah well don't take it literally" So there's nothing they could've said which would be right there either a) provide no evidence "ah your wrong" or b) provide evidence "ah don't take it literally"...
      - angry-hacker 10y ago
        Go ahead and read in what context the tweet was written in. Paid astroturfers is a known fact. Probably for every political candidate nowadays.
zxcvvcxz 10y ago
> the Clinton Foundation personally bankrolls an army of trolls to harass him on Twitter. Have you ever heard of "Correct The Record"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record
- cm2012 10y ago
  Correct the record had a $6 mil budget back in May - not enough to hire trolls. Mostly they identify themselves and link to http://correctrecord.org/ http://correctrecord.org/. They certainly don't waste time trolling cartoonists.
  - 551199 10y ago
    Excuse me, you are saying 9 MIL isn't enough to employ people to troll behalf the campaign? There is a list of all the people working for ctr half or full time provided by the gov. CTR Budget: 9,4MIL[0] [0]https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00578997 https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00578997
alva 10y ago
"thinks.. Clinton Foundation personally bankrolls an army of trolls to harass him on Twitter. In other words, he's delusional" If you were presented evidence that shows this to be true, would you be opened minded enough to update your beliefs?
- postcarnival 10y ago
  it's called CTR
- tim333 10y ago
  I read Scott's stuff and he also complained about the trolls putting bad reviews on amazon. I had a look and there were exactly two bad reviews giving 1* and saying don't buy because he's promoting Trump. I suspect the Twitter thing is similar in that a handful of readers criticize him and he figures that's an army of trolls.
cconroy 10y ago
He also said he doesn't want to live in a society were all of its citizens are not covered for healthcare and praised ACA for including more people (~20 mil). And his analysis of Trump seems better than most who claim he is dumb and/or Hitler. I don't agree with Adams nevertheless he is thoughtful.
sergiotapia 10y ago
Yeah bullshit. It's been 100% proven the Clinton campaign paid thousands of online bullies to astroturf everywhere from Twitter to 4chan.
- tim333 10y ago
  [citation needed]
  - sergiotapia 10y ago
    https://correctrecord.org/ https://correctrecord.org/
    - subsection1h 10y ago
      Where precisely is the evidence of that "100% proves" the existence of "thousands of online bullies" that were "paid"?
      - ConfuciusSay02 10y ago
        They use the term "correcting the record" instead of trolling and bullying. But it's undeniable that they're spending millions to pay people to post on social media in favor of a candidate (usually without any type of disclosure).
kafkaesq 10y ago
He is not in any sense of the term a "thoughtful person" The problem is, there's no inherent contradiction between being "delusional" and being "thoughtful". In fact, throughout history many of the very people generally regarded as having unleashed the greatest amounts of havoc in the world got into positions where they were able to do that precisely because they were able to reconcile these seemingly contradictory traits.

adnzzzzZ 10y ago

>Scott Adams thinks he is a wizard whose voice has hypnotic mind-control powers He thinks Trump is a good persuader. And he is. Trump's use of confirmation bias is very skillful and effective.

Analemma_ 10y ago
That's probably true! But the "he" in my sentence refers to Scott Adams, not Trump. Scott thinks of himself as a brilliant persuader, a theory that is ill-supported by the evidence.
- MichaelGG 10y ago
  FWIW I've used Scott's arguments to get at least 2 more votes for Trump. Including one from a 20-something girl that was a diehard Bernie supporter. I know, anecdotal. What I find effective is asking people to really state exactly, specifically, what actions Trump himself is going to do that'll lead to the downfall of civilization or whatever they think's going to happen. Clinton's dirty play with Bernie also helps quite a bit. And honestly, the US accepting that kind of thing, openly (as in, act like this, have it exposed, still become president) would be much more damaging to society.
gamache 10y ago
It would seem to me that relying on confirmation bias means he's not much of a persuader at all.

angry-hacker 10y ago

Why attack here? You pretty much proved people on the left side do attack him. Did he ever say the people attacking him are paid by Clinton.

BryantD 10y ago
Yes, he did. http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152337049156/watch-the-persuasion-battle http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152337049156/watch-the-persuasi... -- "Hordes of either paid or volunteer Twitter trolls descended on me with two specific types of attacks." http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152293480726/the-bully-party http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152293480726/the-bully-party -- "We also know Clinton’s side hired paid trolls to bully online. You don’t hear much about that." https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/791855586870571008 https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/791855586870571008 -- "Apparently Clinton's army of paid Hillbullies made her anti-bullying message feel awkward."
- angry-hacker 10y ago
  You don't have to take everything literally, do you? And Correct the Record did exist.[0] [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record
  - raesene6 10y ago
    that's hillarious. You asked the commentor for evidence of their claim, they provided it and you responded "ah well don't take it literally" So there's nothing they could've said which would be right there either a) provide no evidence "ah your wrong" or b) provide evidence "ah don't take it literally"...
    - angry-hacker 10y ago
      Go ahead and read in what context the tweet was written in. Paid astroturfers is a known fact. Probably for every political candidate nowadays.

zxcvvcxz 10y ago

> the Clinton Foundation personally bankrolls an army of trolls to harass him on Twitter. Have you ever heard of "Correct The Record"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock#Correct_the_Record

cm2012 10y ago
Correct the record had a $6 mil budget back in May - not enough to hire trolls. Mostly they identify themselves and link to http://correctrecord.org/ http://correctrecord.org/. They certainly don't waste time trolling cartoonists.
- 551199 10y ago
  Excuse me, you are saying 9 MIL isn't enough to employ people to troll behalf the campaign? There is a list of all the people working for ctr half or full time provided by the gov. CTR Budget: 9,4MIL[0] [0]https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00578997 https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00578997

alva 10y ago

"thinks.. Clinton Foundation personally bankrolls an army of trolls to harass him on Twitter. In other words, he's delusional" If you were presented evidence that shows this to be true, would you be opened minded enough to update your beliefs?

postcarnival 10y ago
it's called CTR
tim333 10y ago
I read Scott's stuff and he also complained about the trolls putting bad reviews on amazon. I had a look and there were exactly two bad reviews giving 1* and saying don't buy because he's promoting Trump. I suspect the Twitter thing is similar in that a handful of readers criticize him and he figures that's an army of trolls.

cconroy 10y ago

He also said he doesn't want to live in a society were all of its citizens are not covered for healthcare and praised ACA for including more people (~20 mil). And his analysis of Trump seems better than most who claim he is dumb and/or Hitler. I don't agree with Adams nevertheless he is thoughtful.

sergiotapia 10y ago

Yeah bullshit. It's been 100% proven the Clinton campaign paid thousands of online bullies to astroturf everywhere from Twitter to 4chan.

tim333 10y ago
[citation needed]
- sergiotapia 10y ago
  https://correctrecord.org/ https://correctrecord.org/
  - subsection1h 10y ago
    Where precisely is the evidence of that "100% proves" the existence of "thousands of online bullies" that were "paid"?
    - ConfuciusSay02 10y ago
      They use the term "correcting the record" instead of trolling and bullying. But it's undeniable that they're spending millions to pay people to post on social media in favor of a candidate (usually without any type of disclosure).

kafkaesq 10y ago

He is not in any sense of the term a "thoughtful person" The problem is, there's no inherent contradiction between being "delusional" and being "thoughtful". In fact, throughout history many of the very people generally regarded as having unleashed the greatest amounts of havoc in the world got into positions where they were able to do that precisely because they were able to reconcile these seemingly contradictory traits.