3 ms·

It's just cold reading over IP. A tried and true con-man technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col

It's just cold reading over IP. A tried and true con-man technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure

api 8y ago
Cold reading performed as a con is infinitely more effective if the cold reader actually has done homework or is able to somehow influence events. Con men do in fact do this-- a good con does a lot of homework before approaching a "mark" and may try to orchestrate events as well using shills. I've heard this called "hot reading" as opposed to cold reading. If Q actually were a pro-Trump psyop (not out of the question given how Internet-savvy his campaign was) then Q may actually have some inside information, resulting in some very effective cold reading. This could also be the case if Q is someone else's psyop (Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, organized crime, etc.) and has a line into its employer's intelligence apparatus. I realize this may also verge on conspiracy theory, but looking around the world at nations as diverse as Russia, China, and Turkey, and now at the USA I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. The world will soon be a mafia state of sorts ruled over by a superclass of amoral gangsters who use state of the art surveillance technology and psychological warfare techniques to manage the population. It will be a "velvet glove, iron fist" system like Singapore where the need to actually "disappear" people is significantly mitigated by the clever deployment of psyops to head off any substantial resistance before it's an issue. William Gibson was a prophet. It never ceases to amaze me how perfectly he nailed the zeitgeist of the 21st century. This is the criminal age. I also can't help but factor in the rapid development of the space industry. History does tend to rhyme. During the last "age of discovery" a major motive for people leaving Europe was to escape an extremely corrupt and decadent oligarchy. Maybe people will flee to Mars to escape the modern version of bawdy oligarchs in powdered wigs and merkins. Who knows... maybe corruption and social meltdown is some kind of built-in developmental phase in our species that works to drive us outward in another burst of colonization. If I were an alien watching I'd be scared to death and debating the wisdom of just hitting Earth with a kinetic weapon before it's too late.
- cvwright 8y ago
  > I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. You realize you sound a lot like this QAnon guy yourself now, right?
  - api 8y ago
    Maybe so, but I just call it like I see it. That's part of what makes his narrative compelling. A good con lies strategically but also peppers the story with truth. The thing I find alarming is that nobody looks good. The whole thing looks like crooks vs crooks, and I don't just mean in the USA.
- facetube 8y ago
  IIRC a major part of cold reading is asking leading questions, building rapport, and generally relying on your mark to inadvertently leak information to you during this process. Like, the "Q" prediction of a "liquidity event"? That's vague enough so as to be applicable to almost anything post-hoc. Dropping "clues", requiring audience participation and effort, claiming you see the truth but can't quite see the truth 100% clearly without the help of your mark? That's cold reading, man. If I had to put money on a psyop though, it'd be an anti-Trump op, not a pro-Trump op. The Qanon Choose Your Own Adventure™ scam has tarpitted so many Trumpists into days and days of conspiratorial nonsense that their advocacy is ceasing to be effective.
  - api 8y ago
    That's a good point... many of those things are just vague enough to fit any narrative. Maybe it's just some basement dweller getting their lulz by taking the fashy "autist" chan crowd for a ride.
    - facetube 8y ago
      It's 4chan, I promise you

It's just cold reading over IP. A tried and true con-man technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure

api 8y ago

Cold reading performed as a con is infinitely more effective if the cold reader actually has done homework or is able to somehow influence events. Con men do in fact do this-- a good con does a lot of homework before approaching a "mark" and may try to orchestrate events as well using shills. I've heard this called "hot reading" as opposed to cold reading. If Q actually were a pro-Trump psyop (not out of the question given how Internet-savvy his campaign was) then Q may actually have some inside information, resulting in some very effective cold reading. This could also be the case if Q is someone else's psyop (Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, organized crime, etc.) and has a line into its employer's intelligence apparatus. I realize this may also verge on conspiracy theory, but looking around the world at nations as diverse as Russia, China, and Turkey, and now at the USA I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. The world will soon be a mafia state of sorts ruled over by a superclass of amoral gangsters who use state of the art surveillance technology and psychological warfare techniques to manage the population. It will be a "velvet glove, iron fist" system like Singapore where the need to actually "disappear" people is significantly mitigated by the clever deployment of psyops to head off any substantial resistance before it's an issue. William Gibson was a prophet. It never ceases to amaze me how perfectly he nailed the zeitgeist of the 21st century. This is the criminal age. I also can't help but factor in the rapid development of the space industry. History does tend to rhyme. During the last "age of discovery" a major motive for people leaving Europe was to escape an extremely corrupt and decadent oligarchy. Maybe people will flee to Mars to escape the modern version of bawdy oligarchs in powdered wigs and merkins. Who knows... maybe corruption and social meltdown is some kind of built-in developmental phase in our species that works to drive us outward in another burst of colonization. If I were an alien watching I'd be scared to death and debating the wisdom of just hitting Earth with a kinetic weapon before it's too late.

cvwright 8y ago
> I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. You realize you sound a lot like this QAnon guy yourself now, right?
- api 8y ago
  Maybe so, but I just call it like I see it. That's part of what makes his narrative compelling. A good con lies strategically but also peppers the story with truth. The thing I find alarming is that nobody looks good. The whole thing looks like crooks vs crooks, and I don't just mean in the USA.
facetube 8y ago
IIRC a major part of cold reading is asking leading questions, building rapport, and generally relying on your mark to inadvertently leak information to you during this process. Like, the "Q" prediction of a "liquidity event"? That's vague enough so as to be applicable to almost anything post-hoc. Dropping "clues", requiring audience participation and effort, claiming you see the truth but can't quite see the truth 100% clearly without the help of your mark? That's cold reading, man. If I had to put money on a psyop though, it'd be an anti-Trump op, not a pro-Trump op. The Qanon Choose Your Own Adventure™ scam has tarpitted so many Trumpists into days and days of conspiratorial nonsense that their advocacy is ceasing to be effective.
- api 8y ago
  That's a good point... many of those things are just vague enough to fit any narrative. Maybe it's just some basement dweller getting their lulz by taking the fashy "autist" chan crowd for a ride.
  - facetube 8y ago
    It's 4chan, I promise you