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Religious data platform [Cambridge Analytica] 'targets vulnerable people'
- anm89 6y agoI certainly don't agree with these people but isn't this what they've always done? The church views the poor and those with health issues as people they can "help". This is how it has always been and they are entirely open about it. So I'd say this is kind of a non story.
- bleepblorp 6y agoRead the article. Facebook was used as a platform for a well-funded campaign to identify ill and vulnerable people to bring them to extremist churches specifically for the purposes of political radicalization. This is a step change in the level of 'wrong' from churches merely using Facebook-guided advertising to exploit vulnerable people for religious purposes.
- anm89 6y agoSo, basically what the church has done for all of recorded history? I'm going to guess that when the church was recruiting executioners for the inquisition they weren't selecting for the most well adjusted people then either. And I guess you could call that radical politics.
- bleepblorp 6y agoRead the article.
- nailer 6y agoThe churches don't have radical views though. Also please see the HN guidelines regarding insinuating someone hasn't read the article.
- bleepblorp 6y agoPlease see the HN guidelines against "shallow dismissals" and the expectation that responses are to be made to "the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."
- 3646373774 6y agoBeing a nothing story won't stop it from getting upvotes on hn since software folks are somehow progressive but about as tolerant of religion as the Chinese. >It turned out to be far-right-wing churches, conservative churches in the US. And they've built a platform that targets mentally ill or vulnerable people in order to draw them into church, to monetize them through donations. That's the short-term goal. To help them is the facade for it, but ultimately the aim is to convert them to the politics of the far right. < So get this, a church wanted to "radicalize" (recruit) people from downtrodden groups and then had the nerve to ask for donations! How do these people live with themselves? This is almost as bad as those advertising agencies that radicalize consumers into buying their products!
- Proven 6y agoJunk news. Just because you're vulnerable that doesn't mean you should vote for Hitler or religious fanatics. "I was targeted." So? Only you are responsible for your actions. Do politicians not target vulnerable people? Is no one here going to vote for Biden because they stand to save on healthcare despite prior conditions?
- nailer 6y agoArticle seems to be bringing up the debunked Cambridge Analytica Brexit conspiracy theory as truth: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54457407 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54457407 And conservative churches are not 'far right'. They are right wing. They are advocating against abortion, not for genocide. Essentially this article is: 'churches recruit vulnerable people' dressed up in mass hysteria.