3 ms·

Modern CTs are also sometimes the result of disinformation campaigns where (contrary to your example) there is not an attempt to provide multiple facts that wou

Modern CTs are also sometimes the result of disinformation campaigns where (contrary to your example) there is not an attempt to provide multiple facts that would support "the" CT but rather continuously providing multiple plausible different (and incompatible) CTs to drown out the true situation - especially since most parts of the true explanation (which the disinformation campaign wants to muddle) would also overlap with one or more of the debunkable and debunked CTs, thus eventually getting to the desired end position of "ah, noone can really know what's true".

throwaway80332 6y ago
It will be interesting to see what algorithms like the one in the linked article will reveal about the people and organizations behind those conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns. We already know that Trump is secretly colluding with Vladimir Putin, the Koch brothers and homophobic nazis like Milo Yiannopolous, and recieving behind-the-scene support from far-right capitalists like Fox News, Breitbart and the proud boys. They are practically running the hate-filled cesspits like 4chan, and we saw the results last summer when they burned down the inner cities to stop the peaceful protests against white supremacy and George Floyd. When I've tried to bring attention to this, right-wing extremists have called me a malicious collaboration hypothesizer, but I just report them to the mods and that's that. Hopefully under Biden, and with new technology that respects people of all backgrounds, all this disinformation can be dealt with legislatively once and for all, so that you'll be able to trust the news and what you read online, and never have to deal with any racist fascist misogyny ever again.
wtfiswiththis 6y ago
See: Republicans and the election. Trump's call basically was precisely this. We heard claims, claims on the internet. No not social media but "Trump media" so there are golden. The best claims ever. And those claims, not the substance of them but the fact that the claims exist, are the basis of disputing the election now. To drive this point home, they now want panels to investigate "what happened" despite the claims already being tested in court. The substance doesn't matter, it never mattered. Sowing doubt and mistrust of the process was always the purpose.

throwaway80332 6y ago

It will be interesting to see what algorithms like the one in the linked article will reveal about the people and organizations behind those conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns. We already know that Trump is secretly colluding with Vladimir Putin, the Koch brothers and homophobic nazis like Milo Yiannopolous, and recieving behind-the-scene support from far-right capitalists like Fox News, Breitbart and the proud boys. They are practically running the hate-filled cesspits like 4chan, and we saw the results last summer when they burned down the inner cities to stop the peaceful protests against white supremacy and George Floyd. When I've tried to bring attention to this, right-wing extremists have called me a malicious collaboration hypothesizer, but I just report them to the mods and that's that. Hopefully under Biden, and with new technology that respects people of all backgrounds, all this disinformation can be dealt with legislatively once and for all, so that you'll be able to trust the news and what you read online, and never have to deal with any racist fascist misogyny ever again.

wtfiswiththis 6y ago

See: Republicans and the election. Trump's call basically was precisely this. We heard claims, claims on the internet. No not social media but "Trump media" so there are golden. The best claims ever. And those claims, not the substance of them but the fact that the claims exist, are the basis of disputing the election now. To drive this point home, they now want panels to investigate "what happened" despite the claims already being tested in court. The substance doesn't matter, it never mattered. Sowing doubt and mistrust of the process was always the purpose.