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The phenomenon of the exaggerations of "Jewish space lasers" and "horse paste" is an interesting topic. There's a perfectly reasonable point to be made in each

The phenomenon of the exaggerations of "Jewish space lasers" and "horse paste" is an interesting topic. There's a perfectly reasonable point to be made in each case, but many of the people making it feel the need to overstate the case and make it even more absurd. I think it's because mockery spreads faster on the internet than a simple debunking. And so the thing being debunked is turned into its most extreme form. Perhaps even a step or two beyond a valid interpretation of what's being asserted by the subject. So with the Mockery Maximization Principle, you get a meme that can spread very quickly and discredit the target at the same time. The problem with this technique is that it can backfire if people start repeating it as what was actually being asserted. For example, the horse paste meme has backfired when it came to Rogan and the CNN doctor. When this happens, now the debunkers are on the defensive and they don't have a great way out of it since they're no longer on the side of accuracy and truth.

rglover 5y ago
> Mockery Maximization Principle That's a great term.
iammisc 5y ago
> The problem with this technique is that it can backfire if people start repeating it as what was actually being asserted. For example, the horse paste meme has backfired when it came to Rogan and the CNN doctor. When this happens, now the debunkers are on the defensive and they don't have a great way out of it since they're no longer on the side of accuracy and truth. This is the problem with tribal audiences. CNN can say to its audience (mainly older liberals) that ivermection is horse paste, and face no repercussions. Conformity is so valued by society as a whole, that no one is going to stand up for the truth on CNN itself. But then in those brief moments when the outside world comes in, their bluff is called. The right does it as well, and your mockery maximization principle (great name BTW) mandates that the meme is produced solely for their primary audience to sell clicks.
AvocadoPanic 5y ago
Let's go Brandon!

rglover 5y ago

> Mockery Maximization Principle That's a great term.

iammisc 5y ago

> The problem with this technique is that it can backfire if people start repeating it as what was actually being asserted. For example, the horse paste meme has backfired when it came to Rogan and the CNN doctor. When this happens, now the debunkers are on the defensive and they don't have a great way out of it since they're no longer on the side of accuracy and truth. This is the problem with tribal audiences. CNN can say to its audience (mainly older liberals) that ivermection is horse paste, and face no repercussions. Conformity is so valued by society as a whole, that no one is going to stand up for the truth on CNN itself. But then in those brief moments when the outside world comes in, their bluff is called. The right does it as well, and your mockery maximization principle (great name BTW) mandates that the meme is produced solely for their primary audience to sell clicks.

AvocadoPanic 5y ago

Let's go Brandon!