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How strange to believe a conspiracy so much that you end up taking part in it to make it happen. Like if I made my own moon landing studio set to show that it w

How strange to believe a conspiracy so much that you end up taking part in it to make it happen. Like if I made my own moon landing studio set to show that it was faked.

floren 3y ago
On the Something Awful forums, you can buy custom avatars for yourself or for others. Buying for yourself costs $5, for somebody else it's $10. Multiple posters have purchased hateful / doxxing avatars for themselves in order to make themselves appear persecuted, so they could blame the purchases on their "forums enemies". In at least one case, though, they were too cheap to use the totally anonymous $10 buy-for-somebody-else option, so they bought the hate avatar on their own account and just hoped the admins wouldn't look at the logs. Basically people make terrible decisions all the time in service of their obsession.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  Plenty of groups want to make themselves appear persecuted. It helps with group cohesion and sense or purpose, while helping focus efforts towards a common enemy. It can absolutely be the best move in certain circumstances.
  - mojo74 3y ago
    Isn't that depressing though? The desire to feel persecuted is stronger than the desire to just get on with their lives and celebrate what they have.
- legitster 3y ago
  In the book Trust Me I'm Lying he has anecdotes like that all of the time. He would buy billboards for American Apparel just to vandalize them. Or promote Tucker Max's book by organizing their own protests during their book tour. More recently, Sony was caught deleting negative criticisms of the females Ghostbusters movie, except the ones that were blatantly sexist so they could paint all criticism as sexist. Humans are hard wired to respond to calls of war.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    > More recently, Sony was caught deleting negative criticisms of the females Ghostbusters movie, except the ones that were blatantly sexist Do you have a source for this? Who caught them and how were they caught? I did see this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWROBiX1eSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWROBiX1eSc) which only made the claim that it was being "widely reported" and then briefly showed a screenshot of this "article" at manlymovie.net (https://manlymovie.net/2016/03/sony-rigging-ghostbusters-comments.html https://manlymovie.net/2016/03/sony-rigging-ghostbusters-com...) which has a scandalous headline but doesn't even make a claim that Sony was selectively keeping sexist comments up while removing all other criticism. The entire meat of the article looks to be a post from some internet rando called "MilesBennetDieSon" who just said they were removing negative reviews and "botting the comments section and replacing negative comments with good ones" I don't doubt that Sony pushed the sexism angle to drum up controversy but what do we really have to show they were leaving up sexist comments while suppressing legitimate criticisms. Looking at the comments from around the time of release today, there are accusations that sony was removing negative comments, but there also appears to be many which are negative and also not sexist in nature.
- dylan604 3y ago
  > Basically people make terrible decisions all the time in service of their obsession Everyone loves a stupid criminal. As an American, I'm just shocked that police were able to overcome their apathy of doing their jobs and were able to catch a stupid criminal at all.
epistasis 3y ago
As conspiracies become more commonplace we will see a lot more of this too. Especially when it comes to politics. Getting people to believe obvious nonsense means that you can push lots of other further nonsense even more easily, as your mark is already captured. Remember when it was mainstream to call Obama not an actual citizen? I fear for the US and other Western countries as we become more politically polarized. It leads to general instability and eventually really poor decisions wrecking economies. Looking at the current state of the UK is really sad, a nation that has neutered its future economy despite have a highly educated and industrious populace. These sorts of insanities becoming mainstream has the potential to affect us all.
pessimizer 3y ago
Consider, for a moment, that maybe he was spreading those theories for attention and didn't believe them, because he literally knew better? What else could this stranger possibly do to lose your trust?
imtringued 3y ago
Actually most conspiracy theories end up like this, because the imagined hopelessness of the situation forces you to use the same methods that your imagined enemy uses as a form of tit for tat retaliation.
- lawlessone 3y ago
  Maybe it's a control thing. Gives him a feeling he is control of the his environment . I hate flying. But I would feel safer if I was controlling the aircraft. Which is completely irrational because I am not a pilot and wouldn't even consider myself a good driver.
duxup 3y ago
People spreading conspiracies want other people to believe too. Like a lot of things we hold dear we often abandon having others care / act for the right reason ... and people settle for making others care / act anyway we think we can.

How strange to believe a conspiracy so much that you end up taking part in it to make it happen. Like if I made my own moon landing studio set to show that it was faked.

floren 3y ago

On the Something Awful forums, you can buy custom avatars for yourself or for others. Buying for yourself costs $5, for somebody else it's $10. Multiple posters have purchased hateful / doxxing avatars for themselves in order to make themselves appear persecuted, so they could blame the purchases on their "forums enemies". In at least one case, though, they were too cheap to use the totally anonymous $10 buy-for-somebody-else option, so they bought the hate avatar on their own account and just hoped the admins wouldn't look at the logs. Basically people make terrible decisions all the time in service of their obsession.

londons_explore 3y ago
Plenty of groups want to make themselves appear persecuted. It helps with group cohesion and sense or purpose, while helping focus efforts towards a common enemy. It can absolutely be the best move in certain circumstances.
- mojo74 3y ago
  Isn't that depressing though? The desire to feel persecuted is stronger than the desire to just get on with their lives and celebrate what they have.
legitster 3y ago
In the book Trust Me I'm Lying he has anecdotes like that all of the time. He would buy billboards for American Apparel just to vandalize them. Or promote Tucker Max's book by organizing their own protests during their book tour. More recently, Sony was caught deleting negative criticisms of the females Ghostbusters movie, except the ones that were blatantly sexist so they could paint all criticism as sexist. Humans are hard wired to respond to calls of war.
- autoexec 3y ago
  > More recently, Sony was caught deleting negative criticisms of the females Ghostbusters movie, except the ones that were blatantly sexist Do you have a source for this? Who caught them and how were they caught? I did see this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWROBiX1eSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWROBiX1eSc) which only made the claim that it was being "widely reported" and then briefly showed a screenshot of this "article" at manlymovie.net (https://manlymovie.net/2016/03/sony-rigging-ghostbusters-comments.html https://manlymovie.net/2016/03/sony-rigging-ghostbusters-com...) which has a scandalous headline but doesn't even make a claim that Sony was selectively keeping sexist comments up while removing all other criticism. The entire meat of the article looks to be a post from some internet rando called "MilesBennetDieSon" who just said they were removing negative reviews and "botting the comments section and replacing negative comments with good ones" I don't doubt that Sony pushed the sexism angle to drum up controversy but what do we really have to show they were leaving up sexist comments while suppressing legitimate criticisms. Looking at the comments from around the time of release today, there are accusations that sony was removing negative comments, but there also appears to be many which are negative and also not sexist in nature.
dylan604 3y ago
> Basically people make terrible decisions all the time in service of their obsession Everyone loves a stupid criminal. As an American, I'm just shocked that police were able to overcome their apathy of doing their jobs and were able to catch a stupid criminal at all.

epistasis 3y ago

As conspiracies become more commonplace we will see a lot more of this too. Especially when it comes to politics. Getting people to believe obvious nonsense means that you can push lots of other further nonsense even more easily, as your mark is already captured. Remember when it was mainstream to call Obama not an actual citizen? I fear for the US and other Western countries as we become more politically polarized. It leads to general instability and eventually really poor decisions wrecking economies. Looking at the current state of the UK is really sad, a nation that has neutered its future economy despite have a highly educated and industrious populace. These sorts of insanities becoming mainstream has the potential to affect us all.

pessimizer 3y ago

Consider, for a moment, that maybe he was spreading those theories for attention and didn't believe them, because he literally knew better? What else could this stranger possibly do to lose your trust?

imtringued 3y ago

Actually most conspiracy theories end up like this, because the imagined hopelessness of the situation forces you to use the same methods that your imagined enemy uses as a form of tit for tat retaliation.

lawlessone 3y ago
Maybe it's a control thing. Gives him a feeling he is control of the his environment . I hate flying. But I would feel safer if I was controlling the aircraft. Which is completely irrational because I am not a pilot and wouldn't even consider myself a good driver.

duxup 3y ago

People spreading conspiracies want other people to believe too. Like a lot of things we hold dear we often abandon having others care / act for the right reason ... and people settle for making others care / act anyway we think we can.