2 ms·

yes, that is pretty much what he disclosed in the article > He turned to Google’s Gemini AI for advice and decided to create a “hot girl” crafted specifically

yes, that is pretty much what he disclosed in the article > He turned to Google’s Gemini AI for advice and decided to create a “hot girl” crafted specifically for the “MAGA/conservative niche,” after the software told him that “the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal,” according to Wired.

bobthepanda 5mo ago
It is kind of crazy that growing up I recall hearing a lot of “be careful don’t trust the internet” and then now that same generation of people is falling for all manner of scams and fake news peddlers online.
- hydrogen7800 5mo ago
  Apologies if it seems I'm just stoking a stereotype, but this comes from personal experience with family. For a demographic who generally are proud to be "old school", "not computer people", skeptical, distrustful of technology, self-reliant, and at least paid lip service to those ideals when raising their children, they sure do love being lied to and manipulated by the very enemies they claimed to be resistant to.
- toyg 5mo ago
  "Just because newspapers print something, it doesn't mean it's true!" <proceeds to believe everything 'printed' on the internet>
- dfxm12 5mo ago
  I also recall hearing, "do as I say, not as I do" a lot as well. If these folks really did change to be more susceptible to scams though, I hope for my own sake that this is less a function of aging and more a function of being fed a steady diet of conservative propaganda. I can avoid the latter...
MBCook 5mo ago
That only says those that fall for it might pay more. It doesn’t explain why so many more fall for it.
- palmotea 5mo ago
  > It doesn’t explain why so many more fall for it. It's pretty easy: he started out trying to create a "hot girl" influencer, then refined that. It could be his starting point was biased towards filling a certain type of conservative fantasy, but wasn't as easily adaptable to progressives. For instance: it could be that lonely straight progressive men are more neurotic about their sexuality, and thus less-likely to respond positively to a bikini model picture, even if the "model" is flattering their political ideology. Also there's been a demographic divergence, and young women are much more liberal than men, which means there's less of a supply of "hot girl" conservatives and more unfulfilled demand for them. I suspect the progressive version of this is something a lot less discoverable by a random slop-making foreign man.
  - java-man 5mo ago
    "Progressive fantasy" would be AOC and Bernie, and we already have that in real life.
    - palmotea 5mo ago
      > "Progressive fantasy" would be AOC and Bernie, and we already have that in real life. That's not the kind of fantasy I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of fantasy person that could cause a progressive to feel some pull towards a para-social relationship. That kind of thing was obviously at play with this character. I don't think you're going to get that from a politician.

bobthepanda 5mo ago

It is kind of crazy that growing up I recall hearing a lot of “be careful don’t trust the internet” and then now that same generation of people is falling for all manner of scams and fake news peddlers online.

hydrogen7800 5mo ago
Apologies if it seems I'm just stoking a stereotype, but this comes from personal experience with family. For a demographic who generally are proud to be "old school", "not computer people", skeptical, distrustful of technology, self-reliant, and at least paid lip service to those ideals when raising their children, they sure do love being lied to and manipulated by the very enemies they claimed to be resistant to.
toyg 5mo ago
"Just because newspapers print something, it doesn't mean it's true!" <proceeds to believe everything 'printed' on the internet>
dfxm12 5mo ago
I also recall hearing, "do as I say, not as I do" a lot as well. If these folks really did change to be more susceptible to scams though, I hope for my own sake that this is less a function of aging and more a function of being fed a steady diet of conservative propaganda. I can avoid the latter...

MBCook 5mo ago

That only says those that fall for it might pay more. It doesn’t explain why so many more fall for it.

palmotea 5mo ago
> It doesn’t explain why so many more fall for it. It's pretty easy: he started out trying to create a "hot girl" influencer, then refined that. It could be his starting point was biased towards filling a certain type of conservative fantasy, but wasn't as easily adaptable to progressives. For instance: it could be that lonely straight progressive men are more neurotic about their sexuality, and thus less-likely to respond positively to a bikini model picture, even if the "model" is flattering their political ideology. Also there's been a demographic divergence, and young women are much more liberal than men, which means there's less of a supply of "hot girl" conservatives and more unfulfilled demand for them. I suspect the progressive version of this is something a lot less discoverable by a random slop-making foreign man.
- java-man 5mo ago
  "Progressive fantasy" would be AOC and Bernie, and we already have that in real life.
  - palmotea 5mo ago
    > "Progressive fantasy" would be AOC and Bernie, and we already have that in real life. That's not the kind of fantasy I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of fantasy person that could cause a progressive to feel some pull towards a para-social relationship. That kind of thing was obviously at play with this character. I don't think you're going to get that from a politician.