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from the That's-what-they-WANT-you-to-think dept.
In the Salon
There seems to be a lot of science being thrown at the "Trump Phenomenon." Salon covers yet another, and interviews the author.
A new paper, recently presented at the American Political Science Association's annual convention, suggests a widespread motive driving people to share fake news, conspiracy theories and other hostile political rumors. "Many status-obsessed, yet marginalized individuals experience a 'Need for Chaos' and want to 'watch the world burn'," lead author Michael Petersen tweeted, announcing the availability of a preprint copy.
Truth, in such a worldview, is beside the point, which offers a new perspective on the limitations of fact-checking. The motivation behind sharing or spreading narratives one may not even believe can help make sense of a variety of threatening or confusing recent developments in advanced democracies. It also sheds light on disturbing similarities with outbreaks of ethnic or genocidal violence, such as those seen in Rwanda and the Balkan nations during the 1990s.
Preprint of the paper available at PsyArXiv, here. [DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/6m4ts]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 13 2018, @12:50AM (5 children)
I think that's a good rule of thumb, but even that is not enough. We must always think critically, especially when the people telling us something are doing so with a writ of authority. Remember that little deal we had a while back, the Iraq War? Everybody, every government body, every media outlet, banged the war drums, telling us all they had evidence, nay, proof! that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. To me, and many others, it all stunk to high heaven of a snow job. Sure enough, that's what it was. All lies.
I have that same spidey sense now about the preposterous Russian collusion story. Cardboard is made of sterner stuff than that flimsy fiction. And having CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post, and every other MSM outlet repeat it day in and day out for two years, a la Goebbels's "a lie repeated ten thousand times is indistinguishable from the truth," has not made it any less fabricated.
But those are contemporary issues being fought in the agora now. Scientists and others who live and die by evidence and empirical research don't themselves agree on what that evidence means. Tomes have been written about great controversies in science. So if those folks can't agree on what the evidence is telling them, as superior to lesser humans as they are, then how can we expect those lesser humans to be great at it?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @08:43AM
- Senior Policy Advisor to Vice President and Director of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 13 2018, @11:48AM
Rule of thumb [wikipedia.org]? Can't do much damage with that thing, can we. Perhaps it should have been the rule of wrist [youtube.com].
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday September 13 2018, @01:02PM (2 children)
Agreed. The "don't trust a single source" rule is one part of thinking critically. Another good rule is to be especially suspicious of information that appears to confirm your previously held beliefs, because you're more likely to be fooled by that.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 13 2018, @02:31PM (1 child)
Especially if it's facile. Think of the Atlanta bombing when they arrested that Middle Eastern guy, and nobody questioned it. Of course it was a Middle Eastern terrorist, everyone said, because that's what they do. It turned out to be an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by Eric Rudolph.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday September 13 2018, @04:09PM
Then there's Charles Stuart and Susan Smith, both of whom came awfully close to getting away with their terrible crimes by saying a big black guy did it. And an awful lot of people believed them.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.