SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the By-the-inch,-it's-a-cinch-but-a-mile-takes-a-while dept.
We've previously discussed ( https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/12/11/1847236 ) how it becomes impossible to reverse the polarization of a community once their differences become too great, and how that plays out both here at SN and in the wider world. Science Blog has a piece ( https://scienceblog.com/527745/computer-model-seeks-to-explain-the-spread-of-misinformation-and-suggest-counter-measures/ ) about a PLOS paper titled "Cognitive cascades: How to model (and potentially counter) the spread of fake news" ( https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261811 ) which uses an interesting computer model to explore how this actually happens.
The model demonstrated that if the new information is too much at odds with a person's existing belief, it will be ignored. Furthermore, if that belief is connected with the person's identity, their current belief will be strengthened as a defense against cognitive dissonance. Interestingly, though, a succession of new information that gradually nudge the person to adjust their beliefs can, over time, cause the person to adopt a belief that is very different from the one they started with. This sounds like how psy-ops manipulate targets to accept extreme views.
What was the gradual change of ideas that have led national political parties to be ever more different from one another, and who fed them those messages?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Monday January 17 2022, @04:38AM (1 child)
>The republicrats are entirely the same party.
I will give you a difference.
Our nuclear bombs were built and are maintained by the Department of Energy. Under Obama, the DOE was headed by a nuclear physicist. Under Trump, the head was a Texas politician who did not know what the agency did.
Want another one? Max Boot is a columnist who emigrated from the USSR, hates dictatorships, and was a Reagan Republican. Today he is a straight ticket Democratic voter. He doesn't consider himself a Democrat but he sees what is going on with the organization that used to be called the Republican Party and he will do anything to oppose it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 18 2022, @11:21PM
.... and? Stupid person made stupid decision. Based on the rest of the comment, I think I've identified another.
Want to know a really big, really stupid party decision? the Democrats shanked their slam-dunk candidate (Bernie) and put in his place a candidate so vile that the candidate lost to TRUMP. Go ahead. Try and defend that.