Conspiracy theories have been woven into the fabric of American society since before the signing of the Constitution. But what was once dismissed as the amusing ravings of the tin-foil-hat crowd has in recent years crossed a threshold, experts say, with delusions, fictions and lunacy now strangling government policies and creating national health risks. “These kinds of theories have the effect of completely distorting any rational discussion we can have in this country,’’ says Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center who recently wrote a report on the impact of what is known as the Agenda 21 conspiracy. “They are having a real impact now.”
Experts say the number and significance of conspiracy theories are reaching levels unheard-of in recent times, in part because of ubiquitous and faster communications offered by Internet chat rooms, Twitter and other social media. “Conspiracy narratives are more common in public discourse than they were previously,’’ says Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has published research on the phenomenon. “We seem to have crossed a threshold.”
[,,,]
These kinds of fearful convictions are not limited to one side of the political debates, research shows. “Who believes in these? Everyone,” says the University of Chicago’s Oliver. “Conspiracy theories go across the ideological spectrum.”
[,,,]
Experts who study conspiracy theories are uncertain as to why so many national figures are now openly advancing suspicions of sinister plots. “There are certainly people who will take things further than they honestly believe,’’ says Dr. Michael Wood, a lecturer at Britain’s University of Winchester who teaches the psychology of conspiracy theories. “But it is also quite possible that these ideas about conspiracy theories have taken hold in top levels of politics. It would be strange if politicians were completely immune to this.”
The Plots to Destroy America
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Monday, May 19, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
Why Facebook Kept Up Photos of a Marine's Bloody Suicide
The following was imbedded in the previous story and it is a disturbing read but offers hope when one reads the comments (which I highly recommend as there is some interesting follow-up provided by the author).
Despite the intervention of so many individuals—and other advocacy groups like the VA's crisis hotline and Battles in Distress, according to Wolfe's online friends—the photos remained up.
"It hurt and outraged me," Tripp says. "When we would report the pictures they would tell us thank you for trying to make Facebook a safer place, but the images didn't violate their terms and conditions. When it clearly says images of self harm and mutilation are against their policy. How does leaving those pictures up make Facebook safer?"
His comrades began to stew inwardly, and to vent on Facebook. "I wish we could have done something," one wrote to a fellow member of their old unit. "I just hope you weren't on his other profile..."
His friend replied: "I didn't want to link that profile because I didn't want people to see that. It pisses me off that facebook won't remove those pics I've asked numerous times as have many other people."
[,,,]
"The research tells us that there is an increased risk of 'contagion' with suicide where graphic images are posted," he said. But where to draw the line between acceptable and taboo content is difficult, all the more so for a company with hundreds of millions of users posting content: "Just the photo itself, as graphic as it is, just the image, we can see lots of that online."
Nevertheless, Reidenberg reassured me, Facebook "has been at the lead of that effort" to deal with cases in the most sensitive way possible. "They take it very seriously."
Dr. Craig Bryan, a psychology professor who runs the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah, told me in an email that the images "could trigger other vulnerable peers"—but an even bigger concern to him is that they could stall the grief recovery process, especially among those who attempted to reach out and intervene. Wolfe's friends may be naturally tempted to experience survivors' guilt, a sense that they didn't do enough, Bryan says, and the photos could be a visual representation of their perceived failures:
Why Facebook Kept Up Photos of a Marine's Bloody Suicide
Despite the intervention of so many individuals—and other advocacy groups like the VA's crisis hotline and Battles in Distress, according to Wolfe's online friends—the photos remained up.
"It hurt and outraged me," Tripp says. "When we would report the pictures they would tell us thank you for trying to make Facebook a safer place, but the images didn't violate their terms and conditions. When it clearly says images of self harm and mutilation are against their policy. How does leaving those pictures up make Facebook safer?"
His comrades began to stew inwardly, and to vent on Facebook. "I wish we could have done something," one wrote to a fellow member of their old unit. "I just hope you weren't on his other profile..."
His friend replied: "I didn't want to link that profile because I didn't want people to see that. It pisses me off that facebook won't remove those pics I've asked numerous times as have many other people."
[,,,]
"The research tells us that there is an increased risk of 'contagion' with suicide where graphic images are posted," he said. But where to draw the line between acceptable and taboo content is difficult, all the more so for a company with hundreds of millions of users posting content: "Just the photo itself, as graphic as it is, just the image, we can see lots of that online."
Nevertheless, Reidenberg reassured me, Facebook "has been at the lead of that effort" to deal with cases in the most sensitive way possible. "They take it very seriously."
Dr. Craig Bryan, a psychology professor who runs the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah, told me in an email that the images "could trigger other vulnerable peers"—but an even bigger concern to him is that they could stall the grief recovery process, especially among those who attempted to reach out and intervene. Wolfe's friends may be naturally tempted to experience survivors' guilt, a sense that they didn't do enough, Bryan says, and the photos could be a visual representation of their perceived failures:
Why Facebook Kept Up Photos of a Marine's Bloody Suicide
New Research on Facebook, Fellowship, and Suicide Clusters - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society
Although I have been well aware of the Werther Effect and have pondered the effects of social media platforms on this phenomenon, I am seriously troubled by a story with in this story. That aside for the moment a twofold question/thought comes to mind.
Does this "non-solution" then exemplify the need for more or a continuation of education in regards to prevention especially in regards to our returning service members?
__
In “The Werther Effect,” Phillips was challenging Emile Durkheim’s longstanding assertion that imitative suicide was not a thing. Modern research suggests more and more that Durkheim was wrong, that Phillips is right, and—as of this past week—that specific modes of media make the Werther Effect possible.
It now appears that emulative suicide’s principal drive is not glamour but rather a sense of proximity to the death, a vivid identification with the small details. In a study published May 2 in The Lancet, Dr. Madelyn Gould, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia, evinces an important relationship between the type of news coverage a suicide receives, and the number of copycats it inspires. Gould’s main draw: “Our findings indicate that the more sensational the coverage of the suicides, and the more details the story provides, then the more likely there are to be more suicides.” At Poynter, Kelly McBride emphasizes the study’s bearing on “noble, angelic” portrayals of suicide, portrayals that have palpable repercussions in a community.
[,,,]
Will editors start whitewashing their writers’ suicide reporting in light of these new findings (or, if you prefer, this affirmation of old findings)? Probably not. Most will keep doing what they do, operating within their respective traditions of ethics and taste. That it sells will continue to ensure coverage of anything sensational, but remember that reporters often don’t know that much about the departed. Facebook, meanwhile, has access to far more details about these people than journalists do. While the company sometimes seems confused about its own privacy policies, the Oklahoma incident is especially glaring, and it remains to be seen whether Wolfe’s family will bring legal action.
New Research on Facebook, Fellowship, and Suicide Clusters - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society
"'The research tells us that there is an increased risk of ‘contagion’ with suicide where graphic images are posted,' [Reidenberg] said. But where to draw the line between acceptable and taboo content is difficult, all the more so for a company with hundreds of millions of users posting content: 'Just the photo itself, as graphic as it is, just the image, we can see lots of that online.'"I find that a bit of a cop-out. A solution that is not a solution. One that does not answer the question originally posed in the grab for the article, "How can news media & social media work to stem copycat suicides, and provide a community for loved ones to grieve and support each other??"
Does this "non-solution" then exemplify the need for more or a continuation of education in regards to prevention especially in regards to our returning service members?
__
In “The Werther Effect,” Phillips was challenging Emile Durkheim’s longstanding assertion that imitative suicide was not a thing. Modern research suggests more and more that Durkheim was wrong, that Phillips is right, and—as of this past week—that specific modes of media make the Werther Effect possible.
It now appears that emulative suicide’s principal drive is not glamour but rather a sense of proximity to the death, a vivid identification with the small details. In a study published May 2 in The Lancet, Dr. Madelyn Gould, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia, evinces an important relationship between the type of news coverage a suicide receives, and the number of copycats it inspires. Gould’s main draw: “Our findings indicate that the more sensational the coverage of the suicides, and the more details the story provides, then the more likely there are to be more suicides.” At Poynter, Kelly McBride emphasizes the study’s bearing on “noble, angelic” portrayals of suicide, portrayals that have palpable repercussions in a community.
[,,,]
Will editors start whitewashing their writers’ suicide reporting in light of these new findings (or, if you prefer, this affirmation of old findings)? Probably not. Most will keep doing what they do, operating within their respective traditions of ethics and taste. That it sells will continue to ensure coverage of anything sensational, but remember that reporters often don’t know that much about the departed. Facebook, meanwhile, has access to far more details about these people than journalists do. While the company sometimes seems confused about its own privacy policies, the Oklahoma incident is especially glaring, and it remains to be seen whether Wolfe’s family will bring legal action.
New Research on Facebook, Fellowship, and Suicide Clusters - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society
Saturday, May 10, 2014
How Fox News Dresses Up Extreme Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories as News | Alternet
As some know I have an odd fascination with "conspiracy theories" and the individuals that propagate them. Not that I believe so much that the con nutters are delusional, though some clearly are, it's the psychology behind it. Kind of like the fascination I also have with serial killers, I want to know and understand what makes them tick. I have yet to figure it out in both cases.
I do agree with the authors assessment in regards to Fox News being the primary impetus behind the rise in "popularity" of various theories. But I think the author also misses the importance of the inter-web as well with all the various platforms available to get ones message out.
Television is important to be able to drone on-and-on the message you want received but I believe it is when one can interact in some form with the message bearer that carries the weight of success. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been a boon to the causes on the fringe. My personal feeds are just loaded with crazy stuff at a constant rate. Stuff that is just begging for attention. Television is just to easy to tune out, the inter-web is with you 24/7 (if you allow it to be).
__
Here's what's key: Twenty years ago the far-right Foster tale was told mostly from the fringes. Word was spread via emerging online bulletin boards, snail mail pamphlets, faxed newsletters, self-published exposes, and VCR tapes, like " The Clinton Chronicles," which portrayed the president as a one-man crime syndicate involved in drug-running, prostitution, murder, adultery, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, just to name a few.
At the top of the Foster-feeding pyramid stood the New York Post, Rush Limbaugh's radio show ("Vince Foster was murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton"), and Robert Bartley's team of writers at theWall Street Journal editorial page, who spent eight years lost in a dense , Clinton-thick fog.
Notice the hole in that ‘90s media menu? Television. Specifically, 24-hour television.
Now, fast-forward to the never-ending Benghazi feast of outrage. Today, that far-right tale is amplified via every single conservative media outlet in existence, and is powered by the most-watched 24-hour cable news channel in America. A news channel that long ago threw away any semblance of accountability.
So yes, Fox News is what's changed between 1994 and 2014, and Fox News is what has elevated Benghazi from a fringe-type "scandal" into the pressing issue adopted by the Republican Party today. ("Benghazi" has been mentioned approximately 1,000 times on Fox since May 1, according to TVeyes.com)
[,,,]
Now, Fox acts as a crucial bridge between the radical and the everyday. Fox gives a voice and a national platform to the same type of deranged, hard-core haters who hounded the new, young Democratic president in the early 1990s. Fox embraces and helps legitimize the kind of conspiratorial talk that flourished back then but mostly on the sidelines. The Murdoch channel has moved derangement into the mainstream of Republican politics.
How Fox News Dresses Up Extreme Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories as News | Alternet
I do agree with the authors assessment in regards to Fox News being the primary impetus behind the rise in "popularity" of various theories. But I think the author also misses the importance of the inter-web as well with all the various platforms available to get ones message out.
Television is important to be able to drone on-and-on the message you want received but I believe it is when one can interact in some form with the message bearer that carries the weight of success. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been a boon to the causes on the fringe. My personal feeds are just loaded with crazy stuff at a constant rate. Stuff that is just begging for attention. Television is just to easy to tune out, the inter-web is with you 24/7 (if you allow it to be).
__
Here's what's key: Twenty years ago the far-right Foster tale was told mostly from the fringes. Word was spread via emerging online bulletin boards, snail mail pamphlets, faxed newsletters, self-published exposes, and VCR tapes, like " The Clinton Chronicles," which portrayed the president as a one-man crime syndicate involved in drug-running, prostitution, murder, adultery, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, just to name a few.
At the top of the Foster-feeding pyramid stood the New York Post, Rush Limbaugh's radio show ("Vince Foster was murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton"), and Robert Bartley's team of writers at theWall Street Journal editorial page, who spent eight years lost in a dense , Clinton-thick fog.
Notice the hole in that ‘90s media menu? Television. Specifically, 24-hour television.
Now, fast-forward to the never-ending Benghazi feast of outrage. Today, that far-right tale is amplified via every single conservative media outlet in existence, and is powered by the most-watched 24-hour cable news channel in America. A news channel that long ago threw away any semblance of accountability.
So yes, Fox News is what's changed between 1994 and 2014, and Fox News is what has elevated Benghazi from a fringe-type "scandal" into the pressing issue adopted by the Republican Party today. ("Benghazi" has been mentioned approximately 1,000 times on Fox since May 1, according to TVeyes.com)
[,,,]
Now, Fox acts as a crucial bridge between the radical and the everyday. Fox gives a voice and a national platform to the same type of deranged, hard-core haters who hounded the new, young Democratic president in the early 1990s. Fox embraces and helps legitimize the kind of conspiratorial talk that flourished back then but mostly on the sidelines. The Murdoch channel has moved derangement into the mainstream of Republican politics.
How Fox News Dresses Up Extreme Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories as News | Alternet
Friday, September 20, 2013
How social media fuels crazy cults – James Cook – The Kernel
The days of wearing hooded robes and waiting for initiates to slink furtively into your taffeta-draped S&M temple are, sad to say, long gone. As any cult’s social media manager (bear with us) will tell you, the easiest way to find new members for your crackpot cargo cult is to use websites like Facebook to spread your messages – however bonkers they might be.
The Cult Information Centre defines as a cult as an organisation which among other things uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members.
So who fits the bill? Well, I know they don’t like being referred to as a cult, but the Church of Scientology certainly uses Facebook to share “resources” to both its existing members and people who haven’t encountered the “church” before.
[,,,]
Andrew Gutsch, one of Quora’s “Top Writers”, told The Kernel what it was like to witness the invasion of Desteni followers on the site: “Initially I didn’t see Desteni as a cult. I didn’t even see them as a group. They were fanatical and their arguments ranged from contradiction to ad hominem attacks.
“They made no sense. They were working as a cabal and effectively gaming the system by infiltrating low-profile topics. They flew under moderation’s radar for quite some time, bringing down the quality of the site.”
Michigan State University undergraduate student Shan Kothari was one of the first Quora users to identify the tactics that Desteni were using on the network, which were not always obvious to casual users. “One of the ways I noticed them was that they up-voted each others’ answers, which then quickly rose to the top of some questions. They also down-voted the answers of others at times. This is what bothered me most.”
How social media fuels crazy cults – James Cook – The Kernel
The Cult Information Centre defines as a cult as an organisation which among other things uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members.
So who fits the bill? Well, I know they don’t like being referred to as a cult, but the Church of Scientology certainly uses Facebook to share “resources” to both its existing members and people who haven’t encountered the “church” before.
[,,,]
Andrew Gutsch, one of Quora’s “Top Writers”, told The Kernel what it was like to witness the invasion of Desteni followers on the site: “Initially I didn’t see Desteni as a cult. I didn’t even see them as a group. They were fanatical and their arguments ranged from contradiction to ad hominem attacks.
“They made no sense. They were working as a cabal and effectively gaming the system by infiltrating low-profile topics. They flew under moderation’s radar for quite some time, bringing down the quality of the site.”
Michigan State University undergraduate student Shan Kothari was one of the first Quora users to identify the tactics that Desteni were using on the network, which were not always obvious to casual users. “One of the ways I noticed them was that they up-voted each others’ answers, which then quickly rose to the top of some questions. They also down-voted the answers of others at times. This is what bothered me most.”
How social media fuels crazy cults – James Cook – The Kernel
Friday, September 21, 2012
Dr Pepper's Evolution Ad Strikes A Nerve With Some Christians : The Salt : NPR
Originally I wasn't going to post this as it just at first appeared as a blip,,,my initial reaction, "get over it",,,but I now have 13 articles concerning this saved,,,,my wonderment is focused on one simple thing,,,why are they so threatened by a freakin soda ad??
I find it fascinating that the sheeples can have one's faith weakened by a simple marketing ploy,,,IMHO it is a sign of not completely understanding that which they so blindly follow [and I'm not just talking religion],,,as Socrates says, "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Dr Pepper's Evolution Ad Strikes A Nerve With Some Christians : The Salt : NPR
",,,since creationists don't believe they evolved from Apes-- then the Ad should mean NOTHING to them. Thus, no Outrage."
I find it fascinating that the sheeples can have one's faith weakened by a simple marketing ploy,,,IMHO it is a sign of not completely understanding that which they so blindly follow [and I'm not just talking religion],,,as Socrates says, "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Dr Pepper's Evolution Ad Strikes A Nerve With Some Christians : The Salt : NPR
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Twitter tools and how to use them
I'm not quite sure where I came accross this gem of an article, I'm thinking Twitter, for that I appologize. But anywhoo, I found the content useful and definitely something I would like to incorporate into my blogging experience. Currently I do use Twitterfeed, but need to learn more about the other tools mentioned.
One thing I do have to keep in mind tho is that I am really blogging for myself. I am having fun and have no asperations of becoming a blogging guru. When it becomes a chore, that is when I lose interest.
For those of you that are looking to expand your blogging experience check these tools out. Author explains the pros and cons and the how-tos of activating and setting up each tool mentioned.
4 Useful Twitter Automation Tools and How to Use Them
One thing I do have to keep in mind tho is that I am really blogging for myself. I am having fun and have no asperations of becoming a blogging guru. When it becomes a chore, that is when I lose interest.
For those of you that are looking to expand your blogging experience check these tools out. Author explains the pros and cons and the how-tos of activating and setting up each tool mentioned.
4 Useful Twitter Automation Tools and How to Use Them
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