43 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2022
    1. The Open Society Foundations extend our condolences to the friends and family of loved ones on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. We are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of the HIV/AIDS researchers and advocates onboard traveling to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, along with all the other people who perished.
  2. Nov 2022
  3. Mar 2022
  4. Feb 2022
  5. Jan 2022
  6. Dec 2021
  7. Oct 2021
  8. Sep 2021
    1. Ben Collins on Twitter: “A quick thread: It’s hard to explain just how radicalized ivermectin and antivax Facebook groups have become in the last few weeks. They’re now telling people who get COVID to avoid the ICU and treat themselves, often by nebulizing hydrogen peroxide. So, how did we get here?” / Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1441395300002848769?s=20

  9. Jul 2021
  10. May 2021
  11. Mar 2021
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  13. Dec 2020
    1. For those awash in anxiety and alienation, who feel that everything is spinning out of control, conspiracy theories are extremely effective emotional tools. For those in low status groups, they provide a sense of superiority: I possess important information most people do not have. For those who feel powerless, they provide agency: I have the power to reject “experts” and expose hidden cabals. As Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law School points out, they provide liberation: If I imagine my foes are completely malevolent, then I can use any tactic I want.

      Underlying emotional drivers of Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists, and Republican psychology

    1. ReconfigBehSci {@SciBeh} (2020) sadly squares with my own impression of social media 'debate' - as someone who works on both argumentation and belief formation across social networks, this strikes me as every bit as big a problem as the spread of conspiracy. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1308341816333340672

  14. Oct 2020
    1. The result is that we are living through a period of chaos. Symptoms include conspiracy theories, information bubbles, cancel culture, President Trump’s tweets, and widespread institutional decay and dysfunction.

      Symptoms of this chaotic, gossip run world are: conspiracy theories, information bubbles, cancel culture, Trump's tweets and decay of institutions as well as dysfunction.

  15. Aug 2020
    1. Obviously not every group chat counts as a “conspiracy”. But it makes the question of how society coheres, who is associated with whom, into a matter of speculation – something that involves a trace of conspiracy theory. In that sense, WhatsApp is not just a channel for the circulation of conspiracy theories, but offers content for them as well. The medium is the message.
  16. Jul 2020
  17. May 2020
  18. Mar 2018
    1. Neither the “Jews cause all my problems” claim nor the “racial/gender oppression is everywhere” claim is a literal conspiracy theory. Most people who buy into them don’t think Jews or white men (respectively) secretly meet in smoke-filled rooms and devise sophisticated strategies for dominating the world. Instead, these theories resemble traditional conspiracy theories in sealing themselves off from any possible counterevidence.

      Audacious...

  19. May 2017
  20. Nov 2016
    1. This is a modern update to a classic confidence game—find a risky scenario with limited possibilities, bet on every single combination, and then hide your failures.

      Today, all possible outcomes can be posted to any website that allows accounts to be set to private, or that isn't likely to be noticed. After the fact, the incorrect results can be deleted before making the account public.

      This post points out that this trick could be used to "predict" election results, making it appear that they were fixed ahead of time. So it's potentially very dangerous.

  21. Oct 2016
  22. Feb 2015
    1. The researchers examined social media patterns for 1.2 million Facebook users and found that nearly 92 percent of those who engage with Italian conspiracy theory pages interact almost exclusively with conspiracy theory pages.

      Oh, no. No. Noooooo.