• for: doppleganger, conflict resolution, deep humanity, common denominators, CHD, Douglas Rushkoff, Naomi Klein, Into the Mirror World, conspiracy theory, conspiracy theories, conspiracy culture, nonduality, self-other, human interbeing, polycrisis, othering, storytelling, myth-making, social media amplifier -summary
  • This conversation was insightful on so many dimensions salient to the polycrisis humanity is moving through.
  • It makes me think of the old cliches:
    • "The more things change, the more they remain the same"
    • "What's old is new" ' "History repeats"
  • the conversation explores Naomi's latest book (as of this podcast), Into the Mirror World, in which Naomi adopts a different style of writing to explicate, articulate and give voice to
    • implicit and tacit discomforting ideas and feelings she experienced during covid and earlier, and
    • became a focal point through a personal comparative analysis with another female author and thought leader, Naomi Wolf,
      • a feminist writer who ended up being rejected by mainstream media and turned to right wing media.
  • The conversation explores the process of:
    • othering,
    • coopting and
    • abandoning
  • of ideas important for personal and social wellbeing.
  • and speaks to the need to identify what is going on and to reclaim those ideas for the sake of humanity
  • In this context, the doppleganger is the people who are mirror-like imiages of ourselves, but on the other side of polarized issues.
  • Charismatic leaders who are bad actors often are good at identifying the suffering of the masses, and coopt the ideas of good actors to serve their own ends of self-enrichment.
  • There are real world conspiracies that have caused significant societal harm, and still do,
  • however, when there ithere are phenomena which we have no direct sense experience of, the mixture of
    • a sense of helplessness,
    • anger emerging from injustice
  • a charismatic leader proposing a concrete, possible but explanatory theory
  • is a powerful story whose mythology can be reified by many people believing it
  • Another cliche springs to mind
    • A lie told a hundred times becomes a truth
    • hence the amplifying role of social media
  • When we think about where this phenomena manifests, we find it everywhere:

Something similar! Here it is: https://t.co/x1DPx9dm0P

— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) November 26, 2022

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1406325523991564293.html

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheIndexIsWatchingYou

Bago, Bence, David Rand, and Gordon Pennycook. ‘Does Deliberation Decrease Belief in Conspiracies?’ PsyArXiv, 8 March 2022. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/86jhw.

Michaud, M., & Center, U. of R. M. (n.d.). Trust in science at root of vaccine acceptance. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01-science-root-vaccine.html

Alberta court grants mother right to vaccinate immunocompromised son against COVID-19. (n.d.). Edmontonjournal. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/alberta-court-covid-19-vaccination-rights-mother-immunocompromised-son-despite-father-objection

Should bad science be censored on social media? (2022, January 19). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60036861

Revealed: How a web of Canadian doctors are undermining the fight against COVID-19 | Globalnews.ca. (n.d.). Global News. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/8517353/canada-doctors-covid-vaccine-disinformation/

Surely you're already up on the work of @AnneGanzert? https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-35272-1

Syndicated: https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1424235840088133635

Bonus points to the first one who can publish with a serious reference to "Lines of Thought" by Ayelet Even-Ezra. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo63098990.html

Syndicated: https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1424236570471636993

And finally, just for fun https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-conspiracy-board-brendan-loper.html

Syndicated: https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1424236850902753281

Yang, M. (2022, January 14). ‘Menace to public health’: 270 doctors criticize Spotify over Joe Rogan’s podcast. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/14/spotify-joe-rogan-podcast-open-letter

Far-right lures recruits using COVID-19 conspiracy theories, alongside misogyny, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia, says study. (n.d.). Retrieved December 21, 2021, from https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/far-lures-recruits-using-covid-134548878.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/technology/birds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html

Linking to a New York Times tag archive would not be considered evidence by any self-respecting conspiracy theorist.

Johnston, M. (2021). What Lies Beneath: Tackling Vaccine Hesitancy. Emergency Medicine News, 43(10), 7. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.EEM.0000795760.41732.33

How online misinformation spreads. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2021/how-online-misinformation-spreads

O’Brien, T. C., Palmer, R., & Albarracin, D. (2021). Misplaced trust: When trust in science fosters belief in pseudoscience and the benefits of critical evaluation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 96, 104184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104184

YouTube is banning Joseph Mercola and a handful of other anti-vaccine activists—The Washington Post. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/29/youtube-ban-joseph-mercola/

Mixing science and art to make the truth more interesting than lies. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/mixing-science-and-art-to-make-the-truth-more-interesting-than-lies-100221?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton

“Vigilante treatments”: Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/vigilante-treatments-anti-vaccine-groups-push-people-leave-icus-rcna2233

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

Rutjens, B. T., van der Linden, S., van der Lee, R., & Zarzeczna, N. (2021). A group processes approach to antiscience beliefs and endorsement of “alternative facts.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(4), 513–517. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302211009708

COVID-19 misleading information policy. (n.d.). Retrieved 29 July 2021, from https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/medical-misinformation-policy

Leah Keating on Twitter: “This work with @DavidJPOS and @gleesonj is now on arXiv (https://t.co/hxjZnCmKcM): ‘A multi-type branching process method for modelling complex contagion on clustered networks’ Here is a quick overview of our paper: (1/6) https://t.co/3jQ2flhk71” / Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved July 23, 2021, from https://twitter.com/leahakeating/status/1418150117106978816

Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds | Coronavirus | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/17/covid-misinformation-conspiracy-theories-ccdh-report?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Alper, S. (2021). When Conspiracy Theories Make Sense: The Role of Social Inclusiveness. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2umfe

Rees, April, and Catherine Thornton. ‘COVID-19 Vaccines Do Not Make Women Infertile’. The Conversation. Accessed 7 February 2021. http://theconversation.com/covid-19-vaccines-do-not-make-women-infertile-153550.

<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>Leo Laporte </span> in It's Right Against Wrong, Not Smart Against Dumb - leo.fm (<time class='dt-published'>02/25/2021 13:33:19</time>)</cite></small>

Ullrich Ecker {@UlliEcker} (2020) Conspiracy theories - The link to COVID-19. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/UlliEcker/status/1298797816702107648

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

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

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.

Bierwiaczonek, K., Kunst, J. R., & Pich, O. (2020, July 29). Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories Reduces Social Distancing over Time. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tqfrw

Diseases, The Lancet Infectious. ‘The COVID-19 Infodemic’. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 0, no. 0 (17 July 2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30565-X.

Association for Psychological Science - APS. ‘APS Backgrounder Series: Psychological Science and COVID-19: Conspiracy Theories’. Accessed 29 May 2020. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/backgrounders/covid-19-conspiracy-theories.html.

Audacious...

The history of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.<br> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/20/the-seth-rich-conspiracy-shows-how-fake-news-still-works/

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.

Oh, no. No. Noooooo.