Pretty much all the best jokes on the futility of political arguments on the internet, in one thread

    See the replies here:

    The fact that people are arguing in my mentions over this is perfect. https://t.co/qUnMXOTYds

    — Ben White (@morningmoneyben) July 7, 2018

    Comments

    That's not true - I remember using a usenet news bulletin board system, and I convinced someone that the World Wide Web was better.


    I've noticed that almost everyone here has almost the same liberal views that I have. I've always imagined that I've convinced everyone here to my way of thinking. Off times I've convinced them without even posting my views. Just by thinking it alone in my room. Pretty impressive, huh?


    It's the bubble over your imaginary head ... irresistible.


    Oh God, now you've done it - started a round of Bubble Heads. There'll never be an end to this.


    He's on the right.


    One if by land, two if by sea...


    Night time is the right time.


    Image result for bubble heads


    Yep, he's at wit's end. Perhaps some bubble tea would do him good?


    Tapioca balls and sugar?  He'd POP!

    (eta: maybe not ... on the left, slightly confused )

    Image result for bubble heads


    Looks like a peeping drone intrusion on a pretty happening time in the bubble tub - a MeToo infraction? Even Bubble Heads have rights. (PS - got any videos?)


    #BubbleToo hasn't gotten much traction, though those annoying mechanized bathtub toys are gaining in #PeepDrone popularity, and ruining the old-school "through the peephole" website threads.  (PS - what's your offer?)  


    60-40 split on the social video distro, natch. Minus expenses & separate from the toy marketing. First run 10 episodes. BTW, "through the peephole" means something completely diff these days. How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm...


    You don't know what I got, so standard ain't gonna cut it.  Toy marketing in the works, so best you'll buy is 10 - less expenses, 'natch.  First run?  Already outdone, dude.  As to the peephole, a taste is all I'm giving, but if you're willing to explore other "avenues", I'm down.


    Might be the "boulevard" of broken dreams you know... Bubble bubble, toil and trouble:

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x53ie48


    I'm reminded now that sometimes the old classics still work just fine:


    Except now the Internet itself is wrong.
    And "on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog" becomes any number of alternatives.


    Among those who sometimes use the internet for purposes relating to political persuasion, I wonder what the ratio of those seeking to persuade to those seeking to be persuaded is?

     


    It may be that people are disagreeing more than trying to persuade. There is some evidence that opinions can be changed by comments made on the internet. If everyone is agreeing  is it an echo chamber?

    https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/sometimes-social-media-can-change-minds.html

    The most obvious case of using the internet to actually persuade people is the Russian hack on the United States election system.

    https://www.wired.com/story/did-russia-affect-the-2016-election-its-now-undeniable/

     


    Even your Wired link says straight out that Russian ops were not designed to persuade but to reinforce a tendency to divisions already present and sow chaos by ramping up diviseness:

    3. Who or what was the operation targeting, and what did it aim to achieve?

    The indictment mentions that the Russian accounts were meant to embed with and emulate “radical” groups. The content was not designed to persuade people to change their views, but to harden those views. Confirmation bias is powerful and commonly employed in these kinds of psychological operations (a related Soviet concept is “reflexive control”—applying pressure in ways to elicit a specific, known response). The intention of these campaigns was to activate—or suppress—target groups. Not to change their views, but to change their behavior.

    It is easy to find other pieces that say the intent was not to persuade but to sow chaos.

    In Europe as well, their point was to stir chaos, and eventually bring down systems by doing so. 

    So advocating copying their methods would be to advocate sowing chaos by reinforcing latent prejudices about "the other" and to get people to act out divisiveness more blatantly.


    I stand corrected, all the bots did was change behavior. The bots activated and suppressed votes.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-21/twitter-bots-helped-trump-and-brexit-win-economic-study-says


    The Onion team knows how to skewer the overly politically correct correctly:

     

    Nation's Strangers Decry Negative Portrayal Among Children https://t.co/bjnFu0L9gq pic.twitter.com/eVuyxOud43

    — The Onion (@TheOnion) July 20, 2018

     


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