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Oroboros Speaks! (Jan 6th and Who is Most Vulnerable to Conspiracy Theories) [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-01-06  

Welcome to my inaugural post. I write in support of media reform, information literacy, tech/life balance, and in opposition to social media’s algorithms and their dark patterns. Plus I love to tap dance.

Please Note: As always, the serious, educational part of the post is below the break.



For my inaugural post I start with my childhood friend “Oroboros” (not his real name—also not how it’s spelled, also not my friend). He and I were buddies in the small town where we grew up. Here below is an image not from our high school yearbook:

Honest to goodness, I have no idea where I got this image. I guess I’m like ChatGPT in that way. Anyway, whoever photoshopped this famous comic book ad with the funny misspelled name, hit me up and I’ll give a proper attribution. Who knows, maybe I was the one who photoshopped it and I’ve forgotten? :-)

Anyway, let’s say he’s now a Pastor in a small town, on a small island, off the Pacific Northwest coast—soft-spoken, and usually intoxicated. When not preaching, he works at the local Liberty Market convenience store.

Unofficially. I mean, he doesn’t get paid. But they give him his own key.

And I don’t know, but I imagine his flock being about eleven locals. They wear flags a lot.

A google map search will not reveal his church’s location; but, from their posts, I believe they might gather here—beside the road—next to a roadside truck, like the one pictured below.

I knew I’d eventually take these old photographs from a weekend staycation-gone-wrong to some use.



Let us pray.

I wish to acknowledge that Oroboros’s church spares no expense and provides chilled beverages to all his congregants.

Anyway, to commemorate our nation’s historic and heroic January 6th staving off of the conspiracy theory fed coup attempt, here are a few of my favorites:

On Science

~ "Gravity is a lie, that was made up by just another dead, white Freemason."



On Medicine

~ ”The original covid vaccine, the one that worked, wasn't invented by doctors, but rather by Princess Diana. That’s why she had to go.”



On Politics

~ “January 6th isn’t even a real date. Congress removed that date from the calendar the same time they removed all mentions of Jesus from the Constitution! Everyone knows you’re supposed to just skip right from the 5th to the 7th. C’mon, man!”

And finally, News You Can Use:

~ “Maxing out Tetris? Big deal. After he returned from the dead, the very first thing JFK Jr. did was to beat Tetris!”

(What can I say, my friend Oroboros is nothing, if not topical.)

__________

__________

__________

“I think we’ve all learned something here, today.”

—Jerry Springer

For anyone interested in #informationliteracy and how conspiracy theories actually work, here is an article from nature.com that spells out some interesting findings.

The TL:DR is: those who are most susceptible seem to be not, as you’d think, the hyper-partisan, but rather those who are “non-partisan/ideological.”

In other words, on the political ‘left’ it’s not your progressive friends who want to reform the system (institute police reform) but rather the far left who want to burn it all down and start over (defund the police). On the right, not the corrupt crony capitalists (Dick Cheney), but rather the avatars of the new #GOPutin who really think God put theme here to rule (Yeah, I’m looking at you, Mike Johnson...one way or the other, I think he’s got his eyes on the prize).

The specific traits most closely linked with vulnerability to conspiracy theories were:

√ narcissism (it’s all about me, me, me)

√ machiavellianism (do whatever is needed to get what I want)

√ psychopathy (as in, I am egocentric and anti-social)

√ populist attitudes (I like to team up with other psychopaths, mob mentality)

√ belief in religious dualism (I feel life is a battle between good and evil)

√ okay with political violence (I respond to something like: “Onward, Christian soldiers!”)

So, to answer the eternal question: How do you talk to that crazy uncle? This is from the study:

“...treatments designed to “correct” conspiracy beliefs might not only include high-quality information from epistemic authority figures, which the most conspiratorial individuals are likely to ignore, but also acknowledge that even scientists and other experts occasionally get things wrong and that the process of scientific discovery is dynamic and non-linear. Such a strategy may disarm narcissists and the most distrustful members of society by acknowledging that their beliefs and worldviews have some merit, thereby making them more receptive to authoritative information…”

So, while I consider the anti-vax stuff dangerous (and evil from those who promote it, knowing better), but in a discussion with my favorite RWNJ—y’know, were I forced to have one—I might lead off with what I think about possible inside actors in the JFK assassination.

See how that works? Find one or two areas where you, yourself don’t buy into the official story. Let them know that you’re not sheeple before you lay some truth on them.

Okay, I’m out. Remember: the Scientific Method works and Stay True, Everyone!



Think of me when you look to the night sky.

~~~ LL

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