(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Comments Were Closed, and Not by Me (Wow). [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-17 I posted a story just before I left for vacation. It was my first under this new profile. It was about how a study was done to help figure out the shared traits of people who believe in conspiracy theories. And the study contained explicit strategies for engaging with those folks to try and de-program them. The original thread is here: www.dailykos.com/… Anyway, a staff person went out of their way to co-opt my story to press an alternative point for the thread. They did this just as I announced that I was leaving on vacation. As I’ve just returned from that vacation, this was my first chance to respond. Only I’ve found that they closed it to comments. Hmmm. Anyway, here is my reply. YOU SAID: “This is not an argument about disbelieving “experts” when they are trying to justify racism or patriarchy or class discrimination or other prejudices. I don’t trust those “experts” either,” Well, this isn’t an argument at all. The OP was about how to try and persuade those who are into conspiracy theories. It’s difficult, but this can be done and my OP spelled out a strategy, empirically backed by research, for how it’s done (btw, George Lakoff is worth googling on this. He’s the true expert). But, in reply, you say that there is no point in trying to debate those people. YOU SAID: “You assume I have any interest in persuading magafolk. I do not…But the ones who have fallen completely on the conspiracy theory side of the fence? They can not be reached and I am not giving them my energy or attention.” That’s why we’re not arguing. Your input hasn’t been to debate, it’s been to try to change the topic of the thread. Or, as it is sometimes called: (textbook) trolling. {{{ As an aside, I find it interesting that the staff person assigned to be the ‘welcome wagon’ for a new participant would engage in this behavior (I’ll leave it to others to assess the tone of the replies, which I also found weirdly...hostile). I mean, DK is in my inbox, multiple times each day, asking for money. Given that, your approach has been a strange tack to take. But I digress. }}} Anyway, this all rang a bell, so I looked it up. And, sure enough, some of the same traits that conspiracy theorists share (remember, they’re basically people who have beliefs that are unshakable in the face of contrary facts) are shared by internet trolls. The TL:DR is that the so-called “Dark Triad” (machiavellianism, narcissism, and psycopathy)—which were 3 of the 6 traits for the conspiracy theory susceptibility that I mentioned above in the OP—are joined by one more (sadism) to form a “Dark Tetrad”. This Dark Tetrad was previously shown to be relevant as people with that were more likely to be on social media in the first place; although THIS STUDY showed that the psychopathy and sadism features were the truly prominent ones. But, there does seem to be some overlap. So, I apologize if I hit a nerve with anyone. But, truly, the original thread wasn’t meant to for folks who don’t think that it’s worth engaging with the armed right-wing conspiracy theory nuts that are out there. For my part, I would rather engage that meet them on their terms (ie, violence). But the original thread was for those who try to engage with them (the proverbial crazy uncle at the dinner table) and who struggle with it. Be well. _LL [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/17/2217913/-Comments-Were-Closed-and-Not-by-Me-Wow?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/