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Why Americans are such easy targets for trolls and bots

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
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Why Americans are such easy targets for trolls and bots

troll-on-internet.jpg


The only real defense against bots and trolls is an intellectual offense, and we aren’t ready for it.....
 
American's have a long history of buying snake-oil from medicine show barkers.

It surprises me none we are in the fix we are in now.

Just can't fix stupid I suppose.
 
Captain America said:
American's have a long history of buying snake-oil from medicine show barkers.
Click to expand...

Capitalism benefits snake-oil salesmen and other con artists. It's not surprising there are more of them around here than in other countries.
 
If someone reads something they want to believe, nothing else matters.
 
Political advertising/salesmanship is no different than any other advertising/salesmanship. 15% of folks will try any new product, 15% will never try a new product and the remaining 70% are subject to the influence of advertising/salesmanship.
 
I don't know about that.

We have ~ 350 million people in this country and you only hear about the stupid ones.

It's like internet scams. They written in a transparently phony way so "normal" people will just ignore it, but only the most gullible will respond. The most gullible are your target audience. And I argue there aren't that many of them. But with the internet you can reach 100 million people for $100 bucks. It's just a numbers game. One out of a million is 100 suckers.

It just seems common due to publicity.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Political advertising/salesmanship is no different than any other advertising/salesmanship. 15% of folks will try any new product, 15% will never try a new product and the remaining 70% are subject to the influence of advertising/salesmanship.
Click to expand...

Actually, my research shows that its about 25% who are helpless before persuasion.

That's about how many people believe nonsense, across ideologies.

Check it out the next time you see a poll about some ridiculous concept being believed by people. It'll be a bout 25%.
 
The very same reason that Americans are such suckers for the best in the world USA propaganda system.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Political advertising/salesmanship is no different than any other advertising/salesmanship. 15% of folks will try any new product, 15% will never try a new product and the remaining 70% are subject to the influence of advertising/salesmanship.
Click to expand...

I will admit, for some time in my twenties and early thirties, I was willing to try almost any new cereal. Twice the marshmallows? Little cookies baked by elves!? Yes please!
I still miss the old formulation of Count Chocula and Boo-Berry, even some iffy Franken-Berry. The new ones just aren't the same.

To embrace that knowledge about sales/propaganda, one has to admit they may be wrongly influenced by it, and they have to work hard to differentiate facts from fiction.
Most people avoid ever admitting they are wrong, it's primal.
Most people avoiding hard boring critical investigation and analysis, is the default for most people...who wants to do that!?

As such, most people will believe on some level, things they are told, without admitting they were wrong, and without any desire to figure out what's right. And since political action is so divorced and easily obfuscated from the negative or positive effects it has on our daily lives...there is little incentive for most people to "get it right".
 
On whole, we react, we don't think. It's one of the fundamental problems I see with aggregate American culture. We've gotten to a point where thinking is either tedious or frowned upon. So we hear something and we react to it immediately. We're a Reality-TV society now.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Why Americans are such easy targets for trolls and bots

troll-on-internet.jpg


The only real defense against bots and trolls is an intellectual offense, and we aren’t ready for it.....
Click to expand...

Americans believe just about everything on the internet. And, the left feeds off anything they can to use against Trump. We know that Putin is trying to sow discord and distrust in American politics and the democratic process. I found it interesting that the other day Putin praised Trump for something and he did it on purpose to sow discord with American politics and sure enough, the left falls right through the trap door.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Why Americans are such easy targets for trolls and bots

troll-on-internet.jpg


The only real defense against bots and trolls is an intellectual offense, and we aren’t ready for it.....
Click to expand...

It's gotten so bad that the useful idiots will even believe the trolls and propagandists in the Mainstream Media.


“People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”
― Terry Goodkind, Wizard's First Rule
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Political advertising/salesmanship is no different than any other advertising/salesmanship. 15% of folks will try any new product, 15% will never try a new product and the remaining 70% are subject to the influence of advertising/salesmanship.
Click to expand...

In a way I think you re right. I read somewhere that over 90% of elections are won by the candidate who spends the most, so as you stated people are influenced by advertising. I also think that people want to believe that which agrees with their ideas. So if all you have to do is put a lie out there that goes along the ideas of the people you are trying to reach, they will believe, even if it seems to be impossible. Remember the idea that Hillary Clinton was running a child slavery ring out of a pizza parlor and so many people thought it was true to the point that a man went in and shot up the place. Most of us thought, how could anyone believe such a thing, but many people thought it was true as that went along with the opinion they had of Clinton.
 
Moderate Right said:
Americans believe just about everything on the internet. And, the left feeds off anything they can to use against Trump. We know that Putin is trying to sow discord and distrust in American politics and the democratic process. I found it interesting that the other day Putin praised Trump for something and he did it on purpose to sow discord with American politics and sure enough, the left falls right through the trap door.
Click to expand...

When was the last time someone on the left praised Putin, saying he was a great leader and doing a good job rebuilding Russia?
Looks like your Dear Leader is holding that trap-door open.
 
chuckiechan said:
I don't know about that.

We have ~ 350 million people in this country and you only hear about the stupid ones.

It's like internet scams. They written in a transparently phony way so "normal" people will just ignore it, but only the most gullible will respond. The most gullible are your target audience. And I argue there aren't that many of them. But with the internet you can reach 100 million people for $100 bucks. It's just a numbers game. One out of a million is 100 suckers.

It just seems common due to publicity.
Click to expand...

There's a ****load of stupid ones. Evidence: what's in the White House.
 
What if...? said:
Actually, my research shows that its about 25% who are helpless before persuasion.

That's about how many people believe nonsense, across ideologies.

Check it out the next time you see a poll about some ridiculous concept being believed by people. It'll be a bout 25%.
Click to expand...

A quarter of Americans who are unable (or unwilling?) to evaluate information and change their minds.

Very disturbing.
 
There are several reasons, here's some of my thoughts

1. Americans education system sucks and in general people are idiots (but I guess that is probably the case all over the world). We worship the rich for some reason (really blew up with Reagan and greed is good 80s mentality) and worse, rich dumb people who really didn't do anything, like Kardashian, Trumps, Hiltons. And the geniuses that continue to bring this coutnry forward nobody knows about

2. Propaganda. Free speech we have is being abused, it allows anybody to publish anything they want, spread lies, spread hate, spread ignorance, misinformation, and its protected. So not only are people in general not very smart or well education (and don't think rationally) they are easily influenced and propagandized by this BS

3. Our political system where the politicians work for the rich, all they need to do is manipulate the people to vote for them while they protect he rich and give them all the wealth. So they play up the ignorance and lies, give it credence, and do anything to distract people from the fact they are either doing nothing to solve any problems, or actively forking us.

4. Voting- voting is not a national holiday and voter turnout is really low and politicians are trying ot make it harder and harder to vote. This allows the extremists to pick the politicians, who will then continue to fork us
 
Mycroft said:
It's gotten so bad that the useful idiots will even believe the trolls and propagandists in the Mainstream Media.


“People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”
― Terry Goodkind, Wizard's First Rule
Click to expand...

Thanks for the Birther Perspective.:applaud
 
Grand Mal said:
When was the last time someone on the left praised Putin, saying he was a great leader and doing a good job rebuilding Russia?
Looks like your Dear Leader is holding that trap-door open.
Click to expand...

The left is upset that Putin and Russia are trying to influence our elections and yet Putin purposely praises Trump, to get the left all riled up to influence our coming up elections and the left falls for it hook, line, and sinker like rabid dogs.
 
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