Illusory Truth Effect

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Vēritās
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Illusory Truth Effect

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So I was watching an episode of Bill Maher and he had Neil deGrasse Tyson as one of his guests. He went on to explain that the human brain is wired to accept things as being factual simply by hearing it over and over again. Even things that are obviously false can be understood as true via repetition. So I looked more into this and it is a real thing which I believe explains the FOX business model better than anything else. I always wondered how FOX could constantly push ideas that were obvious falsehoods, wondering how they could think anyone with a brain could ever believe this stuff. And now I know. I think they understand that narratives can be forced onto people's psyche via bombarding them with the same nonsense relentlessly. Things like Obamacare being government run healthcare was a falsehood they repeated literally hundreds of times over the course of just a few months.

More recently, lies about the border, vaccines, effects of COVID measures, the economy under Trump, the economy under Biden, the causes of inflation, the causes for increased crime, the reality of abortion laws, etc. It has an overwhelming effect on the masses when they're constantly bombarded with these memes that effectively turn us into ideological pawns. FOX is supposed to be a 24 hr "news" station like CNN started as, but the shows that bring in all the money are the "opinion shows" during prime time and the propaganda they push on us is everywhere. Even by refusing to watch FOX at home, I find myself seeing it at the local fast food places, the gyms, and even the airports. Even worse, I have to deal with people in my social sphere who watch it and believe it is their duty to "deconvert" me from all of my beliefs that are grounded in reality.

Just constant, relentless demonization of the "Left," blaming it for quite literally everything that's wrong in the country.

I often wondered how Nazi Germany was able to convince the majority of the population the evil things that were being said about the Jews, and now I believe it was through this same process. The constant bombardment of propaganda to such a degree that it became common knowledge that the Jews were evil creatures that needed to be eradicated. Today's America isn't anywhere close to that obviously, but my concern is trajectory. Clearly today's America is far more divisive, intolerant and bigoted than it was just 15 years ago. I bet any American in 2007 would laugh in your face if you were to tell them that in the upcoming election cycles America would elect a President who was a reality TV star who was caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women. They'd laugh at the notion that a twice impeached President would possibly get reelected after pushing Americans to inject themselves with chemicals to thwart a global pandemic. They'd laugh at this idea that white supremacy would make a strong comeback and that white cops would literally murder black people on camera knowing full well they were being recorded. They'd scoff at the idea that black people in the 21st century would ever be treated like they were in the 1950's. Like being chased down in suburbia by two rednecks in a truck, and then gunned down just after being called the N word. But that's the America we live in right now.

When we watch FOX today, they're far more aggressive and shameless than they were just five years ago. Whenever they host anyone with a different point of view (usually by accident) they're literally shouted down and the subject is changed because exposing their audience to points that refute their preferred narrative is contrary to their purpose for existing. Today's Conservative media cannot win arguments honestly, they have to shape minds by sheer bullying with repetitious falsehoods, while the same talking head "panelists" who go on their shows are only there because their job is to push a narrative and to mock the left at every chance.

The question is, what are we to do about it? Can anything be done about it?

FOX news has shown no tendency to temper itself. Their nonstop hate driven mantra is driving Americans towards this idea that a civil war is coming.

More than 40% of Americans believe a Civil War is imminent. That's no small thing. The upcoming election is likely to turn power over to the Republicans, and dozens of them across the nation are running for office with the intention to overthrow any future elections won by democrats. A failed coup attempt by Trump, when it goes unpunished, becomes nothing more than a training exercise.

My question is, at what point do we not allow Freedom of Speech to become a threat to National Security?

I've proposed regulations on news outlets and strengthening our libel laws, but that quickly turned into one of those "you're just like the Nazis wanting to suppress free speech" reactions.

OK, so let's just watch our country burn?
"I am not an American ... In my view premarital sex should be illegal ...(there are) mentally challenged people with special needs like myself- Ajax18
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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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Part of the problem is that the Trump fan has a community, allowing idiotic ideas to gain traction by helping with all that lie repeating. It's a community of people all incestuously mating within their own information pool without allowing outside information to strengthen and diversify their way of thinking, and now all their ideas have birth defects. That's why they sound retarded.

As Carlin pointed out, individuals are lovely. It's when people enter a group that they lose their minds.
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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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It looks like the left is going to lose even more control over the flow of information with Democrat Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and replacing the hard line Democratic socialist who controlled the content. You can't have Democratic socialism or communism unless you have control over what information people have access to.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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Some Schmo wrote:
Fri Oct 28, 2022 2:16 pm
Part of the problem is that the Trump fan has a community, allowing idiotic ideas to gain traction by helping with all that lie repeating. It's a community of people all incestuously mating within their own information pool without allowing outside information to strengthen and diversify their way of thinking, and now all their ideas have birth defects. That's why they sound retarded.

As Carlin pointed out, individuals are lovely. It's when people enter a group that they lose their minds.
Good one, SS!
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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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ajax18 wrote:
Sat Oct 29, 2022 1:23 pm
It looks like the left is going to lose even more control over the flow of information with Democrat Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and replacing the hard line Democratic socialist who controlled the content. You can't have Democratic socialism or communism unless you have control over what information people have access to.
Spoken like a true rube if you think in any sense information is being controlled by the state via a private entity like Twitter. How are democratic socialist countries in Europe "controlling" information?

The real reason white supremacists like you are so excited about Musk taking over Twitter is that you think it means you now have carte blanche to make racist remarks.

Use of N-word on Twitter jumped by almost 500% after Elon Musk's takeover as trolls test limits on free speech, report says
"I am not an American ... In my view premarital sex should be illegal ...(there are) mentally challenged people with special needs like myself- Ajax18
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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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Speaking of truth vs fiction, I'm getting sick and tired of the relentless campaign ads from both parties, however something has to be said about the stark contrast between Republican dishonest attacks on Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock, and the basic truth claims made against Herschel Walker.

I must have heard the same ads hundreds of times just in the past couple of weeks, claiming that Warnock and Abrams worked hard to "raise taxes on Georgians" as well as ensure that inflation would continue along with higher gas prices etc etc. None of this crap is grounded in reality. The claim about tax increases is based on a dishonest "opinion piece" from Rupert Murdoch owned WSJ.

Fact-check: Republican super PAC ads falsely claim Democrats hiked taxes for middle class
Two super PACs working to elect Republican congressional majorities this November have launched a barrage of ads that falsely claim Democratic lawmakers voted to raise taxes for middle- and lower-income Americans. These lies have already been disproven by independent fact-checkers.

One ad, released Wednesday by the Congressional Leadership Fund, attacks Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan for his August vote in favor of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

That legislation, passed by congressional Democrats without a single Republican vote, invests hundreds of billions of dollars in energy and climate change infrastructure, extends Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies by three years, and caps out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and insulin for Medicare beneficiaries. Those investments, and a significant deficit reduction, are funded mostly by new minimum tax rates for large corporations and a crackdown on wealthy tax cheats.

"Dan Kildee must have thought nobody was looking," a narrator asserts, "because he campaigned on cutting taxes just last month and then voted to hike taxes by $17 billion on those making $200,000 a year or less while giving handouts to elites for tax breaks on luxury electric cars."

On the screen, the ad shows the text, "Tax experts: $17 billion on those making $200,000 or less."

In very small text at the bottom, it sources that claim to a July 31 opinion piece by the Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

The group makes similar claims in ads released this week targeting Democratic Reps. Angie Craig of Minnesota, Sharice Davids of Kansas, and Jared Golden of Maine.

New ads from the Senate Leadership Fund make similar attacks against Democratic incumbent Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, as well as against Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Rep. Tim Ryan...
...
The Wall Street Journal is owned by billionaire Republican donor Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Murdoch contributed $2 million to the Senate Leadership Fund in February.

The paper's conservative editorial board falsely called an earlier version of the Inflation Reduction Act "The Schumer-Manchin Tax Increase on Everyone" in its July 31 column. It misleadingly cited a partial analysis of only the tax provisions by Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation to assert that higher taxes levied on Big Business would eventually be partially passed on to employees and corporate shareholders through lower salaries and smaller dividends.

In reality, the final text of the law contained no tax increases for anyone making under $400,000 a year or for small businesses.

Independent fact-checkers from an array of outlets have called out Republican lawmakers' claims that the law it includes tax increases for middle- or lower-income Americans.

PolitiFact, in its Aug. 3. assessment of claims by Nevada Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt, noted the Wall Street Journal's editorial and pushed back on its findings.

The nonprofit group Rewiring America, which says it is "focused on electrifying everything in our communities" and "on decarbonizing our world fast enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and to ensuring that no household or community is left behind," estimated in August that the clean energy tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act would lead to an average energy bill savings of $1,800 a year for every American household if they took advantage of incentives to install new electric pumps for home and water heating and replace their gas-fueled vehicles with electric cars.

But even after being corrected by numerous outlets, Republican campaign groups have continued to lie about the legislation.

Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee released its third consecutive false attack ad against Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan containing the lie, "Now Slotkin's raising taxes, costing everyone, forcing families to pay more."
Related to this, my 18 year old daughter came up to me last night and asked me about a "Safety Act" in Illinois. She said her girlfriend's father works for the CIA and said Democrats were going to pass a bill there that would free all prisoners convicted of second degree murder.

Without even reading up on it I told her I already knew that was BS. So she grabbed my phone and googled "Safety act murder" and she clicked on the first link which argued that this was true. I told her to check the outlet she clicked on, and it was CBN News. Sounds like a legit news outlet right? No. It is the Christian Broadcast Network, known for propagating whatever Right Wing nonsense is popular that week. So I told her that she needs to check out legit news outlets like APNews, Reuters and fact check sites. As she scrolled down there was this piece which debunked that claim.

There’s no ‘Purge Law’: Debunking right-wing propaganda about the SAFE-T Act

In that moment I felt bad for that guy's daughter, and all the other kids he effectively indoctrinated with that utter BS which was designed to do absolutely nothing other than get people to hate on Democrats. This is how FOX Noise and all their incestuous outlets divide America today.

Illinois law doesn’t make murder, other crimes ‘non-detainable’ offenses
"I am not an American ... In my view premarital sex should be illegal ...(there are) mentally challenged people with special needs like myself- Ajax18
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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

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The real reason white supremacists like you are so excited about Musk taking over Twitter is that you think it means you now have carte blanche to make racist remarks.
What exactly were these racist remarks? Like quoting the constitution? Submitting evidence that COVID-19 began in a Wuhan lab rather than through bats?

Racism-the accusation that follows when anyone wins an argument with a liberal.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: Illusory Truth Effect

Post by Vēritās »

ajax18 wrote:
Tue Nov 01, 2022 1:40 pm
The real reason white supremacists like you are so excited about Musk taking over Twitter is that you think it means you now have carte blanche to make racist remarks.
What exactly were these racist remarks? Like quoting the constitution? Submitting evidence that COVID-19 began in a Wuhan lab rather than through bats?

Racism-the accusation that follows when anyone wins an argument with a liberal.
Twitter had been blocking and banning accounts that were racist in nature for years, which drove racists like you and Tucker Carlson absolutely nuts. I mean, he had to make his best friend resign, who did all the writing for his show, because he was exposed as a racist social media troll thanks to the investigative reporting by CNN. I just think it is pretty hilarious that you think Twitter was ever owned by the government. Like Facebook, it is a private company that has to have community standards if it hopes to stay in business. Otherwise it will just become another Parler.

And you've never in your life won an argument with a Liberal.
"I am not an American ... In my view premarital sex should be illegal ...(there are) mentally challenged people with special needs like myself- Ajax18
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