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How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

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Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#91

Post by maxxxxx »

awkwarddaturtle wrote: post #89
maxxxxx wrote: post #3

I don't understand why so many people are addicted to outrage, anger and fear. For a while I played along but then I quickly realized that all this stuff is manufactured to manipulate people. Now I can't even stand watching CNN or watching a campaign ad.

> I don't understand why so many people are addicted to outrage, anger and fear. I know right? It's outrageous how people are so addicted to outrage, anger and fear. :) > Now I can't even stand watching CNN or watching a campaign ad. I stopped watching cable news a long time ago. I also canceled my subscription to useless things like NYTimes, NPR, etc. It's amazing how much media influences the way you think and cont…

"I know right? It's outrageous how people are so addicted to outrage, anger and fear. :)"

Knowing that these people are around makes my blood boil!!!!

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#92

Post by icebraining »

_wp3r wrote: post #35

I would be happy with just opinion free and divisive speech free headlines. If the big outlets could simply start with that, it might be attainable. Words matter. In the meantime. https://legiblenews.com/

There's no such thing as "opinion free". The events you choose to cover, the facts you choose to highlight, the people you interview, even the timing, are all based on opinion. Opinions and ideology are what guide us.

A better policy, in my opinion, is to explicitly acknowledge one's opinions and ideologies, and to have some humility, recognizing at all times that one may be wrong.

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#93

Post by mitchellshow »

zentiggr wrote: post #83
tlogan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, you can sell 3 things: 1) fear, 2) greed, and 3) sex. 30% percent of Internet content is porn. So you have number 3 covered. Selling greed is hard, so lets do fear.

Wait... index funds, e*trade, 'you can day trade your way to retirement at 29!'... quants and HFT, the fact that there is a Wall Street after 2008... Money still sells most of all. Fear is just catching up now that the "news" is instant.

Desire for money is still driven by fear, greed, or sex.

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#94

Post by awkwarddaturtle »

anotherbrownguy wrote: post #46

>Journalism — the historical counter to propaganda "The good old days", except that never existed. Journalism has always been the tool for the powerful to paint a positive picture of themselves to the general public via "unbiased agents" called journalists who are "free to write anything" as long as it serves their masters. Now that almost anyone can publish their opinion and share it with everyone, the ones who have…

> >Journalism — the historical counter to propaganda 

Wow. Then they need a lesson in the history of journalism. They might want to read up on hearst and pulitzer and the founding of modern american journalism.

> "The good old days", except that never existed. Journalism has always been the tool for the powerful to paint a positive picture of themselves to the general public via "unbiased agents" called journalists who are "free to write anything" as long as it serves their masters.

Agreed. It's a credit to the media how well they do their job to brainwash that they fool us into thinking they are objective and truthful. At the end of the day, foxnews and the nytimes are just propagandists like any other. But somehow, we have been told over and over that our guys tell the "truth" and the enemy spreads propaganda.

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#95

Post by rubinelli »

api wrote: post #5
maxxxxx wrote: post #3

I don't understand why so many people are addicted to outrage, anger and fear. For a while I played along but then I quickly realized that all this stuff is manufactured to manipulate people. Now I can't even stand watching CNN or watching a campaign ad.

I suspect fear and outrage releases some natural addictive brain chemicals. The fear and outrage porn industry certainly resembles an addictive substance scene.

They do! Fear, anger, and outrage create a rush that stimulates your reward circuits with dopamine, in the same way that a thrill ride or a good workout do:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-shrink/201508/a...

They also cause the release of cortisol, that depresses your immune system, unlike healthy behaviors like spending time with your friends or taking a good walk in a park.

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#96

Post by xutopia »

hprotagonist wrote: post #9

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings. They're the kin…

Which book, article or letter is this from?

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#97

Post by icebraining »

maxxxxx wrote: post #91
awkwarddaturtle wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't understand why so many people are addicted to outrage, anger and fear. I know right? It's outrageous how people are so addicted to outrage, anger and fear. :) > Now I can't even stand watching CNN or watching a campaign ad. I stopped watching cable news a long time ago. I also canceled my subscription to useless things like NYTimes, NPR, etc. It's amazing how much media influences the way you think and cont…

"I know right? It's outrageous how people are so addicted to outrage, anger and fear. :)" Knowing that these people are around makes my blood boil!!!!

"I'm sure we all agree that we ought to love one another and I know there are people in the world that do not love their fellow human beings, and I hate people like that!"

The great Tom Lehrer: National Brotherhood Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPNsr0mhcrY

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#98

Post by smokeyj »

matt4077 wrote: post #51
aub3bhat wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microprocessors, Internet, Green Revolution, T-Cell therapy, China & India over the last 2 decades ..... You know the stuff that actually required knowledge and power. Not some feel goodery truthiness.

Yeah, this is the typical dismissal of anything not STEM!!STEM!! In reality, technological invention has always gone hand-in-hand with progress in our understanding of how to organise a just and productive society. It's sometimes harder to point at specific examples because this change happened more gradually, but ignorance of this progress doesn't legitimise a wholesale dismissal. Concepts such as the rule of law, d…

This is like every religious group taking credit for societal advancements.

> I'm pretty sure I'd rather live in a society with the technology of the stone age and today's understanding of law&justice

I'm sure we could conduct an easy experiment.. but maybe that's too empirical for you

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#99

Post by ameister14 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #61
anotherbrownguy wrote: post #46

>Journalism — the historical counter to propaganda "The good old days", except that never existed. Journalism has always been the tool for the powerful to paint a positive picture of themselves to the general public via "unbiased agents" called journalists who are "free to write anything" as long as it serves their masters. Now that almost anyone can publish their opinion and share it with everyone, the ones who have…

This ignores the fact that many journalistic endeavors have been borne out by historical factors, although perhaps in your model of the world all journalists and social change occur only at the will of powerful forces which manipulate things from behind the scene. But not you, of course.

If you're trying to say that journalistic endeavors occurred because of multiple historical factors and not just a shadowy cabal, which is what I think you were trying to say, you may mean borne out of, not borne out by. 'Borne out by' essentially means 'proven by,' whereas 'borne out of' means 'came about because of.'

Re: How Fear and Outrage Are Sold for Profit

#100

Post by shostack »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #84
AdeptusAquinas wrote: post #76

I and I am sure a good percentage of the internet population always struggle with articles like this. I don't have an ad blocker, don't have any 'ad-free' subscriptions to anything, yet I never click an ad while at the same time am not particularly bothered by them. They're just noise, and since they register as basically whitespace in my head, noise easily ignored. I don't feel 'at war' when I go online, and even if…

Just because you don't click on an ad or think you ignore them doesn't mean you're not being manipulated by them. Subconscious influence/manipulation is more powerful and prevalent than most people realize. The most skillful forms of influence are invisible to the target.

Nor does it mean advertisers can't track your behavior after the fact.

A conversion event post ad impression without a click is called a "view-through conversion" and is a cornerstone metric of most display advertising because the bulk of performance from display is likely to be view-through vs. click-based.

Advertisers without "hard" conversion metrics can still measure uplift just as easily.

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