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Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

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Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#31

Post by actually_a_dog »

handrous wrote: post #27
anm89 wrote: post #8

I've noticed this hilarious thing where within the left leaning media sphere, the only verbs that Ocasio-Cortez and to a lesser degree Bernie ever engage in is "slamming". They don't eat, sleep, debate, propose, or discuss. They just slam 24/7. I googled her to verify the spelling on her name and the first headline was: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who draft…

Not to "both sides" it, but... well, both sides do this in their reporting. Sometimes they also "own" or "destroy" someone. I don't think it's partisan. That kind of language gets clicks, so everyone's optimized for it.

I'm not so sure about it not being partisan. When I think of "own" in this context, it's mostly in relation to "owning the libs." I'm not sure if this particular usage is used mostly by left-leaning pols ironically, or right-leaning pols unironically, however.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#32

Post by 3grdlurker »

There’s a lot of commentary here on news reporting and social media but I really don’t think that this is a problem unique to our time. The end effect of virality is herd mentality, which then creates populism past a certain threshold, and we’ve certainly had populist leaders in history before.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#33

Post by hackeraccount »

Eh, the easiest most effective arguments are also the most toxic. The people who disagree with me aren't just wrong but they're disingenuous liars with an agenda so terrible even they won't admit to it. The people who disagree with me don't even understand what they're saying because they're just mindlessly repeating things they have been indoctrinated to believe.

Neither of those will convince anyone of anything but it makes people who already agree really happy and it drives those people who disagree up a wall.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#34

Post by im_down_w_otp »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #30
trentnix wrote: post #28

Well yes, because all political reporting is basically TMZ for boring, ugly people. It molds politics into some fantasy world of rap battles and gang fights rather than a productive discussion about making good policy. And if your first impulse is to think well yeah because the other side blah blah , you're part of the problem too.

>>> political reporting is basically TMZ for boring, ugly people. Can I get that on a TShirt please ? (And yes, was it Nietscheze who says politicians are just sales people for their manifestos?)

Are they even that anymore? That seems like it would be an improvement. Now it seems like they're just cast members doing product placement for someone else's manifesto.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#35

Post by lancesells »

_jal wrote: post #19
rm999 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is I've recently noticed the exact same phenomenon on conservative media. A few days ago there were 4 posts at the top of r/conservative about liberals being 'slammed' for something or the other (for the record I am an independent and watch that subreddit to better understand the issues that interest conservatives). Here's some recent 'slams' on that subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/se…

I'm sure there was a research report somewhere that showed .021% more engagement with 'Slams' headlines than competitive verbs or something. Headline writers run in packs, just like CEOs.

I think it's sadly more about A/B testing run amok. Engagement rules, not sentiment.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#36

Post by kingsuper20 »

It doesn't strike me as particularly new, politicians in days of yore were pretty durned hard on each other. and usually better read than the current crop.

My favorite variation of all this is the micro variety.

. Find a social media maven with a zillion followers

. Say something horrid to them

. Get them to respond

. Huzzah! Instant fame or at least a few followers for yourself.

. Wash rinse repeat.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#37

Post by chobytes »

When I was younger I got a bit notable online by doing just this. You can pick up thousands of followers on twitter in a couple weeks by just picking hot topics and big targets, and publicly dunking on them.

Ive grown out of the behavior but its definitely left me very cynical about politics.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#38

Post by hhs »

The paper is also worth reading. Here's part of the conclusion:

"Understanding the factors that make social media posts go “viral” online can help to create better social media environments. While social media platforms are not fully transparent about how their algorithmic ranking system works, Facebook announced in a post titled “Bringing People Closer Together” that it was changing its algorithm ranking system to value “deeper” forms of engagement, such as reactions and comments (68). Ironically, posts about the political out-group were particularly effective at generating comments and reactions (particularly the “angry” reaction, the most popular reaction across our studies). In other words, these algorithmic changes made under the guise of bringing people closer together may have helped prioritize posts including out-group animosity." [0]

[0]: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/26/e2024292118

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#40

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

mizzack wrote: post #26
lotsofpulp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The use of slang like dunking, slamming, murdering, and so on by adults in a professional arena is embarrassing.

Unless it's a literal arena.

I just had a vision of a dystopian(?) future where politicians unable to reach a compromise are forced to fight in the thunderdome, but they were still a bunch of old pasty white guys.
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