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Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

technologyreview.com

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Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#11

Post by StavrosK »

williamstein wrote: post #8
spaetzleesser wrote: post #3

It's pretty sad how underdeveloped the BS detectors of a lot of people are. I find it hard to understand how people can fall for QAnon but then I also find it hard to understand how anybody can be swayed by campaign speeches or political advertising but obviously these things work.

The foundational principle of Christianity (in America at least, in my experience) is believe something with no evidence it is true . They call it "faith". I was raised in small town Oregon and Texas going to Christian private schools and church for years, and that "faith" thing is absolutely their central belief. I remember clearly once when I was 9 finding the whole thing deeply illogical. Later in life I got a PhD…

And the less evidence you need to believe the thing, the more faith points you get.

Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#12

Post by smitty1e »

ykevinator wrote: post #6

Qanon is just another religion gullible people believe something without proof because it feels good.

QAnon is fueled by quite a bit of hinky stuff that has gone on over decades.

There is a need to discuss restoring confidence in institutions.

Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#13

Post by soupbowl »

"Evangelicals" is large group of people with a lot of different backgrounds. As with all groups let us take this with a grain of salt. I do know a dozen evangelicals that know about Qanon but I know far more that don't have a clue what Qanon is.

Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#14

Post by alexpotato »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #3

It's pretty sad how underdeveloped the BS detectors of a lot of people are. I find it hard to understand how people can fall for QAnon but then I also find it hard to understand how anybody can be swayed by campaign speeches or political advertising but obviously these things work.

I've generally heard the randomly, unbacked quote: "Up to a third of the population is easily swayed by any kind of persuasion/marketing".

I don't know the exact percentage but it is certainly non-zero. Given that many elections in recent memory are won by margins of <10%, it doesn't matter if the majority has a BS detector since that majority isn't the target of "mechanized persuasion" aka A/B testing based advertising.

Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#17

Post by manquer »

alexpotato wrote: post #14
spaetzleesser wrote: post #3

It's pretty sad how underdeveloped the BS detectors of a lot of people are. I find it hard to understand how people can fall for QAnon but then I also find it hard to understand how anybody can be swayed by campaign speeches or political advertising but obviously these things work.

I've generally heard the randomly, unbacked quote: "Up to a third of the population is easily swayed by any kind of persuasion/marketing". I don't know the exact percentage but it is certainly non-zero. Given that many elections in recent memory are won by margins of <10%, it doesn't matter if the majority has a BS detector since that majority isn't the target of "mechanized persuasion" aka A/B testing based advertis…

If there is minority of population with low BS threshold they will only matter if there are only two parties and the rest of the population is also closely split.

Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#18

Post by grawprog »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #3

It's pretty sad how underdeveloped the BS detectors of a lot of people are. I find it hard to understand how people can fall for QAnon but then I also find it hard to understand how anybody can be swayed by campaign speeches or political advertising but obviously these things work.

The thing about bullshit detectors is, they tend to work well for most people towards things they don't feel strongly about or things they're opposed to. It's when it comes to things that validates a person's already held beliefs that the bullshit detectors tend to get inaccurate as it were. At least from what i've noticed with people anyway.

Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#19

Post by plugger »

ffggvv wrote: post #15

i see misinformation from BLM etc every single day on twitter. how come now one cares about this misinformation or gets upset or writes articles about it?

Whataboutism isn't productive. Best to have conversations about the topic at hand or create a new one if you want to bemoan BLM twitter posts.

Re: Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead

#20

Post by orestarod »

williamstein wrote: post #8
spaetzleesser wrote: post #3

It's pretty sad how underdeveloped the BS detectors of a lot of people are. I find it hard to understand how people can fall for QAnon but then I also find it hard to understand how anybody can be swayed by campaign speeches or political advertising but obviously these things work.

The foundational principle of Christianity (in America at least, in my experience) is believe something with no evidence it is true . They call it "faith". I was raised in small town Oregon and Texas going to Christian private schools and church for years, and that "faith" thing is absolutely their central belief. I remember clearly once when I was 9 finding the whole thing deeply illogical. Later in life I got a PhD…

Every religion is based on faith, in the exact way you portrayed it. Faith by definition regards things that cannot be proven. If they could be proven, it would be knowledge, not faith.
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