Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters” • Hacker News Board

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#121

Post by esyir » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

robbrown451 wrote: post #112

msrenee wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Horse paste? It's not you specifically, but you're not the first person I've seen recently who has referred to it and didn't appear to understand what the substance is. Someone I know called it a "horse tranquilizer" in a conversation the other day. It's Ivermectin. It's a dewormer. It shows some promise, but more research is needed into its efficacy. Anyone who has a baseline knowledge of medicine would call it a de…

You say it shows some promise. Do you have a credible citation? Because I've followed it closely, and nothing out there indicates it shows promise, and a lot shows it doesn't. I'll agree that it is misleading to call it horse paste, but if you call it a de-wormer, that doesn't sound a lot better to me. It's not an anti-viral, and the only "promise" it has shown is equivalent to the promise shown by a handgun fired at…

Big paper retracted recently, current status is in the low to no effect size. Still under study and might get a better grasp of effectiveness in the future, so nothing on efficacy is conclusive atm.

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#122

Post by IncRnd » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:05 AM UTC

jolux wrote: post #57

yanderekko wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But this cuts both ways — you are exposing your own biases in believing it’s obvious satire. It doesn't cut equally both ways because there's an obvious ground truth that exonerates those who believe it's satire. I didn't claim it was obvious, and I could see why an outsider would be unsure. But the deflection of "can't blame me, Poe's Law" doesn't hold when plenty of people are able to see through the ruse.

All I’m saying is I think it’s forgivable to take something like this seriously, especially without full context. Doubling down after learning it’s a ruse, not so much. My observations on this issue are hindsight, this article is the first I learned of it. > I didn't claim it was obvious, and I could see why an outsider would be unsure You described people who believed it as “detached from reality.” Is that not tanta…

> You described people who believed it as “detached from reality.” Is that not tantamount to saying it’s obvious?

Not the op, but it clearly was detached from reality. 1) It was false, therefore not reality. 2) The people who believed it were journalists, who should know to check first and also should know not to believe everything you read.

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#123

Post by esyir » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:11 AM UTC

dabbledash wrote: post #8

It doesn’t take much to convince “professional journalists” of things, as long as the things confirm their priors. I’d cut them some slack, because we’re all bad at that, but their literal job is to check things out.

I'm left here wondering which is true: has journalism as a field regressed, with loss of its original principles, or has it never been good to begin with.

The professional journalists feel much less like the sources of information that they should be, and more like definers of "truth".

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#124

Post by rendaw » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:20 AM UTC

burlesona wrote: post #76

>Reading responses like this, more than anything, I am reminded of C.S. Lewis: > Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, ‘Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,’ or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to…

It's anger at the paper for not checking their stories and wasting my time/emotion.

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#125

Post by JoeyBananas » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:25 AM UTC

This whole shitstorm was based on false interpretations of Texas law that were incredibly easy to debunk. When I saw these fake stories pop up (and they did pop up on HN) I wasn't fooled for a second. Yet, people were saying things like "In Texas you can get paid 10 grand for every woman you rape!!" and they even got GoDaddy to take down a law-abiding pro-life website that was involved.

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#126

Post by jjeaff » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:27 AM UTC

gruez wrote: post #117

msrenee wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Horse paste? It's not you specifically, but you're not the first person I've seen recently who has referred to it and didn't appear to understand what the substance is. Someone I know called it a "horse tranquilizer" in a conversation the other day. It's Ivermectin. It's a dewormer. It shows some promise, but more research is needed into its efficacy. Anyone who has a baseline knowledge of medicine would call it a de…

>Anyone who has a baseline knowledge of medicine would call it a dewormer Right, but in all the contexts I've heard it, it's not just a "dewormer", it's a "horse dewormer". That's technically true, but it's also FDA approved for human consumption. Making fun of people for consuming "horse dewormer" is like making fun of people for consuming "horse tranquilizer" for their depression[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…

Except many of the people being made fun of are calling poison control because they are literally overdosing on horse dewormer. Literally apple flavored dewormer paste for horses.

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#127

Post by esyir » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:39 AM UTC

shephardjhon wrote: post #89

so what exactly should have tipped off the journalists or commentators? and yes, I mean not just the bounty hunters but also the trans one. If the idea was that this was some elaborate puzzle to solve, what EXACTLY was the solution and how should they have come to it? This is not a cleaver joke, the people supporting this aren't Sacha Baron Cohen. In Borat, there were many things that would tip people off beyond just…

The fundamental rule imo should be that the more absurd the claim, the more it deserves a double check. That hospitals are prioritising gunshots below ivermectin is absurd to what I hope is most people.

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#128

Post by esyir » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:42 AM UTC

jolux wrote: post #55

grapist420 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subs like transpets illustrate more how ridiculous it is people are fooled. Thousands of upspergs on posts about dilating dogs or castrating cats. People are absurdly gullible and it’s really just terrible.

> People are absurdly gullible and it’s really just terrible. Have you considered how far we would have gotten as a species if we had a pervasive assumption of bad faith in our interactions with other people? Complex societies depend on assuming good faith. People who assume others are always acting in bad faith are often traumatized or suffering from other forms of mental illness. I don’t find it “ridiculous” that p…

People default to assuming bad faith if they're from a different tribe. Just look at the social media loops.

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#129

Post by iammisc » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:49 AM UTC

jancsika wrote: post #24

I mean honestly, MSM: what are the odds an actual group of bona fide Texans takes the time to create a forum to help each other collect their $10,000 abortion bounties over the next few months? Seriously, what are the goddamned odds? I'm completely illiterate when it comes to statistics. Irregardless, I do know I'd bet anything the odds are infinitesimally low given the poor track record of the MSM.

It's possible honestly, but frankly groups like this wouldn't organize on Reddit but rather at a local church, where the twitteratti and new York times intelligentsia would have little insight

Re: Trolls convinced journalists they were “abortion bounty hunters”

#130

Post by iammisc » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:57 AM UTC

alasdair_ wrote: post #102

throwawaylinux wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't recall that. I recall a years long investigation into it that conceded that no evidence was ever found that implicated Trump or his campaign of colluding with Russians. I kind of have to wonder why people like Adam Schiff are still hiding all that "ample evidence" of collusion they insisted existed -- is he also in Putin's pocket and covering up for Trump? I can guess how accepting you are of alternate vi…

Trump is on videotape literally asking for Russia to hack things for him.

Joe Biden is literally on videotape saying he threatened the Ukrainian government to not receive aid if they didn't fire their prosecutor investigating his son's company. When trump accused him of it, trump was impeached for his predecessors crimes.

But yeah let's talk about what's literally on videotape