Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/25/counternarratives-not-fact-che.html
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Two articles on Saturday morning that talk about the same troll? Can’t we ignore him now? Please?
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I find hate and ignorance are pretty interchangeable at the end of the day. They tend to enable each other.
With love, I encourage you to RTFA.
For pathetic attention-whores [,] you have to ignore him.
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in
RussiaSoviet Amerika, it’s about flooding the channel with a mix of lies and truth, crowding out other stories
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Exactly, and it started a long, long time ago. The flooding method was the main method of both government and corporate propaganda throughout the 20th century, and similar methods are being applied to the Internet.
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I was thinking about the Trump administration specifically, since those are the most recent and glaring and harmful examples in mind, but I agree that there’s a long history of that kind of propagandizing, mainly because it works.
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I read somewhere that Stalin sent people to USA to study the American way of propaganda. He knew how to suppress unwanted news, but the Soviet Union never really got people to believe in their propaganda. Most people understood the Pravda was full of lies. The American system where everyone is allowed to say what they want but somehow the major media reflect the view of the government on critical issues is so much more elegant.
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I’m starting to think there’s no way to change anyone’s mind about anything. And yet… I know I’ve been able to shift my opinions and conclusions. How did that happen?
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You are, it seems, a thinker.
Whereas the widest mouths have the narrowest minds.
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An open mind is like a fortress with its gate unbarred and unguarded.
- Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition Rulebook, page 47
Be strong in your ignorance.
- Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition), page 15
A small mind is easily filled with faith.
- Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Rulebook, page 4;
Compromise is akin to treachery.
- Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook, page 19
Facts are chains that bind perception and fetter truth. For a man can remake the world if he has a dream and no facts to cloud his mind.
- Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Rulebook, page 70
God in Heaven and Throne on Earth this was supposed to be Satire, not a playbook!
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The only mind you can ever change is your own.
You can provide other people with experiences conducive to changing their minds, but unless they’re willing to have their mind changed, it won’t work. And even if they are, they have to do the heavy lifting of changing their thought patterns themselves.
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Because liberals are people who change their minds when the evidence changes, whereas conservatives change the facts to suit their prejudices - until their prejudices change which takes a lot longer.
The other version is that a conservative is someone who believes something that he thought was ridiculous liberal nonsense twenty five years ago.
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I too have managed to change my mind about quite a number of things over the years. I think it has something to do with working to fit new information in some existing ideas about how things should be.
ETA: I think I just scared myself
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I have to say, reading BB and mixing with you bunch of weirdos had been really helpful in altering my perception and understanding on a /lot/ of issues 
it’s been a fairly slow but steady process, but I think it’s made me a better person. Certainly a lot more tolerant, and aware of stupid shit I used to say in a casual unthinking way. So; thanks mutants 
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We should remember, the Republican Party has been at war with changing minds for 20 years at least.
They call it “flip-flopping.”
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The technique of mixing lies and truth also includes truths that sound peculiar. The Other Side will jump to the conclusion that the peculiar stuff is another lie and then be discredited when the truth becomes obvious.
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I have read a dozen articles like this since Trump’s election. They all come to the same conclusion: that changing another person’s mind is impossible. Trump’s supporters will support him no matter what, and there is nothing that an intelligent, concerned, good-intentioned liberal can do about it. In fact, every effort made to persuade the Trumpists serves only to strengthen their attachment to him. Logic, evidence, and reason are often counterproductive and always a complete waste of time. There is nothing that can be done to alter this situation. There is no point in trying.
I don’t believe this myself. Every Trump supporter had to be persuaded to vote for that orange-faced buffoon, so there must be some way to influence people. It seems to me that Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway know a few things that our best and brightest liberal minds are clueless about. How about some research to find out what works, instead of these endless post-mortems that rub our noses in shit?
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The interesting thing here is that both sides (if you want to call it that) feel exactly the same way about the other side. Do we need to develop a technology that will address this divisiveness in order to progress as a species? I don’t know?
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It is not necessary to change the minds of all – or even of any – of the Trumpsters. In most geographical areas, about 1/3 of the people will vote for a Trumpish candidate no matter what, about one third will vote for the anti-Trump candidate no matter what, and one third are open to persuasion. That’s where propaganda what used to be called campaigning comes in. Winning elections takes 50% +1, and trying to win over unwinnable voters is not a good use of a campaign’s time.
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