I see they're still promoting the silly antifa story.

[conuly]

Is this some sort of cult thing? Do you actually manage to pull them in deeper if the propaganda is obviously stupid? Like, I don't know anything about this, so is this how it works? Is it more effective to put so little effort in that they have to fool themselves?

Look, I'm not going to say that false flag operations never happen. Obviously they do, and I don't think I'm spilling any secrets to say that the USA pretty much wrote the book 101 Dirty Tricks to Impress Friends and Destabilize Governments. And I just said I don't know anything about this - but it still seems unlikely that people engaged in a false flag operation would bandy their faces all about and we still wouldn't be able to prove that they weren't sincere in their motivations. Nobody is that good at hiding their breadcrumbs.

Comments

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Some scams purposefully aren't good in the initial pitch, so as to winnow out savvy contacts. cf phishing scams where they want you to send a money order or accept funds to your account having misspellings or inappropriate typefaces.

[oloriel]

It probably is a cult thing, yeah.

I read some analysis a while ago that pointed out that the key thing about fascist propaganda is that it paints the enemy simultaneously as weaker (morally corrupt, following base instincts, more stupid, etc.) and stronger (powerful, well-connected, clever, etc.). In this case, it's probably building on the "clever" idea. The people engaged in these false flag operations have been building their covert image a long time! That just shows how long they've been planning to infiltrate The Cause (TM)! And because the people who have swallowed the propaganda already believe that there's a huge conspiracy going on against them, it is actually an effective bit of propaganda, because to them, it proves that the conspiracy exists. From the outside, it's both absurd and terrifying, but on the inside, it absolutely appears to work. :/

[sabotabby]

I do think it's some kind of a psychological thing. Smarter people than I have analyzed why complete absurdity works and logic doesn't, though.

[wpadmirer]

We have a Trumper at work who keeps trying to tell me this. I have laughed at him. We've managed to remain on relatively good terms, because I don't want him to be an enemy. (Trumpers are delusional, I don't need delusional enemies.) But I finally said, why would people who don't support Trump want to keep him as President? Why would people like me want to overturn an election we won? And then, he actually has the idiocy to try to explain that. (bangs head on desk) It is a cult. They've stopped thinking and just believe what they're told.

[bitterlawngnome]

In my experience of conspiracy theories/ists, yes there is a place where one is expected to swear that night is day and up is down, thanks to {those evil people}. It is actually rather like religion. That stuff the priest is feeding people at the Mass is in every way we can think of imagining to investigate, cheap wine and white flour wafers, but to be allowed into the priesthood one must declare in public that it is the blood and flesh of Christ. It is a test of the member's willingness to do and say as leadership tells them. Absolutely nobody believes that it's literally blood and human meat, but to be admitted to the faith one must attest that it is. Even to suggest it's metaphorical makes one apostate in some times/places. And so it is with conspiracy theories - to get access to the delicious feeling of being in the know, to the group membership, to the feeling of being special and above all others and powerful, one must faithfully repeat whatever one is told is the magnum mysterium of that particular conspiracy. Typically it's cloaked in "and the only reason the faithless say otherwise is that they're blind / ignorant / corrupt / deliberately trying to deceive you", and "only independant thinkers will be able to see the truth", so if you disagree you are therefore blind / stupid / corrupt / evil as well as losing your membership, so the cost of disagreeing is prohibitive.

In short, it is not amenable to logic and arguing with it actually reinforces the irrational behaviour.

[chez_jae]

As I see it, the problem is that Trump's most ardent supporters have become very cult-like in their slavish devotion to him. They would literally drink the Kool-Aid if he told them to, and they'd force it down the throats of their loved ones as well. It's appalling and horrifying.