This is a reminder to me as well, since I've shared his shit in the recent past. Actually, this is relevant to a point I've been trying to make to people lately, let me see if I can make it make sense.
So, disinfo purveyors rely on emotions to bypass rational thought, and it
has to be a powerful and atavistic enough emotion to short-circuit rationality. Usually that is something like invoking rage or fear, hence all that bullshit scarelore about the border to get the marks all in a lather about "mass migration" or other white supremacist fantasies
But it's not always rage or fear. I'm mad all the time and always have been so I know how to deal with that, and after years of covering breaking news in Los Angeles and postconflict work at the border nothing on the planet frightens me.
But I do have one very powerful emotional trigger, and that is schadenfreude. I just absolutely love when bad shit happens to people who have pissed me off. It's like the usual reporter's love for irony raised to the nth level. It's not my favorite thing about myself, but it's me
However, that means I can (and I have) fallen for lies about bad shit happening to people I absolutely hate, so I have to guard against that. It's my "trigger." Which is I think why so many disinformation purveyors have co-opted that term, "triggered." They aren't just making fun
of it, they've weaponized the mechanism to get people to believe total bullshit, because - this is the crucial point - they want to. So you have to get to know yourself and what emotional triggers bypass your rational thought. It protects you and others from disinfo campaigns.
And if you do fall for something, be up front with yourself about why. You don't need to go around doing mea culpas all the time. People fall for bullshit sometimes! It's just part of life. It doesn't mean you're weak or ignorant. But you can minimize the damage when you do.
The hardest part for me is owning my mistakes. I hate being wrong. HATE IT. I would prefer to just pretend it never happened. But when I do make mistakes, it is my responsibility to own them and I take that very seriously. It sucks hahaha
Note: I'm not saying completely to ignore shitty people. They should be mocked into oblivion! You just don't need to use their words or actions to do so. Paraphrase and describe it to make fun of them so they don't get to speak for themselves or signal to their little creep fans
Don't let them set any terms, don't give them a fucking inch. Paraphrase, mock, go after them, let them know you are laughing at their stupid shit.
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This is a good thread. I talk about my own inheritance of institutional knowledge a lot - I'm at least a third-gen journo - and how what I know has been forgotten by so many that I often sound radical to others when what I say is actually just historically accurate common sense
My criticisms may often be political, but they are never partisan. I dig in my heels because I know my history, and thus I know theirs as well. The technology may change, the speed and scale may change, but the fascist conspiracy theories all stay the same at their core.
This would not have been forgotten had it not been for wave after wave of layoffs and buyouts that have absolutely decimated my industry since the 1990s. The agitators, the annoyances, the ones who don't play well with others - all characteristics that make bad "team players" but
Parscale's Nucleus is also part of the Jenner campaign for governor of California, as one might expect to find riding the coattails of an astroturfed recall campaign relying on white supremacists and anti-vaxxers to launder their bullshit.
But enough about that, remember when @Parscale got arrested in his underwear and cried like a chickenshit lmao
This doesn't work. They don't engage in good faith. Bring out the trombones and sousaphones and dance around them mockingly (safely) or something similar. Mock them. Laugh at them. Insult them. They can't stand it.