It is time to stop being naive about online discourse.
“The discourse holds so many traps for the unwary. It’s a bit like financial scams and gambling that are a tax on the financially naïve. A similar tax is being levied on the intellectually naïve.” — @ArthurCDent
1/
@ArthurCDent In the article, I lay out 6 common #manipulation tactics and why they work to sabotage discourse on scientific topics.
First up is "just asking questions" or "#sealioning", which uses social expectations and #framing effects to distort conversations.
2/
@ArthurCDent Second, we look at the power of sensationalist stories and baseless rumors.
Why does a compelling #fiction win over nuanced #truth every time?
3/
@ArthurCDent Third, we move on to "#anomaly hunting", a practise that gained incredible popularity on social media.
What is it? Why do people do it? Why is it not legitimate?
@ArthurCDent If you do not have the time to read through everything, I compiled some high-resolution infographics to summarize the tactics against #vaccine, #climate and #origin science.
Feel free to consult, use and share them.
PDFs can also be found for free in the article.
@ArthurCDent If you do not like substack, my article can also be found on medium, here is a friend's free access link:
@ArthurCDent And because I often get insulted and harassed for my science communication work (see tactic 6, 'mudslinding'), here is a disclaimer of why I am doing it:
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
It is a critically important election year, so the Biden WH can not afford to have this emotional issue with large visibility be a differentiator between the parties.
They have to act as the ones driving accountability so the Republicans can not weaponize it against them
2/
No party or politician gives a hoot about Ecohealth Alliance, it is a small non-profit with no political weight or power
Cutting off its funding makes politicians look good; they can pretend to hold "bad people" accountable in a bi-partisan fashion & not ruffle many feathers
There will be a ramp-up of media coverage to bring the false #lableak myth back to the attention of the masses; right when the general election heats up.
Multiple reasons for this, first and foremost the political need for emotional activation of potential voters
A short🧵
As I have written previously, the #lableak myth is a powerful emotional narrative that profits from the many incentive asymmetries in our modern information ecosystems.
This ensures not only attention, but retention in public discourse.
Emotional myths that provide a simple explanation for why a large, traumatic world event like a pandemic had to be the cause of some shadowy powerful actors are appealing; they offer an agent to blame, and the illusion of control of these phenomena.
Very interesting paper from Jijón S. et al., using a population-dynamic approach (not a whole genome seq. approach) to date the first spillover event of the Wuhan outbreak
--> Nov.28
This is a methodologically independent confirmation of previously published estimates.
1/
The idea is to look at how an epidemic progresses (based on branching) and infer these dynamical parameters from known progressions
Once the model is calibrated, it can be used to estimate a time window when the first infection likely occurred; which might be before the tMRCA 2/
This is a complementary approach to phylogenetic dating that uses the mutational divergence over time to calculate back when the first cases likely occurred.
Overall, it matches previous estimates. So nothing new?
Let me quickly explain why I think this is important work:
3/
As 2024 ushered in a new year of myth, #manipulation & magical thinking, too few have adjusted to counterbalance the #vulnerabilities of our broken information ecosystem
During US elections, this might spell democratic backsliding as online #discourse will be weaponized
A 🧵
1/
The disruption of our information technology broke a few things we needed as guardrails for democracy, such as the free flow of information & journalistic principles for information sharing
Today, gatekeepers have changed to:
#Algorithms, #influencers & #audience demand
2/
The dynamics and incentives between those three largely shape what information average citizens get to see
This is problematic because info #shapers are not aligned with public interest or democracy, but rather with the pursuit of #popularity, #persuasion, #profit, or #power
3/