Why is everyone so willing to believe in unverified news?

[milestogo]

Orrin Hatch preparing to become president? An awful lot would have to happen before Hatch would become president and none of the wheels to get rid of Trump are in motion. He might still be president 3 and a half years from now.

[dawg]

1. We're not really quick to believe that stuff. It's just fun to think about.

Kind of like Ancient Aliens and Bigfoot.

[CentralMass]

2. +1

[Hortensis]

16. Oh? Check Sculpin Beauregard. nt

[Sculpin Beauregard]

3. Until MSM stops feeding us pablum and steps up to do what's right, people are seeking info elsewhere

People are being kept in the dark, and big money owns a lot of the MSM.

[BannonsLiver]

6. So pablum for pablum then?

Makes a lot of sense.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

4. Who says "everyone" is?

I read Louise Mensch's tweets out of curiosity and a little bit of hope because I need all the hope I can get! But I also take them with a grain of salt since I have no idea how legit she really is. I do know that her Trump et al loathing is off the charts - and I do enjoy reading that!

[Hortensis]

19. Long ago as a young mother I received The National Enquirer

as it was passed down a line of houses on our street. I thought I read it strictly for entertainment with complete awareness that most was pure garbage, and the rest very badly smelling.

I also read the LA Times, an excellent newspaper, daily.

Then after a while I stopped being able to remember WHICH source something I thought I "knew" came from. I realized that some of the Enquirer trash was being stored in my "fund of knowledge" and being used to analyze new information. So that day I told my neighbor on the north to pass it directly to the neighbor to my south.

There is real danger to one's intellect and behavioral standards in choosing to wallow in enjoyable stories one knows haven't been verified by people working to established ethical standards.

Most of the right wing has gone effectively politically insane from the same kind of indulgence, unreachable by truth.

I mean, what's the real-world difference between being capable of recognizing reality if presented in a counseling session that will never take place and not being able to?

[50 Shades Of Blue]

24. Please don't apply your experience to what I wrote. I mean, you can if you want,

but I am not you and my experience has never been yours.

[Hortensis]

27. I know my experience was different.

I was never given warning that I was in danger of stumbling down the rabbit hole.

Neither specifically like this, nor back then by having observed over a period of greater than 30 years new information technology being used to warp conservative thinking beyond rationality. Which was still mostly in the future.

Turns out a theory of "bullshit receptivity" is now a much discussed phenomenon in social science and psychology circles, as well as "fake news sensitivity." I recommend searching on and reading about both.

Because in these stressful times when people are particularly eager for reassurance, I believe we may be seeing some vulnerable to "bullshit" right here. Not right wingers on some other forum, but right here. Just my opinion, but everyone who reads this at least has been informed about this issue.

"Last week, behavioral researchers at Brown University held a colloquium titled “Analytic thinking, bullshit receptivity, and fake news sensitivity.” At an informal gathering afterwards, the conversation turned to the not-completely-unrelated topic of Donald Trump.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-12/trump-s-dangerous-disability-it-s-the-dunning-kruger-effect

[cwydro]

5. There are an amazing amount of gullible people here.

And magical thinkers.

[KPN]

7. You mean the Fox News viewers?

[CincyDem]

8. Because, in the lack of a shared vision of the future, people fill in the blanks.

It's human nature in the face of increasing hopelessness.

Orrin Hatch may be taking presidential security briefings. That might be a fact but it says nothing about the "awful lot" that would have to happen for it to happen. (BTW - I agree with your implied likelihood of that event completely). It may just say that somewhere, someone is preparing for a 1 in a billion chance. It's like the designated survivor thing - we do it every year at the SOTU but really - is anyone expecting there will some event at the capitol that wipes out the entire government ???? Good for TV - bullshit for reality - but we still do it every year (just in case). IF, and this capital letters aren't big enough, Hatch is getting some kind of enhanced security briefings I put it in the same category as the designated survivor...and just as likely.

IMHO, the possibility of 3.5 more Trump years is so disheartening that they're ready to focus on anything that provides hope and extrapolate any little fact, no matter how insignificant, and turn it into the reason that Trump's going to be out.

In my heart of hearts, I don't think he's going to politically survive the term but that going to be due to a lot of great confidential criminal investigation and 1973 caliber investigative journalism...not because of some prayed for vagary of the the 25th amendment.

[CentralMass]

9. What i really think is that Trump will be President for at one full term.

However the stories of his impending doom over his Russian ties make for entertaining reading and at least expose different plausible scenario's.

[duncang]

10. Personally I read but rarely comment

I do like the posts though. I also take with a grain of salt. When some of the items are rumor, second or third hand information small changes in repeating or interpretations will occur no matter what. The hope in me does wish more would come true though.

BTW I like Ancient Aliens also. But I'm a seti/Drake equation type alien believer.

[sarisataka]

11. Confirmation bias...

And there is no "might". Republicans hitched onto him and supported him through every opportunity prior to the election they had to drop him. Despite all the wild fantasies of how Republicans were going to switch they stuck with him. We still have wild fantasies about how they will suddenly wake up and remove him now that he is President. Conveniently ignoring that it is far more difficult and more embarrassing to them to remove him now.

[CrispyQ]

12. It's like reading the cover of The National Enquirer -

you can't help yourself, cuz maybe there really are aliens.

That said, I believe that Trump is an immediate danger to our country, but that if Trump gets taken down, but Pence/Ryan/McConnell are still in place, the cancer is still there - the rot will continue. They will continue to lie, cheat & steal to retain the power they've stolen. Without the distraction of Trump, they will continue with their hateful agenda. The entire GOP needs to be exposed for the steaming shits they are.

[librechik]

13. Confirmation Bias. Jon Ronson has a great piece about this

in brief, if you think you already know something you are automatically inclined to keep believing it, despite any negative evidence.

[kentuck]

14. Unless I see a backup source...

I tend to disregard.

[Lurks Often]

15. An inability to accept facts or reality?

Last edited Sat May 13, 2017, 09:19 PM - Edit history (1)

These days most OP's are absurd and consistently show a lack of understanding of things work, with some examples seen today:
*Thinking that Orrin Hatch is getting "security briefings". There is no way Trump, Pence and Ryan are all going to be removed at the same time.
*The belief that HRC is going to somehow become President by replacing Trump
*That Trump firing Comey is somehow "un-Constitutional"
*That somehow impeachment will fix things, when the actual process is impeachment by the House and then the trial and conviction in the Senate with the requirement that 2/3rds of the Senate must vote for conviction for any President to be removed. Does anyone seriously think the votes are there for that?
* Thinking that a "National Strike" would ever happen or that it would change anything

[bresue]

18. HOW DID CALIFORNIA RECALL GRAY DAVIS?

And why can't we do this with Dump?

[Lurks Often]

22. Because there is nothing in the US Consitution that provides for a recall

Last edited Sat May 13, 2017, 09:20 PM - Edit history (1)

There are only TWO legal ways to remove a President from office:
Impeachment by the House and then the trial and conviction by the Senate which requires a 2/3rds vote
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment "Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[L. Coyote]

17. Everyone? Why is everyone so extemely hyperbolic, everyone I say, everyone?

Why are all the trolls working overtime on Comey Saturday? Is the Russian economy in need of more stimulus? Or am I hyperbolic?

[Madam45for2923]

20. Many that don't wish us well will try to discredit people fighting and investigating Trump/Russia

Why is that? I think that is a more interesting and important question since:

Trump is the greatest threat we have faced in a long time.

&

We'll concentrate on stopping him.

[.99center]

31. Besides a few Twitter journalists, who else is being discredited?

Why are a few relatively new posters attempting to make this such a divisive issue?

[Initech]

21. Ever see Men In Black? Or Kingsman: The Secret Service?

Movies like this say that the real news is fake, and the fake news is real news. Only problem is - people believe it!!!

[Calculating]

23. Because the MSM are all corrupt and hide the truth

Therefor the only way to find the truth is on small independent news sites.

[LaydeeBug]

25. if you are watching the MSM right now, or evn through last election season, you wantched unverified

news. In fact, "fake news" became a thing.

Now, citizen activists are stepping in because the MS Greedia decided ratings were more important than the truth.

They are not perfect. But they are better than what's on the tube...and MUCH more accurate.

[Shandris]

26. Because in the era of quick information and easy virtue signalling....

...'news' is stuff you want to be true, and 'fake news' is stuff you don't want to be true. Having watched the entire election spending multiple hours/day both here and at Nazi Central (god help me), this seems to be the one universal truth.

Too much 'information', not enough information, and most people LONG AGO chose to quit trying to verify their own thoughts and beliefs. It was an UNDERSTANDABLE position, but not an intelligent one.

So no one knows what is true (and in fact, 'truth' itself was attacked for 20 years, so let's not pretend we didn't see this coming, even if we didn't think it would be used against us), and even if they had the truth among a pile of falsehoods, they don't know how to separate it from the chaff.

They are literally sheep to be led by the nose, and in many cases the nosering is 'social opinion'. What did you think Facebook was for? Did people really think Mark Zuckerburg just wanted to make a cute program so people could talk to their friends?

[Phoenix61]

28. What makes you think people believe that trash

Saying, "Gee, wouldn't that be nice" doesn't mean someone believes it. When I buy a lottery ticket I know the odds of hitting it big but it's still fun to dream the impossible dream. I don't book a cruise counting on winning but for a moment I indulge in wishful thinking.

[brush]

29. Who says everybody is believing it? This is a community. We exchange info, some of which...

may turn out to be true, some not.

We don't need the hectoring about what we do with the content we find here.

[blueinredohio]

30. We have to believe it so we can have some hope otherwise this shit will make you as crazy as Trump

[William769]

32. Have you not watched "designated Survivor'?