• Pilk@aussie.zone
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    2 months ago

    Have you heard of this concept of First Thought People? They’re in comment sections everywhere and it usually goes thusly:

    Video of professional steam cleaning of an old bar’s carpet. Massively upvoted comment “I’m not a professional cleaner, but I would’ve moved the chairs an tables out of the way so you could get to the carpet underneath them. Just saying.” What a genius.

    Or on a video of a skilled leadlight artist. “Just so you know, lead is dangerous so be careful with fumes skin contact and wear appropriate PPE.”

    Or a baker mixing a huge batch of batter or kneading dough bare handed: “That’s gross, I can’t believe you are not wearing gloves. I would never eat there.”

    There are a lot of reasons to believe that online discourse is being massively influenced by overseas interests as part of cyber warfare to sow discord. You can’t convince me that at least some of these dumbasses aren’t part of it.

    • Seagoon_@aussie.zone
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      2 months ago

      pretending to be a dumbass is an excellent disguise and will fool many, including intelligent educated people , because who in their right mind would pretend to be a dumbass, eh.

      the purpose of those first thought posts is to make all following discourse negative

      it can also be directing the narrative or stopping further discussion

      for example, petrochem shills will deny global climate change and demand proof

      this means people will argue facts , facts that were proved decades ago

      this is to stop people furthering the conversation and start to talk about action

      Another example. Cigarette companies fighting like hell to keep advertising. This is to direct attention to advertising rather than further regulation.

      A foreign adversary might spread stories that make citizens question their government. The earliest example I know of are the stories surrounding the assassination of JFK

      and yes, making a population negative in out look, defensive and argumentative and divided is a part of psyops between adversaries.

    • tombruzzo@aussie.zone
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      2 months ago

      In my industry you see a lot of Facebook comments saying ‘that looks like a lot of work’ or ‘why wouldn’t you do it this way?’

      Then you get people who have actually used the products saying ‘this is great, such a time saver’. Since it’s agricultural products there are probably a few people actually doing it and a lot of larp around the outside

    • CEOofmyhouse56@aussie.zone
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      2 months ago

      I understand all those words in the last paragraph but when you put them altogether like that I got a little bit lost. Ngl.

      • StudSpud The Starchy@aussie.zone
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        2 months ago

        People talking on the internet about certain political and human rights topics, are suspected to be foreign bad actors. They want people to argue with each other endlessly, instead of talking about how to fix systemic issues.

        Hypothetical example I’ve made up: a “study” is posted to Reddit about how LGBTQ are more likely to suffer from mental health issues/commit suicide in the USA. The first comment on that study will instead argue about whether LGBTQ people should even be allowed to exist, which instigates arguments in the comments. It can be reasonable to assume the initial “first comment” was made by bad actors not from the USA in order to have people argue, instead of addressing what could be done to improve the mental health of LGBTQ people.

        Edited for clarity

    • Force_majeure1234@aussie.zone
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      2 months ago

      I didn’t read it all but it would be nicer if you posted shorter more digestible lengths for people like me, just saying.

      spoiler

      This is a joke

          • Pilk@aussie.zone
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            2 months ago

            Have you considered that some people are incapable of choosing smaller words supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Please consider their unique needs in future.

              • TheWitchofThornbury2@aussie.zone
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                2 months ago

                Minimise sesquipedalian circumlocutions! I used to have a t shirt with that as it’s logo, and which died a horrible death repainting the back fence. I miss that t shirt still.

                • HurricaneLiz@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  I dearly miss a Planter’s peanut shirt with the dancing peanut character that said “Everybody loves a nut.”

                  It died respectably, but unexpectedly, when a roommate grabbed it to stop floodwater coming in the back door.

                  R.I.P. our shirts 😭🫂

              • Seagoon_@aussie.zone
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                2 months ago

                Einstein said to use the simplest language necessary to explain a point.

                The important part is explaining the point. You still need to explain the point.

                and fascists like to make language very very simple, it means that people are unable to discuss issues with precision.

                It’s all very 1984 and Fahrenheit 451