{"id":42026,"date":"2020-11-28T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=42026"},"modified":"2020-11-28T10:17:52","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T18:17:52","slug":"everyday-erinyes-242","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2020\/11\/28\/everyday-erinyes-242\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #242"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

I saw a wicked good article on QAnon last week<\/a>, written by a game designer. If you have time you should really look at it. But here’s a quote which gives you the key takeaway:<\/p>\n

“When I saw QAnon, I knew exactly what it was and what it was doing. I had seen it before. I had almost built it before. It was gaming\u2019s evil twin. A game that plays people.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span>”\u00a0 Cue ominous music:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ominous.wav<\/a><\/audio>\n

While we probably can train ourselves to be on the alert for telltale signs of phony conspiracies, not everyone has the time or the disposition. That’s why I was so relieved to see the article which follows:
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An AI tool can distinguish between a conspiracy theory and a true conspiracy \u2013 it comes down to how easily the story falls apart<\/h1>\n
In the age of social media, conspiracy theories are collective creations.
\nAP Photo\/Ted S. Warren<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Timothy R. Tangherlini<\/a>, University of California, Berkeley<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The audio on the otherwise shaky body camera footage<\/a> is unusually clear. As police officers search a handcuffed man who moments before had fired a shot inside a pizza parlor, an officer asks him why he was there. The man says to investigate a pedophile ring. Incredulous, the officer asks again. Another officer chimes in, \u201cPizzagate. He\u2019s talking about Pizzagate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that brief, chilling interaction in 2016, it becomes clear that conspiracy theories, long relegated to the fringes of society, had moved into the real world in a very dangerous way.<\/p>\n

Conspiracy theories, which have the potential to cause significant harm<\/a>, have found a welcome home on social media<\/a>, where forums free from moderation allow like-minded individuals to converse. There they can develop their theories and propose actions to counteract the threats they \u201cuncover.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how can you tell if an emerging narrative on social media is an unfounded conspiracy theory? It turns out that it\u2019s possible to distinguish between conspiracy theories and true conspiracies by using machine learning tools to graph the elements and connections of a narrative. These tools could form the basis of an early warning system to alert authorities to online narratives that pose a threat in the real world.<\/p>\n

The culture analytics group at the University of California, which I<\/a> and Vwani Roychowdhury<\/a> lead, has developed an automated approach to determining when conversations on social media reflect the telltale signs of conspiracy theorizing. We have applied these methods successfully to the study of Pizzagate<\/a>, the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> and anti-vaccination movements<\/a>. We\u2019re currently using these methods to study QAnon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Collaboratively constructed, fast to form<\/h2>\n

Actual conspiracies are deliberately hidden, real-life actions of people working together for their own malign purposes. In contrast, conspiracy theories are collaboratively constructed and develop in the open.<\/p>\n

Conspiracy theories are deliberately complex and reflect an all-encompassing worldview. Instead of trying to explain one thing, a conspiracy theory tries to explain everything, discovering connections across domains of human interaction that are otherwise hidden \u2013 mostly because they do not exist.<\/p>\n