this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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[–] prole@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

How have left-leaning people in the media (or corporations, neither left or right, for that matter) not figured out how to harness the ease at which conservatives will turn on a product or technology based on who the messenger was? Seems so easy to intentionally manipulate.

Like the gas stove shit (in the US). How simple was it for Fox News, etc., to get millions of people who had no opinion on gas stoves whatsoever minutes earlier, to suddenly be willing to die to preserve their right to own gas stoves against some faceless enemy who is, in their addled minds, coming to their home to forcibly take their stoves away? To have them turn an apolitical scientific /medical discovery into a wedge issue overnight? Similarly with Bud Lite... Soooo easy to manipulate these people's opinions/brand preferences/etc.

There has to be a way to harness that power for good... Like, can we convince them that entering voting machines turn you trans or some shit?

Someone much smarter and more media savvy than I should be doing something like this.

Edit: apologies for the USA- centric references, still getting used to checking what instance I'm on before commenting. Regardless, I think the overall point stands.

Also, seems like corporations have figured it out to a point since this article itself is about gas company lobbying.

Where are the leftists with these tactics? Are we all collectively just too ethical for that kind of dirty shit?

[–] spiffmeister@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

I agree it would be good to be able to harness this sort of BS tactic, but I think part of the problem is that the people who generally use these tactics just don't give a shit about what's true. The other thing is that conservative groups and businesses tend to have a lot more money and control over media platforms that left wing groups do, so it's much easier to spread their message.

[–] abhibeckert@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Where are the leftists with these tactics? Are we all collectively just too ethical for that kind of dirty shit?

Well for one thing in Australia they're not trying to reduce the voter turnout, because failing to show up at the polling booth on election day is a crime in this country (you don't have to vote... but you do have to turn up at the polling booths, or use one of the alternatives available for people who can't do that).

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Like the gas stove shit (in the US). How simple was it for Fox News, etc., to get millions of people who had no opinion on gas stoves whatsoever minutes earlier, to suddenly be willing to die to preserve their right to own gas stoves against some faceless enemy who is, in their addled minds, coming to their home to forcibly take their stoves away?

You already pointed it out, you just aren't quite touching on the difference. These conservative morons (the ones being fed, not the ones preaching the message) are quite gullible and short-sighted. They operate on emotion, not reason.

The reason Left-leaning people aren't susceptible to such rhetoric is because they're more in control of their faculties. We may get worked up and emotional. We may fall victim to bad information. But we aren't driven entirely by the id.

ETA: Capitalism is built on lies. Tobacco industry lied for decades. Fossil fuel industry has lied for decades. Muskrat has lied for a long time, but I don't know how long (and don't care to check).

[–] prole@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I wasn't referring to leftists falling for it.

What I meant is that people on the left should be using these tactics against the same conservatives, because they've proven how gullible they are, to get them to do the opposite of what they'd normally do.

Like getting them to buy electric vehicles because they saw something on Facebook that told them that liberals are actually claiming now that they're worse for the environment than internal combustion.

Or, because they're so scientifically illiterate and incurious, we can convince them that bacteria and antibiotics are a liberal hoax so they go out of their way to give themselves life threatening bacterial infections.

Like I said, someone smarter than me can figure it out...

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

The problem is that leftists care about such petty things as "the truth" and "integrity".