The Two Most Powerful Disinfo Tactics Used on ATS

As we all know on ATS there are people out to convince us we are wrong.

Logic dictates that the majority of the posts attempting to unfairly defeat your well thought out argument, especially if you supplied highly credible documentation; are made merely by highly-emotional and misled people who have been programmed knee-jerk reactions.

However, logic also dictates that the trillions of dollars spent by governments to fight cyber-warfare, that there will occasionally be a agent working for a nation's, corporation's, or other political organization's agenda. As a job in real life too at that. They will be using some very basic unfair tactics to derail your nice and wonderful thread and will also try to distract people from thinking straight about what you are presenting to them.

They actually have lists that they follow and use various tactics in order of effectiveness and will just go to another tactic if the first few fail. Using multiple dummy accounts is highly possible and would be quite effective as well.

TACTIC # 1)

"You are Trolling!"

This almost always works at making people think the OP is just "trolling".
It destroys the "credibility" of the "messenger" and is a Ad Hominem attack on the person and not a legitimate debate against the subject being argued.

It's super ultra effective. Like the best method ever devised of destroying the credibility of the messenger. GENIUS!
This is the new KING of disinformation tactics.
Most people claim it only from emotions and ignorance, but SOME people in the midsts are doing it as a paid job, and it's working wonders!

TACTIC # 2)

"There isn't a Conspiracy in Everything"

This bad boy's a classic and is always used in any good conspiracy thread.
It's pure double-think irrational logic.

Here is why.
If there isn't a conspiracy in everything, that means there are no conspiracies at all.
The truth is, there is a conspiracy hidden somewhere in the middle of everything, and they are using poor logic and vague over-generalized statements to misdirect you into thinking "this guy thinks that every single thing he sees is a conspiracy".

This is quite untrue. A person who thinks there is a conspiracy in everything would believe in infinite conspiracies, and I have never met anyone who claimed such nonsense, thankfully.

TRUTH IS : To win a debate you must attack the subject with rational points that prove your case.
By making little 1 line ignorant statements like this you defeat nothing except your own potential to think.

Many people among us are using it completely unintentionally due to habit and social norms, but once they realize the error of their ways this practice may hopefully come to a cease. And then such poor attempts at derailing great threads may decrease in their frequency.

This will make it hard for the "agents" whomever they may work for, to use these super easy tactics to attack the real deal when it finally lands on our doorsteps. I hope we sure don't overlook it because of these 2 classics!

oh come on...stop trolling...not everything is a conspiracy lol

reply to post by muzzleflash


Man Muzzle, there isn't a conspiracy in everything.. Sheesh, you are obviously trolling.

In all seriousness, I have seen many cases of the "troll" thing. But, in most cases, I have also seen the ATS community simply skip over those posts and continue to debate the OP.

That isn't to say that trolling isn't an issue as well though. Hopefully reason will outweigh the disinfo and attention seeking.

~Heff

"You are Trolling" = Ad Hominem logical fallacy.

"There isn't a Conspiracy in Everything" = Straw Man logical fallacy.

Now you know. Don't use those anymore.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

Man Muzzle, there isn't a conspiracy in everything.. Sheesh, you are obviously trolling.

In all seriousness, I have seen many cases of the "troll" thing. But, in most cases, I have also seen the ATS community simply skip over those posts and continue to debate the OP.

That isn't to say that trolling isn't an issue as well though. Hopefully reason will outweigh the disinfo and attention seeking.

~Heff

Are you trolling me and saying there is a conspiracy in my post?

Hehehe. Thanks for the reply buddy. I do understand your points on weighing the back and forth of the subject of "trolling". It's a very thin edge to straddle on isn't it?

Did you post this thread because someone in your last posted thread said you were "trolling?"

Meaning that you took a really good article and kind of slanted your commentary not to the side or to the good of the country and kind of didn't even make the thread about the article but instead took advantage that you found it on CNN and used that to still disenfranchise people, thus diluting the focus on and unifying power of the article and taking yet another chance to divide people who are so sick of partisan politics and mudslinging and labeling that they probably won't participate in a great thread because they pretty much think they know where it is going?

That was just their opinion to probably try to say...great article...potential for good discussion...too bad it was presented this way. There are different types of trolling and different levels. Least that's how I see it. And to be honest? I agreed with that assessment and stayed out of the thread.

So now we get to talk about this? Yay.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


Also another tactic used is bring up past threads and trying to bring negative thoughts about the poster.

It's really low down and dirty. Especially when the poster had no ill intentions and was just happily hitting away at a keyboard.

But me personally about this thread subject, yes I did have the idea for a great thread by seeing the tactics employed on other threads obviously. I have been toying with the idea of making a thread in this forum about those specific things prior to today. But I didn't really articulate it fully in a argument format until I posted the thread.

Why do the motivations of a poster matter anyway?
Why can't you stay on topic of the subject of the thread.

The personal attacks are rampant today huh?

This thread is clearly a RED HERRING.



Haha, I kid. Seriously, the troll comment is sometimes true, but it can also be used as a disinfo weapon, agreed.


I do think EVERYTHING is a conpsiracy, by nature.

Reminds me of your loughner is innocent thread.. That one went well, I saw all kinds of attacks.. I saw the thread when I joined and it looked like everyone was attacking the op.. I saw at least 3 or 4 people get a ban in that thread.. It really got people heated, but is that not what ATS is about? Challenging people with every view point there is?

Fine believe in your Ad Hominem viewpoints. You have a right to think incorrectly. That's fine.

Blame this thread on a past thread, when in fact thousands of past threads warrant this thread. Defend your right to call people trolls, which is a personal attack and should be equal to the N word in my mind.

It's completely irrational to go to a debate forum and use ad hominem attacks against everything. Oh none of your opinions COUNT because I don't like you personally?

Originally posted by TheBigO
Reminds me of your loughner is innocent thread.. That one went well, I saw all kinds of attacks.. I saw the thread when I joined and it looked like everyone was attacking the op.. I saw at least 3 or 4 people get a ban in that thread.. It really got people heated, but is that not what ATS is about? Challenging people with every view point there is?

That's what I am under the impression it is for too.

Thank you for understanding the rational of exploring our freedom to think.

I don't see how the "everything is not a conspiracy" is invalid. If you say everything has a conspiracy within it well...what if the coffee mug I'm drinking from right now is the color blue because the government is trying to brainwash me with certain colors that encourage me to drink more and more coffee, which....If i made a thread like that, you know the type of responses I'd get and deserve. And calling people a troll is something else I don't mind, if it's used the right circumstance. For example a few months ago there was a stream of people posting prediction/prophetic threads about the things to pass...which DIDN'T come to pass. Those people are in my mind, trolls. Idiots who come onto a conspiracy forum and rile others up with a bunch of bull#.

Edit: please delete this post. Somehow a double post =S

IMDB must be awash with NWO disinfo agents then, perhaps it's some sort of conspiracy to herd movie goers to the next level of programming they require and shepherd people who watch TV to their next logical progression in the soft disclosure of the truth.

Evidently Stargates are real and they want us to know about them but not too soon and not too correctly. As is Pandora and they are just soft conditioning us to our lovely, large eyed, blue overlords who are actually evil and not at all friendly. Lost is real too!! We are all living in a dream and they know it must end soon and so pump us full of The Matrix and Lost afterlives to prepare us for this change.

Perhaps you Muzzleflash are trying to coerce us into accepting a further level of conditioning - even subconsciously - and are feeding us what they want us to know.

No matter what you say or do they have accounted for it and all you will say is a preconditioned response which negates your free will even though you think it doesn't.

Games forums and 4Chan must be the training grounds were they train up the troops to take part in this MKUltra experiment to reduce all our humanity to nothing more than trends and cycles.

Yes - everything is a conspiracy and the worst of it all Muzzleflash is that you are a key player in making it all happen. You are the very thing you think you hate the most. You are the agent of the all powerful they and there is nothing you can do to break free of it.

How's that for some apples?

-m0r

reply to post by muzzleflash


This was not an attack or tactic. It was an observation of something that I noticed in the last...what?...half hour maybe?...in two of your threads. A sequence of events, cause-and-effect, and a perspective from someone who observed but wasn't involved.

And it was an attempt to help you with your style about something you may not have even realized you did...in the spirit of the forum it is in...Deconstructing Disinformation. We all struggle with issues like this. I'm sorry you took it as a personal attack. It wasn't.

Also, my bad for linking the two events and your two threads in my mind. However, I still maintain there are many levels of trolling...and many purposes for it.

*Troll* has become the replacement of *newb*. The recent internet fad of the word has turned any non-traditional way of thinking into *trolling*.
This new idiolect is in itself ignorant. Throwing the *T* word around is as popular as sliced bread was to the country folk. In time maybe people will see the ignorance in throwing the *T* word out every time they disagree with something that is non-conventional.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
"You are Trolling" = Ad Hominem logical fallacy.

"There isn't a Conspiracy in Everything" = Straw Man logical fallacy.

Now you know. Don't use those anymore.

Ahha. So the obvious conclusion to ATS is to just say "Oh yeah, you're right" and spend the rest of your life wondering just why there was only 504 cornflakes in that packet instead of 505.

Gotya.

I think I'll stick to things that actually matter, and continue to be of the opinion that people who think there is a coRNspiracy in everything, really need to have a break.

The term 'Disinfo' gets used far too much around here, seemingingly because people just share a different point of view than someone else. The way I see it this site brings in all types, there certainly are those who come here just to play games and it really does need to be nipped in the butt, although you can never be sure a persons true motives. But I guess it all depends on what your take on what 'disinfo' is to begin with and again each person is different so is it really fair to put that label out there on people.

I don't see this thread as being terribly helpful, firstly it has been done to death, a secondly and more frankly, there are loads of trolls on this site and there certainly is not a conspiracy to everything. I'm all for a good theory from time to time but jeez... I think the people crying disinfo all the time are just as annoying as the trolls.

Originally posted by badw0lf

Originally posted by muzzleflash
"You are Trolling" = Ad Hominem logical fallacy.

"There isn't a Conspiracy in Everything" = Straw Man logical fallacy.

Now you know. Don't use those anymore.

Ahha. So the obvious conclusion to ATS is to just say "Oh yeah, you're right" and spend the rest of your life wondering just why there was only 504 cornflakes in that packet instead of 505.

Gotya.

I think I'll stick to things that actually matter, and continue to be of the opinion that people who think there is a coRNspiracy in everything, really need to have a break.

So you post an Ad Hominem attack attempting to say I have obsessive compulsive disorder?

Did you not even read the links? Let me guess...

Originally posted by m0r1arty
IMDB must be awash with NWO disinfo agents then, perhaps it's some sort of conspiracy to herd movie goers to the next level of programming they require and shepherd people who watch TV to their next logical progression in the soft disclosure of the truth.


-m0r

That's a distraction tactic using a straw man.

I linked to an explanation of what that is, and how what you are saying is actually an example of it.

First you ignored the part where I clearly said "most people say these things from habit etc" and focused 100% on the part where I said "but occasionally someone actually paid as an agent will use it in the midst" and acted like I was saying that was a 100% always the case. I did not say that. You need to read.

It's very very poor attempts to win a debate by merely re-using those same two logical fallacies over and over isn't it?

It's a straw man replacing my argument with a false and illogical argument that I did not state.