I have been thinking (again – yes, that is the burning smell) about misinformation, disinfo pundits, how Covid-19 has radicalised new groups - pushing them into other genres of conspiracy and denialism – and why this is so, and what can be done in response.

(mini thread?)

I want to talk 1st about the disinformationists, the deniers, etc – the real ones (not the actors). I think the pandemic has shown us a number of individuals, including some mini celebs (like G Cliff) dive even deeper off an already shallow end. Why? It's simple social economics

Outrage maximises engagement. 10 years ago Gareth could make bad jokes about women and generate enough outrage to create the proto version of clickbait. Keep himself in headlines etc. Now everyone is doing that, you have to be more extreme.

The same applies to the people on Twitter who discovered that being objectionable was a much easier shortcut to more twitter etc followers than being truly respected.

(I always wonder at that as a career pathway. 'Oh, it seems like my true USP is being a total shit! Let me pursue that)

????? why, right ????

anyway, over time when you rely on outrage to get retweeted or to get people to respond to you (when you're this kind of person you actually thrive off negative engagement, it's all the same buzz to you), it becomes your only schtick, and also your main audience.

this means that outrage is the only thing that generates buzz on your feed, plus whenever you are rude/objectionable/crude/etc, you get affirmation from your follower/co-schmuck circle, which also makes you feel nice. (you do not get affirmation for being a mensch)

this is part of the reason why clusters of 'herd immunity' anti-lockdown/covid-deniers are increasingly befriending & intersecting with other misinformationists. because as soon as you realise that steve hofm&yr fans will *also like your covid conspiracy chirps* you've bought in

another way of explaining this is imagining this as a real human algorithm constantly looking for engagement – these guys don't care about being right, or good. what they need is the *response* to whatever they post. and dishonest shit gets much higher engagement than anything.

(it may be that, in order to disguise this truth from themselves, they convince themselves they are really right – not just a human in desperate search of attention and affirmation)