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Showing Original Post only (View all)Puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer? [View all]
From an anonymous online rando, this is spot on!
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/105/614062.page
If you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:
1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible person (e.g., Donald Trump).
2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrongthat there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrongthey are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble herelikely to pay offis that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)
3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.
This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.
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Puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer? [View all]
Snarkoleptic
Jan 2017
OP
It sucks all the oxygen from the room, distracting the press from more important issues
Starfury
Jan 2017
#47
This is one of those things that sounds good but it depends on who is in charge.
Jim Beard
Jan 2017
#27
yes... but expect a blizzard of bullshit in the coming years that will make truth hard to see
Fast Walker 52
Jan 2017
#51
it worked in russia, and the internet can be controlled/influenced in many ways. nt
TheFrenchRazor
Jan 2017
#66
The "press" is a figment of our wishful imagination. They are controlled by their masters/owners
Augiedog
Jan 2017
#13
We need to accept the fact that there are masters at manipulating today's M$M and that
FreeStateDemocrat
Jan 2017
#31
This will take a toll I think they underestimate American public and possibly media anger.
gordianot
Jan 2017
#35
precisely; even "educated" people in the USSR were extremely ignorant/misinformed, and even though
TheFrenchRazor
Jan 2017
#68
This has really got me going about our control over our signal-to-noise environment.
ancianita
Jan 2017
#53
And the meme makers are having a great time with Conway's "Alternate Facts" comment.
Snarkoleptic
Jan 2017
#58