Context: I am used to the right wing propaganda/ misinformation that is on Twitter.
What is surprising to me is the amount of Mastodon left wing influencers who mislead or say very illogical stuff that please their followers.
I had even seen people with high degrees who engage in this misinformation or encourage it, I replied to some of them to tell them the fallacies in their posts and to their credit some of them issued a clarification or deleted their posts, but most of them don’t even reply or address the issues in their posts.
All of that lead me to the following probable conclusions:
- They are just saying what will get them more followers/ publicity.
- They are undetected targeted bots.
- They truly believe in what they are saying and don’t want to discuss it, which is weird considering the context.
Does anyone have any insight into this?
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Got any examples?
I second the question. Please give some examples
I already listed a example:
This is a toot from the current popular toots on Mastodon.
Implicit in “profit so much that money becomes trivial” is that they think this tax rate should apply to very high profit businesses/individuals.
In fact the US’ top tax rate was 90% for almost a decade and over 70% for 40 years - during a time many would consider “golden years”.
They could have worded their statement better though.
So, what’s wrong about it? It sounds like a personal position to me. Even if the percentages aren’t exactly correct, I don’t think that completely corrupts their concept.
Is it a 100% tax rate as good as they think it would be? Maybe, maybe not, but predicting one way or the other isn’t misinformation.
What is misleading about this? This is clearly just a personal opinion. Just because you don’t agree doesn’t mean it is misleading.
That’s a radical position. I support social democratic economy, but it’s too radical for me. However, I don’t see what’s misleading about it…
There is misinformation and that’s a position I technically agree on, just depends on what is included and at what limit.
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Mastodon has influencers?
The only ones I’ve seen are kind of not that psyched to be on Mastodon always, like Technology Connections.
I think it’s a bit unrealistic to expect randos online to 100% accurate and correct about what they are saying, regardless of their political leanings.
I think you’re dramatically overestimating how much people want to discuss politics with a stranger who slides into their mentions pointing out logical fallacies.
Same coat, different color.
It’s the exact same mental illness that makes people espouse far right views. It is, currently, still more common on the right.
It’s a way to get attention. It’s a way to feel empowered. Arguing with them is feeding their coping mechanism. Either don’t engage or state your position in a positive way that doesn’t attack theirs.
It’s the internet. Lots of people write silly stuff and blast their uninformed opinion around. That also happens on the Fediverse. They do it for various reasons. And it’s easier to do it pseudonomysly than in real life. Also you’d expect some left-wing people to pop up on Mastodon, since they’ve left Twitter and Mastodon is the number one alternative.
I don’t use Mastodon, and my only real use of Twitter was searching for keywords during major disasters, but truth is a constraint on what you say, and I’d imagine that some people think that it gets in the way of whatever their other goals are.
They chased the people with any common sense away.
Doesn’t surprise me.
yes
