Notices by taoeffect (taoeffect@mstdn.io), page 2

Little did they notice that in reverting the edit my other account had snuck in wording that completely undermined the original wording on the page.

What is the lesson here?

False flags are incredibly effective at fooling people.

But also: if you’re going to do it, you shouldn’t actually attack any real people. People’s lives are not games to be played with. Only psychopaths think that way.

Generally speaking, I'd advise against doing this sort of thing. While the Wikipedia page did end up improving (in my eyes), I never did it again.

It really brings up the question of whether the ends justify the means, even when the subject in question is a dumb Wikipedia page.

Far better, I think, is to start your own Wikipedia.

This is the path taken by https://wikispooks.com, and it's why I promote these sorts of projects.

Yes, the world is full of stupidity. If people want to be dumb, let them, and do your own thing.

One last note (I think), and that is one more lesson from this tale: your cognitive biases can be used as a weapon against you.

In this case I exploited two extremely powerful cognitive biases: group-think and confirmation bias, and used that against the Wikipedia editors.

These two biases are some of the most powerful biases that affect humans.

So consider this a reminder that you are the easiest person to fool, and ask yourself: "In what ways have I been allowing my own confirmation bias, my in-group, to delude my thinking?"

.@Hyolobrika points out a promising alternative to Wikipedia: https://encyclosphere.org by estranged Wikipedia co-founder @lsanger.

If I'm reading this correctly, a federated version of Wikipedia definitely sounds like an upgrade over what we have today.

@bot You really are an unpleasant person. I’m going to block you for 7 days, have fun annoying other people!

@bot If you had asked that question I would have answered it 😂

(Why can’t you just be clear instead of being difficult?)

Richard is a hero because he started AE911Truth to bring justice for mass murder of Americans, and deadly wars.

Elon bought Tesla with PayPal money and lied saying cofounded it.
Bought Twitter and lied saying he supports free speech.

@bot Man does heroic thing. Nobody cares or notices. Man is a charlatan. Has 100+ million followers and adoring fans. This is symbol of declining society. I cannot make this any clearer than that.

@bot 🤔🤔🤔

What is the “it” of that sentence and what is it censoring?

I linked to Richard Gage’s profile. https://twitter.com/richardgage_911

@bot “This is a symbol in of itself of America’s decline that it is incapable of recognizing people like him.”

.@richardgage_911 is a real-life American hero who has devoted his life to righting a great wrong.

Somehow he only has 6k followers. This is a symbol in of itself of America’s decline that it is incapable of recognizing people like him.

They are fooled by false idols and fail to recognize real heroes. Exhibit 5963:

https://twitter.com/dbrozelivefree/status/1657877800039198722

@bot @djsumdog @CattleBaron We do a rather poor job currently of educating people about drugs. Source: me, years of public schooling.

@bot @djsumdog @CattleBaron You most definitely need education. Without education there are big problems.

@djsumdog @CattleBaron @bot It is hypocritical to jail people for selling while allowing people to consume and grow it themselves. The regulation of alcohol and cigarettes in America are a huge success. Let’s do that for everything else, and combine it with a strong public education & healthcare element, while banning advertising.

@djsumdog @CattleBaron @bot Plus, allowing sale creates a revenue stream to pay for these enhanced public education/healthcare services.

@djsumdog @CattleBaron @bot I think we should decriminalize all drugs, and then legalize and regulate them.

If something can be classified as too dangerous to deal with commercially, well, maybe exceptions should be made. I’m not an expert on fentanyl. I’ve heard it’s dangerous in very low doses, but maybe that means that it needs to be regulated in a way that manufactures address that problem if for some reason there’s still a demand after most opiates are legal.

@bot @Chiva @CattleBaron @lunarised Sounds like fantastic results