Millions have amnesia about the worst of Trump's presidency. Memory experts explain why. - eviltoast
  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    I just assumed that they forget the horrid shit because of some twisted confirmation bias.

    Everyone keeps pointing it out, and they keep telling themselves about the “good” things he’s done. Reinforcing their own confirmation bias.

    I first heard about this phenomenon in “how to win friends and influence people”… It’s a book, crazy, right? It’s about human nature, and how arguing with someone often results in them arguing for their point, further entrenching them in their opinion. While they don’t convince you with their arguments, they convince themselves and that makes arguing with someone a difficult thing to do, and “win” at (by convincing the opposing person of your viewpoint).

    The fact is, the more we argue with them about Trump, the more they have to argue for him being someone that’s going to “make America great again”, and the further they get entrenched into that viewpoint.

    The sooner more people realize that this is a viscous cycle of mental violence and simply decide not to continue, the better. Obviously that’s hard to do when you are faced with the very real possibility of him being reelected, and essentially bringing back the Nazi party with him…

    Idk what’s the right thing to do, but clearly, nobody is going to change the minds of the deranged “MAGA” crowd anytime soon.

    • Stern@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I just assumed that they forget the horrid shit because of some twisted confirmation bias.

      Personally I figured it was that so much bad shit happened so constantly that it got remembered as just one bad thing rather then one hundred bad things. Damn near every day Trump was doing something new and stupid.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      and they keep telling themselves about the “good” things he’s done.

      Thing is that they view a lot of the shitty things he did as good.

      So when I see someone pose that we’ve forgotten the bad stuff, I don’t think that’s the case for a lot of people. They view some portion of the bad as good.

    • Preflight_Tomato@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, everything I’ve been hearing in the last couple of years has talked about how traditional fact checking methods do not sway beliefs. The few things I’ve heard work are innoculation and ridicule.

      Inoculation (telling someone about conspiracies before they’re encountered) seems like it could be used in favor of whatever ideology, not just the truth.

      And ridicule (couch sex memes and “weird”), seems to work because it specifically targets the “follow the strong man” approach that many fools take to belief building. Like that can’t be applicable generally, can it?

      I am yet to learn of a solid framework + practical methods which work to guide people toward belief based in reality.

      Perhaps it’s multi-faceted. First make them feel like part of a community, which grounds them in experience and removes the most insane conspiracies/fear, then they’ll be grounded enough to accept some media & scientific literacy education?