Thread: The fallacies of demonisation

I thought I'd repost this article here because it's extremely noteworthy in my honest opinion. Especially in this forum as it discusses a trap we've all fallen into at one time or another (some more frequently than others to be certain).

This was written by an EVE Online player and primarily deals with the official forums for that game (colloquially referred to as EVE-O) but there are many similarities between how discussions devolve here and there (and probably in all internet forums for that matter).

With that said, I hope that you all read and internalize the article and realize its merit.

The Big Lie: The Fallacies of Demonisation | THE MITTANI dot com

At Nuremberg, Goering famously explained the principle of The Big Lie: in short, if you're going to tell a lie, make it such a huge one that no one would ever believe that you'd dare to lie about it. Of course, there are all sorts of refinements to The Big Lie - smaller, subsidiary lies, bolstering it with the truth (or facets of the truth) whenever possible, and most importantly of all, playing to what the Volk want to believe.

Ideally, when you're telling a Big Lie, you tell a lie that fulfills three important criteria

• i: That the listener's problems are not his fault. They're caused by a malicious and irredeemable Other. And they're going to keep on getting worse.
• ii: That if this Other weren't up to those shenanigans, the listener would be recognised and rewarded for being the superior person that he is
• iii: The implicit, but unspoken solution is to do the thing that the Big Liar wants to happen. And just in case, make the solution explicit and speak it loudly.

Plenty of views, but no comments.

Maybe it doesn't need comment. Either way, good post. It's important to be reminded. We're all open to seduction.

The source has me perplexed. I can't decide if it's hilarious or a face-palm that this came from comment on EVE-O forums.


Æ

Edit: damnit, Xav snuck a comment in when I wasn't looking.

Originally Posted by AetheLove

Plenty of views, but no comments.

Maybe it doesn't need comment. Either way, good post. It's important to be reminded. We're all open to seduction.

The source has me perplexed. I can't decide if it's hilarious or a face-palm that this came from comment on EVE-O forums.


Æ

Not so much "from" a comment on EVE-O but the author is somewhat of a fairly prolific poster there and, as pointed out, been guilty of the same more than once. I thought it worthy of a share since it might have been missed here on the mmorpg subforum.

Originally Posted by deathgodusmc

Not bothering to read it.

Color me surprised but seriously not shocked.

Though you, and a few others here (including myself from time to time) could stand to learn some things from this article (or at least be reminded of things that have been forgotten).

But as in many things you pretend they don't apply to you or that you're unaffected by the same failings that dog so many of us (we type A and challenge oriented individuals). You need some more sand?


Sent via highly charged bolt of electricity.

**spelling**

Yeah cuz WoW is struggling so much


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Originally Posted by Cojiro

Yeah cuz WoW is struggling so much


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It's not hurting yet but it's in serious decline. Losing 3 million subs in less than a year is a pretty major decline. It's bumped up again with MoP...I expect it to tank again shortly after a large portion of the player base clears T1 content...I hear/see alot of discontent with the expansion. I also expect that towards the end of October when most of the 1 year sub deals they had for a "free" Diablo 3 expire. Last "census" was in October...wouldn't surprise me at all if Q1 of 2013 has it at 8mil subs or less.

edit: typo