Hua Guofang

fuck off dyskyse Just some shitty doodles from when I was listening to webinars, in long meetings or on hold waiting for some phone jockey to answer.

This thread makes it all worth the while.

lol, can't believe that dude is still here and still hasn't grown the fuck up.

lol, found it, thanks. It's actually a workable solution, appreciated.

Thanks for getting back to me, and yeah, not surprised. It's been a trend for years that platform creators fill the screen full of panels, widgets and switches, inevitably crowding the actual content out. Sorry to be a noob, but how do you collapse the stuff on the left? I can't seem to find the button that does that.

@misteraven ^^^^ Keen to keep on posting graf pics in brickslayers, but not if it's going to be a waste of time.

@misteraven This thread isn't the right place, but there's a connection and I know that you'll be interested in this as it involves how media narratives are manufactured and the agenda for public communications are set. Here is a "Washington insider" putting his name to how crowds are inflated and manipulated and how the media narrative is set, by attacking the media itself:

IF I was looking into this, the first place I'd start is the obvious explanations: What is the societal average for suicide in the US? What is the societal average for suicide in DC? What is the social average for suicide by cops US/DC? What is the suicidal average for returned service men ? What is the suicidal average for cops with PTSD? etc. etc. Match with the rate of cops that were at the Capital on Jan 6 and see if it fits any known patterns. If it does not, move on to the next question about whether the national spotlight on their actions might be a contributing factor - feelings of betrayal from political system (surveys of living cops from Jan 6 would be the starting point, etc.). IF there's no matching trend here, move on to the next explanation. Develop a theory, starting with the most obvious explanation and do what you can to disprove it. Once you arrive at a theory you can't disprove, that is the working theory until disproved. Jumping to sensational and hugely consequential explanations right at the jump can have you easily manipulated and believing almost anything. Think systematically and critically.

This reply is mostly for @misteravenand based on the first post (haven't read any further) but will hopefully be of use to others as well. There are a few 'facts' around conspiracy theories: - Humans crave clarity. When we are uncertain about things we can't make informed decisions on how we should react. Thus, we crave answers - In times of crisis (which commercial media loves to promote to grab your attention), we seek answers more than usual, because time frames for making decisions have been shrunk and the consequences of our decisions can greatly impact our own survival (think about how bad you want to know your enemy's position in a firefight and the consequences of making a bad decision) - Conspiracy theories most often involve a villain, and that means there is most often some one who will benefit out of you believing it We like to believe in conspiracy theories because: - They provide the believer with clarity or answers - They appeal to our narcissistic tendencies - we are able to defeat the people trying to fool us ("those people" are often framed as having access to vast resources and having nefarious intent) - They make the world a more interesting and dramatic place - They provide community and belonging - this is a pretty big deal in the internet age. Previously those who bought into flat earth/no moon landing/JFK/etc. would be isolated among many who didn't believe. But with the internet and social media, believers can get in touch, provide nurture and encouragement as well as organise and 'defend against' those vast forces who are trying to rule the world and whatever Conspiracy theories often have common elements: - They are nebulous and vague but centered around a couple of facts which act to make the whole story believable - They can rarely, if ever be disproved - indeed, trying to disprove them often acts to only entrench belief - All new facts can be retro-fitted to suit the narrative - There are always plausible alternative explanations This is not to say conspiracies don't happen, the Church Committee, the Suez Canal Crisis, Iraq WMD all prove that beyond doubt. But the internet makes concocting conspiracies easy (just read through the relevant sections of Reddit and 8Chan/Kun to watch people do it in real time), and it has become very politically useful to to harness the broad conspiracy communities out there (Qanon, ANTIFA, Anti-Vaxxers). Add this to the constant crisis we seem to be living in and you can see the fertile ground that exists. Case in point - Bill Gates has vast resources, one arm of a non-profit he's connected to is working on a medical micro-chip, another fund he has does vaccines in Africa. There's your elements of truth, now you retro-fit a story to link them together - mega-rich villain is developing microchip for vaccines to control you - and you have your text book case of a modern conspiracy theory. Always ask yourself - are there plausible alternative explanations? Have there been similar rumours about other people before? Who stands to gain out of me believing this? Hope that helps as a bit of a template to sift through the mountains of dis/information that get piled on us every day.