ReconfigBehSci {@SciBeh} (2020) sadly squares with my own impression of social media 'debate' - as someone who works on both argumentation and belief formation across social networks, this strikes me as every bit as big a problem as the spread of conspiracy. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1308341816333340672

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One in four Britons believe in QAnon-linked theories – survey. (2020, October 21). The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/22/one-in-four-britons-believe-in-qanon-linked-theories-survey

Symptoms of this chaotic, gossip run world are: conspiracy theories, information bubbles, cancel culture, Trump's tweets and decay of institutions as well as dysfunction.

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Thorp, H. H. (2020). Persuasive words are not enough. Science, 368(6498), 1405–1405. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd4085

Hurst, D., & Murphy, K. (2020, June 22). Trump’s misleading information enables China to sow discord among allies, research finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/23/trumps-misleading-information-enables-china-to-sow-discord-among-allies-research-finds

Washington, D. of C. 1100 C. A. N. S. 1300B, & Dc 20036. (n.d.). PolitiFact - Fact-checking ‘Plandemic 2’: Another video full of conspiracy theories about COVID-19. @politifact. Retrieved August 27, 2020, from https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/aug/18/fact-checking-plandemic-2-video-recycles-inaccurat/

University, © Stanford, Stanford, & Complaints, C. 94305 C. (n.d.). Virality Project (US): Marketing meets Misinformation. Retrieved 25 August 2020, from https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/manufacturing-influence-0

Salaamedia. (2020, June 23). The Special Focus with Zahid Jadwat—Understanding the dangers of misinformation. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/salaamedia/videos/the-special-focus-with-zahid-jadwat-understanding-the-dangers-of-misinformation-/261866155076824/

ReconfigBehSci on Twitter: “@ErikAngner 2/2 1. mandatory schooling (where there exemptions for immune-compromised parents?) 2. encouraging household members of infected individuals to go to work/school Could you provide more background here and how you see these policies in the wider context?” / Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1295685503111647232

Who is behind the Qanon conspiracy? We’ve traced it to three people. (n.d.). NBC News. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-conspiracy-theorists-took-q-sparked-qanon-n900531

Pierre, J. (2020). Mistrust and Misinformation: A Two-Component, Socio-Epistemic Model of Belief in Conspiracy Theories [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xhw52

A Vaccine Reality Check. (n.d.). MSN. Retrieved August 9, 2020, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-vaccine-reality-check/ar-BB178Yaf

Bierwiaczonek, K., Kunst, J. R., & Pich, O. (2020, July 29). Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories Reduces Social Distancing over Time. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tqfrw

Vegetti, F., & Littvay, L. (2020). Belief in conspiracy theories, aggression, and attitudes towards political violence. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xwyjq

COVID-19 Social Science Tracker - Google Sheets

Díaz, R., & Cova, F. (2020, April 14). Moral values and trait pathogen disgust predict compliance with official recommendations regarding COVID-19 pandemic in US samples. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5zrqx

Diseases, The Lancet Infectious. ‘The COVID-19 Infodemic’. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 0, no. 0 (17 July 2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30565-X.

Kiefer, P. (2020, May 4). Why Scientists Think The Novel Coronavirus Developed Naturally—Not In A Chinese Lab. FiveThirtyEight. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-scientists-think-the-novel-coronavirus-developed-naturally-not-in-a-chinese-lab/

Fauci: No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in a Chinese lab. (2020, May 4). Science. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd/

How coronavirus mutations can track its spread—And disprove conspiracies. (2020, March 26). Science. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/03/how-coronavirus-mutations-can-track-its-spread-and-disprove-conspiracies/

Pavela Banai, I., Banai, B., & Mikloušić, I. (2020, July 14). Beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories predict lower level of compliance with the preventive measures both directly and indirectly by lowering trust in government medical officials. Retrieved from psyarxiv.com/yevq7

Digital, culture, media and sport sub-committee on online harms and disinformation. (2020, April 30). Parliament.tv. https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/3c4aede5-2b89-4f33-9103-fb1c8a77a3ad

Fuhrer, J., & Cova, F. (2020). “Quick and dirty”: Intuitive cognitive style predicts trust in Didier Raoult and his hydroxychloroquine-based treatment against COVID-19. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ju62p

Bai, M. H. (2020). Who Bought All the Toilet Paper? Conspiracy Theorists Are More Likely to Stockpile During the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/z2g34

Czarnek, G., Szwed, P., & Kossowska, M. (2020). Trust and attitudes toward vaccination: Study report. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dpa35

Jolley, D., & Paterson, J. L. (n.d.). Pylons ablaze: Examining the role of 5G COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and support for violence. British Journal of Social Psychology, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12394

Gorey, C. (2020, June 22). Researchers link anger and paranoia with 5G Covid-19 conspiracy beliefs. Silicon Republic. https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/anger-paranoia-5g-covid-19-conspiracy-theories

Lazarevic, L. B., Purić, D., Teovanovic, P., Knezevic, G., Lukic, P., & Zupan, Z. (2020). What drives us to be (ir)responsible for our health during the COVID-19 pandemic? The role of personality, thinking styles and conspiracy mentality [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cgeuv

Fleming, N. (2020). Coronavirus misinformation, and how scientists can help to fight it. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01834-3

Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (undefined/ed). Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychological Medicine, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329172000224X

Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots. (2020, May 20). NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/researchers-nearly-half-of-accounts-tweeting-about-coronavirus-are-likely-bots

Haelle, T. (2020, May 8). Why It’s Important To Push Back On ‘Plandemic’—And How To Do It. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2020/05/08/why-its-important-to-push-back-on-plandemic-and-how-to-do-it/

Cushing, E. (2020, May 13). I Was a Teenage Conspiracy Theorist. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/i-was-a-teenage-conspiracist/610975/

Yong, E. (2020, May 23). "Hello! More of you have started following me in the last weeks since I last did this, so let me introduce you to YET MORE people I respect, who've created some pandemic writing that's really stuck with me. (And do check out the original thread below.)" Twitter. https://twitter.com/edyong209/status/1263996750404243462

Earnshaw, V. A., & Katz, I. T. (2020). Educate, Amplify, and Focus to Address COVID-19 Misinformation. JAMA Health Forum, 1(4), e200460–e200460. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.0460

Jamieson, K. H., & Albarracín, D. (2020). The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-012

Young, V. A. (2020, May 20). Nearly Half Of The Twitter Accounts Discussing ‘Reopening America’ May Be Bots. Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. https://www.scs.cmu.edu/news/nearly-half-twitter-accounts-discussing-%E2%80%98reopening-america%E2%80%99-may-be-bots

Marinthe, G., Brown, G., Delouvée, S., & Jolley, D. (2020, May 29). Looking out for Myself: Exploring the Relationship Between Conspiracy Mentality, Perceived Personal Risk and COVID-19 Prevention Measures. Retrieved from psyarxiv.com/cm9st

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Ancient Aliens is racist

Audacious...

Some conspiracies make good movies. They teach us to think about things. whether it is true or not it makes us think.

I'm struggling to understand how killing off large numbers of its citizens, sufficient to bankrupt the Government (if that even is possible), sits with the conspiracy theorist's oft-spouted claims that 'Big Pharma' simply wants to make as much money as possible. If it kills vast numbers, who will fund Big Pharma's shareholders. Mind you, I find it very difficult to get into the mind of a conspiraloon.

The discussion at Brutus' home in Act II Scene I revealed that there was much fear surrounding Antonius' reaction to Caesar's death. Trebonius was the only conspirator to agree with Brutus that Mark Antony did not pose a threat, instead remarking that '"There is no fear in him; let him not die; For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter." However, this act of compassion would eventually lead to the conspirators' downfall.

Therefore, Trebonius' conspiratorial role was to lure Mark Antony away from the Senate House while Caesar's assassination was taking place. Consequently, he was the only conspirator that did not stab Caesar.

As witnessed by Trebonius, Mark Antony "fled to his house amazed" in response to Julius Caesar's death. This indicates the strong relationship between the two Romans, and foreshadows the ardent vengeance that Antony is to develop.

Furthermore, Trebonius recalls that "Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run, as it were doomsday." The comparison between the assassination and Armageddon reinforce the idea that the conspirators were not acting in the interests of the general public, but instead in the interests of themselves and their own envy.

Although he is not tangibly introduced until the next scene, the audience is already presented with a fairly clear characterisation of Julius Caesar. However, Caesar's exact nature is determined through two juxtaposing attitudes towards the Empire.

The Roman common-folk praise the defeat of Pompey, in fact making a "holiday to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph." On the contrary, the noble classes express a more pessimistic attitude; Flavius cautions that the new leader will "soar above the view of men, and keep us all in servile fearfulness."

The tribunes believe that Caesar's power is too great for one man, and that his rise as Emperor will lead to the downfall of Rome. It is also a valid argument to say that they envy Caesar's might, especially since Flavius and Murellus are to lose an element of their own authority.

After commanding the people to weep for the coming events, Flavius and Murellus leave to "disrobe the images" of Caesar. This metaphor refers to removing the decorations off Caesar's statues, a crime which they are later punished for. The desperation of such an act is an indication of how strongly Caesar is feared and detested by the noblemen.

This scene leaves the audience with a preconceived image of Caesar as ambitious, influential and excessively powerful. The loathing of Flavius and Murellus towards the new Emperor foreshadow the upcoming conspiracy and the ultimate demise of Caesar.

The history of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.<br> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/20/the-seth-rich-conspiracy-shows-how-fake-news-still-works/

Thinking of our class discussion on conspiracy.

Attacking other scientists as conspirators would not be helpful for most scientists' careers Immediately thought of the conspiracy meme reading when they mention that only crazy scientists would attack other scientists when they get denied tenure.

Oh look, it's our conspiracy theorists, building a flat roof.

"Campbell makes a similar point about the dangers of paraphrase: Since we must be in doubt about the precise meaning of the original, any paraphrase must be consid· ered an interpretation."

This is a modern update to a classic confidence game—find a risky scenario with limited possibilities, bet on every single combination, and then hide your failures.

Today, all possible outcomes can be posted to any website that allows accounts to be set to private, or that isn't likely to be noticed. After the fact, the incorrect results can be deleted before making the account public.

This post points out that this trick could be used to "predict" election results, making it appear that they were fixed ahead of time. So it's potentially very dangerous.

Oh, no. No. Noooooo.