Something for you guys to think about as you try to persuade others. For all intents and purposes… it doesn’t work especially amongst the demographic that frequent Coogfans. And only leads to partisan division, ruffled feathers, bad feelings and a lot of hot air. This is another reason (empirical) to keep politics of this board.
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Wait, 14% is a lot though. That’d be enough to flip, for example, any presidential election since Reagan. Definitely much higher than I expected.
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True, is kinda both 
. Not many change but
a non insignificant number do. It’s a shame , as the article points out, what the “issues” social media can elicit a change in are unknown.
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Pff. Millennials. 
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14% seems kinda high in our hyper partisan environment. However, given that the question is about changing their mind about a single “issue” that’s a really low bar. There’s a phenomenon where a lot of people within a coalition change their mind about something simply because that’s where their coalition has moved as well. So the 14% might not really encapsulate being swayed by a good point from the “other side” but more “my side is moving in this direction so I have to as well.”
This is also all self reported so who really knows if it’s accurate or even close to accurate.
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You have hit on a very prescient point, and this is also backed up by data. A huge majority tow and parrot the party line that originates from leadership. That’s why good leadership is extremely important. It’s like when a law is passed, most people just follow it even if they disagree. Unfortunately now, leadership seems to originate not from leaders, but from opinion media across the whole spectrum.
My larger point is an internet phenomenon… people have a position, they tend to be obnoxious about it and this is the script…
- See something they don’t like
- Post contrary position backed up with a link to some article on the internet (that’s usually partisan or an opinion piece)
- Bickering ensues that is usually not well reasoned, full of logical fallacies and no one listens anyway.
This script I just described, there is no point other than people just basically spewing. This is why we don’t allow politics on Coogfans. It’s divisive, turns people off and doesn’t support the mission of this board.
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Isn’t this inherently a political post? I guess only the people in charge get to make these kinds of threads around here…
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It was a factual post.
Factual posts are typically polar opposite from political posts.
How do you know it’s factual? How do you know that those who say they are checking the facts are trustworthy themselves?
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Ummm no.
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What you are talking about is called epistemology, the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Goes back to the Greeks. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
Knowledge is 2 things: 1) social 2) requires trust. The question you posed can be asked about anything and if you really drill down, nothing means anything. I mean what makes the color blue, blue? I haven’t personally seen the earth from space… so how do I know it’s round? See what I mean? You can say that about anything and it leads nowhere.
Another thing you pose is called “proving a negative”. One simply cannot prove a negative in a general claim. So if you want to take this angle, nothing can really be discussed.
How do I really know you are a Houston Cougar fan? It requires trust and the social aspect of my experience of you and those around you. But you see, I can raise the question and doubt you if I want to. Doesn’t make it true or fair.
The danger of your rhetorical device is that it can be used to simply dismiss anything one dislikes and then call it fact.
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To this point, many now cynically argue anything is possible, but nothing is probable.
The creation and now universal access to the internet has made the phrase, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” become increasingly true.
On Bulls**t by Harry Frankfurt
Great another faux number thrown out there. 14%? That is about the same number of underreported Covid deaths. Coincidence???
In a business scenario, if I’m looking at reports and see that one of our marketing campaigns has a 14% engagement rate, or one of our services is chosen 14% of the time, I scrap it all and try another strategy.
This isn’t gonna end well. 
14% is enough to change the outcome of elections and flip any issue.
With that in mind, I’m going to DOUBLE DOWN on my political posts all across social media, so that 14% of the population may be converted by Law97 and become correct thinkers in the process!
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This reminds of the rules of Thermo Dynamics
Thermo is for heat
Dynamics is for hoe it works
#1 Energy can not be created or destroyed. It only transforms from one form to another
#2 Heat seeks cold
