A better world with spam

...no, I'm not talking about MAKING.VISIBILITY.FA$T, I mean that a lot of psychological fallacies that used to be difficult to talk about can now be readily illustrated, due to the increasing number of people who've seen some amount of spam in their inbox.

For instance, have you ever received spam with a sender's address that was similar to the name of someone you knew? This is a deliberate exploitation of apophenia, people's tendency to promiscuously connect the dots with little justification. The spammer only has to come close, the recipient will walk the rest of the way.

We have phishing, where people are deceived into going to a site similar to one where they may have a subscription and fooled into entering their password — ie, conning, giving off a superficial look of genuinity in the manner of the stereotypical used-car dealer who says you can trust me, I'm a Christian.

We have spam that inserts a block of text specifically designed to make it seem more relevant, mimicking the superficial form of genuine content. This might serve as an illustration of cargo-cult science, scientology etc. that only mimics the surface of real research.

Last but not least, people are much more likely to believe something that reaffirms them: witness the tenacity of comment spam that says Great post! Here are some links you might like, the omnipresent marketing technique You have already won! and of course the widespread ILOVEYOU e-mail worm that dashed romantic hopes and wasted man-weeks across the world.

[Technorati apophenia cargo cult conning deception fallacies illustrated glorious spam reaffirmation spam pedagogics spam psychology vikings singing]

Support the Danish Kampf

Apropos yesterday's (The Simon Wiesenthal Center protesting Danish writer Erik Haaest getting a cash award for his work):

On second reading, that "censorship" line the arts council gives sounds like the last-ditch excuse of a committee that doesn't want to set a problematic precedent for yanking awards away after they've been handed out.

Still, this all makes a nice irony on all these people who still have the "SUPPORT DENMARK!!!" buttons up that they plastered all over their blogs without thinking, back when the cartoon controversy was convenient news.

For bonus tasteless glee, consider that the German version of those buttons uses "Kampf" for "struggle" in the translation of struggle for free speech.

Be sure to support the Danish Kampf, boys and girls.

[Technorati Erik Haaest atheist bastardry cartoon controversy politically correct politically incorrect support Denmark]

Superficial balance II

(previously)

Douglas Adams, in 1999:

I don’t accept the currently fashionable assertion that any view is automatically as worthy of respect as any equal and opposite view.

Today at Respectful Insolence: Mistaking failure to support for "censorship": The Danish government funding a Holocaust denier. (from History on Trial)

That is, the Danish government is actually awarding money to this Haaest, not just tolerating his opinion. This appears to be the actual article in the Danish Information, and here's the statement from the Simon Wiesenthal Center website.

Respectful Insolence goes on to say something I've been trying to phrase myself:

They know they can appear far more legitimate than they are, and they are not constrained by evidence, science or the truth, which allows them to put the side that is constrained by these things on the defensive. Moreover, as the "rebel," the crank almost always controls the agenda, and, particularly in the U.S., people root for the seeming underdog anyway.

A true underdog story™ of how one man's dream of corrupting the truth got him gobs of cash! Heartwarming, that's what it is.

Tangentially: Lipstadt has her post tagged "Holocaust Denial; Politically correct idiocy". Politically correct, of course, is another one of these concepts that are easily bent into obscene shapes.

[Technorati Erik Haaest atheist bastardry politically correct]

Stay Clean, order yours today

This just in. Christian T-shirts to make sure you never accidentally touch a filthy Unclean who hath partaken in Meanness:

Wear this, and you'll know for certain whenever an Unclean comes near: for they will emit piercing wails, repelled by the pietous light of your unyielding righteousness.

The noblesse of poverty

Everyone knows that being poor makes you noble. After all, if it weren't for the major ennoblement of their situation and the real sense of community fostered by having no one else to rely on, how would anyone be able to stand it? Now, I keep seeing these people, still alive after some time on the streets, so clearly it can't be all that bad.

Not to mention how suffering purifies the spirit. Oh yes, we'd better not ease any of that suffering, otherwise their nobility might be wounded.

If poverty is basically harmless, why then the status quo is right and just, and there's no reason to change it. How splendid.