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Re:Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pi... by AceJohnny2 on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @03:35PM (#42454832)
I dunno, "collective delusion" sounds worse than a simpler "we weren't paying attention to the Thing, then media/memes sprung up and made us pay attention and we freaked out".

This happens all the time in our current media landscape. "Yeah health insurance denies claims sometimes, that's normal" to "wait actually health insurance denies claims routinely to increase its profits!?"

There are tons of things that we decide to ignore to go on with our lives. It's exhausting to freak out about all the things that deserve to be freaked out about.

Re:Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pi... by psc on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @04:18PM (#42455349)
> There are tons of things that we decide to ignore to go on with our lives

Absolutely, we all need to filter the overwhelming amount of information we're faced with. The part that seems terrifying is that occasionally our filters can line up in such a way as to pick up what's just pure noise and escalate it into an enormous positive feedback loop.

And of course there's a whole discussion about how those filters are shaped (by the media we consume, authorities we decide to trust, direct experience) and how that's changed over time.

Re:Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pi... by mrandish on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @04:00PM (#42455122)
We already have a more neutral term than "collective delusion"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attentional_bias

Re:Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pi... by metabagel on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @04:56PM (#42455856)
What's the term for when people's attention and outrage is directed by an unreliable third party (let's say a partisan news channel) towards certain issues/threats, and away from other equally (or more) significant issues/threats?

I'm not talking about editorial bias. I'm talking about deliberately manipulating audience attention in order to control the perception of reality. Another way of putting it is to create a framework for rejecting or distracting from 'disagreeable' ideas.

For example, a partisan news organization might highlight the purported cultural and economic threat posed by immigration. Since people have a limited budget for their attention, having their attention and outrage focused on immigration might distract from other issues such as rising inequality.

Re:Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pi... by AceJohnny2 on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @07:27PM (#42457038)
Propaganda? Two Minutes Hate?
Re:Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pi... by toast0 on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @06:55PM (#42456814)
Curation? Programming? Editorial discretion?
Re:Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pi... by taneq on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @11:22PM (#42458405)
Moral panic?