Discouraging words seldom heard

Human beings are social creatures. It's well known that if you're in a room and someone asks, "is this a good idea?" and everyone else starts saying, "yes, great idea," "yes," etc. that you will tend to feel like it must be a good idea! Sometimes even if you didn't think it was a good idea at first.

Evolutionary biologists would say this is an adaptive trait. It helps the human species survive. Sort of like when men lived in caves and everyone in the cave said, "Don't go out there, there's a lion!" It probably wasn't good for your survival if you were the type of guy who said, "Lion? I don't see no lion, you people are all just sayin... aaaarghaah!"

But this natural tendency to follow others can also be used by clever people to fool you, to manipulate you, to sell you something, or even win elections. The technique is get other people to tell you who is "good" and who is "bad" in an election. But here's what the real manipulators have learned: It's not as effective if people know the room is filled with supporters or detractors only. It's much better if you can fill a room with what look like "ordinary people," your "friends and neighbors." You're more likely to feel swayed if you think it's "ordinary people" just "expressing their views."

In the modern electronic world things get even more fiendish. Like if you tune into a radio talk show where people call in. You might just be driving around listening to what people say and you're surprised almost all the callers say, "you should vote for prop 8 - we have to protect marriage!" You might have previously thought "live and let live" and been inclined to vote no but now you find yourself thinking you "should" vote yes and you're not really sure why....

Now, how would you feel if you found out those people calling the radio station weren't just "ordinary people" calling in with their opinions? What if they were all or almost all "shills" paid by the "yes on 8" group? Wouldn't you feel wronged? Lied to? Hoodwinked? Of course you would!

And by the way, for the record, almost all reputable radio and TV talk shows avoid this kind of manipulation and picking callers based on their views for exactly this reason. Any radio station found to be doing that would be disgraced by scandal. (However, in the real world most callers to talk shows are self selected so it actually serves the same purpose -- something to always bear in mind when judging public opinion.) And, ahem, this is why Manteca Live people don't comment under other names.

The local cult of amateurs -- or -- NO SAYLES FOR YOU!

It caught my eye when reports of comments to the Sayles smear site going into a "black hole" came in and at least one case of being "blocked" for daring to question them or daring to question if all those bad things could possibly be true. Not only from posting messages but from even reading the web site! Why would such a thing occur?

The idea is the same old lies and manipulations. You can go to that web site, read the forums and you'll see "everyone agrees" or just about everyone agrees, "Sayles is terrible! She's rotten! Liar, criminal, etc!" It looks like everyone thinks that or that a lot of people think that! The natural human tendency is to be influenced (there's a lion out there!).

But in reality there might be 2 people ... maybe one person writing all that. The modern electronic world makes it possible for one person to sign a thousand messages. They can all agree with each other!

This manipulation falls apart unless the ringleader is careful to remove messages from people who don't agree. Or, better yet, never even hear from them.

Is this what the sayles.com smear site is doing? Almost certainly. And they get extra manipulation points by claiming that "anyone can leave a message here -- we don't block any messages!" Very clever.

That comment from "Kat" got me curious. I walked her through sending me a picture of her computer screen and emailing me a "screenshot" of what her computer did when she tried to read that website. I also walked her through a "procedure" to confirm she was getting a "fake" message. (When I asked her to try a simple technique to scramble her "IP," the website magically re-appeared.) Also, the wording of the "error message" said to "hit alt-F4" to fix the problem. Ha....ha. That's what hackers in junior high say. (The alt-F4 key is the universal program shut down. It's a smartass comment that's the same as saying "to fix the problem press the big button on your computer" - just go away, in other words.)

And by the way "KAT" isn't a clever disguise for "Kristy and Tom," contrary to Brain Trust Leader and Chief Detective Sherlock's wild claims.

Which reminds me, I also asked about that "flyer" and so far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be any slick mailer being sent out. That image on the smear site could easily be a fabrication. In fact, half that web site is fabricated so it wouldn't be anything unusual.

But the point isn't the fake mailer itself, it's something else: You'll notice that there are "lots" of "different people" writing into the forum saying how they got their mailer and such. But if there's really no such mailer, what does that tell us? That those "people" writing in are fabrications too! I'm still trying to nail down the facts but so far there's no evidence such a flyer or mailer exists or was mailed out. That means all your friends and neighbors who told you, "I'm not voting for Sayles, I read it in the mailer" either don't exist or are lying.

I've typed enough! Why don't I just sum it up: The smear website is a cauldron of lies, fabrications and manipulations. Reckless interpretations. Fake documents, fake images, fake commentary from fake participants who "live in Lathrop." People who support the mayor, if they happen by, are promptly locked out of the forum after a few comments. (And the few "positive" posts that aren't deleted, they serve a manipulative purpose. The website can say "See? We don't block positive comments...!")

There are issues in Lathrop. That's for sure. See this week's Sun-Post and some of the more thoughtful comments here. But now that the waters are muddied so much by the despicable campaign being bankrolled by bully land-developers it's hard for anyone to know anything.