I'd love to know if this rings any bells. Academic paper, early 90s at the latest. It has, shall we say, current political applications.
Replies
Flooding the zone with shit clothes?
aug 29, 2025, 1:17 pm • 0 0 • view
It's kind of that, but it's not just 'distracting' or 'overwhelming' or 'straw man', it's the conceptual sleight of hand that's the good bit. It creates the idea of a competent version. It's kind of what I've seen called 'steelmanning', but at a conceptual level, not point by point.
aug 29, 2025, 1:39 pm • 0 0 • view
It's interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if it was intentional from some in the astrology game, depending on how much of a believer they are. It is not too dissimilar to the kind of sensory overload distractions used by pickpockets or the deliberate mistakes in scam emails
aug 29, 2025, 1:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah, I'm not going to get into their intentions! It's a tactic that works. They stand out, they get rehired, they develop a career. If you have a tactic that's working, you try it again. I don't think you need to be malicious or deceptive to do that.
aug 29, 2025, 2:00 pm • 0 0 • view
True - I'm also reminded of cold reading. Obviously something that can be done intentionally to deceive (or as a magic trick) but there are a lot of cases of people who genuinely believe they are psychic who are cold reading unconsciously
aug 29, 2025, 2:07 pm • 1 0 • view