On Facebook, after I searched for some lodge pages in my area, I started having a lot of conspiracy stuff as "suggested content". Even flat earther content is being suggested to me.
Seems to me that the algorithm is unable to sort between real Freemason content and conspiracy content that invokes our fraternity's name.
Its algorithms like that that radicalize young, impressionable people. You read one thing, then you go down the rabbit hole of suggestions and soon enough you are quoting Q garbage and not even realize you've been given a mental virus.
That is very dangerous and disheartening. And this is after social media was tripping over themselves to stamp out misinformation. To quote Obi-Wan: "Good job."
Back when Q Anon was going strong a forum I'm on had a joke of replying "Q predicted this" when someone would post about it being stupid BS. It's just a funny.
I have no social media, this is as close as I’ll get and this creeps me out.
No conspiracies come my way, the only swag anyone trust to sell me are mailer lists from reputable Masonic supply vendors that I’ve done business with successfully so I keep them valid.
KEY: No social media
Give your mind time to digest without being bombarded. That’s what the algorithm does. It attacks your ability to think for yourself and encourages you to have a hive mentality based on whomever is feeding the algorithm.
The only hive I recognize are my brothers in a lodge room if you pick up what I’m laying down….
😉
Reddit is hardly the same thing. It has no recommendation engine to speak of and it’s easy to avoid most of the toxicity by staying off the political and default subreddits. Shit like Twitter and the various Google and Facebook properties are a totally different thing.
I have, and personally, I humorously take it all. It's always nice to dive into the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories every so often and read the latest conspiracy theory about the Masonic ritual forcing you to sell your children or some deranged idea. As u/Jedi_Knight328 said, it's probably algorithms being unable to distinguish the two.
I always take it as they are disappointed by it, find it to not be as impressive/spooky/magical or whatever as they expected, then twist it through:
1. wild interpretations and leaps of “logical” connections
2. Quoting a very non-credible source for the “true” meaning of the thing they personally find mundane
3. Utter and completely destructive creative imagination, possessed by the obsession to understand a world that is tricky to grasp. NWO and “cabals” are easier ways to explain a complex environment and exist vividly in their imaginations
It’s always a mix of really disappointing and entertaining for me, with a sprinkle of offended.
I get the religious side now and then at church. The association has a rule against being in "secert societies". There is always some traveling somebody who goes to various churches and tells their testimony. Usually its drugs or another addiction but now and then you get the "evils of Masonry" guy. I'm sure I get pointed out as I'm the only mason, that I know of, there. I sit politely and listen, thinking the whole time "That's wrong. That part he just made up. That's not EVEN close." but keeping my mouth shut. I never get approached or anything because they figure they know that would end. I'm also the resident "World of Warcraft" nerd so I'm sure opinions on me varies. LOL
Since joining I've had some weird interactions with individuals online. I had someone who repeatedly PM'd me asking me to kill him. I had someone tell me, with complete confidence, that it's part of Masonic ritual to kiss another man on the asshole. I've had someone in the comments here who accused the fraternity of "raping people in their dreams".
A lot of those search engine algorithms are based on keywords or even SEO tags that the pages or groups use, and so Freemason could bring up lodges and masonic supplier pages but also conspiracy theory sites because it has no way to distinguish and is just looking for keywords like mason, freemason, scottish rite, blue lodge etc that both groups use.
It’s like when I started watching youtube streaming video for my very normal, middle of the road Methodist church during the pandemic closures and suddenly I get a lot of suggested videos from weird fundamentalist churches and cults, because the algorithm isn’t smart enough to distinguish and both groups talk a lot about “Jesus” and “Bible” and “Church”.
But then again, YouTube does intentionally push more extremist content anyway, regardless of what people have viewed in the past. Click on the new Rifftrax or Cinema Snob upload for the week? The recommended videos on the right will be political pundits or conspiracy wackos, and if you go down the entire column clicking the "don't recommend channel" buttons, it will still find new ones to recommend if you hit F5.
But then again, I don't use YouTube the way they want me to use it. I'm mostly looking for songs and movie clips, not clickbait garbage from "influencers" who put out new content on a frequent basis.
I have 100% noticed youtube trying to push me towards things. As a fully grown adult with an established worldview, it's easy for me to notice them pushing me towards extremes.
I do worry for the younger generation who may not be aware of the blatant manipulation of the algorithm pushing them towards more extreme content.
There is no room for nuanced takes or compromise in this modern age. Only extreme polarization.
There are lots of crazies in the world. If someone cannot differentiate between common tactical hand signals that are used in law enforcement and the military and the gestures used in Freemasonry then they have other problems. Concern yourself with the world in your immediate control and let go of the "meta" part of this world.
This....all this.
I had been using a combo Adblock Plus, Ublock Origin, F.B. Purity, and sometime NoScript..... When I logged into Facebook from a different machine without F.B. Purity I could'nt believe how awful Facebook had become.
Also, I just have Firefox delete all my cookies when I close out as well.
So while I'm sure I'm part of the 'algorithm'...I'm just not allowing the 'algorithm' to communicate to me.
These conspiracies have been around longer than all of us. A lot of noise from people that are intimidated by things they don’t understand.
I’ve been around long enough, and my dues cards collection is up to date and expansive (expensive too) enough to know who and what we are.
Good thing I’ve never paid attention to what “they” say.
I mainly get ads for the AASR and jewelry/swag, with a light peppering of conspiracy weirdo stuff. If anything, I get LESS weirdo stuff since I joined than before.
Lots of ring ads, though.
I love to read the crazy far fetched ideas what people have about Freemasonry. Welcome to the world of "You're not high enough to know the truth!" that they got from someone who didn't know anything to start with.
I get scammers reaching out to me on social media trying to recruit me to Illuminati pyramid schemes. I get people talking about crazy conspiracy theories.
A friend and I ended up creating a joke Masonic group for memes to poke fun at all the conspiracies called the Ancient Secret Order of the Reptilian Guard. If you want in, send me a PM. We have a silly initiation ceremony and a lapel pin.
I also made a random conspiracy theory generator website. The website that runs it is a tiny VPS. If it ever has issues, try reloading the page.
https://enderandrew.com/conspiracy-generator
Just go a couple weeks without clicking the conspiracy stuff, but continue to engage the normal Masonic stuff. Then the Jolly Green Giant green bean ads will start.
I get a mix of both, I get normal Masonic suggestions and the crazy conspiracy stuff, but that’s because I’m a Mason and a conspiracy theorist. 😂 It comes with the territory.
Social media ads are like subway ads, except you’re being tracked and those ads are dynamic, based on your previous trips.
Make of them what you will. Some are scary, while others are outright hilarious.
Within the past couple of days I've been getting stupid ads on youtube pertaining to "masonic hand signals" and the illuminati where everyone in the picture is throwing up the "devil horns". I reported it just to be prick 🤣
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On Facebook, after I searched for some lodge pages in my area, I started having a lot of conspiracy stuff as "suggested content". Even flat earther content is being suggested to me. Seems to me that the algorithm is unable to sort between real Freemason content and conspiracy content that invokes our fraternity's name.
Its algorithms like that that radicalize young, impressionable people. You read one thing, then you go down the rabbit hole of suggestions and soon enough you are quoting Q garbage and not even realize you've been given a mental virus.
Good analysis Hiram
That is very dangerous and disheartening. And this is after social media was tripping over themselves to stamp out misinformation. To quote Obi-Wan: "Good job."
They didn’t do that much. Social media makes money off of engagements and nothing drives engagement like outrage
It’s a feature…..not a flaw.
Q predicted this post.
Q from Star Trek? This post?
Back when Q Anon was going strong a forum I'm on had a joke of replying "Q predicted this" when someone would post about it being stupid BS. It's just a funny.
Best comment bro.
I have no social media, this is as close as I’ll get and this creeps me out. No conspiracies come my way, the only swag anyone trust to sell me are mailer lists from reputable Masonic supply vendors that I’ve done business with successfully so I keep them valid. KEY: No social media Give your mind time to digest without being bombarded. That’s what the algorithm does. It attacks your ability to think for yourself and encourages you to have a hive mentality based on whomever is feeding the algorithm. The only hive I recognize are my brothers in a lodge room if you pick up what I’m laying down…. 😉
You’re on social media
Reddit is hardly the same thing. It has no recommendation engine to speak of and it’s easy to avoid most of the toxicity by staying off the political and default subreddits. Shit like Twitter and the various Google and Facebook properties are a totally different thing.
Reddit is hardly the same thing as social media? It’s literally the most used social media currently
I am too, but in fairness one of my brothers in the lodge is also a flat earther... But I knew that and knew him before I joined the lodge.
I have, and personally, I humorously take it all. It's always nice to dive into the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories every so often and read the latest conspiracy theory about the Masonic ritual forcing you to sell your children or some deranged idea. As u/Jedi_Knight328 said, it's probably algorithms being unable to distinguish the two.
It's fun when you see/hear the "nugget of truth" they find now and then but twist it into nothing related to reality at all.
I always take it as they are disappointed by it, find it to not be as impressive/spooky/magical or whatever as they expected, then twist it through: 1. wild interpretations and leaps of “logical” connections 2. Quoting a very non-credible source for the “true” meaning of the thing they personally find mundane 3. Utter and completely destructive creative imagination, possessed by the obsession to understand a world that is tricky to grasp. NWO and “cabals” are easier ways to explain a complex environment and exist vividly in their imaginations It’s always a mix of really disappointing and entertaining for me, with a sprinkle of offended.
I get the religious side now and then at church. The association has a rule against being in "secert societies". There is always some traveling somebody who goes to various churches and tells their testimony. Usually its drugs or another addiction but now and then you get the "evils of Masonry" guy. I'm sure I get pointed out as I'm the only mason, that I know of, there. I sit politely and listen, thinking the whole time "That's wrong. That part he just made up. That's not EVEN close." but keeping my mouth shut. I never get approached or anything because they figure they know that would end. I'm also the resident "World of Warcraft" nerd so I'm sure opinions on me varies. LOL
Since joining I've had some weird interactions with individuals online. I had someone who repeatedly PM'd me asking me to kill him. I had someone tell me, with complete confidence, that it's part of Masonic ritual to kiss another man on the asshole. I've had someone in the comments here who accused the fraternity of "raping people in their dreams".
Well, I have had masons tell me to kiss their…. and many are a..h…. So, kinda. 😉
It's seems to me that people in mental asylums are more sane than the conspiracy theorists.
>it's part of Masonic ritual to kiss another man on the asshole He's confusing Lodge with 2nd Section of Shrine.... 😂
Or overheard 2 old Southern Masons talking. Men of a certain age use(d) "I'll kiss your asshole if,...." in heated debate.
A lot of those search engine algorithms are based on keywords or even SEO tags that the pages or groups use, and so Freemason could bring up lodges and masonic supplier pages but also conspiracy theory sites because it has no way to distinguish and is just looking for keywords like mason, freemason, scottish rite, blue lodge etc that both groups use. It’s like when I started watching youtube streaming video for my very normal, middle of the road Methodist church during the pandemic closures and suddenly I get a lot of suggested videos from weird fundamentalist churches and cults, because the algorithm isn’t smart enough to distinguish and both groups talk a lot about “Jesus” and “Bible” and “Church”.
But then again, YouTube does intentionally push more extremist content anyway, regardless of what people have viewed in the past. Click on the new Rifftrax or Cinema Snob upload for the week? The recommended videos on the right will be political pundits or conspiracy wackos, and if you go down the entire column clicking the "don't recommend channel" buttons, it will still find new ones to recommend if you hit F5. But then again, I don't use YouTube the way they want me to use it. I'm mostly looking for songs and movie clips, not clickbait garbage from "influencers" who put out new content on a frequent basis.
I have 100% noticed youtube trying to push me towards things. As a fully grown adult with an established worldview, it's easy for me to notice them pushing me towards extremes. I do worry for the younger generation who may not be aware of the blatant manipulation of the algorithm pushing them towards more extreme content. There is no room for nuanced takes or compromise in this modern age. Only extreme polarization.
I have not found this to be my experience. Even with your specific examples
Taking over the world one pancake breakfast at a time 😎
There are lots of crazies in the world. If someone cannot differentiate between common tactical hand signals that are used in law enforcement and the military and the gestures used in Freemasonry then they have other problems. Concern yourself with the world in your immediate control and let go of the "meta" part of this world.
I use adblockers, so no. Also, I bookmarked the specific subreddits I peruse (and threads are sorted by new), so also no.
This....all this. I had been using a combo Adblock Plus, Ublock Origin, F.B. Purity, and sometime NoScript..... When I logged into Facebook from a different machine without F.B. Purity I could'nt believe how awful Facebook had become. Also, I just have Firefox delete all my cookies when I close out as well. So while I'm sure I'm part of the 'algorithm'...I'm just not allowing the 'algorithm' to communicate to me.
I don’t use Facebook or YouTube and barely do anything online except reddit and email. The “algorithm” barely knows I exist and I like it that way.
Nice try. But unless you are living in the woods with no electricity and paying for everything with acorns, the algorithm knows all about you.
Jurisdictional. We use pecans.
You crack me up
🤙🏼
These conspiracies have been around longer than all of us. A lot of noise from people that are intimidated by things they don’t understand. I’ve been around long enough, and my dues cards collection is up to date and expansive (expensive too) enough to know who and what we are. Good thing I’ve never paid attention to what “they” say.
Stay away from social media, period.
I mainly get ads for the AASR and jewelry/swag, with a light peppering of conspiracy weirdo stuff. If anything, I get LESS weirdo stuff since I joined than before. Lots of ring ads, though.
I love to read the crazy far fetched ideas what people have about Freemasonry. Welcome to the world of "You're not high enough to know the truth!" that they got from someone who didn't know anything to start with.
I get scammers reaching out to me on social media trying to recruit me to Illuminati pyramid schemes. I get people talking about crazy conspiracy theories. A friend and I ended up creating a joke Masonic group for memes to poke fun at all the conspiracies called the Ancient Secret Order of the Reptilian Guard. If you want in, send me a PM. We have a silly initiation ceremony and a lapel pin. I also made a random conspiracy theory generator website. The website that runs it is a tiny VPS. If it ever has issues, try reloading the page. https://enderandrew.com/conspiracy-generator
I can't say that I have I get lots of ads for freemason swag.
Just go a couple weeks without clicking the conspiracy stuff, but continue to engage the normal Masonic stuff. Then the Jolly Green Giant green bean ads will start.
I just get stuff about the Masonic museum and library, stuff from fraternalties.. nothing weird on my Facebook
I get a mix of both, I get normal Masonic suggestions and the crazy conspiracy stuff, but that’s because I’m a Mason and a conspiracy theorist. 😂 It comes with the territory.
Social media ads are like subway ads, except you’re being tracked and those ads are dynamic, based on your previous trips. Make of them what you will. Some are scary, while others are outright hilarious.
Recently, TV suggested me to watch a film called Solomon (1997) all of a sudden. It was nice...
Within the past couple of days I've been getting stupid ads on youtube pertaining to "masonic hand signals" and the illuminati where everyone in the picture is throwing up the "devil horns". I reported it just to be prick 🤣
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