Facemasks on for a trip to the Bluestocking

[CaraDuneRedux]

We haven't had a Bluestocking thread for fucking ages.

Anyone fancy a socially distanced, tables of no more than 6, Bluestocking?

The goat has been covid tested and the patriarchy busting canon polished up to remove all possible virus traces from its surface.

Remember, MN spans the globe, and it's always before the 10pm curfew somewhere.

Is anyone noticing a number of new faces that might become regulars? (And, truly new, not NChangers, judging by the shock of discovering what has been going on?)

Might we need a bigger beer garden (although the portals and whatever make this easier to arrange than in most pubs)?

“A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.”

• Daniel Kahneman

Answer to one of the questions in tomorrow's BH Bluestocking pub quiz.

Oh I love a pub quiz!

Reminds me of this article Embarrassing, which is ultimately reassuring, it often comes undone:

"Repetition makes a fact seem more true, regardless of whether it is or not. Understanding this effect can help you avoid falling for propaganda, says psychologist Tom Stafford.
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Among psychologists something like this known as the "illusion of truth" effect. Here's how a typical experiment on the effect works: participants rate how true trivia items are, things like "A prune is a dried plum". Sometimes these items are true (like that one), but sometimes participants see a parallel version which isn't true (something like "A date is a dried plum").

.., At first this looks like bad news for human rationality, but – and I can't emphasise this strongly enough – when interpreting psychological science, you have to look at the actual numbers.
What Fazio and colleagues actually found, is that the biggest influence on whether a statement was judged to be true was... whether it actually was true. The repetition effect couldn’t mask the truth. With or without repetition, people were still more likely to believe the actual facts as opposed to the lies."

www.bbc.com/future/article/20161026-how-liars-create-the-illusion-of-truth

With or without repetition, people were still more likely to believe the actual facts as opposed to the lies.

It's certainly an area with conflicting research as the last year of misinformation, disinformation, and poor communication has shown.

I'll drink to the chink of light it offers

I'll have an optic run.

Optics are good.

BRANDY

Blimey arabella

Is the brandy for shock

Ill have a drambuie please (as thats what im drinking as i type)

I obviously stopped drinking to type...that could have ended badly

I gotcha, fam!

I need a gin. And a lie down.

Large whisky with a side order of sun ripened word salad for me please.

Oooo, can I have a cheeky lunchtime snifter, please? I just got offered a new contract, in FinTech, and both line manager and the big boss are women. 😃 I've picked over the public website, and am pleased to see that in their charity / Corporate Responsibility section, the only mention of equality or inequality is completely gender and sex -less. I guess it may be different for internal / employee policies, but I'm cautiously hopeful.

Congrats OwBist!

Congratulations! And love the username.

Ta!

Cheers OwBist! 🥂

Well done owbist

woop woop, OwBist!

• and thanks, Soph, I missed that fine doggy-brandy-infusion somehow! Much appreciated!

Many huzzahs, OwBist - what a relief for you. Fingers crossed for decent internal policies.

Do they need a cheerful but somewhat incompetent receptionist OwBist? Could you ask perhaps? I'm getting so cross I fear I'm going to accidentally out myself at my current workplace and the results might not be wholly jolly...

Have you lot finished all the punch?

I'll find out and let you know, Badger. 😃. I had red wine irl yesterday. I like virtual day-drinking much more. Well, the after effects, anyway.