Something that I don't understand about so many posts on DU over the last 8 (or more?) years

[NewHendoLib]

So many hyperbolic titles - so many capital letters. This one has been owned, that one is in serious trouble. They are not headlines created by DUers (I am sure they are copy/pastes of actual titles) - but in all this time, has any of these actually come true?

(True confession - I read nothing with hyperbolic OP titles, capital letters, lots of exclamation marks, etc. I actually don't watch any videos, or read anything designated as coming from sites such as Xitter - the blue or red square OPs).)

I am sure my post won't be popular among quite a few DUers - it is a bit "get off my lawn" and these days I feel like a cranky old thing - but it is just something that has irked me for a long time.

And I am not saying to stop posting them - I won't criticize a DUer for anything they post. We all have the right to click on and read what we wish.

But I am just curious as to whether these hyperbolic type, too good to be true posts are only an irritation to me. I guess the "boy has cried wolf too many times" - and the wolves are truly in the henhouse now!

OK - back to making a pumpkin loaf...and it is put the lights on the bushes day. Have a good one, all!

[dalton99a]

1. Well, Trump has been THOROUGHLY EXPOSED, HUMILIATED, DESTROYED, ANNIHILATED

many, many times

[NewHendoLib]

2. Exactly.

[LudwigPastorius]

34. Don't forget, FOLDED, SPINDLED, and MUTILATED!

[pattyloutwo]

44. 😂

[Ocelot II]

3. Most of those hyperbolic thread titles are the titles of videos

which do, indeed, offer little of value. The tendentious titles are meant to lure you into watching 10 minutes of clickbait before you can locate the focus of the breathless headline, which is a whole lot less significant than advertised. If I see a little red square by a thread title, especially if the title is one of those hyperexcited all-caps lures I won't bother with it at all because it's inevitably one of those useless, largely content-free videos. Nobody has ever been owned, humiliated, crushed, or any of those things, and I really wish DUers wouldn't waste their or our time with those dumb videos.

[Mike 03]

12. That's my observation as well.

Personally, it's not my thing, but it is a style some Dem commentators are adopting from the UK tabloids and the prevalent news headline style in India. Now even Forbes is adopting it too.

I'm never more likely to click on a headline that has capitalized adjectives or verbs, or SHOCK words (unless they have to do with Putin being HUMILIATED--a UK favorite). In fact, I almost never do.

[KPN]

36. Hear hear! I agree with both of you.

The hyperbole is off-putting, annoying and bunk. Wouldn’t be surprised if it even makes this place look idiotic in the eyes of some new visitors.

[The Wandering Harper]

49. a couple of the good ones are

Brian Tyler Cohen, though some of his titles get uncomfortably close to click bait
and Belle of the Ranch (FKA Beau of the Fifth Column)

[90-percent]

56. Beau or belle

Why the change?


Thanks

-90% jimmy

[The Wandering Harper]

58. Beau got burned out

needs some rest
so Belle is filling in

[90-percent]

67. Thank you

I'm happy he's OK. These times are bad for everybody's health..


-90% jimmy

[Fish700]

4. Posters are addicted to getting clicks. Muh dopamine. I generally don't click on those posts.

[yardwork]

5. I'm right there with you.

I think these are headlines from social media click bait posts.

And no, None of them ever seem to come true or be true.

[Silent Type]

6. Nowadays everytime I see "bombshell" or something similar, I scroll on.

[KPN]

37. Ditto

[soandso]

63. We can thank Nancy Grace for that one

[ZDU]

7. Thank you!

Thank you for your post. I fully agree with you. I have visited DU for many, many, many years. I finally became a member when the aggravation of advertising got the best of me. In the years that I have been visiting DU, the rhetoric has escalated. I brush it off as 'social media drama' and a sign of the times. And I do my very best to avoid any and all sensationalism. It's not me. It's not my style. In closing, thank you for your post; it is appreciated.

[MiHale]

8. Add to all that...this...Bombshell 'revelation' or 'evidence'...

We had ‘Bombshell’ this and that for years … all I ever got was craters in my mind that were filled with absolutely nothing.

[dweller]

9. I will watch

The Five Minute News with Anthony Davis
No hyperbole and straight talk news

Check it out

https://m.

✌🏻

[HeartachesNhangovers]

11. Thanks!

He even has a Spanish version!

[Sympthsical]

10. Isn't that just Meidas Touch's entire business model?

You won't BELIEVE what HAPPENED!

Then you go through 15 mins that mostly repeat the previous nine videos they posted in the last hour, get to the end, and they interview one of their friends about "what it all means" and two things happen. If you're a surface consumer, you'll believe that things might happen! If you're astute consumer and listen closely, they just said almost next to nothing you don't know, and anything new is going to align with what you already thought about anything anyway, and what "happened" is that something that might, maybe, someday happen if all the stars align - but probably won't happen.

Journalism!

Makes money, tho.

[Celerity]

66. and the grifters at Occupy Democrats

[FakeNoose]

13. There's a rule for posting on LBN: we must present the published title of the story word-for-word

... as it appears in the publication. (For example: if the New York Times has the title in all-caps, then we must post the same format and wording.)

However, when posting on any other forum, there's no such rule. It's perfectly OK to reword the title so that it accurately reflects the story, without the bombast. No all-caps titles are needed, and they're mostly unnecessary.

I do it often, and I've never been called out on it. I wish others would do the same, because I'm really tired of the all-caps "screaming" headlines that don't make sense.

[msfiddlestix]

14. You are not alone. It's weird, I sense that there might be monetized projects but I don't really know

It's a culture which I feel is quite telling and troublesome. I feel like it is a product of current times and a negative indicator of where we are at this point in time.

[flvegan]

15. Hyperbolic OP titles?

With exclamation marks? Linked to some shitpost from Xitter, maybe? Or howsabout a YouTube link, with no context whatsoever, with a cartoonish all-caps multicolored screencap that looks like it was made to entice the interest of a 5 year old? Sometimes a hit and run drop to a monetized account with no follow up from the OP thirsty for clicks and recs?

Never happens here. Nope.

[mike_c]

16. they annoy me as well

[MineralMan]

17. Shock Poll! I love those...

Nothing new in your complaint. Thus has it always been here on DU. Over time, I think most DUers learn what posts are not worth clicking.

[H2O Man]

18. Yes.

All of the scarily-titled essays I have posted on DU have come true ..... especially those I write about the past.

[Kali]

19. the you tubers seem to need to do that to get eyeballs

I hate it too, but there are a few that are still worth watching despite the headlines, so I really appreciate it when DUers who post those videos also mention who the your tuber is. makes it easier to choose whether to watch or not.

[LisaM]

20. I stopped opening them.

My keyword to not look is DESTROYED. After realizing that, for instance, Kellyanne Conway had not, in fact, been DESTROYED, I caught on.

[ejbr]

27. Exactly

No one is destroyed if they don't know they're destroyed.

[Hekate]

21. I once posted an all-caps reply 🤬. As for OPs that claim Trump was HUMILIATED or DESTROYED...

I’m with you. I avoid them like the plague, for all the reasons you state.

However, for those who like them, enjoy yourselves. Many thanks to the Admins, too.

[markodochartaigh]

22. I have been thinking

that it is for the kids, anyone under 40.
The same as the gratuitous cursing. And I have been told that if you text anything without an exclamation point it doesn't seem like you really even care❗
The world is changing.

[Harker]

23. Yes, it is.

Superlatives have long been wasted on the mundane, and the use of bold fonts, capital letters, and arrows seem commonplace.

The graphic equivalent of a carnival barker.

[question everything]

24. I use many exclamation marks when I congratulate DUers on a milepost of posts. ..

[a kennedy]

25. I am so sorry, I've been so uptight, pissed off, and down right "get off my lawn" YELLING,

that I do use all caps just because of the way I’ve been feeling since, well you all know since when. I promise, I’ll try to stop with the yelling, and try to be more civil. Please forgive me.

[Deuxcents]

51. All good, a Kennedy 🌺

[JoseBalow]

26. CHECKMATE!!1!

... again

[RockRaven]

28. You are certainly not the only one who feels that way.

But others sharing those similar thoughts have not affected the rate or volume of such posts, nor apparently prompted any self-reflection or reexamination of the sources by the posters. Or at least it seems that way.

[True Dough]

29. Why did it take you 8 years to speak out?

You could have SPARED us all from these HYPERBOLIC threads if you'd mentioned it sooner.

[Old Crank]

30. I' m getting less and less out of DU news.

It seems like half or so are video with no summary. I know it is allowed but I'm not watching. I just skip to the next .

[yellowdogintexas]

39. I am really annoyed by the repeat postings on DU of the same article

Can we just show one of them on the home page? I understand that many of these articles need to be in certain forums, but if folks put them in Late Breaking News with a note "Cross posted to ......... the other locations it would make the front page less repetitive

[bif]

40. I hear ya! Pet peeve of mine!

Drives me nuts. Why don't people read the headlines BEFORE posting. I'm the pest that responds DUPE! whenever I see multiple posts.

[Old Crank]

60. Three Hunter B.

Posts on the front section foe me this AM.

[CrispyQ]

52. Why can't AI make itself useful & transcribe all videos?

Instead it makes fake art & crap.

[JoseBalow]

59. There are MANY sites that will instantly summarize videos

just plug in the link and the summary appears.

Alas, it requires taking that extra step before posting on DU

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ai+video+summarizer

[thebigidea]

61. AI has been doing that for years. Youtube has AI doing it's captioning.

It can do an ok job, but Adobe's "Whisper" AI does very very good transcription and it's API is used for many apps that do this exact function.

[malthaussen]

31. I'd go farther, I think it affects perceptions.

Frankly, the Democrats have been crying "The sky is falling" ever since 2016, if not before. Hyperbole has become the norm, not just in politics, but in everything. (example: a YT video title I saw recently about the Mosquito fighter-bomber loudly proclaimed, with multiple exclamation points, "The Luftwaffe was Terrified of this Plane!" ) As hyperbole has become the norm, there are no superlatives left. I wonder how many voters reacted to the Democrats (and others) hysterically warning everyone what horrible things would happen if DJT were elected again with "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say that every election." When everything is an emergency, nothing is. This could inform everything from the reactions to masking rules during Covid to warnings of hurricanes and other natural disasters. This is a process that has been ongoing for decades, and is one aspect of the post-truth atmosphere in which we find ourselves. Nothing can be trusted when everything is exaggerated.

-- Mal

[pattyloutwo]

45. Well said

[B.See]

55. Whereas, turns out that

much of what has been warned of hasn't been exaggerated at all.

If there has been increasing hyperbole over the last eight years it's because there has been much to be hyperbolic ABOUT over those eight years - as we are now only just beginning to realize.

(Whoops...I used caps.)

Regarding my use of caps and bolded text, as I explained before, I use them for emphasis. Like an accent mark on the second syllable instead of the first. It's not intended to be 'yelling.'

However if people choose to ignore information and warnings because of a font, the presentation, or because the warnings are repeated too often (and for... darn... good reason, imo) then that's on them.

And perhaps that too explains how we've come to be where we are now.

Bottom line, we all have the option to read what we will and ignore what we want.

Free country (or so they say).

[LizfromRI]

32. Lol

The circles and arrows makes me think about Alice's Restaurant. Then I chuckle, but I don't click.

[canetoad]

33. It's not just DU

The whole internet has jumped the shark, using the most outrageous hyperbole imaginable and then some.

We are watching the result of venal 'influencers' trying to grab your attention in the only way that they know; reading conspiracies and false stories that need to convince us they are true - for clicks, for fame, for mischief. Who knows.

I've been watching this happen for years and often wonder what happens when they run out of the list of extreme words. Invent new ones? Repurpose old ones?

Another thing I've noticed is that the words with subtle differentiations are vanishing; the language is losing it's nuances and this is sad for all of us.

Hope you are well bro...

[NewHendoLib]

38. All good! You too!

[Lucky Luciano]

35. Meidas Touch is the worst offender.

A couple of the frequently cited liberal YouTubers like Brian Tyler cohen (I think) fall into that category as well.

I never click their bait.

[canetoad]

46. Glad I'm not the only one

I can't watch his breathless, over-enthusiastic excitement.

[blm]

41. No fan of the pugilistic, hyperbolic posts, either.

[jmbar2]

42. Amen! It is "eliminationist" language used to engage our worst angels

David Neiwart wrote "Eliminationists" whole book about it.

The Eliminationists describes the malignant influence of right-wing hate talk on the American conservative movement. Tracing much of this vitriol to the dank corners of the para-fascist right, award-winning reporter David Neiwert documents persistent ideas and rhetoric that champion the elimination of opposition groups. As a result of this hateful discourse, Neiwert argues, the broader conservative movement has metastasized into something not truly conservative, but decidedly right-wing and potentially dangerous.

Ultimately, Neiwert argues, both sides--liberal and conservative--need to surrender the unhelpful idea that they are the "heroes" of the American story. For in order for there to be a hero, he explains, we need a demonized other from which to "rescue" the nation. True heroism in a democracy is not killing "bad guys" or rounding up scary people or shouting fellow citizens into silence, effectively forcing them to eliminate their voices and themselves from the democratic scene. Rather, it is recognizing the human in the other, the messy nuance of competing interests and sub-cultures, honoring the ability to disagree (strongly) without wishing death or silence on one another. True heroism can look, from the outside, kind of drab and lacking in drama.

https://www.amazon.com/Eliminationists-David-Neiwert/dp/0981576982

It is also a common rhetorical style in Russian propaganda.

[defacto7]

43. I do appreciate those who offer at least a short synopsis

of the video content. I never watch if they don't. I'm not much into videos in general since I read considerably faster than they display.

[WarGamer]

47. it's hyperbolic nonsense clickbait.

[madinmaryland]

48. CALL YOUR CONGRESSCRITTER RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!H

[Meowmee]

50. I also find a lot of posts annoying

The worst ones for me are the ones that give me no clue as to what it is even about in the title.

[kelly1mm]

53. You mean we really will have elections again? I was assured that if/when President Trump won it would be

the end of democracy here in the USA? I do find it somewhat amazing that the same campaign that said that President Trump is/was a fascist on Nov 4 is saying on Nov 6 that 'sorry guys! gave it the old college try! lets smooth the transition to the next (fascist) administration.'

[Lucky Luciano]

57. The threat is still very real. We are powerless to stop it now.

We can only hope that some opportunistic GOP senators who dream of one day wielding power will limit his so that they don’t get completely castrated.

[B.See]

62. Exactly.

And denialism won't lessen that threat any more than ignoring it.

[Woodwizard]

54. Oh yes.

Especially the video section. TRUMP DESTROYED AND HUMILIATED!!!!!!
Of course in big block yellow letters with some stupid trump face.

Same with the Ukraine conflict RUSSIA IN SHAMBLES ECONOMY DESTROYED PUTIN HAS MYSTERY ILLNESS!!!!!!!

Rinse repeat next week.

I am just sick of advertising clickbait.

[Shrek]

65. KARL ROVE INDICTED FOR REAL THIS TIME n/t