Bullshit is all around us. Sometimes it is easy to spot, but our brains can be tricked!

In this series of lectures we will need some tools to spot when we are being

manipulated through mental trickery.

Troll armies: how truth is manipulated

Artificially intelligent ‘bot’ accounts, junk news sites and fake online profiles: they’re all troll armies. Troll armies are nifty online tools used to flip truth, misdirect our attention and poison our democracy. With troll armies Russians influenced the American elections, Dutch singer Dotan built up a fake fan base and the amount of disinformation spread on the corona virus has become innumerable. The result is that truth is under threat. Can we arm ourselves against fake news? Build your own troll army with Jesse Evers from DROG in this lecture and experience how you can destroy truth.

DROG is a platform that aims to immunise as many people as possible to manipulation and polarisation through disinformation. September 2020 DROG starts a lab on disinformation with the TPM faculty.

SG Presents: The Spotting Bullshit Series

Bullshit – roughly, the deliberate or accidental spreading of untruths – is all around us. It’s a thing of all ages, but it’s very possible that we are living in THE age of bullshit. Peak bullshit, as it were. Sometimes it is easy to spot, but our brains can be tricked!

In this series of seven interactive lectures, Studium Generale will tackle the issue head on and offer you some tools to spot when we are being manipulated through mental trickery. Join these lectures and inoculate yourself against fake news, logical fallacies and other manipulations, and become a beacon of independent, rational and critical thought!

The Spotting Bullshit lecture series will be held onTuesday between September 22 and December 15 2020 during lunchtime (12:40-13:30) in the main hall in the TU Delft Library.