Governments Hire Web Trolls

[EnderOTD]

Great so anyone that disagrees with you is a shill now? Anyone with strong convictions wouldn't be swayed by such a person anyways. To be honest i think this guy is a payed shill by Alex Jones myself, citing infowars. Lots of anti-semitic comments on that video as well.

[Professor Buzzkill]

Great so anyone that disagrees with you is a shill now? Anyone with strong convictions wouldn't be swayed by such a person anyways. To be honest i think this guy is a payed shill by Alex Jones myself, citing infowars. Lots of anti-semitic comments on that video as well.

Quite frankly, people wouldn't question if someone was a paid shill if the government did not pay shills.

[The Silver Thong]

Oh look, another Youtube video used as a source.

This is what gets me. Argue the content and quit attacking the source. If you can`t then whats the point of posting what you did. Like I see when some post infowars and it is discredited asap due to the source but hardly attack the subject, Alex does not write the articles he comments on them. Not that one can believe everything on the net lol but to those that post if it`s on the net it must be true type comments, it`s pointless. as this is the medium we have for getting to the truth rather than trusting blindly in our government controled media or is that backwards. Media controled government.

[EnderOTD]

Quite frankly, people wouldn't question if someone was a paid shill if the government did not pay shills.

My response was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, seems to me its another form advertisement when its in favor of a company such as Monsanto. Its no surprise to me that governments would hire people to do such things, propaganda will eventually evolve with the technological advancements in social media. At the same time, dropping the "ahh look another shill"line is horrible when supporting a persons argument.

[The Silver Thong]

My response was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, seems to me its another form advertisement when its in favor of a company such as Monsanto. Its no surprise to me that governments would hire people to do such things, propaganda will eventually evolve with the technological advancements in social media. At the same time, dropping the "ahh look another shill"line is horrible when supporting a persons argument.

My response was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, seems to me its another form advertisement when its in favor of a company such as Monsanto. Its no surprise to me that governments would hire people to do such things, propaganda will eventually evolve with the technological advancements in social media. At the same time, dropping the "ahh look another shill"line is horrible when supporting a persons argument.

As was said by Waspie the proof required to make such a claim would be practicly impossible. A shill will eventually try to hard and be called out as a wooden nickle.

[lightly]

Hmm, i'm pretty good at misinformation, maybe I could branch out into DISinformation .. a confused public is easier to control. War is Peace.

[The Silver Thong]

Hmm, i'm pretty good at misinformation, maybe I could branch out into DISinformation .. a confused public is easier to control. War is Peace.

The problem now if you want to do that we have groups like annonamus and wikieleaks that will hack and leak names and more. There will always be someone that will spill the beans.

[Frank Merton]

There are a few hundred other countries you can move to...provided you have money, a useful skill or some government secrets

Yea -- don't move to Vietnam thinking you can make a living teaching English here -- unless you are a credentialed English teacher. There is no other way to make money here if you don't have investment capital already, but in that case the sky is the limit.

I don't see why you all assume its only the US government that might hire such trolls. Political candidates surely do, and I'm sure some businesses do. Also there are many countries, and they all have an interest in getting their viewpoints expressed.

I think, though, that there are so many boards and on them so many threads, that trying to influence opinion this way would not be cost-effective. More likely what they do is just utilize search engines to get a measure of what is being said.

[The Silver Thong]

Frank Lets say I type the U.S. is resposible for the violience in the middle east it`s flagged just as if I say the Veitnam war was a BS war for profit and chest pounding it will also be flagged. In flagging certin words so called shills can be assighed to such forums to throw it off course as we see in 911 threads. Unfortunatley most in the west stem towards western forums but my guess is all goverments do it.

[Professor Buzzkill]

Well, in my research into the Syrian war, it is clear that Assad has paid shills. Look up the Syrian electronic army.

Then again, a dictator cloning ideas from the west should be a good thing

[Frank Merton]

Frank Lets say I type the U.S. is resposible for the violience in the middle east it`s flagged just as if I say the Veitnam war was a BS war for profit and chest pounding it will also be flagged. In flagging certin words so called shills can be assighed to such forums to throw it off course as we see in 911 threads. Unfortunatley most in the west stem towards western forums but my guess is all goverments do it.

Well threads get thrown off course all the time anyway. If it bothers you put it back on course or complain to the monitors. As far as the 911 threads go, I ignore them just as I ignore Kennedy assassination threads. They are a waste of breath.

[Frank Merton]

Well, in my research into the Syrian war, it is clear that Assad has paid shills. Look up the Syrian electronic army.

Then again, a dictator cloning ideas from the west should be a good thing

That would explain a couple of things I've noticed, but does he really need them? Aren't there plenty of people willing to spout that stuff anyway?

[EnderOTD]

This is what gets me. Argue the content and quit attacking the source. If you can`t then whats the point of posting what you did. Like I see when some post infowars and it is discredited asap due to the source but hardly attack the subject, Alex does not write the articles he comments on them. Not that one can believe everything on the net lol but to those that post if it`s on the net it must be true type comments, it`s pointless. as this is the medium we have for getting to the truth rather than trusting blindly in our government controled media or is that backwards. Media controled government.

The few things I have read from infowars was completly taken out of context. The last time I read an article was the training russian troops to eventually use them as military police in the United States. The whole article was a bunch of fuss and speculation, and other posters used articles written by other bloggers who also used infowars as their main source of information to try to push the conspiracy theory. After a few minutes of research using infowars own sources it was obvious they had taken a few loosley related articles and drummed a fear monger fiasco that lasted at least two weeks on this site alone. Infowars is out to make money just as much as any other business, what better way to get site hits then put out a bunch scary schite that has a some what relavent angle on current events. Looking back at it now, in this current climate would we even accept or would Putin even send russian troops here for security? I don't think so.

[The Silver Thong]

CNN or Fox same thing different cover. They want to make money and are government sponsererd. I will trust a hunch or a gut feeling over what msm tells me. Trusting the msm is as smart as saying David Ike speakes the truth. Come on does anyone watch msm and believe it. youtub as much as any hate it but I can stream it live if I so called wished for. It`s more credible then msm or should I post a site that might get me banned.

[The Silver Thong]

Well threads get thrown off course all the time anyway. If it bothers you put it back on course or complain to the monitors. As far as the 911 threads go, I ignore them just as I ignore Kennedy assassination threads. They are a waste of breath.

A Waste of breath because why. You think you have all the answers. Ya

Edited September 25, 2013 by The Silver Thong

[The Silver Thong]

sad when justin Beaver brain is real but the real **** is oh um never mind

[Frank Merton]

Its interesting: a great litmus for someone's politics in the States is whether they watch FOX or MSNBC. As far as I'm concerned they just have a slant, and it seems FOX's slant is far more profitable than MSNBC's. When I'm in the states I tend to watch both, although I don't watch TV much.

[sam12six]

You aren't really think it through are you?

How could someone out themselves in this way? An accidental confession? All they would then need to say is "I was being ironic". Tell me how we could prove differently? As I said earlier there is no possible way we could take action. There is no way we could prove any such case.

I suspect that if a paid agent was that stupid they would not remain in the employ of the security services for long.

If they did keep that job then I suspect that would be the last post they made (at least with that identity). What is the point of a "secret" identity if everyone knows about it?

Any specific rules we made would be pointless. Anyone outed would simply disappear and be replaced.

So there are no specific rules against such activities. How could there be? How could this forum have a rule banning any government agency, law enforcement agency or security service carrying out their jobs no matter how much we might disapprove of them?

Maybe you could hire some of the forum members to do readings to determine if other members are shills. From what I understand, psychic evidence has saved this country from being overrun by witches at least once. Once the psychic evidence has been amassed, we could have yet more forum members ambush them on the street and gun them down with spirit balls (no ballistic tests for those).

It's your responsibility to keep us safe from shills because what they say, we'll believe. If you don't take that responsibility seriously enough and masses of forum members are shambling zombie-like down the street muttering, "Vote for Mitt, he's the ---. The Earth is warming. The Earth is cooling. Damn Libs. Heartless Neocons. Bigfoots are having orgies in the woods...", you know who families are going to be suing, right?

[Frank Merton]

A Waste of breath because why. You think you have all the answers. Ya

There are some things I just don't bother with.

[acidhead]

Not every individual in the USA votes for coke vs pepsi ... Or watches corporate television .

[Almagest]

This is what gets me. Argue the content and quit attacking the source. If you can`t then whats the point of posting what you did. Like I see when some post infowars and it is discredited asap due to the source but hardly attack the subject, Alex does not write the articles he comments on them. Not that one can believe everything on the net lol but to those that post if it`s on the net it must be true type comments, it`s pointless. as this is the medium we have for getting to the truth rather than trusting blindly in our government controled media or is that backwards. Media controled government.

I think the problem is a forum is meant to be used for discussion. When someone posts a youtube video with no content they can't really be said to be partaking in a discussion, can they?

[Leonardo]

"Govt Uses Propaganda Shock!!"

The only thing I take from this, is how easily people fall for what is said to them rather than bother to research or investigate to find out if it really is the truth. We shouldn't be shocked or upset that clever people will use propaganda as a tool for control, but at how lazy (in every sense of the word) people can be.

[Babe Ruth]

There is no question the government devotes substantial effort to manipulation of the public perception. That is the purpose of "spin". It makes every story an effort to make the government look good. Every administration has been doing this, full time, for a long time.

Edward Bernays from a century ago, was employed by the government to do just that, I think during the Wilson administration as it prepared to enter into WWI.

Bernays coined the term "public relations" and now it has a life of its own.

With the advent of the internet, it provides a perfect forum to tailor the Official Story on anything, and to keep it alive. It's only logical that various government agencies would pay people to spin stories and keep to the story line.

[misty55]

Israel is paying internet workers to manipulate online content

Trying to give Israel a good image online lol Bit like trying to use fabreeze on dog poo lol

Edited September 25, 2013 by misty55

[misty55]

This is what gets me. Argue the content and quit attacking the source. If you can`t then whats the point of posting what you did. Like I see when some post infowars and it is discredited asap due to the source but hardly attack the subject, Alex does not write the articles he comments on them. Not that one can believe everything on the net lol but to those that post if it`s on the net it must be true type comments, it`s pointless. as this is the medium we have for getting to the truth rather than trusting blindly in our government controled media or is that backwards. Media controled government.

Good points made. It sure does raise suspicion when people do such things on the web...