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MightyMopar

(735 posts)
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:04 PM Jan 2013

Are Right-Wing Libertarian Internet Trolls Getting Paid to Dumb Down Online Conversations?

Are Right-Wing Libertarian Internet Trolls Getting Paid to Dumb Down Online Conversations?

They are the online equivalent of enclosure riots: the rick-burning, fence-toppling protests by English peasants losing their rights to the land. When MasterCard, Visa, Paypal and Amazon tried to shut WikiLeaks out of the cyber-commons, an army of hackers responded by trying to smash their way into these great estates and pull down their fences.

In the Wikileaks punch-up the commoners appear to have the upper hand. But it’s just one battle. There’s a wider cyberwar being fought, of which you hear much less. And in most cases the landlords, with the help of a mercenary army, are winning.

I’m not talking here about threats to net neutrality and the danger of a two-tier internet developing, though these are real. I’m talking about the daily attempts to control and influence content in the interests of the state and corporations: attempts in which money talks.

The weapon used by both state and corporate players is a technique known as astroturfing. An astroturf campaign is one that mimics spontaneous grassroots mobilizations, but which has in reality been organized. Anyone writing a comment piece in Mandarin critical of the Chinese government, for example, is likely to be bombarded with abuse by people purporting to be ordinary citizens, upset by the slurs against their country.

http://current.com/community/93896214_are-right-wing-libertarian-internet-trolls-getting-paid-to-dumb-down-online-conversations.htm

Does all the endless NRA talking points spewed from from faux Dems make more sense when looked at in this light?

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Are Right-Wing Libertarian Internet Trolls Getting Paid to Dumb Down Online Conversations? (Original Post) MightyMopar Jan 2013 OP
Unfortunately, astroturf is indistinguishable from "a bunch of idiots with only two ideas." Robb Jan 2013 #1
True. patrice Jan 2013 #2
Exactly, which is why I eliminate both from my screen Warpy Jan 2013 #10
I think we have some people here that are here only to stir up stuff Mojorabbit Feb 2013 #32
How come no one asks this about abortion? The Straight Story Jan 2013 #3
Why would you assume only one group is doing that? ProgressiveProfessor Jan 2013 #4
Stalking me again? MightyMopar Jan 2013 #13
Just correcting your pronouncements ProgressiveProfessor Jan 2013 #19
In other words, you're stalking me MightyMopar Feb 2013 #21
yes eom southern_belle Jan 2013 #5
You see them in every major newspaper. backscatter712 Jan 2013 #6
I know a wingnut (the one I call MFW), who tells me he regularly trolls newspapers Jackpine Radical Jan 2013 #12
War takes many forms. defacto7 Feb 2013 #27
That's what the gungeon is for. nt madinmaryland Jan 2013 #7
Are you implying the gungeon is for teabaggers in drag? MightyMopar Jan 2013 #9
"As a longtime libarel and progresive member of the Democrat party..." See them too often. nt Mnemosyne Jan 2013 #16
Don't tell me you're a progressive, let me figure it out for myself MightyMopar Jan 2013 #17
They always feel the need to point out their progressive liberalism. Sometimes, they even spell Mnemosyne Jan 2013 #18
Hello, new progressive liberal here. PLARS1999 Feb 2013 #45
Bwhahaha! Hello, welcome to DU! Enjoy the ride! Mnemosyne Feb 2013 #46
I don't believe I have ever seen you say one nice thing in any thread. Mojorabbit Feb 2013 #33
Duh, Jackpine Radical Jan 2013 #8
I think they happily do it for free Gman Jan 2013 #11
Sad and most likely true. Nt abelenkpe Jan 2013 #20
Geez let's hope so ! Or they are really big time losers if not getting $$ for time and text lunasun Jan 2013 #14
Certainly. Dawson Leery Jan 2013 #15
I'm pretty sure they do it for free. n/t ellisonz Feb 2013 #22
There's plenty of them getting paid. California even wants disclosure as politcal spending MightyMopar Feb 2013 #24
I resent that! I'm holdin' out for $28.53! Eleanors38 Feb 2013 #29
So you conceed to being a Right-Wing Libertarian Gun Troll? ellisonz Feb 2013 #31
Jesus, Ellisonz, do you talk like this face-to-face? Do you trust anyone? Eleanors38 Feb 2013 #35
yes cui bono Feb 2013 #23
It's possible. Jamaal510 Feb 2013 #25
Yes, the Ron Paul people live at youtube it seems. nt Mojorabbit Feb 2013 #34
i do too. HiPointDem Feb 2013 #39
Huur? Glassunion Feb 2013 #26
Think mopar is making a sweep 'round right end yet again? Eleanors38 Feb 2013 #28
There are devout Colonists who undoubtedly *believe* the OP is true friendly_iconoclast Feb 2013 #30
This is why there should be a loyalty test Shankapotomus Feb 2013 #36
OP has been shown the door. HappyMe Feb 2013 #37
Long overdue NoPasaran Feb 2013 #44
Did he just prove his OP? n/t backscatter712 Feb 2013 #50
Operation Mockingbird.... OldDem2012 Feb 2013 #38
i think that 'intelligence' of every description, including low-level stuff like paying people to HiPointDem Feb 2013 #40
Agree 100%. nt. OldDem2012 Feb 2013 #41
American Stazi formercia Feb 2013 #42
Somebody thinks so. FSogol Feb 2013 #43
You have to be low IQ to think dumbing down online conversations matters in the least. Coyotl Feb 2013 #47
PPR'ed for suggesting run on guns due to racism?!? ieoeja Feb 2013 #48
I was a little surprised at that also .... oldhippie Feb 2013 #49

Robb

(39,665 posts)
1. Unfortunately, astroturf is indistinguishable from "a bunch of idiots with only two ideas."
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:07 PM
Jan 2013

This is not to say there are not both, of course.

But a genuine fool can sound a lot like a paid stooge, through no fault of their own but a lack of facility.

Warpy

(110,912 posts)
10. Exactly, which is why I eliminate both from my screen
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:24 PM
Jan 2013

as soon as I spot them. I can tolerate different views and answer them appropriately. However, when someone interrupts and spews bumper sticker after bumper sticker, slogan after slogan, and sound bite after sound bite, they are evicted from my screen. Life is short and time is precious.

I don't care if they're stupid or evil.

Mojorabbit

(16,020 posts)
32. I think we have some people here that are here only to stir up stuff
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 02:36 AM
Feb 2013

on the left also. There are a lot of subjects one cannot have a rational measured discussion about these days on this board.
I cannot believe people have so little of a life that they would do this type of thing but it there it is.
Peace, mojo

The Straight Story

(48,121 posts)
3. How come no one asks this about abortion?
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:11 PM
Jan 2013

If someone is for banning it and I jump in and say they are wrong to do so, I value your body, your choice why don't I get called an abortion nut? Why don't folks post things like the OP and ask "Is this where people defending abortion come from?"

Maybe, just maybe, there are some issues that a lot of people care about in deeply emotional ways and who stand by their convictions.


ProgressiveProfessor

(22,144 posts)
4. Why would you assume only one group is doing that?
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:13 PM
Jan 2013

We have at least one fairly new poster here who has a very high post rate and once they passed 1000 turned fairly nasty and has the locked posts to prove it.

backscatter712

(26,355 posts)
6. You see them in every major newspaper.
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:17 PM
Jan 2013

Look in any major newspaper web site at any article about something controversial - GLBT rights, climate change, gun regulation, and the comments section down at the bottom is completely infested with screaming teabaggers.

I think we see a certain number of them right here.

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
12. I know a wingnut (the one I call MFW), who tells me he regularly trolls newspapers
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:27 PM
Jan 2013

& infects their comment sections with his RW bullshit. It seems to amuse him. I know he's not getting paid for it.

defacto7

(13,485 posts)
27. War takes many forms.
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 02:09 AM
Feb 2013

If they are hungry enough and their eternity depends on proselytizing, plundering the Internet is an easy way to gain salvation. It's a lot easier and less messy than joining a "patriot" regiment. Some get paid to be saved too.

 

MightyMopar

(735 posts)
9. Are you implying the gungeon is for teabaggers in drag?
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 10:22 PM
Jan 2013

Just kidding! I'm sure they're all good progressives, they tell us so all the time.

Mnemosyne

(21,363 posts)
18. They always feel the need to point out their progressive liberalism. Sometimes, they even spell
Thu Jan 31, 2013, 11:17 PM
Jan 2013

it right!

PLARS1999

(14 posts)
45. Hello, new progressive liberal here.
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 10:51 AM
Feb 2013

Even my kitchen table leans left, I had to put bricks under the legs just to keep my glass from sliding off the edge.

Mojorabbit

(16,020 posts)
33. I don't believe I have ever seen you say one nice thing in any thread.
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 02:39 AM
Feb 2013

It is possible I have missed those but it would really help make this board a more pleasant
place to be if people practiced a bit of kindness in communicating. Peace, mojo

Jamaal510

(10,893 posts)
25. It's possible.
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 01:34 AM
Feb 2013

I just find it fishy that almost every online forum I visit, conservative/libertarian posters outnumber liberal posters, even though we've just elected a Democratic president for the 2nd consecutive time.
Also, I can't tell you how many "RON PAUL 2012 OUR ONLY HOPE" comments I saw spammed in YouTube comments during the 2012 election season. That's one reason why I hardly ever visit the comments section anymore, especially on anything related to politics. I'm sorry, but I can't tolerate hearing people worship some bigoted hypocrite, as if he's God's gift to politics. Plus, I just find it weird how immediately following his retirement from Congress, the super-long rambling word salad he gave had at least 600K views in less than a week after the video was uploaded, and how most videos related to him have thousands of views. I find this weird because the guy had literally no shot at even winning his own party's nomination. Where was all that support for Ron Paul during the GOP primaries?

 

friendly_iconoclast

(15,333 posts)
30. There are devout Colonists who undoubtedly *believe* the OP is true
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 02:27 AM
Feb 2013
Sergeant Colon had had a broad education. He’d been to the School of My Dad Always Said, the College of It Stands to Reason, and was now a postgraduate student at the University of What Some Bloke In the Pub Told Me. - Jingo, Terry Pratchett


Only a churl like myself would point out that it all sounds like a mirror-universe version
of the crazy shit spouted on a regular basis by people like Wayne LaPierre and Ted Nugent...

OldDem2012

(3,526 posts)
38. Operation Mockingbird....
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 08:49 AM
Feb 2013
Operation Mockingbird

In 1948 Frank Wisner was appointed director of the Office of Special Projects. Soon afterwards it was renamed the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). This became the espionage and counter-intelligence branch of the Central Intelligence Agency. Wisner was told to create an organization that concentrated on "propaganda, economic warfare; preventive direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world."

Later that year Wisner established Mockingbird, a program to influence the domestic American media. Wisner recruited Philip Graham (Washington Post) to run the project within the industry. Graham himself recruited others who had worked for military intelligence during the war. This included James Truitt, Russell Wiggins, Phil Geyelin, John Hayes and Alan Barth. Others like Stewart Alsop, Joseph Alsop and James Reston, were recruited from within the Georgetown Set. According to Deborah Davis (Katharine the Great): "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles."

In 1951 Allen W. Dulles persuaded Cord Meyer to join the CIA. However, there is evidence that he was recruited several years earlier and had been spying on the liberal organizations he had been a member of in the later 1940s. According to Deborah Davis, Meyer became Mockingbird's "principal operative".

One of the most important journalists under the control of Operation Mockingbird was Joseph Alsop, whose articles appeared in over 300 different newspapers. Other journalists willing to promote the views of the CIA included Stewart Alsop (New York Herald Tribune), Ben Bradlee (Newsweek), James Reston (New York Times), C. D. Jackson (Time Magazine), Walter Pincus (Washington Post), Walter Winchell (New York Daily Mirror), Drew Pearson, Walter Lippmann, William Allen White, Edgar Ansel Mowrer (Chicago Daily News), Hal Hendrix (Miami News), Whitelaw Reid (New York Herald Tribune), Jerry O'Leary (Washington Star), William C. Baggs (Miami News), Herb Gold (Miami News) and Charles L. Bartlett (Chattanooga Times). According to Nina Burleigh (A Very Private Woman) these journalists sometimes wrote articles that were commissioned by Frank Wisner. The CIA also provided them with classified information to help them with their work.


Read the rest of the article....very informative.

If "they" would go to this extent to control the so-called "free press", why would they not be willing to to conduct similar operations in the Internet Age?

 

HiPointDem

(20,729 posts)
40. i think that 'intelligence' of every description, including low-level stuff like paying people to
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 09:00 AM
Feb 2013

comment on the internet, is probably a lot more ubiquitous than we think.

it was big news when revealed how big the informal east german intelligence network was (including low-level schmucks getting paid to watch their neighbors).

i personally believe it's probably not so different here, just differently organized.

 

Coyotl

(15,262 posts)
47. You have to be low IQ to think dumbing down online conversations matters in the least.
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 11:06 AM
Feb 2013

Really, how does comment content impact the real world, except to reinforce what people already think? Let them do it all they want, because it is about as meaningful as a post on DU. Posting a comment online is a way of venting one's own opinion and of use to the one venting moreso than anything else, really..

 

ieoeja

(9,748 posts)
48. PPR'ed for suggesting run on guns due to racism?!?
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 11:32 AM
Feb 2013

Black man gets elected. Teabaggers go insane wanting their country "back". The run on guns begins.

So the OP suggests in another now locked thread that the run on gun is racist. And gets banned for it. I am amazed that anyone at DU would even doubt that racism was the cause of the immediate run on guns. That run continued for 4 years without a single gun control proposal on the table.

Maybe I'll get banned too. But it seems amazingly obvious to me that racism is the reason that run began 4 years ago.


What do you people even think "take our country back" means? Don't you think it might mean take it back from the minorities?


 

oldhippie

(3,249 posts)
49. I was a little surprised at that also ....
Fri Feb 1, 2013, 11:39 AM
Feb 2013

I'm all for busting trolls, but that one was kinda hard to figure. I guess I'll have to mark that one down as another of the "subjects which must not be mentioned" regardless of facts or opinions. Lots of other things he said I would have thought deserved a PPR, but not that. I live and learn.

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