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Looks like the CIA is screwing the public by mutual consent. The public is demanding more of the same, just as long as it's directed at whoever is out their fav

Looks like the CIA is screwing the public by mutual consent. The public is demanding more of the same, just as long as it's directed at whoever is out their favor. Here're the two topmost comments on NYT at the moment[0]: karma2013 New Jersey 3 hours ago If anyone still has doubts that Wikileaks and the Russians are working together to undermine and destabilize our government institutions, erode public confidence in our government, and generally wreak havoc in our country, this latest document dump should erase all doubt. We are under attack by an adversarial nation, with a President here at the helm who seems not to take any of this seriously. Spy agencies spy, this should come as no shock -- this is how they infiltrate potential terrorist plots against America and keep us safe. We are less safe today thanks to Wikileaks and Assange's unholy alliance with Putin.. Thomas Marin County, CA 3 hours ago Where's the hacking of trump's taxes and his Russian connections?? This information is needed NOW! [0]https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/wikileaks-cia-hacking.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/wikileaks-ci...

goodroot 10y ago
The assumption here is that those people are part of the public and are not shilling a 'more correct record'.
- foxfaction 10y ago
  Just for your own knowledge, Correct the Record was dissolved after the election and the primary internet PR organization is now called "Share Blue"
nosuchthing 10y ago
If you've spent anytime on twitter or reddit lately, there's an increasingly large amount of political astroturfing from special interest organizations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/US-Government-Funded-Domestic-Propaganda-Has-4668001.php http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/US-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith-Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012#Smith-Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith-Mundt_Modernization_Act_... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-op...
- myegorov 10y ago
  Have you noticed this trend on HN? Because I see essentially the same sentiment in this thread. Little if anything is effected purely by overt or tacit collusion.
  - nosuchthing 10y ago
    There's certainly been a handful of very overt political troll commentators with talking point narratives which I've noticed on HN in the last few weeks. Thankfully HN has a better reputation system in place. News website comments have 0 barrier to entry, and Twitter and Reddit are clearly prone to mass bot'ing. It helps that there's access to an API for transparency on those sites but the persona astroterfing ops are getting more advanced tactics like copying random user comments to build up an appearance nearly indistinguishable from a normal user's history at first glance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack
    - myegorov 10y ago
      Interesting. I was actually joking about HN. I can't think of an example where hangers-on or bots or engagée interest groups have ever been able to sway the popular opinion en masse. Not saying the special interest groups won't take bids from any interested takers or have negligible effect. Luckily for the rest of us, it takes more than a marketing campaign to bring Putin to power or turn the tide against Trump. From my observations, the NYT (and HN) comments are symptomatic of the US popular opinion as of today that looks favorably on mass spying in the face of ISIS or Russia or whatever it is they feel requires the military/special agents to intervene.
      - nosuchthing 10y ago
        There's certainly significant efforts intended to dilute and distract discourse in reddit threads and infiltrating influential moderator positions on the main subreddits. /r/undelete logs many instances of some of the weirdness. Check any popular political tweet and you'll likely notice the first or top replies are coming from trolls pushing empty narratives.

goodroot 10y ago

The assumption here is that those people are part of the public and are not shilling a 'more correct record'.

foxfaction 10y ago
Just for your own knowledge, Correct the Record was dissolved after the election and the primary internet PR organization is now called "Share Blue"

nosuchthing 10y ago

If you've spent anytime on twitter or reddit lately, there's an increasingly large amount of political astroturfing from special interest organizations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/US-Government-Funded-Domestic-Propaganda-Has-4668001.php http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/US-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith-Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012#Smith-Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith-Mundt_Modernization_Act_... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-op...

myegorov 10y ago
Have you noticed this trend on HN? Because I see essentially the same sentiment in this thread. Little if anything is effected purely by overt or tacit collusion.
- nosuchthing 10y ago
  There's certainly been a handful of very overt political troll commentators with talking point narratives which I've noticed on HN in the last few weeks. Thankfully HN has a better reputation system in place. News website comments have 0 barrier to entry, and Twitter and Reddit are clearly prone to mass bot'ing. It helps that there's access to an API for transparency on those sites but the persona astroterfing ops are getting more advanced tactics like copying random user comments to build up an appearance nearly indistinguishable from a normal user's history at first glance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack
  - myegorov 10y ago
    Interesting. I was actually joking about HN. I can't think of an example where hangers-on or bots or engagée interest groups have ever been able to sway the popular opinion en masse. Not saying the special interest groups won't take bids from any interested takers or have negligible effect. Luckily for the rest of us, it takes more than a marketing campaign to bring Putin to power or turn the tide against Trump. From my observations, the NYT (and HN) comments are symptomatic of the US popular opinion as of today that looks favorably on mass spying in the face of ISIS or Russia or whatever it is they feel requires the military/special agents to intervene.
    - nosuchthing 10y ago
      There's certainly significant efforts intended to dilute and distract discourse in reddit threads and infiltrating influential moderator positions on the main subreddits. /r/undelete logs many instances of some of the weirdness. Check any popular political tweet and you'll likely notice the first or top replies are coming from trolls pushing empty narratives.