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Why does he sound like a shill? Do you know what a shill is? Could it be that he just supports or believes an opinion you don't?
by diminoten 13y ago
Why does he sound like a shill? Do you know what a shill is?
Could it be that he just supports or believes an opinion you don't?
- olefoo 13y agoThe pernicious thing about a culture of shills and agent provocateurs is that it undermines trust in others and civil society in general. It leads to endless questioning of motives and to a complete stoppage of debate on some topics. Think back to 2003 and the run-up to the Iraq war; which was the first time we saw what a domestic propaganda initiative on the internet looked like. Think about how much more sophisticated those tools are today. How defining and shaping issue oriented discourse can be viewed as a zero-sum game where one side "wins" and all other viewpoints are neutralized. The thing is; once the suspicion has been planted that not all of the people one is talking to are honest participants it is impossible to ignore; impossible to disprove; and very difficult to act against.