The 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 qu

The 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.