I will be sure to read the book that you suggested, as this topic is of great interest to me. A few thoughts: 1. Astroturfing has been the norm for a few year

I will be sure to read the book that you suggested, as this topic is of great interest to me. A few thoughts: 1. Astroturfing has been the norm for a few years now-- probably more years than I suspect, but the biggest difference was pre-2011. 2. Most people don't even have astroturfing on their radar, and if the public ever did get any ideas, you can be sure they would be astroturfed into actually believing that astroturfing is a legitimate marketing technique rather than repugnant lying. 3. Astroturfing varies wildly in quality, and I'm sure that some people could spot the weaker campaigns-- the most recent major campaign that was weak was probably the pro-Russia astroturfing of Reddit during Russia's invasion of Crimea. 4. The quality of astroturf is inversely proportional to the time and thus money it requires to produce. A cheap statement "X is great, support X" blasted into every topic is easy to spot, whereas custom tailored shilling and misdirection is often far more insidious. 5. I'd expect that most governments engage in astroturfing and shilling heavily-- if not on their own population (which is extremely likely) then on other populations. As evidence, consider that Eglin AFB is the "most addicted to reddit" community. I'm not sure what to do about this other than call it out when I see it, which is woefully ineffective.