zlacker

>>anigbr+(OP)
This article, more than making me feel one way or another about the particular issue at hand (Isreal Hamas) makes me speculate what other unknown, better coordinated, better funded, interest groups might be doing this sort of thing on a massive scale.

I'm reminded of the "Come out - we have you surrounded" meme where the mentally insane man is hiding behind a desk with a shotgun screaming "Get out of my head" or "I hate the Antichrist", because that's how thinking about these groups make me feel

>>Boogie+Ih
It's very interesting to me that a large new org (say BBC, DW, CBC whatever) will publish some YouTube video report about some political subject (Canada and India, Ukraine and Russia, Taiwan and China), and within 15 minutes the video has a comments section containing 200+ posts in a very obvious direction. Are 100s of Canadians really awake at 5am posting on a BBC video about Canadian support for Ukraine 15 minutes after it was posted? Are 100s of Taiwanese people really awake at 3am commenting on a DW video about China-Taiwan relations? 15 minutes after it was posted? I can't tell if I've become paranoid over the last 4/5 years or if it's real, but it seems so stark to me how intense manipulation on platforms is, be it YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.

>>neom+9q
I shift from making myself not think about it to becoming a complete paranoid nut to telling myself it probably isn't so bad and doesn't matter a few times a year. There are levels to this sort of thinking, and it exists on a spectrum. I think everyone can agree on a conceptual level that manipulation occurs. A basic, mostly harmless example would be a music star "organically going viral" and "being discovered as a result" not being quite as organic as it seems. Where it changes from healthy skepticism to paranoia is a line I struggle to draw personally.