... the creation of an artificial grassroots buzz favoring a viewpoint, i.e. lies, propaganda, brainwashing. ...
Examples:
Tobacco Industry: in the 90's, they funded the National Smoker's Alliance to generate what looked like public support for smoker's rights against legislation that would dampen their business. It was fake support, of course, and the industry knew it.
By the time they were forced to come forward with the truth, that smoking “kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol combined,” it was too late for the millions they'd killed ... deliberately, in defense of their profits.
Politics: GOPTeamLeader.com (now closed) offered a tool which sent a user’s letter to the editor to dozens of newspapers under different randomly generated names. In 2003, virtually identical letters that were essentially lists of GOP talking points were published nearly simultaneously in over 70 newspapers across the US, creating the impression of broad support for controversial GOP policies. Similar campaigns were used by GeorgeWBush.com.
Such tactics are not exclusive to the right; the liberal website MoveOn.org used the same tactic the very next year. Letters to the editor don't affect much these days, so there are twitter bots that fake and forward multiple thousands of generated messages.
Many organizations in the Tea Party movement are considered astroturfed, with direct connections to right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, and their activities controlled by wealthy supporters or the GOP.
The DNC under the control of the Clinton campaign persuaded Democrat voters that the choice of candidates rested completely on transparent process. Not quite true, as we now understand. By formal agreement, DNC staff and policy required approval by the Clinton campaign prior to implementation for more than a year before the primaries.
Environment: Since 1997 the Koch Brothers have spent over a hundred-million dollars funding supposed scientific organizations. The groups are masked as think tanks whose purpose is to spread false ideas, to attack climate change scientists, and to popularize climate-change denial.
Exxon has recently acknowledged that climate change has begun, due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels. They had attempted to hide or obscure that truth for decades using deliberate misrepresentation detailed in a Harvard analysis and report, using non-peer-reviewed studies and editorial-style advertisements ('advertorials') challenging the science. Exxon was aggressively and knowingly misrepresenting the results of their own scientific research across four decades, just like the tobacco industry did. Residual misinformation generated by the oil industry persists in public thinking, even after having been repeatedly discredited.
... and anyone can buy thousands of 'likes' for their web page.
Today, it appears that the internet and media have become, among other things, a tool to shape us according to someone else's plan. More often than not, the motive is money and power at the top of the pyramid.
____________________________________
Apparently, Governments also do it.
Then there's Gaslighting.
Examples:
Tobacco Industry: in the 90's, they funded the National Smoker's Alliance to generate what looked like public support for smoker's rights against legislation that would dampen their business. It was fake support, of course, and the industry knew it.
By the time they were forced to come forward with the truth, that smoking “kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol combined,” it was too late for the millions they'd killed ... deliberately, in defense of their profits.
Politics: GOPTeamLeader.com (now closed) offered a tool which sent a user’s letter to the editor to dozens of newspapers under different randomly generated names. In 2003, virtually identical letters that were essentially lists of GOP talking points were published nearly simultaneously in over 70 newspapers across the US, creating the impression of broad support for controversial GOP policies. Similar campaigns were used by GeorgeWBush.com.
Such tactics are not exclusive to the right; the liberal website MoveOn.org used the same tactic the very next year. Letters to the editor don't affect much these days, so there are twitter bots that fake and forward multiple thousands of generated messages.
Many organizations in the Tea Party movement are considered astroturfed, with direct connections to right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, and their activities controlled by wealthy supporters or the GOP.
The DNC under the control of the Clinton campaign persuaded Democrat voters that the choice of candidates rested completely on transparent process. Not quite true, as we now understand. By formal agreement, DNC staff and policy required approval by the Clinton campaign prior to implementation for more than a year before the primaries.
Environment: Since 1997 the Koch Brothers have spent over a hundred-million dollars funding supposed scientific organizations. The groups are masked as think tanks whose purpose is to spread false ideas, to attack climate change scientists, and to popularize climate-change denial.
Exxon has recently acknowledged that climate change has begun, due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels. They had attempted to hide or obscure that truth for decades using deliberate misrepresentation detailed in a Harvard analysis and report, using non-peer-reviewed studies and editorial-style advertisements ('advertorials') challenging the science. Exxon was aggressively and knowingly misrepresenting the results of their own scientific research across four decades, just like the tobacco industry did. Residual misinformation generated by the oil industry persists in public thinking, even after having been repeatedly discredited.
... and anyone can buy thousands of 'likes' for their web page.
Today, it appears that the internet and media have become, among other things, a tool to shape us according to someone else's plan. More often than not, the motive is money and power at the top of the pyramid.
____________________________________
Apparently, Governments also do it.
Then there's Gaslighting.
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