Funny how the conspiracists couldn’t see it
Something nobody talks about is how the internet transformed into a whole other beast around 2015 to 2016. Nobody talks about it because all the bots (used loosely to mean bad actors of human or otherwise) control discourse. It’s masses of undefineable swarms of bot posting at any give moment in any given part of the internet.
People talk about that constantly?
Uhh what? Who people?
If you ask someone if the Internet is full of bots they will tell you yes. However 5 minutes later they will be on social media and forget about it.
It’s impossible to think critically all the time.
The bot accusation is a rhetorical cudgel in itself. What I mean is the bot swarms aren’t configured to speak of the before times.
Another thing is that it’s as if easily half the population of actual human posters have no knowledge of the time before. Could this be true on a technical basis. I know internet adoption grew fast more recently in some parts of the world. But how does the data line up? I haven’t looked.
So the real human components of the bot swarms so to speak are living a sort of allegory of the cave. They have no knowledge of the world wide web as a whole. They only know the slice of internet they started using in the bot swarm era. For them it seems to be nothing but a battle grounds of social, political, commercial warfare. Basically this is the big tech media platforms.
It doesn’t seem to compute for people much more than a shallow saying, “it’s all bots”. Yeah of course every says that all the time. But how is it all bots? How much if any do they know of outside the few apps on their phone. People don’t seem to have much knowledge of the before times very much. Or the internet outside of social media at all.
People hardly ever make old references. Nobody understands old colloquialisms. That seems like it could be a litmus test for someone who is a real human being.
I feel like it’s can roughly comprehend the vibe of what you’re saying, but im losing you on the specifics.
I feel like you’re trying to apply a model of both young people and bots such that they don’t understand a time before the large scale proliferation of bots?
The israel accounts, greek statue accounts and ultra nationalist accounts right now after the update:
greek statue accounts
I missed this… assuming it’s the same as statue pfp… fascinating
Betcha QAnon was a Russian program after all
Haha like they had no idea?
I believe a lot of MAGA influencers are problably either directly employed by the Kremlin, or at least supported from there. For Russia, it is the easiest way to destroy their enemies.
Look what a number Russia did on the UK with their Brexit. And look what they currently do with idiot right wingers in Europe, who, despite “My country first, fuck the rest” always seem to have a very soft spot for “poor old sactioned Russia”, and they more or less unisono state that the Russian attack on Ukraine is just e defense against western/NATO aggression.
Russia has for the last decade at least, been influencing media in the west to cause doubt in various systems of governance.
The most interesting article I saw this week was Eastern Orthodox churches in the US are seeing a massive increase in attendance from mostly “conservative” young men. Easter orthodox has never had much influence in the US, but now it’s becoming popular? Why is that?
I spotted an article myself this week. Apparently they tried to make a move. https://united24media.com/latest-news/russian-orthodox-church-accused-of-war-propaganda-now-lobbying-in-washington-13560
And it’s a problem that should have been addressed but a large part of the economy depends on these bots to generate rage for views. So no regulations coming soon because facebooks bottom line or what ever
also a large part of our government depends on these bots for their power and influence.
Which is why no action will ever be taken against them.
Cause they will never vote to lessen their power and influence.
Yep. It was also around that time that swarms of dodgy new accounts started shitting on Sweden in every reddit thread. Lots of real people are still brainwashed from that time and bring up the same talking points to this day.
I guess the exact same thing happened to London exaggerating knife violence.
The entire modern day “conservative” movement has 100% been astroturfed.
If it’s only astroturf, why are americans still doing fuck all?
The subtle but important difference between “has 100% been astroturfed” and “has been 100% astroturfed”.
“Let’s eat grandma” going down in here.
“She had a crack baby”
one problem with abusing the concept of 💯%.
100%
yeah, orange cheeto should get into it, he would have these numbers down 5000 percent in no time…
Propaganda stears public opinion.
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Not remotely surprised that this is the case, but am not holding my breath that it will make MAGA followers any more likely to reassess their worldview.
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command
They’ve already had plenty of practice calling everything they don’t like “Fake News”. Add it to the pile.
Does someone have a better writeup than this slop?
Here is a great writeup by Brent Molnar.
The Great MAGA Bot Unmasking and Why X Suddenly Flipped On Its Own Army of Fakes…
Let me take a deep breath before diving into this swamp, because what just happened on X is not a glitch and it is not random. It is the political equivalent of kicking over a rotten log and watching thousands of beetles scatter into the light. The new “About This Account” feature exposing where profiles are actually based is already revealing that many of the loudest MAGA screamers are not in Ohio, not in Texas, not in Florida, and not in any diner Fox News pretends to interview. They are overseas. They include accounts registering from Russia, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and other low-cost troll-farm regions.
And no, this is not a surprise to anyone who has been watching this ecosystem since Trump stepped onto that escalator in 2015. The only surprise is that X finally let the public see it. The question is why. The answer takes us through the economics of bot amplification, the politics of foreign influence, the global regulatory environment closing in on Musk, and the fact that even the biggest con artists eventually realize they have to show a little transparency if they want to avoid getting hauled into court.
The first thing to understand is that X has been under growing international pressure. The EU’s Digital Services Act has been tightening the screws on platforms that fail to disclose bot activity, foreign influence, or coordinated political campaigns. X is already being investigated by Brussels for disinformation failures. This transparency feature is not a gift. It is a survival maneuver. Musk can tell regulators that he provided the tools. Whether users fall for foreign propaganda or not becomes “their problem.”
Next comes the advertiser problem. X has been hemorrhaging ad revenue. Most major brands do not want their name appearing next to a flood of anonymous accounts screaming about “civil war” or cheering for authoritarianism. By showing where accounts are actually based, Musk can claim the platform is safer, cleaner, and more accountable. Advertisers love the word “accountable” almost as much as they love avoiding lawsuits.
But here’s the real core of it. The feature exposes something Trump’s movement desperately needs to hide. Much of its online enthusiasm has always been artificial. The volume never matched the number of real humans willing to say these things in public. The trolling, the pile-ons, the artificial virality, the coordinated amplification of Trump’s worst rhetoric, the constant harassment of journalists and critics, the sudden explosion of identical talking points across thousands of accounts in minutes. Real humans do not behave like that. Bot networks do. Troll farms do. Foreign political influence operations do.
And now ordinary users can click a button and see that the loud “America First” account screaming about patriotism is posting from Moscow. The guy demanding “DEFEND OUR COUNTRY” is posting from the Philippines on a six-cent-per-hour content farm. The account accusing Biden of corruption is registered in a country run by oligarchs who would like nothing more than to put a puppet in the Oval Office again.
The next question is why Musk would risk blowing up the ecosystem that props up Trump’s movement. The answer is timing. It is late 2025. Elections are coming around the world. Regulators are circling. Evidence of foreign influence has been publicly documented again and again. Musk knows that if he does nothing, X becomes the center of the next major election interference scandal. If he adds the visibility, he can shrug and say, “We told you where they were. What more do you want from us?”
This is liability management, not integrity. It is legal positioning, not enlightenment. It is cover-your-ass insurance disguised as transparency.
And here is the final twist. The Trump regime is now directly tied to foreign actors in ways that are getting harder to hide. We just watched a “peace plan” for Ukraine circulate that appears to have been drafted by Kremlin-adjacent figures and laundered through U.S. political channels. We just saw senators admit that proposals they thought were American actually came from Russia. We just saw Trump take public positions that map perfectly onto Moscow’s demands.
Now imagine what happens when the public can see, in real time, that much of the social-media support for these positions comes from accounts not based in the United States at all.
The timing is not a coincidence. The pressure is not imaginary. The exposure is not accidental. The authoritarian ecosystem that helped build Trump’s movement is suddenly visible. The “America First” crowd is being revealed as one of the most foreign-amplified political factions in modern American history. And the panic on the right is already loud enough to hear through the screen. The darkness is being dragged into daylight. And daylight is not kind to parasites.
A subscription or donation is the only thing that keeps this voice standing. They want pages like mine erased and your support right now is the firewall that stops that from happening. If this work matters, this is the moment it genuinely counts. I left the corporate grind to speak the truth without permission, but independent media has no protection and the platforms are actively suppressing it every day.
Thx. Looking for a link for some folks.
The post you copy/pastes has an AI-generated after taste, which makes me sad. Either people are changing their writing style to “compete” with AI or… I dunno. I feel like I can never just read something and not be suspicious. Bummer
AI replicates human speech. Humans replicate humans. Humans interact with AI. Convergence.
That’s not what we mean by convergence :/
I know right. Sorry had to do it to em.
Welcome to the rot of our future.
The first time I witnessed literary trends change was with the advent of online roleplay and other forms of open-entry writing forums online way back in the early days of the internet. I saw the same inflictions and tones and narrative style creep into every facet of writing and culture.
It happened again with the rise of smartphones and texting and the unique mannerisms that go with the medium, then twitter just accelerated it.
Now it’s “AI style” and whether or not it’s really AI writing it, billions of people are growing up in a world where “this is just what writings looks like” and it’s going to be everywhere.
you sound like a bot. talk about the content or don’t, but stop distracting from an important conversation.
The conversation about bot farms replicating human opinions to astroturf popular opinion? Yes, my bad. Feeling suspicious of all content because of the prevalence of AI generated slop content is totally off topic
Well it came from a substack which of course it doesn’t prove that it’s real or AI, most probably he uses AI in some capacity to embellish or edit before his content is published, but I don’t see it in this piece in an overt way personally.
Its not meant as criticism, to be clear. Was just sharing my thoughts after reading. Silly me!
Bought and paid for accounts. Propaganda machine is amazing for MAGA, wonder why?
Just lol.
…why is anyone surprised?..
Could it be….
SatanChina?!It’s definitely not Satan. Satan is busy with carrying tRump’s baby.
Thought he bubba babyin Bill?
Billionaires. Governments are small pawns.
god dammit satan chlaus, it’s not even thanksgiving yet
What’s wrong with being based in other countries? Can we stop demonizing immigrants, please?
immigrants are, by definition, not based in other countries
That’s very ethnocentric.
I’m an immigrant. I’m based out of a non-US country. How does that work?
you are either an immigrant or an expat. you are not both
you were an immigrant. then you became an expat.
Why not both?!?
You mean the bot farms of android phones attacking the algorithms.
Won’t someone think of the bots?
yess… the maga bot immigrants… that want to deport themselves…
