I totally understand the reasoning behind thinking it’s state actors or certain members being shills–But there’s not much to gain for governments to shill in niche, extremist communities. Why shill your loyal followers when they parrot everything already? Instead, it’s much more effective to use large, mainstream social media websites, like Twitter, Reddit or Facebook, just check out anything politically trending to see the shills and contrast them with these users.
It is true, these small communities do swallow up state propaganda without much thought, but they aren’t shills. Most are just lonely people who hate everything and themselves.
They’re what the Soviet Union referred to as “useful idiots”. They parrot Russian propaganda because they like the aesthetics. They aren’t all Russians themselves. In fact, I would be willing to bet most aren’t.
Just a coincidence they spontaneously parrot all of Putin’s talking points?
Nah, I’m not saying they’re all Russian, but they’re clearly compromised somewhere. A lot of somewheres.
I totally understand the reasoning behind thinking it’s state actors or certain members being shills–But there’s not much to gain for governments to shill in niche, extremist communities. Why shill your loyal followers when they parrot everything already? Instead, it’s much more effective to use large, mainstream social media websites, like Twitter, Reddit or Facebook, just check out anything politically trending to see the shills and contrast them with these users.
It is true, these small communities do swallow up state propaganda without much thought, but they aren’t shills. Most are just lonely people who hate everything and themselves.
They’re what the Soviet Union referred to as “useful idiots”. They parrot Russian propaganda because they like the aesthetics. They aren’t all Russians themselves. In fact, I would be willing to bet most aren’t.
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