I really do believe there is a concentrated organized effort aimed at sewing that kind of discord in every online community, regardless of subject. Fandom has long been a place for people of all stripes to come together and bridge divisions that might exist in the outside world, and that is a threat to certain people in power who benefit from conflict.
I am NOT saying that all objectors to casting choices or “woke” story beats are paid shills. What I’m saying is that they are riled up and encouraged by a relatively small but dedicated contingent of actual paid trolls, working for shady troll farms, funded via dark money by those who profit from division.
Great points, bubbles of fandom being divided over wider political, civil, or national issues seems to be highly prevalent. Agreed I’m sure there’s a minority of shills and bots but their message gets amplified by the “national debate” or what not surrounding whatever topic, it appears to be relatively easy to manipulate large groups of people with very few comments or ideas.
That’s be a use most people don’t realize what’s going on. They don’t understand that their natural lizard-brain response is being weaponized en masse to fuel the conflict. The only way to combat this is just to keep repeating it: we are all being manipulated.
Just knowing that, and not even knowing how or why, is enough to diffuse the effectiveness of it.
Don’t let strangers rile you up and you’ll keep your feet. It’s pretty simple, but knowing is half the battle.
Just to keep the conspiracy going, I agree, and also feel like at least some of that has to be from the studios themselves. Like, anti-woke protests are obnoxious, but they’re also advertising for whatever they’re protesting against. Some people will hate-watch it. Some will tune in just to see what the fuss is about. It would take relatively little investment to seed a few trolls out there and rile up the anti-woke crowd to create engagement that far outstrips traditional advertising, so why shouldn’t Paramount kick the hornet’s nest a bit?
I really do believe there is a concentrated organized effort aimed at sewing that kind of discord in every online community, regardless of subject. Fandom has long been a place for people of all stripes to come together and bridge divisions that might exist in the outside world, and that is a threat to certain people in power who benefit from conflict.
I am NOT saying that all objectors to casting choices or “woke” story beats are paid shills. What I’m saying is that they are riled up and encouraged by a relatively small but dedicated contingent of actual paid trolls, working for shady troll farms, funded via dark money by those who profit from division.
Great points, bubbles of fandom being divided over wider political, civil, or national issues seems to be highly prevalent. Agreed I’m sure there’s a minority of shills and bots but their message gets amplified by the “national debate” or what not surrounding whatever topic, it appears to be relatively easy to manipulate large groups of people with very few comments or ideas.
That’s be a use most people don’t realize what’s going on. They don’t understand that their natural lizard-brain response is being weaponized en masse to fuel the conflict. The only way to combat this is just to keep repeating it: we are all being manipulated.
Just knowing that, and not even knowing how or why, is enough to diffuse the effectiveness of it.
Don’t let strangers rile you up and you’ll keep your feet. It’s pretty simple, but knowing is half the battle.
Just to keep the conspiracy going, I agree, and also feel like at least some of that has to be from the studios themselves. Like, anti-woke protests are obnoxious, but they’re also advertising for whatever they’re protesting against. Some people will hate-watch it. Some will tune in just to see what the fuss is about. It would take relatively little investment to seed a few trolls out there and rile up the anti-woke crowd to create engagement that far outstrips traditional advertising, so why shouldn’t Paramount kick the hornet’s nest a bit?