To be sick of propaganda on MN

[Apolitia]

Recently there seems to have been an outbreak of fairly overt political propagandising on MN. Scenarios and views presented as ‘just what I think’ which I strongly suspect are not from your average MN punter.

This, and the weird AI/ reddit-type dilemmas (me 31M, 33F blaaah, aargh) that frequently pop up are putting me right off. And I’ve been here for more than a decade.

Mayve I’m just old and grumpy and it’s a sign to put down my phone and talk to actual people :/

I wonder what the correlation is between people/media who've spend the last few years moaning about rich boomer pensioners and their £400 annual triple lock increase and those now moaning about the removal of the £200 WFA.

There have been political and foreign propagandists posting on forums like MN for ages. Remember Cambridge Analytica? China, Israel et al have admitted to such departments in the past.

Many will have accounts that are at least a decade old, quite possibly inherited from the person who had the job before them. They will have started the odd innocuous thread in S&B, made a few gently kind comments in Relationships, Chat etc. Then they will come into their own when current events veers towards their job descriptions. With VPNs and a selection of devices and accounts, MNHQ hasn't a hope of reliably identifying them.

As with any other social media, only post what you are happy to reveal and take everything with a pinch of salt.

Yep. So boring aren't they. Totally agree.

Eh?

Not sure it's bits either.... There's a whole thread to the effect of "I don't care about climate change" going on around the moment too.

I really despair about the level of ignorance out there. It's literally going to kill us 😞

(Bots not bits!)

I have wondered if the Internet in general is now mainly conspiraloons posting. I feel like there aren't many balanced places to post where people can share different opinions and it means most people don't bother cos they don't want a fight. So you are left with those with fringe views who don't have so many people to talk to irl?

I think the internet is wider and possibly more representative than it’s ever been. Many people are not particularly well educated, informed or experienced.
I’m in East Midlands area. Old mining town. The overwhelming majority of people here are very narrowly focused on their own interests. Kind in person, but less so in principle.
Very Daily Mail regardless of how they vote.

You can’t expect the internet to reflect anything other than ordinary people across the spectrum. And ordinary people want what’s close to home fixed and aren’t that interested in what’s further away- as long as it stays there.

You can’t expect the internet to reflect anything other than ordinary people

Surely the opposite is true?

Any person or organisation with a message they wish to broadcast will use internet chat sites as part of their comms strategy.

That can be you and me chewing the fat, but it can also be companies, countries, political parties, Old Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. The interent will reflect those actors in proportion to the amount of money and effort they care to throw at it. Which can be a lot.

A PP mentioned Cambridge Analytica. One of CA's bosses, Mark Turnbull, was caught on camera bragging about how he could help his (supposed) client broadcast smear material against a political opponent:
"We just put information into the bloodstream of the internet, and then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again like a remote control," he said. "It has to happen without anyone thinking, 'that's propaganda', because the moment you think, 'That's propaganda', the next question is, 'Who's put that out?' So we have to be subtle."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cambridge-analytica-ceo-alexander-nix-data-firm-describes-shadow-election-tactics-2018-03-19/

-30 in opinion polls today if anyone thinks mn will remain the only place for pro Labour threads it’s not feasible

Maybe earlier when any dissent was met with ‘bot’ or HQ to drive people away

Those jammy days are over, public opinion will be on a public forum

Dunno what decade you're trying to claim that for, @EasternStandard .

You've been around here for many years, and so have I, so we both know MN has not been short of anti-Labour threads for many, many years.

For many people I think they find it difficult to accept there are people with differing opinions on various issues, so it is easier for them to believe those differing opinions are from bots or propaganda from journalists etc.

I have no idea what you’re referring to re decade

I’m talking about the last few years and of course many posters have used ‘bot’ at anyone not pro Labour

It probably felt comforting and a way to try and drive people off but Starmer is tanking too much now and dislike will be on here too

Good, mix things up a bit

Starmer will never be as cruel, incompetent and corrupt as the last 3 Prime Ministers before him , no matter how many melodramatic threads get started on here.

Quite. The uk has an abundance of people who dislike fairness and want to keep their own privilege at the expense of everyone else.

I'm affected (more than most of the whiners on here) by the school VAT thing and I don't begrudge it because it's about fairness.

I have been called a bot as well. I agree it’s used as an insult but I don’t think MN is saying it like that. On the thread in question that wouldn’t have made any sense anyway.

If MN are saying then I am assuming it’s not just what they are saying and there’s some other indicator. Like how old the account is or their IP or something. I have no idea about the tech but am sure they do.

No sorry I won’t be sharing. It was a private email in response to a report and I don’t believe there was anything odd about the message at all.

Are you new here? Mn is as centre right as forums come.

Christ, there’s someone comparing Starmer with Putin now. This place is bonkers sometimes.

Apols @PigeonLady I assumed it was an MN message posted onto a thread - publicly. I would have thought MN had some kind of software that filters false account, but maybe not.