Has the government got paid posters here to quash any dissenting voices?

[ssd]

There's always been robust discussions on politics on mn, but I've noticed lately when ever someone questions the government's track record on covid, certain posters pop up with very similar agendas, defending them to the hilt and trying to throw the discussion round to something else.

I'd like to see when posters actually joined mn, some newer posters must spend all their time on here defending the indefensible.

Claig was here from at least 3-4 years before the 2010 election. So unless Trump planted her for the long game...I wonder if Tony Benn paid her too because she was a great fan. I joined MN in early 2004 and remember Claig pretty much since then on.

Mumchmunch- you are thinking of Jon Jennings, MP who was on here under his real name banging his drum about social services stealing babies. He would remind you of Boris given he was all family values yada yada and then at the same time the redtops were full of his private life embarrassments, including one lover killing his cat or something. Can't remember if his wife or the lover used to post as well about how wonderful he was in his one man war against SS. The posters who handed him his arse on more than one occasion were Spero and NinaNana.

Jon Hemmings

Makeourfuture was one, it was only slogans and relentless posting. You couldn't have a discussion because they were only interested in hammering the point. Yes I agree. Relentless and no sense of humour. There's one similar posting now. However I suspect they are a disappointed Corbynite.

Yes - jennings didn't sound right. I too remember claig from years before 2010 and am genuinely baffled by the aspersions and accusations on here about her - including saying she was a man. I even took discussions with her off the board and into private messages because I genuinely was trying to understand how she put tory and feminist together rather than do the knee jerk bullshit she's not a feminist, you can't be a feminist and vote tory response that was the norm at the time, or at least to try and challenge that knee jerk response in me.

We had plenty of trolls in those years and mra puppets but I would say with 100% certainty that claig was a genuine poster with a, perhaps bizarre to me, perspective and... value system.

Now thinking maybe there was some bullshit spin around her being banned and hence asking what she was posting about at the time to get a sense of what reason she might really have been banned for.

OP I agree. I’ve been off MN for a while and the change in tone and content was quite obvious to me.

Some people need to become aware of at least one sort of troll factory that isn't affiliated with one political party or interested in just one country. A troll factory that has trolls building up convincing side lives to make them believable as pps.
They are not the only ones, and trolls vary in quality and purpose, but don't think people who've been years and happen to post on, say, cooking pages, aren't paid trolls.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency

I think that sometimes shills, Russian bots etc come to post on MN only on politics and then get distracted by recipe threads, parking threads and baby name threads.

Claig was a prolific poster who as said above honed in on every single post about the Eu. The posts were long and dreary, loads of cut and paste, italics, statistics, just generally droning on. As soon as she/he joined the conversation she shut it down and I suppose that was the objective. She was a massive supporter of trump and had this obsession about the ‘elites’. I’ve not read any posts written in the same style for years to be honest and they were very distinctive
What I’ve also noticed is that certain regular posters will brook absolutely no criticism of Johnson, the government or the tories. One in particular counters every vaguely critical comment with a statistic or whataboutery. They just cannot accept any questioning about government policy and that’s what’s odd. Most labour supporters will accept that labour made huge mistakes but this poster not a chance....

@LWJ70 why do you think the death rate is so low? Younger population? Far, far less obesity? Something else?

You want to try middle eastern social media. 1 in 4 posters seem to be government shills and you have the extra edge of them probably being capable of getting you arrested.

If Claig spent more than 6 years posting about feminism and women's rights and her political views - which as another poster who was around way back then like i was has said also included counter intuitive things like being a fan of tony benn despite thinking sarah palin, when she emerged was a feminist icon (god how i argued that point) then she more than earned her money for 6 years plus of daily posting. Personally as i've said as someone who talked to her from about 2007 onwards (and another poster on here even earlier) I call bullshit on that one.

If she was singing from a different hymnsheet on here in the build up to the referendum I can well imagine she got enough coordinated reports and caused enough headaches to get her banned. Not because she was a shill but because mnhq's light moderation doesn't extend to the headache of endless reports and complaints about one poster over time.

MN were always very cagey about the big cull of 2016/17.
It was quite amusing when one pp seemed very puzzled at suddenly being left alone as all other Trumpites suddenly disappeared into thin air.

I remember claig being questioned about the local weather, either on the Brexit referendum or some election. Pps living in the region claig claimed to live in kept saying it was very different from where claig had mentioned. Something about a lovely day going to the poll station and people reporting rain or clouds for that area.

Anyway, my favourites are those who say "I'm not a (insert) fan, but they're great and their opposition is so bad"

dittany, although capable of being really harsh and taking no prisoners or playing nicey nice with huns, may have been banned for being a radical feminist before many other people had begun to see and admit that actually they too fitted that definition and it wasn't an insult when they thought about it.

There was some kind of scandal though - I don't worry dementia in old age - I worry that I've always had it. I literally cannot remember things to the point where people will say you remember so and so and I'll say who? No. And they'll say remember when you said/did/went out with/whatver and I'm, Did I? When? Where? What.

It's actually quite disturbing and I may be a good advert for not re-enacting the mid to late 90's.

Given that the next election isn't for a while, there doesn't seem to be much money to be made or votes to be bought by doing so. On the other hand, there's been a lot of people mentioning specific businesses that provide unvalidated antibody tests, I imagine even a couple of people pushing a particular supplier would be incredibly profitable for that business.

Most labour supporters will accept that labour made huge mistakes

Ah ha ha ha ha

oh, do fuck off.

Yes. This will sound batshit to some but this is real and not even a secret (you can look on their website for more information!).
They are a unit of the British Army called 77th Brigade that uses social media and psyop techniques to influence populations and behaviour. They are "involved in manipulation of the media including using fake online profiles".

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/77th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)

During the UK government's daily coronavirus briefing, 22 April 2020, Nick Carter confirmed that 77th Brigade are working with the Home Office Rapid Response Unit "helping to quash rumours from misinformation, but also to counter disinformation”.

Dittany was very kind to me on an Amanda Knox thread (the Meredith Kercher murder case, not the other AK) She was ahead of her time on the FWR issues and it didn't sit nicely with the crafting pushchair choosing demographic.

No. Unfortunately, I have to say that no, most Labour supporters are not able to accept and admit mistakes and that is sad for me to say given I was left for decades (and I still couldn't vote tory if that helps).

Certain leadership candidates signed pledges saying that anyone who wasn't 100% supportive of gender identity ideology and basically any woman who wouldn't spout 'trans women are women full stop', were bigots who should be expelled from the labour party and agreed that Womans Place and LGB Alliance were hate groups. In response there was a massive expel me movement. Did anyone say hmm perhaps we should have actually read and thought through that pledge demand by tras and considered what it meant to for half of the populations sex based rights rather than just signing 'cos yeah, we is right on and woke? No. They literally did things like go on national tv and deny the existence of biological sex instead.

Do they care that they have again made the party unelectable EVEN in the face of 10 years of austerity economics from the tories? No.

I'm politically homeless btw - so def not a shill and def not saying tories are great by criticising labour. I criticise tories plenty in the million areas they are getting it wrong.

TheCanterburyWhales Thu 14-May-20 09:03:06
Dittany was very kind to me on an Amanda Knox thread (the Meredith Kercher murder case, not the other AK) She was ahead of her time on the FWR issues and it didn't sit nicely with the crafting pushchair choosing demographic. - Exactly! Thank you. Gosh maybe kindred spirits do still exist on here lol.

How is Brexit going ?

I have had moments on some threads recently where I have wondered about the authenticity of certain posters. This is not because of the difference in opinions, it is more to do with the way the feel of a thread suddenly changes.

I find this site to be relentlessly left wing and many posters unable to accept that people may hold different views.

I'm uncomfortable with the idea that while I, as an averagely intelligent adult, will listen to pro or anti-government views and consider if I agree or see any validity in them, that others may dismiss it out of hand anything other than Boris hatred as the work of bots

Boris et al seem pretty vocally determined that brexit is full steam ahead.

I know I'll get slated for saying this but I think more people may be glad of it when they start seeing the cost of coronovirus for europe and realising that only Germany and France potentially will be paying the bill (where it would have Germany, France and the UK).

I absolutely feel Greece, Italy and similar economies need to be supported if they are EU members and half of their problems stem from being forced to take on massive debts each time they've been in a different financial position than richer member states. Can't say I'm sorry that we won't be paying a third of the bill though.

Italy and Greece have been sold down the river repeatedly by the EU. Italy now has been harder hit than any other member nation but understandably expects the 'union' to foot the bill rather than leave one nation in the shit. Much like if Sunderland had been hit hardest by coronavirus it would expect funding and support from central government not to be left to drown alone.

Anti or pro brexit there are interesting times ahead observing how the EU and predominantly Germany and France (being the ones with deepest pockets due to stronger economies) handle the cost of coronavirus across the union.

And note borders were closed and important again when it came to spread of disease. I think Europe (in terms of the project rather than the continent) has majorly interesting times ahead with some significant game changers and I can't say I'm sad to be watching as an outsider.

There is no way Italy is going to pick up the tab of this pandemic which happened to be in their local which apparently is just a local of the EU not an 'on your own' nation. Especially when they've already faced massive costs economically and otherwise throughout the refugee crisis and felt abandoned by Europe in that too (likewise Greece).

France and Germany will have to be the bill payers - like the south east would pay the bills for England in a deep recession because the north east would be hardest hit but it would be a British problem not a NE England problem. (I apologies to any Jordies or Sunderland people (is it macams or something like that - it genuinely is random that I keep picking on your area in these examples) But how will France's Yellow Jackets feel about that? How will people seeing cuts in public services or workers rights in their own country feel about giving millions to another country?

I don't claim to know or to have a particular desired outcome but I can go hmm this is going to get interesting and wonder what's going to happen and how national interests and concerns are going to be balanced with other member states needs for economic support.

@Bertoldbrecht I think you're confusing claig with the isitmee poster. Claig was readable and you could debate her. Reading the other one was like being shouted at by a bullying teacher.

TheHoneyBadger I would really disagree with the idea that Labour voters can never admit Labour made mistakes. Look at the number of people who were protesting against the Iraq War, the people who turned away over Corbyn, the people who left the party over women's rights or anti semitism. Momentum too. In fact Momentum aren't happy with Labour over the last election. Part of Labour's problem is always thinking part of the party is wrong and fighting amongst themselves rather than presenting a united front.

That proves labour is falling apart not that labour is good at admitting and apologising and reconciling with those they have wronged mistakenly.