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

385 replies

ssd · 13/05/2020 11:10

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.

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ssd · 13/05/2020 22:53

Wasn't there a poster called isitmebut, or something like that, who supported the tories and dragged up any articles to support their view, usually written in italics, with paragraphs in bold too?
They were very prolific during the election, now I've noticed a very similar posting style supporting Boris.

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TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 22:54

From conversations, observing years of posting, choice of topics etc. Obviously I don't know as in getting a dna sample with XX chromosomes but apparently that's not the measure of 'female' now anyway.

TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 22:55

oh that rings a bell ssd - was it massive pages of post that were in fact copy and pastes in italics? That definitely rings a bell

effingterrified · 13/05/2020 22:55

Yes, the name rings a bell, ssd.

But there seem to be armies of them on MN now.

Unfortunately, Cummings is clearly going for quantity not quality.

Pay peanuts, get monkeys, probably.

TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 22:58

I remember a poster on another forum years ago obsessed with banks being demons enslaving nations and their citizens into debt. Not wrong I guess but literally would fill pages with cut and pastes on any and every thread even if it had fuck all to do it with his pet obsession.

He wasn't a 'shill' just a socially inept obsessive with no regard to online etiquette.

Violetparis · 13/05/2020 22:59

I got called a Russian bot on here for saying even though I voted Remain I disagreed with a second referendum, think there are many more people who just can't accept that people disagree with them than there are paid posters.

TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 23:06

Know the feeling violet. People just could not comprehend that I didn't agree with superstates and ever more centralised power. It did not add up. If you supported Brexit you had to be, must be, definitely were an uneducated, old, racist fool. There was not room in their world view for people to disagree with them about Europe unless it was because they were the bogeyman (racist, old, uneducated, fool).

I don't think there are lots of paid shills but as others have said any government or interest group who didn't use forums such as this to test out ideas , suggestibility or boundaries would be missing a trick and paying idiots to inform them of public opinion. It would be foolish to think they didn't use mn (women are half the population), fb, reddit, twitter etc to covertly assess public thinking and the effectiveness of different messaging upon different target groups.

ITonyah · 13/05/2020 23:09

I think MN may have been useful to judge opinion back in the day but not anymore. It's absolutely batshit these days.

ssd · 13/05/2020 23:10

Yes, loads and loads of pages copied and pasted, all in separate paragraphs, some bold, some in italics... By the time you got to the end of their post you lost the will to live and left the thread... Exactly what they wanted.

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TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 23:16

I'm an awkward outlier though. Educated, well travelled and an anthropologist originally but pro brexit. Well versed in globalisation and anti fundamentalist thinking and extremism but coming in on the side of nationalism as the lesser evil of potential vehicles for uniting against global corporatism. Technically middle class in terms of education and profession but still entirely working class in terms of political interests. Teacher but fairly avid critic of the goals of state 'education'. Bit of a hippy who dabbled and more in all sorts and would never say never to doing so again but against the legalisation of cannabis.

I had recruiters from advertising give me the hard sell at uni and can see how people like me would have been useful to them via understanding cultures, sub cultures, interest groups etc but my values were diametrically opposed to the advertising industry.

We don't all fit into the neat 2D boxes people think we do or should do. I personally hate the polemics and hyperbole of modern politics and discourse but it suits all the powers that be and all the powers that would like to be and definitely all the advertisers.

Tootletum · 13/05/2020 23:19

It's surely a bit more compliance than that. I hate this government, and Brexit, and I think they're useless idiots. However, I also think people just have to get used to living our lives with this virus and the small increase in risk of illness as a result. And I think children need to be in school. the WHO stayed this evening this could never go away and it'll be 4 years for a vaccine best case. So it's a joke what the unions are spouting.

TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 23:20

I also hate the 'if you criticise corbyn you must be a right wing thatcherite' or if you support shutting down tax havens and high levels of corporation tax you must be a raging socialist. It's as if all ideas are owned and stamped by existing interest groups - fuck off - I will mix and match my ideas, values and positions as I please and if they don't fit your neat little boxes that makes your boxes wrong not us.

I'm preaching on the internet again so it must mean it's time to go to bed.

Peace and quality sleep to all.

ITonyah · 13/05/2020 23:25

I'll never forget saying on here that I couldn't vote for JC and a poster calling me a cunt and a murderer. I've never felt the same about MN since.

ssd · 13/05/2020 23:26

Don't listen to idiots like that. If someone says that to you just report them.

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Bartlet · 13/05/2020 23:29

Absolutely. People are complex and don’t need to follow blindly what one party says/ thinks.

I’m economically more aligned to the Tory party, socially more aligned to labour (except the batshit crazy policy regarding transgender self identification). I have even voted Lib Dem.

Issues like brexit, COVID etc cut across this old political tribalism. Just because someone supports BoJos government does not mean they’re a paid Tory.

TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 23:31

Reporting is mostly 'pissing in the wind' as teachers have found out whilst being called lazy bastards who don't care about kids and are sitting at home sipping cocktails whilst the poor wee children are dying from having to stay home in the safety of their own homes. Or as FWR posters found out when battling mass influxes of mra trolls registering purely to abuse mn'ers.

Controversy equals clicks and media coverage.

BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup · 13/05/2020 23:33

@Tootletum I would be confident of living with the virus if the NHS hadn't screwed up the healthcare for myself and my other female relations in the past. As most of us are in the demographics who are most likely to die, and with this government in charge then we don't wish to take our chances.

@ITonyah - they still don't understand how ineffective JC is and how his behaviour helped lead to the shitshow we have now of a government

ITonyah · 13/05/2020 23:35

I did report it and it was deleted eventually. It's too late after you've read it though.

ssd · 13/05/2020 23:37

I'm not saying no one is allowed an opinion. And I'm not saying if you don't agree with me you are wrong.
What I'm saying is, when a thread starts that is criticising the government, certain, CERTAIN, posters crawl out the woodwork and leapt to their defence, using similar language and posting styles. And it's getting feckin boring. It closes down debate, which is what they want, obviously. But it's just getting boring.

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ssd · 13/05/2020 23:38

I know, @ITonyah, it's hard to unread something. But don't let one miserable sod put you off.

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PineappleDanish · 13/05/2020 23:40

Thus is nuts. If you want your kids back in school you're a government plant?

Aren't people allowed to have different opinions? I'm not automatically assuming everyone questioning the government is a Labour plant

TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 23:43

I'm not a tory and never have been but can't support labour whilst they deny womanhood exists and sell our hard won sex based rights down the river to be right on with stonewall even when lesbians are breaking away from stonewall saying they've sold them down the river.

I think being a woman cuts across party lines.

Evil as it makes me I'm more towards right on immigration and british cultural conservation (eg hard won rights for women, homosexuals, etc shouldn't come second to incoming religious prejudices glorified as 'culture' and children's rights should be the same for all eg. abuse is abuse whatever religion it's done by and whatever they claim they make that it's cultural or religious).

I'm more left wing in terms of social responsibility, tax corporations and the wealthy because they benefit from the infrastructure of society and eg. the education, healthcare, transport etc that the state has paid for. I also believe in nationalising core industries such as energy providers, public transport, health etc.

Then there's weird stuff like believing in people's right to home educate and assuming that's a lefty idea only to find out that actually every time government has tried to close down home education as a legal right it has been labour in power and tories who fought for the right for people to make choices for their own children. Who knew it would be tories backing up unschooling, the right to not have your children brainwashed to the states agenda etc.

Or being pro women's rights to seemingly obvious things like single sex prisons, bathrooms, sports, etc and finding out you're better off with tories if you want to see those things preserved.

I confess people who still think it's left v right, good v evil, kindness v workhouses etc now seem a bit simple minded and swept up in tribalism to me.

I think it's a new era and many haven't woken up to it yet. I said i was going to bed and didn't Blush

TheHoneyBadger · 13/05/2020 23:50

Some posters are still banging on about wanting their kids to go to school which makes me think I'm derailing the thread then I read the title and think no, this definitely wasn't a should those bastard lazy teachers go back to school thread Grin It was a thread questioning the status of free dialogue here (and by implication more broadly) and questioning whether that dialogue is being manipulated more than previously. Or at least that's how I saw it and the OP is welcome to say shut up that's not what I was talking about.

ssd · 13/05/2020 23:52

No, I think that's what I meant, broadly speaking. Then again, I've been furloughed 7 weeks, I can hardly tell what day it is now Grin

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flashbac · 13/05/2020 23:54

Governments have always had corruption to some degree but this feels different... Blatant even. We've had no real opposition until now so maybe that's allowed the brazenness. Russia report suppressed, electoral fraud investigation dropped. Our democracy at stake.