Too many fake current affairs posts on MN

[inthetrenches1]

I’ve never started a post before (I don’t think?), I’m an on-off lurker for a while, but what’s become apparent is the number of posts on MN that have clearly been posted by political parties opposing the government. It’s just another tactic used these days like creating online petitions and fake polls about issues/fake issues to get sectors of society riled up about things they were never worried about before.

Misinformation filtering into society is at an all-time high. You can see them a mile away on here. Next time you see a “I’ve seen a poll saying Reform are more popular than Labour” just remember it’s probably a lackey of Farage and Tice’s, with seven mobile phones and three laptops, thirty different fake profiles on the go, gleefully making up these baseless posts on here and on social media.

If you want to leave a comment feel free, I only came here to post, I probably won’t be reading the replies

I think when people get bored of stupid things they may well say "a quick Google shows..."

I always suspect that is for the benefit of other readers ( encourage to do own digging ) and means that the poster CBA with the original - because sometimes writing tons of evidence for a poster you think isn't in good faith seems pointless ?

That's how I often interpret anyway

You don’t have to write tons of evidence. A link takes about 30 seconds to provide.

Ok, I'm bored now and this is derailing the thread. @Zonder what links would you like? Please specify. Happy to oblige if it will end this silliness.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24845079.reform-labour-neck-neck-new-westminster-poll/

Will this do? No mention of packets of crisps per capita I'm afraid as per your previous request.

That's nice. They could have linked to that rather than the vague hand waving of "it's over there"

Is it? Why do you say that?

It’s always worth checking out how polling companies recruit their participants and stratify their sample populations. This one gets their bites from an opt in daily web-based free lottery where you’re encouraged to fill in ‘surveys’ for extra chances at winning. Quality stuff.

This! Requests for links are primarily so they can be sneered at and discredited and declared so biased as to be useless. So I will not provide them. I'll make the suggestion or assertion then people who are posting in good faith will go and find out more won't they? Using their "preferred" sources no doubt. I had just this discussion on another thread a day or two ago.

I don’t believe many of these political posts are fake at all and I don’t believe we are swamped by bots. Political alliances are changing. Much of the electorate is disappointed in Starmer’s Government and with identity/woke/cancellation type beliefs losing popularity, posters feel more confident in expressing their concerns around issues that MN’s overall extremely left leaning position, previously made impossible.

Yes the demand for links is often followed by insults from a few so why bother.

Plus no please or thanks and demands at 1am or whatever, I can see why the pp responded as they did.

Good to see mnhq finally deleting bot accusations as a matter of course, it was those posts making the site tedious. An attempt to drive political views away of course, too many think the gov are poor for that to work now.

It's not a demand for links. It's a request for evidence. Responding by saying you can Google it is dumb because we all have different algorithms and Google doesn't produce the same results for everyone. So my Google may well throw up different links than yours and won't give me the evidence you think.

It’s sheer laziness. No link or naming your source? Absolutely fine, I won’t believe you. I wouldn’t expect anyone to believe me if I didn’t back it up with evidence.

I don’t think people will care

I know I’d prefer not to be badgered by some so if they give up with that all good

The pp was right about tone too

This labour government is a piece of steaming crap. I’m not a Tory bot

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/51211-where-public-opinion-stands-at-the-beginning-of-2025

This is polling from yougov. labour are genuinely unpopular.

Theres something telling about posters who complain about posters criticising the government. Something almost stasi like. Hand on heart never seen a right wing poster complain that posters who don’t like the Tories are bots. Criticising the government is like a national sport in Britain. Long may it continue.

I think one poll put reform and Labour neck and neck in the polls, but it was one poll. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it not real.

Tone? This is very subjective in a post. Your tone often comes over in a certain way but we have to remember that we are all subjective readers.

Yep I agree with the pp take. And I can see why they responded to your posts as they did.

As for your response here scroll past as you wish I’m up for that.

I didn't wish to scroll past or I would have done! I wished to make a point about tone. See, I think that your tone comes over in a certain way in this post but I'm trying to remember that I'm reading it subjectively and you might be quite pleasant, and not at all controlling.

I couldn't care less. If you're curious you'll look, if you're not you won't. It's not my job to convince randoms on the internet.

Oh my

You don’t have to engage with my posts it’s not compulsory

There are others, enjoy.

People don’t care. Many don’t have the time to spend all day responding to never ending demands for sources from a coordinated group of posters. Many just use the place as a discussion forum: they pick it up and leave it. People don’t care if randoms on the internet believe them or not. When posters behave like that it comes across as a bit of a complex of ‘how important they are.’ It’s an anonymous internet forum.

As I said, I responded to make a point, and I'm bearing in mind that you might not be controlling, despite this comment.

Moving on from the circular pp below which are a bit pointless I agree with this and @User37482

This is a very interesting subject, in some ways.

Are there posters who comment about politics because they’re part of a political scheme? Maybe, but they’re likely to be very few.

Are there posters who comment on politics by themselves but intending to promote a party they belong to? Probably, but again I suspect there aren’t many.

Are Labour (and perhaps some other parties’) supporters particularly sensitive to anti-Labour sentiment? That seems much more likely.

Labour supporters have had 14 years to become self-righteous and indignant. That’s natural, and if Labour gets two or three terms we’ll see the same from Tories and Reform (if Reform survives, which I doubt).

The issue will fade.

As to incessant posting, look at the pro-Palestinian and pro-private schools topics!

Good point @Rummly. The only poster I can think of who I can say definitely comments to promote their favoured party is one who is notorious for their use of copy and paste and providing links. I’m sure regulars on political threads know who I mean. I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with her but I do respect the robustness of her contributions.