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.
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.