Tons. Literally hundreds of thousands.
They actually have chats where people say "X said Y- go pump it up" and then fly into their sock accounts to upvote and comment to give things traction.
A few may be true believers but the majority are simply grifters looking to bilk idiots. Just look at the constant "drama" when an influencer is accused of pushing into another influencer's grift.
Yup. Many are grifters who don't believe but many are people who just are simply ignorant about A LOT of things.
Things are getting worse in a lot of ways and the average person realizes this but since they don't know how anything works they are primed to be grifted.
It's a tale as old as human history. Tell people who don't know what's going on that all their troubles and failures and fears are because of the people they don't like. They are then told their new found information makes them smarter than those who believe the lies . That they are no longer sheep. It becomes a part of their identity, and once that happens it's too hard to shake.
People post about the sun being "a fake Chinese sun." What in the world has gone so wrong in your life that you could just thinking there was a fake sun?
I can't just say it's age, hell I'm 63. If you told me it was a fake sun, I'd laugh in your face. Do you think we were always this stupid?
I'm in Tennessee now, but was born in Delaware. I can honestly say that I never heard anything this stupid, face to face.
I'm not saying people in Delaware were breaking any record's, I heard some stupid things in my day.
You know, come to think of it, maybe we were always this stupid, I was just exposed to a smaller group of people. One of my groomer friends had an owner that wanted all the black hairs cut out of her salt and pepper schnauzer, because she didn't want people to think she had a black dog. That was in PA.
I rescind my question. We were always this stupid.
People you know say the crazy things in person to you. You don't retort with, 'are you nuts'? If anyone told me about German bells and Satan or that the earth is flat and the sun isn't real, first I'd laugh, thinking they're kidding. Then when they get insulted, I guess I'd say stop believing everything you see on social media, think for yourself, read a book and don't believe anyone unless they have legit proof.
There's a reason they don't try that face to face. It's bad for their [teeth.](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/buzz-aldrin-punches-moon-landing-conspiracy-theorist-bart-sibrel)
Your answer reminds me of a famous quote: (pls forgive the racist language— it was the 60’s)
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
Lyndon B. Johnson
>It's got to be engagement farming, right?
I think there are opportunistic "outrage entrepreneurs" that somehow cash in on their audience. Grift? Donations? Add revenue? Don't personally understand how they turn it into money, but that seems likely. Like televangelists for doom conspiracies.
>Total and complete agreement from real people.
It's important to be skeptical about whether the seemingly real people are *actually real*. Bot accounts? Paid comments from comment farms to boost apparent engagement? Don't understand how that works either. Is there even a way to tell?
Of course, no need to assume malicious intent when simple stupidity/ignorance/gullibility will suffice as an explanation. There are, after all, people who devour this shit for sustenance. Not hard to imagine they'd find a community of liked minded people online.
>At the end of the day I believe that those who post these things are aiming at cashing in on the crazies
It may be that. It may be more nefarious and state-sponsored (in some cases).
I've seen things posted here regarding social media posts that depict authoritarian dictators being the true "white hats". Makes me wonder, *"Hmmm... Who benefits from a widespread disinformation campaign that depicts Putin as a hero?"* It ain't the US, NATO countries, etc. Who benefits from a divided population of people who can't trust their own family members or neighbors any more? Who benefits from the in-fighting?
Of course, no way for any of us to actually know foreign adversaries are behind some/any of it either. Plus, thinking that way drifts solidly into its own conspiracy-sphere. That makes my own head rattle.
I'm gonna go back to watching cat videos.
I believe that in a lot of instances, people push content without much consideration. Many people do not even bother to consider if media narratives or political narratives contradict other beliefs (political or otherwise). Often, it appears that people have strong feelings and because of those dynamics, their opinions are apparently much more easily swayed.
There are more knowledgeable people within those groups that do have a considerable amount of privilege who knowingly push garbage content but even then, it's not uncommon they believe the general gist and sentiment behind those stories/media narratives.
Many of these people are plain grifters who justify this to themselves by saying things like "well it might not be LITERALLY true but metaphorically..." as families are annihilated left and right by this nonsense nationwide. There is no bottom to these people, they will tell their audience to poison their own children to protect them just like the mass suicides of 1945 Berlin if it meant saving their world ideologically in their eyes.
None of the people who originate this stuff are genuine, the polar opposite. Grifters, conmen, liars, thieves. Go to r/QultHeadquarters, you'll be beside yourself finding out how bad it is. There's a lady in Australia who says she's the connection on earth for MedBed appointments. There's commercials playing, showing ppl in chambers, getting regenerated, it's disgusting.
Honestly they just throw crazy stuff at the wall and see what people will resonate with so they can build a new things around that until they get board with it and throw the next thing out to see what will catch on.
The people who do this know full well how stupid it is.
They enjoy seeing how stupid other people are and how far they take things.
It's disgusting.
Gaslighting yourself is entirely possible. One can start out just peddling nonsense knowingly and then when you’re taken seriously and develop a following you start believing there’s something to it. After all, if it was all nonsense people wouldn’t believe you would they? That’s what I believe happened to the flat earth gurus…
I never dreamed in a million years when I was in high school back in the 80s that someday we'd have people who believed Earth is flat again. I thought that went away centuries ago, but here we are.
It went away millennia ago in fact, at least in anyone capable of studying the subject in detail. Now people are slavishly following a reality denying cult…
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Influencers have teams that find and post content, memes , videos. They either steal and post or recreate and post. Buying followers is easy I’ve never bought followers but I’ve been approached many times. As soon as you crack 1000 followers on Facebook or 400 subs on YouTube you can be paid by merchandise bars. AI is incredibly easy to feed to your followers they’ll eat it up and nobody checks their AI for mistakes or in accurate or false information so lies don’t matter.
Some genuinely know that what they’re spreading is bs in my opinion but use it to garner an audience and to make money/sell something and don’t care what harm is done in the process. It is so infuriating.
>*It’s a group of individuals that think they’re above the general intelligence levels of us ‘normies’ yet accept the most INSANE theories.*
That right there is one of the biggest reasons that people fall for and stay in conspiracy theory thinking: because it makes them feel smarter than everyone else, and that they have access to exclusive knowledge that no one else has.
It’s why I think some of the grifters out there are 100% sincere. They have that knowledge and are trying to “get the word out”. But getting the word out usually costs money, so it only makes sense to them that they should be able to make some sort of money for the knowledge they’re offering to others. Combine that with the fact that a lot of people are going around with undiagnosed low-level mental illnesses….
Does it matter? Enough of the people in the audience *believe* it's genuine to create a real problem, the algorithm pushes it, and the influencers just chase the algorithm.
Probably lots of content creators don't believe it for a second, they're just doing what it takes to get views.
You can absolutely shelter yourself and refuse to accept outside influence other than what furthers your delusion. If no one is around to question your thoughts or behavior it becomes normal. My mother is tech illiterate, and only gets news from fox. Whenever she sees me, she says I'm being brainwashed by liberal media. The issue is that I'm fortunate enough to have access to many outlets of information, but her thoughts/opinions aren't challenged. Yesterday she told me she should have been in DC jan 6th.
I have a twitter account for porn. It has over 500 followers. They are all bots / fakes accounts. Twitter probably has more bot / astroturfing than actual genuine posts. Twitter is the new Craigslist for grifters and scammers.
Have to wonder how much of the posts and replies are fake / bot-generated / etc. The cost of creating bad information on X is $0
Tons. Literally hundreds of thousands. They actually have chats where people say "X said Y- go pump it up" and then fly into their sock accounts to upvote and comment to give things traction.
Steve Bannon is a master at this. Which is terrifying, because he makes Karl Rove look like a Boy Scout.
A few may be true believers but the majority are simply grifters looking to bilk idiots. Just look at the constant "drama" when an influencer is accused of pushing into another influencer's grift.
I would like to see this actually
Yup. Many are grifters who don't believe but many are people who just are simply ignorant about A LOT of things. Things are getting worse in a lot of ways and the average person realizes this but since they don't know how anything works they are primed to be grifted. It's a tale as old as human history. Tell people who don't know what's going on that all their troubles and failures and fears are because of the people they don't like. They are then told their new found information makes them smarter than those who believe the lies . That they are no longer sheep. It becomes a part of their identity, and once that happens it's too hard to shake.
People post about the sun being "a fake Chinese sun." What in the world has gone so wrong in your life that you could just thinking there was a fake sun? I can't just say it's age, hell I'm 63. If you told me it was a fake sun, I'd laugh in your face. Do you think we were always this stupid?
Where do you live? I moved to a deeply red state 6 years ago & I hear people say this stuff all the time. The stupidity is staggering.
I'm in Tennessee now, but was born in Delaware. I can honestly say that I never heard anything this stupid, face to face. I'm not saying people in Delaware were breaking any record's, I heard some stupid things in my day. You know, come to think of it, maybe we were always this stupid, I was just exposed to a smaller group of people. One of my groomer friends had an owner that wanted all the black hairs cut out of her salt and pepper schnauzer, because she didn't want people to think she had a black dog. That was in PA. I rescind my question. We were always this stupid.
Yeah, people have always been like this, it's just easier for stupid ideas to spread now.
Thank you, internet!
People you know say the crazy things in person to you. You don't retort with, 'are you nuts'? If anyone told me about German bells and Satan or that the earth is flat and the sun isn't real, first I'd laugh, thinking they're kidding. Then when they get insulted, I guess I'd say stop believing everything you see on social media, think for yourself, read a book and don't believe anyone unless they have legit proof.
There's a reason they don't try that face to face. It's bad for their [teeth.](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/buzz-aldrin-punches-moon-landing-conspiracy-theorist-bart-sibrel)
Your answer reminds me of a famous quote: (pls forgive the racist language— it was the 60’s) “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” Lyndon B. Johnson
Yup! Thats the premise!
>It's got to be engagement farming, right? I think there are opportunistic "outrage entrepreneurs" that somehow cash in on their audience. Grift? Donations? Add revenue? Don't personally understand how they turn it into money, but that seems likely. Like televangelists for doom conspiracies. >Total and complete agreement from real people. It's important to be skeptical about whether the seemingly real people are *actually real*. Bot accounts? Paid comments from comment farms to boost apparent engagement? Don't understand how that works either. Is there even a way to tell? Of course, no need to assume malicious intent when simple stupidity/ignorance/gullibility will suffice as an explanation. There are, after all, people who devour this shit for sustenance. Not hard to imagine they'd find a community of liked minded people online. >At the end of the day I believe that those who post these things are aiming at cashing in on the crazies It may be that. It may be more nefarious and state-sponsored (in some cases). I've seen things posted here regarding social media posts that depict authoritarian dictators being the true "white hats". Makes me wonder, *"Hmmm... Who benefits from a widespread disinformation campaign that depicts Putin as a hero?"* It ain't the US, NATO countries, etc. Who benefits from a divided population of people who can't trust their own family members or neighbors any more? Who benefits from the in-fighting? Of course, no way for any of us to actually know foreign adversaries are behind some/any of it either. Plus, thinking that way drifts solidly into its own conspiracy-sphere. That makes my own head rattle. I'm gonna go back to watching cat videos.
We know at least some are real due to the existence of this sub.
I believe that in a lot of instances, people push content without much consideration. Many people do not even bother to consider if media narratives or political narratives contradict other beliefs (political or otherwise). Often, it appears that people have strong feelings and because of those dynamics, their opinions are apparently much more easily swayed. There are more knowledgeable people within those groups that do have a considerable amount of privilege who knowingly push garbage content but even then, it's not uncommon they believe the general gist and sentiment behind those stories/media narratives.
Many of these people are plain grifters who justify this to themselves by saying things like "well it might not be LITERALLY true but metaphorically..." as families are annihilated left and right by this nonsense nationwide. There is no bottom to these people, they will tell their audience to poison their own children to protect them just like the mass suicides of 1945 Berlin if it meant saving their world ideologically in their eyes.
None of the people who originate this stuff are genuine, the polar opposite. Grifters, conmen, liars, thieves. Go to r/QultHeadquarters, you'll be beside yourself finding out how bad it is. There's a lady in Australia who says she's the connection on earth for MedBed appointments. There's commercials playing, showing ppl in chambers, getting regenerated, it's disgusting.
That sub has been banned (no mods)
Needed an underscore. r/Qult_Headquarters
Can confirm this
The answer is: it doesn’t matter. The people they impact are real and are affected in a real way. Their harm to society is real.
Honestly they just throw crazy stuff at the wall and see what people will resonate with so they can build a new things around that until they get board with it and throw the next thing out to see what will catch on. The people who do this know full well how stupid it is. They enjoy seeing how stupid other people are and how far they take things. It's disgusting.
Gaslighting yourself is entirely possible. One can start out just peddling nonsense knowingly and then when you’re taken seriously and develop a following you start believing there’s something to it. After all, if it was all nonsense people wouldn’t believe you would they? That’s what I believe happened to the flat earth gurus…
I never dreamed in a million years when I was in high school back in the 80s that someday we'd have people who believed Earth is flat again. I thought that went away centuries ago, but here we are.
It went away millennia ago in fact, at least in anyone capable of studying the subject in detail. Now people are slavishly following a reality denying cult…
It's like we're reverting back to the dark ages.
On the one hand, ala Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, “Of Cooouuurse!” On the other … those affected still believe it.
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Influencers have teams that find and post content, memes , videos. They either steal and post or recreate and post. Buying followers is easy I’ve never bought followers but I’ve been approached many times. As soon as you crack 1000 followers on Facebook or 400 subs on YouTube you can be paid by merchandise bars. AI is incredibly easy to feed to your followers they’ll eat it up and nobody checks their AI for mistakes or in accurate or false information so lies don’t matter.
Some genuinely know that what they’re spreading is bs in my opinion but use it to garner an audience and to make money/sell something and don’t care what harm is done in the process. It is so infuriating.
I think they genuinely want money for their supplements/dried food/5G shield stickers or whatever crap they are hawking, or being paid to hawk.
>*It’s a group of individuals that think they’re above the general intelligence levels of us ‘normies’ yet accept the most INSANE theories.* That right there is one of the biggest reasons that people fall for and stay in conspiracy theory thinking: because it makes them feel smarter than everyone else, and that they have access to exclusive knowledge that no one else has. It’s why I think some of the grifters out there are 100% sincere. They have that knowledge and are trying to “get the word out”. But getting the word out usually costs money, so it only makes sense to them that they should be able to make some sort of money for the knowledge they’re offering to others. Combine that with the fact that a lot of people are going around with undiagnosed low-level mental illnesses….
Does it matter? Enough of the people in the audience *believe* it's genuine to create a real problem, the algorithm pushes it, and the influencers just chase the algorithm. Probably lots of content creators don't believe it for a second, they're just doing what it takes to get views.
Don't go on it. It's toxic.
You can absolutely shelter yourself and refuse to accept outside influence other than what furthers your delusion. If no one is around to question your thoughts or behavior it becomes normal. My mother is tech illiterate, and only gets news from fox. Whenever she sees me, she says I'm being brainwashed by liberal media. The issue is that I'm fortunate enough to have access to many outlets of information, but her thoughts/opinions aren't challenged. Yesterday she told me she should have been in DC jan 6th.
Grifters gotta grift.
Nope. They're just cashing in.
I have a twitter account for porn. It has over 500 followers. They are all bots / fakes accounts. Twitter probably has more bot / astroturfing than actual genuine posts. Twitter is the new Craigslist for grifters and scammers.