The Alt. Reich is really good at making themselves appear bigger than they are. An example that's got a lot of publicity is how there will be systematic attempts to tank the reviews of films with female or non-white leads, to make them appear more unpopular than they are.Zinegata wrote: ↑2019-08-23 05:10am +1 to the mods here.
What I find funny though is how people in reddit or other forums don’t realize that this kind of brigading/dogpiling with the support of “planted” mods happens all the time to push stupid opinions. Its especially easy in forums that don’t ban alt-accounts, but unfortunately a lot of folks are easily swayed when a lot of voices start chanting even abhorrent stuff like Alt Right White Supremacist BS; thinking that its genuinely popular rather than just pretty obvious manipulation.
I've also noted a pattern on all kinds of Facebook groups (and I'm sure it happens in other social media) where someone posts something progressive, and if you add up the likes/dislikes, the public response is overwhelmingly positive- but the comments, or at least the top comments, are all or nearly all hateful attacks by Alt. Reich types. Part of that is doubtless the use of bots, but its also that they're more engaged, and less reticent about getting into a public fight. So they dominate the conversation. I've taken to urging people to post their own comments and not reply to Alt. Reich comments (thereby boosting those comments to the top of the list), so that the fascists won't dominate every fucking conversation.
Because polling shows fascists and bigots aren't the majority. But you wouldn't know that if you looked at social media.