Re:The coming automation of propaganda
by UnpossibleJim on Friday August 09, 2019 @11:02PM
(#20659880)
They have the means, they just don't have the discipline, I think. We don't really teach discipline, critical thinking or money management in public schools; all of which are necessary for adult life. The kaleidoscope of chaos is hard to turn your eyes from, but it's worth doing if you set your mind to it.
Kind of ironic that the means of fighting the billions spent is to do nothing, which is totally free and takes less effort than e.g. purchasing a TV, purchasing a subscription, starting a social media account and engaging with it, or even reading an article.
And in that light I disagree with your “obvious consequence” that people will stop paying attention to forum posts, because we know that people do engage with trolls/bots on Twitter/Facebook/etc.
People are also fine watching cable TV for hours, which is content that is entirely designed by people whose intentions we do not know. What fundamental difference does it make whether candidate Doe’s agenda is pushed by bots on forums vs TV anchors paid to read off a teleprompter, when people are so eager to sit in front of it and engage with it?
Human attention is the new commodity, and the average person just does not have the means to fight the billions of dollars collectively poured into exploiting their eyeballs.