EU/NATO 2018 analysis, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29610932 (takes a few seconds to load the PDF file)

This is a great report, thank you.

The most important thing a con artist must convince the mark of is this: everyone else is on the take. Once this is believed, the mark will follow the con down any corrupt rabbit hole.

Ask yourself this: who wants you to believe that everything is astroturfing? Who does that serve?

Ask yourself this: who isn't astroturfing?

(For the US in fact social media astroturfing doesn't even have to be covert: as the social media belong to domestic companies, they by default promote the national party line and foreign interests - it's only bad when someone else does it).

Two things can simultaneously be true: (1) there is substantial astroturfing in the infosphere & (2) everything is not astroturf.

Ironically, I think the accusations of astroturfing (whether true or not) more directly serve the meta goal of decreasing the public's ability and willingness to engage in debate, and accusations are much more amplification / outrage friendly.

So it’s better to just never acknowledge it? As if there is no alternative?

Best is probably acknowledging it out of band, as it is a pervasive issue, rather than a specific one.

So articles and discussion like this, but not "Chinese|American shill" in a thread about something else.