https://youtu.be/UlGUYT_zk5oTheyve realised that if they can just astroturf a thread pretending to be different people professing the same opinion, whilst ridiculing the poster they don't like without actually contesting anything, they can literally brainwash cognitively unengaged observers into accepting their point of view by taking advantage of their subconscious tribal instincts.
Human brains are optimisers. That is, they frequently seek shortcuts instinctively to save time and reduce mental load. Humans also learn socially, traditionally from their friends, family, tribe, church, community etcetera. But social learning is more effective if the optimising instinct senses the source of education has prestige. One form of prestige is simply some form of recognised authority, like a chimp alpha male in the ancient era, or an academic, priest, celebrity or minister in the modern era. Another, more relevant to Their strategy on online forums, is group consensus.
When all members of a group tend to agree on an issue, an unengaged observer will naturally optimise their attitudes to what everyone else is saying - "if everyone is saying it, it must be true". This natural form of social learning, which in the ancestral environment came from one's copatriots and family, is heavily abuseable by malicious actors in the modern tech age. By using IP address hoppers, botnets and faux onlibe identities, a small group of concerted individuala can artificially create the sensation of group consensus by posing as large numbers of disinterested people. On websites with upvote systems, they can manipulate upvotes to make it appear as if most people agree with their consensus, regardless of whether people actually do or not. This supercharges the artificial social consensus further and presents it as a prestigious model which the optimising unengaged brain can learn from. And eventually, people DO begin to genuinely agree with the consensus, because they have been given mental stimulation to imply that a lot of others agree. It's essentially a modern form of hypnosis.
And it works. Bell Pottinger was investigated about 7 years ago because it was hired by the billionaire Indian Gupta brothers to astroturf racial hatred and negativity against White owned businesses in South Africa on facebook and twitter, in order to harm the Guptas' business competitors in South Africa. Make no mistake that there are well organised missions linked to a certain
(((group))) that take advantage of this strategy to manipulate you and hide people they don't like. And they're trying to get digital ID locked in, to ensure no one but they have the power to do this. This isn't the medieval village anymore, darkness lurks around every corner. Your brain can no longer afford to remain unengaged and optimise based on group consensus.