[–] badruns 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
CTR was literally everywhere online during the 2016 election. They had fulltime employees flooding and moderating reddit, paid contracts with Google and facebook to censor results and content, and at least the support of the staff at Twitter as well, if not another outright contract.
Does not even begin to compare.
Yes, but how active are they today? It was blatantly obvious in 2016. I still encounter some obvious shills from time to time on other topics (say "glyphosate" anywhere on reddit and the shills will come out to debate you). With some topics, I can't tell if people are earnest users or shills and that doubt makes me paranoid.
It's wise to practice some self reflection. We can whine about Russian bots, but the same argument works with accusations of shilling. Unfortunately, the shills have the backing of media companies so they have plenty of sources to cite to make them appear more credible to the eyes of normies.
[–] goytoynamedtroy ago
What you should do is double down and say 'Okay, I am a racist, fascist, etc..., your point?'
(((They))) won't know what to do.