You Can't Believe Anyone These Days...

Accusations often fly on ATS, where one poster will call another as a partisan paid shill. Typically this isn't taken seriously and it is just dismissed by most folks including myself. as being from the realm of the paranoid.

CONCORD, N.H. - A top aide to U.S. Rep. Charles Bass (news, bio, voting record) resigned Tuesday after disclosures that he posed as a supporter of the Republican's opponent in blog messages intended to convince people that the race was not competitive.
source: yahoo news

Apparently this not paranoia at all. A aide for a congressional candidate has been found posting to blogs and representing himself as a supporter of the opposing party. This creates a quandry. How can we tell if a poster is liberal posing as a conservative or whether the poster is a conservative posing as a liberal.

Are the ATS bush supporters in reality paid by hillary clinton to make all republicans look like warmongers? Or is it the republican national committee misrepresenting the ATS democrats. This isnt a problem for me as I hold both parties in equal contempt. This certainly creates a problem for party partisans, how will you folks know who are your friends and enemies ?



[edit on 26-9-2006 by df1]

I heard about this yesterday, and immediately did a search for the names he was using on those boards to see if he had been here. He had been using "IndieNH" and "IndyNH" as handles. No sign of that name on this site, but I did check immediately.

It really isn't so paranoid though, df1. It makes sense. Why would they ignore the internet, when it is a super valuable tool out there? Of course, now I guess I'll be called one...

I'm a bit confused about how this is a bad thing, but whatever.

I can honestly say I am not a Conservative posing as a Liberal or a
Liberal posing as a Conservative, indeed I am not posing as anything.

And I am definately not President Putin posing as an American...
*Oh good, my vodka and Roznjici are here.*

Cobert Report!
He acts like a Neocon, but really isnt! Its all part of "getting it"

I would say I would act one way, just becasue others expect me to play into their hands by saying left wing things, when in real life I am neither left or right..
I belive in my American rights, and all. But when you say that, the right will claim you as liberal left winger! Or the left will call me a right wing Con.
The only way to win, is not to play into what they expect.. You have to be clever!
Much like Mr. Colbert! AKA the Truthfullynessmostessness!

If any of these political hacks have studied ANY Sun Tzu, you can bet they're employing spy systems in several different forms.

Rove might have taught them how. His machiavellian ways would do anything for victory.

...ANYthing.

I don't really care who the posers are. And I can be fairly confident who my friends are merely by their attitudes (and if they like cats lol). Call it intuition, I can feel their intentions in the spirit of their writings and posts. (most times anyhow)

Indie or Indy isn't exactly disguising the fact that he's an INDEPENDENT

...fercryingoutloud.

The strategy expressed by the article in this thread only works if people don't call BS when they see it- REGARDLESS of political affiliation.

That is the peril in America today. Too many want to be spoon-fed their opinions and have them reinforced no matter where they might look.

It's pathetic.

As long as EVERY issue in life is artificially FORCED into the Republican or Democratic box, there is no real change possible for the foreseeable future.


[edit on 30-9-2006 by loam]

And oh yea... the paranoid are liable to cook up these things too. And smart alec kids looking to get their ya-yas off.

They aren't all brain dead from video games. That's what they said about the mtv generation too. Now they're running the military and the zombies are racing to see who can win the world. Street Fighter, Grand Theft Auto styles, you name it, Zelda.

This site along with any other highly trafficed politcal site or blog ALWAYS has paid posters who stand on message. They [neocons] control television, newspapers and radio. Why would anyone not think they'd not being trying to steer the message on the internet? Go to democraticundergroud or freerepublic, they're littered with these sh*ts!

NeoCons/Liberals/Republicans/Democrats... They're all the same nowadays. It sounds to me like a wolf posing as a wolf.

That a member of one party should blog while pretending that he is a member of the other, opposing party, doesn't surprise me at all. A relatively new phenomenon is the paid, professional propagandist (for want of a better word).
Yes, there are actually companies that hire bloggers to, well, blog. The effort of all of this blogging is to work to sway public opinion, to put a positive view towards the person, company or, in this case, political party that hired the blogger.

An example of an internet company that hires bloggers to propagandize, misinform or to sway public opinion for their paying clients is Cymfony.


A more in depth discussion on the topic of paid bloggers working to sway opinion or to propaganize discussion boards or blogging sites can be found here;
Propagandists....paid professionals on ATS?