Two years ago I posted an article about the McCain campaign paying people to down-vote web articles they didn’t like. Including mine.
Well, it looks like it has gotten a lot worse since then. A well-researched posting on AlterNet shows exactly how conservatives groups are deliberately spam-voting against articles they don’t like, or people they don’t like.
I’m angry. This is absolutely unamerican. I don’t mind people who disagree with me, but they have no right to try to shut me up. They are purposely destroying my country for their own selfish ends. They already control most of the mainstream media, so they want to make sure you can’t see other opinions anywhere else. I hate using this word, but you know what? This is exactly what Fascism looks like.
13 Comments
IK – Don’t hate the players, hate the game. Both sides play the game. Remember whatever state out west where the Dem Lib teacher was planning on attending Tea Party rallies and acting up to discredit them? What are the statistics for Liberal groups doing the same thing to conservative articles. I bet it goes on equally to both sides. It’s the game. Until people stop foaming at the mouth and start talking to each other (and turn off all cable news) it won’t change. That process needs to start with our leadership from all sides. It won’t though, because there is too much money and power at stake.
You are right though, it is enraging. But write what you believe and don’t care what the “opinion polls” show.
Perhaps the news and information organizations that have these thumbs up/thumbs down systems should simply get rid of them. I never understood why anyone would want to know or care whether other people liked or did not like the article.
patriotsgt:”and turn off all cable news” You hit the nail right on the head. All the ranting and raving is reminiscint of Hitler’s rants. Fascism. Brainwashing, etc. One person stays in touch with me because the rants are all he hears from his fellow workers so he contacts me to find the truth.
How uninformed this nation is is reflected in the Pew survey about The Supreme Court chief justice. Given a list only 28% could identify the Chief Justice. 56% did not know. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1688/supreme-court-lack-of-public-knowledge-favorability
As I’ve said, our populace should not be allowed to vote if they know nothing about our government.
where can we vote you up? ill make it a point to vote up every article (even the ones about site maintenance purely on principle.)
Schemes like this never actually have the impact that the people who brainstorm them so self-fellatingly believe they will. I’m suddenly reminded of all of the CIA’s plans to slip LSD into Castro’s glass of water, or their proposals to distribute gay/pedophile sex tapes of Saddam Hussien in pre-war Iraq.
Information worth reading will be read, no matter how much electronic sabotage gets thrown at it. The whole thing is just a spasm in a long and drawn out pep-rally. It’s the equivalent of sticking the frozen contents of a shaving-cream can in someone’s car. They think they’re pulling off this big caper when really, they haven’t even made a dent. It’s schoolyard shenanigans. Laughable, really.
Count me in as a THUMBS UP!
A good deal of the traffic to this site comes from Stumbleupon and Reddit. A long time ago I got traffic from Digg, but I seem to have gotten on the list of blogs who get down-voted automatically there. Every post has a “Please Share” link under it, which makes it easy to submit my stories to your favorite site and vote them up (or down).
Speaking of things you can do, please go sign Al Franken’s petition to save Net Neutrality. Blogs like mine depend on equal access to the internet. http://www.alfranken.com/index.php/splash/netneutrality_vid
Does anyone have ASCII art of a thumbs up that we could give to IK? đŸ˜‰
If you can’t find a thumb, you could always give me the finger.
“This is exactly what Fascism looks like”
Dude, you need to read some history.
@Patriotsgt
“What are the statistics for Liberal groups doing the same thing to conservative articles. I bet it goes on equally to both sides. It’s the game.”
At the risk of sounding like the liberal version of the phenomenon which this article addresses, I can say with reasonable confidence that you are wrong – dead wrong. I don’t want this to turn into an argument. I don’t want to spew unsubstantiated generalizations like “Most liberals favor open dialogue and wouldn’t attempt organized censorship” or “Most conservatives are only in favor of free speech when the speech in question conforms to their narrow-minded view of the world.” I really don’t.
I only want to ask the simple question: when was the last time you actually HEARD of a liberal group doing this? Because I never have. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s never happened. I’m a fallible human being with limited amounts of time; I can only be aware of a tiny fraction of what goes on in the world and on the internet. But in my tiny sphere of knowledge there are numerous examples of dogmatically conservative people imposing their ideology through dubious means. From the two examples mentioned in this article, to hilariously uncritical and conforming reviews of conservative books on Amazon.com, to science-related videos being 1-star vote-botted on Youtube… the list goes on.
Do both sides “play the game”? Probably. But to say that both sides do it equally is ludicrous at best, delusional at worst.
@ ZJD – Keith Olberman. He’s Hannity’s twin. I agree right now we hear alot more RW garbage coming from everywhere. Thats because they are out of power and trying ti get back in. But 4yrs and 2yrs ago it was reversed and the painting Bush with swat-stikas and bullet holes in his head and the FLW rantings were almost identical.
Now I know that there is a huge difference between FLW, FRW and the more common center. I believe most (80%) of Americans fall into the middle whether they are R or L; D, R or I. but we only hear about the other 20% because it sells more commercials on cable news.
But to answer your question here is an excerpt from a liberal blogger site called “Daily Kos” talking about repubs:
Why not have Joe Arapao, Jan Brewer and the neo-Nazi militia roam the state of Arizona looking for pregnant women who appear to possibly be “hispanic.”? Why not have the Arizona authorities perform mandatory abortions on the women who are swept up?
The neo-Nazis should have no qualms about abortion. It would be interesting to see how the “pro-life”, “pro-death penalty”, “pro-war” anti-immigrant wing of the GOP would handle such a proposal.
I’ll give you the last word.
Very well, I will use the last word to clarify one thing: I was only talking about organized censorship online, the subject to which this article pertains. In the broader scope of political discourse, including blogs like the one you mention, I completely agree with you. Most people are towards the center, and both sides have their fair share of radicals.
My apologies if I strayed from the point – organized online censorship – in my previous post (I tend to rant).