Thursday, April 25, 2024

Botvertising



 



That’s what it’s really all about.  Grift magnetism is one of the major driving forces behind misinformation and disinformation activity.  This is what the dark side of gung ho free speech advocacy looks like.

Let’s break it down.

The channel is a Qanon style content channel.  Whether the owner of the channel is putting out content he truly believes in or not is irrelevant.  The main followers, the mid level adherents in the MLM scheme hang upon his every word.  Every day there are several new videos with all the red flags of insincerity.  Inconsistency, hypocrisy, complaining about and asking for money among others.  These mid level followers post comments and replies, mostly the same core of dedicated cultists with a few newbie comments from apparent first timers.  And they all show heavy investment in their own cognitive biases.

This content screams, “I am gullible.”  And somebody has made a series of bot generated sock puppet accounts to make a crypto investment advisor the top comment.  49 total replies to the initial message.  With the bots having a lovely conversation about the obvious to the rational thinking world bogus get rich quick scheme.  $60,000 a week is over $3 million a year.

Naturally the channel owner is hugely hypocritical.  There’s talk about how he’s oh so smart.  And he’s a dedicated Christian, which is why the first bot conversation starter references supporting God’s work.  If the channel was legitimately concerned about the welfare of the crowd there would be some simple maintenance done.  Using the power of the channel operator to remove the fraudulent content instead of leaving it out in the open for some unsuspecting dupe to find.

But YouTube and other social media has created a grift hydra.  Even if this bot conversation is shut down many more are waiting in the wings to replace it.  Constantly searching for the best crowds to display the message of getting rich with little or no effort.  It’s not their job to regulate and vet advertisers.  No, these YouTube channels susceptible to bot conversations like this generate monetized content with ads before the video starts, and if the video is long enough some interruptions midway through.  And those are also dubious ads.  Today’s repeated ad is mushroom coffee to cleanse your kidneys.  Ordinarily you would be inclined to think that coffee beans are used for coffee and mushrooms are something different.  But they paid Google money to have the ad put out, so sure.  Wild claims that can’t be substantiated…free speech!  Within the framework of the hydra is a lot of free speech = no regulation content.

It becomes a free for all.  Of the competing grifts, who will be the lucky one to get the most fish after the bait is thrown out.  Long term commitment to a crowd of people is not necessary; it’s actually a hindrance.  Nenand, the original poster in the message chain.  That account was created just two days before this post.  He (it) has certainly popped up somewhere else along with the bot farm cronies.  Probably at some gung ho crypto currency accounts with dubious thoughts about how to trade crypto.

It’s no surprise that a religious oriented account is chosen for this.  Simply and matter of factly, despite all the good that may come from a being kind to others stance, the chances your confirmation bias message will not be researched or thought about critically are vastly increased.  And the channel this appeared on does dabble in gematria.  That’s an even bigger sign that you don’t care about actual evidence.

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