Astroturfing:
What is astroturfing:
Astroturfing is the attempt to create an impression of widespread grassroots support for a policy, individual, or product, where little such support exists.
Multiple online identities and fake pressure groups are used to mislead the public into believing that the position of the astroturfer is the commonly held view.
Big companies now use sophisticated “persona management software” to create armies of virtual astroturfers, complete with fake IP addresses, non-political interests and online histories.
Authentic-looking profiles are generated automatically and developed for months or years before being brought into use for a political or corporate campaign.
In a nutshell, astroturfing is what Trump and the likes of some Republicans are doing.
It has been said:
“There are hundreds of thousands of fake voters.”
“We have thousands of affidavits of voter fraud.”
“It’s the machinery that counts the votes that are at fault.”
Yet, court cases filed in various states have proven otherwise. Perhaps that’s because those “thousands,” of people alluding to voter fraud are nothing more than fake profiles generated by astroturfers and therefore cannot appear in court because they don’t exist.
Closer to home, we have Afriforum who represent the “minority,” i.e. white Afrikaner people in South Africa. They have regular audiences with the United Nations based on their “minority status.”
While their minority status is a fact in a physical sense, economically, socially and so on, white people do not represent a minority status.
During the brutal Apartheid regime, they were a minority also, while they murdered and oppressed the majority through violence and legislation.
We now have these groups such as I’m staying, move 1 million, certain political parties, and so on; both political and civil that attempt to paint black and brown people as the perpetrators instead of the victims.
Primarily started online, civil groups such as those mentioned have tremendous public support. Or so it seems.
By fake profiles generated and groups rapidly increasing from 1000 members to more than a million, they aim to create curiosity, support and ultimately change the narrative from oppressor to victim.
It’s human nature to want to be involved with people wanting change for the “good” of the country and its citizens. No one likes the feeling of being “left out.”
So joining groups that continue to deny the past and current inequalities seem like a wise decision to make.
Be careful that you’re not falling for this “massive movements” and blatant lies about who the actual victims are and where inequality exists in society.
Interest becomes real when groups reach hundreds of thousands of people, and unfortunately, some black and brown people get “swept” up in the excitement for change.
Astroturfing is dangerous because it seeks to rewrite history and garner support, but mostly it is backed by big money and as a result, seems legitimate.
Think about it, other than the laws that legitimized Apartheid, what have white people as a collective lost after 1994? Murders on farms are consistently put forward, but black and brown people experience crime too and to a much larger extent. Crime is a problem in this country, but it was a problem before 1994. The difference is, it never affected white people.
Often BEE is mentioned, but big white-owned companies have been the biggest recipients of this.
They talk about a corrupt Government, but Government was corrupt before 1994, besides the US has corruption as an example. It’s not a “black thing.” (Not excusing our current Governments failure and corruption.)
So what has changed?
Could it be that the laws of Apartheid granted white people security – the security to move about safely in their little world without having to worry about black and brown people?
Black and brown people need to understand that astroturfing can make them question the current circumstances and blame themselves rather than the racism that is at the helm of everything when they are trying to move forward.
Considering that the numbers are designed to fool you, don’t be fooled by it.
If the numbers were right, Trump would be serving a second term.
