Astrotruf: You Need to be Aware of This

The following video is a must see. It is an 11 minute Tedx talk by Sharyl Attkisson about “Astrotruf”, a perversion of grass roots marketing. Once you have watched this, you will be awakened. You will also better understand the full extent of internet marketing, slander, and the “facts” we assume to be true.

“Astroturf seeks to manipulate you into changing your opinion, by making you feel as if you are an outlier when you are not.”

Our society is divided. Ask anyone and they will say that the gulf between the two sides of any issue is becoming insurmountable, regardless of the issue or on which side they fall. This is the binary nature of the typical American’s mindset; you are either “the best ____ ever” or you are “evil/the worst ever”. Look at the comment section of almost any Facebook story and there seems to be no in-between.

The more controversial the topic, the more binary we become.

Paradoxically, with more controversial topics there are often more facts, data, and research supporting each side than with more mundane topics. This means that the side we cling to is based upon only a part of the overall data (the part that we chose to believe).

Our natural tendency is to believe that with which we already agree and ignore the rest. This means that we are more prone to judge these issues based upon our emotions, not logic. When we do this it creates very fertile ground for “astroturfing”. As I like to say, information without proper context can be a very dangerous thing.

Insert some buzzy words that are known to trigger specific emotional responses and/or create a controversy (or call something an outright conspiracy), and you will sway huge groups of people to your desired side of the issue. Slap on a call to action and you end up with hostile environment where honest discourse and compromise is impossible.

Complicating the matter further is the fact that big issues encompass several other, smaller issues. It’s not unusual that we may have beliefs about these issues which may be incompatible with our position on the bigger issue. Therefore boiling a complex topic down to “right” or “wrong” over-simplifies the issue and makes us much easier to manipulate.

I am a very big proponent of doing research and learning all you can about important topics in your life and health, but you also must understand that “googling” an issue will not always give you a balanced look at the information that is out there. If you want to really stretch your mind, research the info on the “other side” of an issue like it was your side.

This is not to say that there isn’t a right or wrong side to these issues however, it is just enlightening to see why the other side believes as they do. Sometimes it will change you, other times it will solidify you. Either way you will be more educated.

The biggest point to take away from this is that occasionally (often?) what we believe are “facts” are really ideas that have been planted into our collective consciousness by groups with very self serving intentions. We need to learn how to be much more critical of what being presented to us. That is our responsibility.