Manufacturing consensus: a friendly suggestion to pro-Palestine writers
It’s a trick we’re all too familiar with at this stage. The Orwellian strategies of those with power and money that attempt to convince the world that there is a consensus opinion on an issue.
In the good old days, those who were determined to get their way by hook or by crook had only to get the ear of a senator or invest in a political campaign.
Nowadays though, they have to go to the effort of trying to astroturf comments boards and social media in order to subvert dialogue and attempt to sow doubt.
We’re all familiar with the signs: often incoherent, irrationally angry accounts with 1–20 followers, no image (or some ludicrous avatar) and mostly created in the past year or two.
But even against this standard, I’ve been struck by the laziness of the comments from many pro-Israel bots on social media.
Take Raquel with two followers who, after reading my article How else should Israel have Responded had only this to say:
Antisemitic read, from beginning to end.
(Raquel went on to immediately subscribe to my email updates.)
