Member-only story
Who’s A Bot?
I’m Not Paranoid
Ever since reading Walter Rhein’s article https://writingcooperative.com/how-arguments-on-comment-threads-may-lead-to-shadow-bans-for-writers-ff32c669b362 the other day, I have become obsessed with wondering, “Is this from a bot?” as I read through my daily Medium feed. Walter’s article warns us of the non-human entities that search the internet for viewpoints that they want to squash, and then these “entities” offer commentary meant to provoke a response that may result in the banning of the author of the “unwanted” viewpoint. Engaging with these non-human entities is futile. (Remember The Borg from Star Trek?)
Both the GOP and the NeoLiberal Democrats (that’s pretty much all of them) are totally controlled by corporations. The big money behind their PAC’s is well versed in how to use fake accounts to screw with your mind. At first, you may smile at what seems to be a clever meme. Harmless, right? But those clever memes are often just clickbait to recruit more followers. Pretty soon the algorithms are sending more brainwashing to your feed. This is especially useful to influence minds as elections approach.
We are all human, and we are all fooled from time to time. Medium has offered many of us a platform to express ourselves, and we would like to think that other authors on the platform are looking for true human engagement. I think I have found some…
