A Global Guide to State-Sponsored Trolling
It seems that the media&#x27;s focus on &#x27;start sponsored trolling&#x27; is starting to result in hysteria. You can already see people beginning to insist others are &#x27;trolls&#x27; of this sort seemingly based on nothing other than a disagreement of opinions. It would seem that the more responsible way to handle things would be to try to educate people on media rather than aiming towards something that seems to be encouraging people to think that anybody who disagrees with them might be a shill.<p>In particular it seems there are just two issues that could help people detect BS so much more easily:<p>- 1. Avoid emotional responses. If you see something that tugs at the heart strings, or hear of an awful story, there&#x27;s a good chance it&#x27;s fake or an outlier event being portrayed as something regular. This [1] is one of the most famous examples. What that&#x27;s actually an image of is not cosmetic testing on animals, as it was portrayed as in social media, but the spaying&#x2F;neutering of a large number of cats rescued from abusive conditions. The reason I say there is a &quot;good chance&quot; it&#x27;s fake is because appeals to emotion are specifically geared at provoking a response people might not otherwise engage in.<p>- 2. Hold <i>new</i> things you expect to be true to the same scrutiny you&#x27;d hold <i>new</i> things you expect to be false. This one is <i>really</i> hard, but exploiting people by confirming their biases is perhaps even more effective (and dangerous) than exploiting emotional response. And a subpoint of this issue is that while honest mistakes are indeed a part of life, when there is a pattern of honest mistakes - they&#x27;re probably not honest mistakes.<p>Granted educating people on critical thinking and emotional control is going to be an uphill battle, to put it mildly, but I think it&#x27;s a wiser strategy than instead engaging in behavior that&#x27;s predictably going to result in people calling each other shills. In an era of increasing political polarization, this is doubly dangerous.<p>[1] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;SIMvJ6Z.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;SIMvJ6Z.jpg</a>