Emotional Politics Allowed For Third-World Astroturfing & Engagement Farming

It’s very easy to point the finger at third-world agitators and engagement farmers, but maybe we should reflect on why it worked in the first place.

With the revealing of country locations for all accounts on X, many of us are realizing how bad the problem has been with foreigners impersonating Americans for money or to create astroturf campaigns.

But have we asked ourselves why it worked in the first place?

Why was it so simple for a guy in Pakistan to gain hundreds of thousands of followers pretending to be a Trump fan? Why were we enticed to comment on the most low-IQ posts with a command to “Reply if we agree?”

It’s very easy to point the finger at third-world agitators and engagement farmers, but maybe we should reflect on why it worked in the first place.

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The state of politics for over a decade has been absolutely insane and incredibly tribalistic. Whoever you vote for is not good enough; you must wish death upon the opposition every chance you get.

And with social media, you can get an audience as you metaphorically “destroy” your opponents online with an audience, like a matador stabbing a bull for the crowd’s bloodlust.

Because we lead with hatred instead of indifference, we are prime targets for manipulation. Emotional people are easy to control; thinking people aren’t.

The online political world isn’t really about thinking or even challenging yourself; it’s about confirming what you already believe. Publicly, you’re not encouraged to admit you’re wrong, and you’re for damn sure not supposed to apologize (even when you’re in the wrong).

Most Americans don’t travel outside of the country, but as someone who does and has many friends outside of the United States, I can tell you that everyone watches what we do.

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They consume our entertainment, understand our references, and obsess over our political dynamics. Now, because they don’t live in our country, they’re not 100% accurate. But it doesn’t take permanent residency to see how dysfunctional our political dialogue is.

These foreign agitators and engagement farms work because we’re emotionally vulnerable. We just want people who regurgitate what we believe 100% of the time, regardless if they’re sociopaths or act contrary to their messages.

With a critical eye, we should have caught some of these people easily, but because they were a “fan account” that was pro-your cause, you followed them, liked their drivel, and engaged with them as if they were real.

I believe America is the greatest country in the world, but often our nationalistic hubris gets in the way of thinking we are incapable of being played for fools.

We meme with mockery of lesser-developed nations with a superiority complex, yet those guys were able to make money and steer political discourse from the comfort of their home with you none the wiser.

I presumed this issue was bad, but I didn’t think it was this bad. An entire industry of agitation and engagement payouts exposed with a single transparency update.

But you can’t always hate the players; sometimes you have to hate the game. The political game we’ve been playing in turned many of us into emotional morons who were too egotistical to think they couldn’t fall for manipulation.

The people who type “this is a psyop” every day fell for the psyop. People who think they can never get scammed are the perfect targets for scammers.

India, Pakistan, Russia, Nigeria, and select Eastern European nations twisted our political environment into knots because we think we are immune to being used, especially by foreigners.

Account transparency is great, but the fix is we are transparent about ourselves and what we’ve become. Maybe you are wrong and the opposition is right. Maybe you don’t have all the answers. Maybe we should stop looking for constant validation from complete strangers.

Or better yet: Maybe we should go outside more often.