Browsing today's most popular Boston shootout thread and I noticed a strange pattern of >5-day accounts taking over the conversations... proof inside
32 2013-04-23 by [deleted]
It all started while browsing this thread: Photos of the Tsarnaev brothers' shootout with police
Besides noticing that the pictures are absolutely horrible and show next to nothing, I noticed a strange trend in the most active users in the thread and a pattern of saying things along the lines of 'Well these photos certainly reinforce the official story".
After clicking on some users, 20 minutes later, I had to take some screenshots, but I quickly gave up, realizing I would literally be there all day doing it:
Screen shot 2013-04-23 at 10.49.19 AM
Redditor for 5 days:
221 points, 6th comment: "Wow, haven't seen these before. These are certainly the clearest photos of what happened. Again, does appear to match the official story, also clarifies a few things for me."
Screen shot 2013-04-23 at 10.48.08 AM
Redditor for 5 days:
108 points, 3rd comment: "This was great, incredible that this guy got these pics... Helps solidify the official story.."
Screen shot 2013-04-23 at 10.47.02 AM
Redditor for 5 days:
56 points, 1st comment, claiming photos are enough evidence to stop anyone who questioned the official story
..................
These are just the ones I snapped in a couple minutes before deciding that I would spend most of my morning doing this and had better things to do. I wasn't even going to make this post, I just told myself that there was nothing I could do, it has been obvious to me for a long time that Reddit has literally become a new form or corruptible media with entire departments out to exploit it. It just all seems so futile sometimes, to try to fight against it.
But then I saw the post about how r/conspiracy was being overrun by people with new accounts with the sole purpose of downvoting, arguing, and creating dissonance.
So I figured I would take 15 minutes to make this post.
I was browsing the thread for nearly 20 minutes, seeing a seemingly impossible swarm of brand new users, all making these kinds of posts to the absolute delight of the rest of the board. It just seemed fishy to me.
As we all should know by now, conspiracy or not, this entire Boston thing has way too many questions attached to it. At least for my comfort level. And the real problem is that when you try to bring that up, you are literally attacked.
12 comments
4 groupuscule 2013-04-23
COINTELPRO - it means they're scared of you
3 AVLOL 2013-04-23
OP, there are a lot of other Redditors who basically said the same things and received as much karma for their comments:
Member for 1 year 8 months
Member for 6 months
Member for 7 days
Member for 1 month
Member for 3 years
Member for 1 year
NOW, it's true that jstud, concernedaboutdad and benderostap created their accounts 5 or 6 days ago and their parent comments are on the top of this thread. But this could be that they registered to comment on the news about the Boston bombing after it happened. ConcernedAboutDad's first comments for example asked questions about his dad's conspiracy theory on /r/Skeptic so of course he's going to be very active on these kind of threads, and will be the first to comment and get upvoted.
1 garrettrl1 2013-04-23
You can thank the news media for new accounts. Including me!! I however will not downvote for no reason.
1 Distichlis-spicata 2013-04-23
Same here. I am just a curious person who likes to try to see as many sides of it as possible, even if some are debunked in the process. Did OP and others like him/her who are complaining really think this story wouldn't bring people here???
1 -Teekey- 2013-04-23
I'd probably wager most people don't want to use their primary accounts to troll this subreddit. I mean, it takes absolutely nothing to make a new account.
I absolutely think it discredits their position if they can't even stand by their beliefs with their main account. However, I think sometimes skeptics get a bit too worried about infiltration by government agents, Illuminati, aliens, etc. It's not impossible, but I think it's more likely that people just want to troll.
-4 ice_cream_car 2013-04-23
I can't figure out why this is so shocking for people.
"OMG!!! 5 DAY OLD ACCOUNT!!! WE'RE INFILTRATED!!!"
1 shijjiri 2013-04-23
This happens on Fark as well. First time I ever really saw it was an account named Tatsuma.
This why I actually post around here. I've had plenty of experience with individuals attempting to establish premise on source of fact, rather than data. False dichotomy and character assassination attempts to undermine the critical thinking are common practice. And remarkably obvious once you understand the methodology.
You cannot establish validity of your claim by asserting it's truth based on a preferred source while dismissing contrary evidence. Regardless of which side you are arguing for, it is wrong. Don't do it.
Arguments about disagreement of facts must be taken on their merits. Those merits begin with establishing facts from assumptions and assertions. After this comes motive and reputation. This is important because the motive to protect one's existing reputation is stronger than the will to risk one's reputation. That means a lot of media sources will choose to back cherry pick their facts to support their own reputation as an accurate source.
Want to know who's been lying? Person A has a story. A big story. Media outlet A and B learn of Person A from person B. You also learn about it from person B and you share it. You finally hear it on the local news from Media outlet C. Media outlet A and B continue to cover the same story but pretend that person A does not exist. Media A and B are competing businesses. They won't simultaneously ignore an opportunity to one-up each other unless the risk of injury is greater than the potential reward.
-4 toiletscribble 2013-04-23
I would say you are being disingenuous but you have a point about the 5 day old accounts
-4 Gjm127 2013-04-23
Well this certainly reinforces the official story. Good find.
-4 Gjm127 2013-04-23
trololololololo
-5 nym328 2013-04-23
Don't you think all the attention placed on Reddit during the Boston Marathon Bombing investigation draws users to this subreddit to express their ideas? Oh wait...
-7 [deleted] 2013-04-23
Cherry picked results. What's your agenda, shill?