There are all types on this sub. Most work for the Department of Defense. You learn to easily spot the bullshit and the best is to just ignore it. Take what you want, leave the rest.

I think they operate in a garage or warehouse with a bunch of computers. They have pre-scripted answers.

I know that if I post on a particular topic, I'll know exactly which shills will show up.

Hey man don't think of it as paranoia, think of it as being good to question stuff. You are a critical thinker.

I doubt that. They use psychological techniques en masse, don't waste time over individual people. If people are waking up, it means their techniques are not working as expected, so they try different things. Fear is an important tool they use, just so you know...

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.

-Joseph Heller.

I agree it is easy to recognize the deliberate promoters or attackers by the language used.

We are seeing something that has been missing since around 2012, that is comments from many user IDs that contain almost word for word identical comments, and often as in the past, not particular to the comment or post they are making the comment on.

Possibly bots...

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For the newbie here's a short list of paid propagandists.

5 Things Shills Don't Want You To Know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS9olPA2BK0

https://archive.is/PoUMo

Air Force seeks online persona management software http://www.scribd.com/doc/51066167/Online-Persona-Management

U.S. Military Launches Spy Operation Using Fake Online Identities

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/online-persona-management_n_837153.html

US military cyber force activated Operation Screaming Fist is go

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/19/24th_air_force_activated/

Astroturf and manipulation of media messages | Sharyl Attkisson | TEDxUniversityofNevada - [10:37] (youtu.be)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYAQ-ZZtEU&feature=youtu.be

Professional blog attacks. https://i.imgur.com/NpbCXHB.jpg

"I get Paid to Chat on Reddit"

https://archive.is/wrRqy

JTRIG online persona's How Washington and its Allies Use Social Media to Topple Governments & Manipulate Public Opinion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqUztAX7ozw#t=12

Revealed: Pentagon spent millions studying how to influence social media

http://rt.com/usa/171356-darpa-social-media-study/

Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks

http://politicalblindspot.com/leaked-intelligence-agencies-running-mass-number-of-propaganda-accounts-on-social-media/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks

http://boingboing.net/2011/03/17/us-military-launches.html

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/18/revealed-air-force-ordered-software-to-manage-army-of-fake-virtual-people/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/22/exclusive-militarys-persona-software-cost-millions-used-for-classified-social-media-activities/

Air Force Releases ‘Counter-Blog’ Marching Orders http://www.wired.com/2009/01/usaf-blog-respo/

Persona management, Operation Ntrepid Operation Earnest Voice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntrepid

Glenn Greenwald: How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

Glenn Greewld: Hacking Online Polls and Other Ways British Spies Seek to Control the Internet

GCHQ’s “Chinese menu” of tools spreads disinformation across Internet- “Effects capabilities” allow analysts to twist truth subtly or spam relentlessly.

The Guardian: Internet Astroturfing

BBC News: US plans to 'fight the net' revealed

BBC News: Pentagon plans propaganda war

Buzzfeed: Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America

CENTCOM engages bloggers

WIRED: Air Force Releases ‘Counter-Blog’ Marching Orders

Military Report: Secretly ‘Recruit or Hire Bloggers’

The Guardian: Israel organizes volunteers to flood the net with Israeli propaganda

The Guardian: Israel ups the stakes in the propaganda war

Israel To Pay Students For Pro-Israeli Social Media Propaganda

BBC News: China's Internet spin doctors

Air Force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people

HBGary: Automated social media management

NPR: Report: U.S. Creates Fake Online Identities To Counter 'Enemy Propaganda'

The Guardian: US spy operation to manipulate social media

The Guardian: The need to protect the internet from 'astroturfing' grows ever more urgent

Exposing Cyber Shills and Social Media's Underworld

[Turkey's Government Forms 6,000-Member Social Media Team http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323527004579079151479634742?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424127887323527004579079151479634742.html)

8 Traits Of Disinformation Agents http://planet.infowars.com/worldnews/8-traits-of-disinformation-agents-3-of-5

Disinformation Tactics: The Methods Used To Keep You In The Dark https://sites.google.com/site/allahiseloi/disinformation-tactics-the-methods-used-to-keep-you-in-the-dark

The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.) http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm

Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation http://www.globalresearch.ca/twenty-five-rules-of-disinformation/24889

Dispelling Internet Disinformation Tactics – Debunking the Debunkers https://rebelsiren.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/dispelling-internet-disinformation-tactics-debunking-the-debunkers/

I'd give you gold, but fuck reddit.

That comment was better than gold. Thank you.

I think lots of the pro shills are from the military. They are actually following orders and may partially believe the lies they spew.

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I think it is reasonable to be suspicious, and we deal with them by keeping to the facts.

I potentially encountered a paid clinton supporter earlier. Fresh account, claims Sanders = Clinton, admits to making fresh account for specific post, lies.

So many fresh accounts. "But the down votes!"

They try to leave the last comment so as to be the final word of derision, That leaves the impression for future readers that you lost the debate. They tend to keep commenting long after the post has been removed from s the sight of others by 'forum slide'.

One of their main objectives is to waste your time to keep you occupied and not communicating with others in any new (more visible) posts.

There are so many paid commenters, each concerned with different subjects, that they are able to overwhelm on any topic in which they have a stake. They will show up, for example at each and every mention of chemtrails. expect one here in five, four three two,...

I've realized there are different types of shills. Some completely retarded and some that actually have a brain

i think the completely retarded ones are the bots

I wrote something about this a few months ago. Shills seem to be about controlling and censoring information and not on the premise of morality or righteousness either. When dealing with shills you got to be a little more discerning than usual. The cunts appear on social media eg facebook and try to muddle the comment section. Porn sites and porn related discussions to brigade some types of porn. A few (very few) users on 4chan have caught on to that and even called them out on that behaviour on porn related topics.

Here is the post from months ago https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/3vtte8/the_shadowy_skirmish_of_youtube_a_little_known/

and this one from our subreddit thanks to the mods http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/22/1112509/-The-Gentleperson-s-Guide-to-Forum-Spies

The only obvious clue for me is the use of emotional non-sequitur that derail the conversation. Lots of shills (and useful idiots) generate noise to drown out meaningful discussion.

In a way I'm a useful idiot because I'm so pessimistic about our chances to beat the shills.

These individuals attempt to make themselves look intelligent, tech-savvy, and in-the-know, giving the "untrained-eye" a sense of credibility for the individual.

Where did you get your training in discerning an intelligent, tech-savvy person with high regard to fact and logic from a paid shill?

One trick I've learned to spot bots is their response times.
If you make a long,thought out comment with links, the bots are the ones that reply with their own long thought out reply,complete with links and quotes in under a couple of minutes.
Very,very few humans can read a post, digest and understand it, then come up with such a detailed reply as fast as they do.

Even if it's not a bot replying, but an actual human, I also find it suspicious that they have such info at their finger tips,ready to throw it out there at a moments notice.

All shills should be told, "When you lie, you murder some part of the world. Always. Always."

Not that I'm waiting idly for the day to come, but shilling should be regulated. It wouldn't be unprecedented, given that similar regulations exist: bloggers have to disclose when they've been given a product for promotion, magazines have to disclose that paid advertorials are in fact advertisements, etc. Shills are advertisers, pure and simple, and they sure as hell should be regulated as such.

But unless and until that day comes, I downvote and reply with logic. I also don't get emotionally invested in the outcome of an online debate because that's a waste of energy.

I also try keeping perspective and skepticism when it comes to Reddit's overall culture. For example, with vaccines: the number one demographic of those who don't vaccinate their kids is highly educated, wealthy, mainly white. This aligns with Reddit's core demographic, but one would never know it from the insane amount of vaccination propaganda. While there are of course people in favor of the full vaccination schedule, I am highly skeptical that they are as rabid as Reddit makes them appear. Same is true with the pro-GMO segment of Reddit.

So if the definition of 'Shill' is someone being paid to spread disinformation, why is it used to attack ANYONE who disagrees with you?

We need to push for mandatory online IDs or tags, but only if it's a bot doing the posting or if the poster is being payed for their time.

Any automated posting technology should be clearly identifiable as being software and not human. Any person posting for, or at the direction of, any organization, should have to disclose the name of that organization. Any organization that engages people in this manner should have full disclosure of ownership and financing.

If you're just a person acting as an individual, no tag would be needed.

I honestly think it's funny. If I could I'd be a shill. You just get paid to spew bull shit. Let's be real here: Obama wasn't born in USA. Our president isn't even qualified yet he's a leader, USA was founded on plundering other humans and stealing from them with deception and lies. It's fun to spread propaganda. I do it already in real life for the lols. Systems are broken, just abuse them

idc if you downvote, but if you do you don't really have a reason

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You realize this is /r/conspiracy, right? Why are you even here, in regards to your comment?

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I'm sure you were....

you feed the trolls to make them nice and fat. they go best with lil bits of chicken

classic