OF INTERNET SHILLS

Over the past few years, after we decided to remake this website and begin a more rigorous round of blogging and to create a members' interactive area, I began to notice something both on my blogs and even more so on my News and Views from the Nefarium videos. At first, I thought I was just being over-sensitive or perhaps even a bit paranoid. What I began to notice was that while most people maintained a respectful and courteous level of interaction and discourse both with me and other people, there were a few handfuls - fussbudgets and busybodies - who were either (1) discourteous, unpleasant, or downright insulting in the extreme, or(2)  who were busily engaged in pushing their political agendas (which usually fell either into some form of bigotry, usually some sick and twisted expression of "white supremacy" or a defense of their messiah figure, the president) in spite of the fact that the subject under discussion wasn't about either subject, or (3) the group I call "pettifoggers" and "nitpickers," a group of people ever ready to nitpick over some careless mistake, and to do so frequently and often, without making any other contribution to genuine conceptual discussion. The goal is to make the owner or contributor to the website look ridiculous.

I began to suspect that I was somehow a target, but I kept such thoughts largely to myself, though I envisioned banks of people hired by various governments or corporations to do nothing but monitor websites and in general be pains-in-the-you-know-what. Given that I need no help in looking ridiculous, considering all the high octane speculation I indulge in here, I dismissed the idea.

But Mr. S.D. shared two articles these past two weeks that seem to indicate that my initial suspicions were perhaps justified, and reading these articles, especially the first one offered by RT(Russia Today), I am both stunned, and not surprised at all:

Five Eyes online Manipulation

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

I tended to dismiss such ideas until very recently when a well-known individual posted a comment on my website after completely misunderstanding my blog, and accusing me of "falling for" something.

The section of the first article that caught my eye in this respect was the following:

" In addition to the personal attacks on targets, JTRIG also involves the use of psychological and social-science tactics to steer online activism and discourse. The document details GCHQ’s “Human Science Operations Cell,” which focuses on “online human intelligence” and “strategic influence and disruption” that are used to dissect how targets can be manipulated using “leaders,” “trust,” “obedience,” and “compliance.”

"Using tested manipulation tactics, JTRIG attempts to influence discourse and ultimately sow discord through deception."(Boldface emphasis added)

As far as circulating things via internet or emails to destroy someone, I recently saw this done to someone else, well-known in the alternative field, in the past year. Frankly, while at first what I was reading in my emails seemed genuine, causing me momentarily to wonder just what the heck was going on, there's another tactic that I think is in play, which I have seem many times on my own and other websites, and that is simply unpleasantness, i.e., a certain individual or set of individuals who repeatedly show up, and make either a pettifogging or nitpicking comment designed to embarrass the blogger, or to attack him/er, or the commenters on the blog, creating such an unpleasant and vitriolic environment that people simply leave, or quit commenting.

So what's my point with all of this?

Simply this: I strongly suspect that these programs were and are evidence of the amount of "concern", perhaps even "extreme concern" or "panic" that might be taking place in the corridors of power at the top of the pathological plutocracy and technocrats that think they alone should run the world; it's a measure of their inability to cope with freedom and free speech, and an indicator of how, despite their best efforts to regulate and control and spy on the internet, they have not been ultimately successful(otherwise, the internet would look and sound like the BBC, or Faux News, or CNN, and hence, most of us wouldn't be on it). It is a kind of psycho-cyber warfare, or perhaps socio-cyber engineering. Whatever it is, I suspect simple discourtesy, pettifogging, nitpicking, and unpleasantness are the first tactics in the playbook.

Unfortunately, it's also an indicator that the shills will always be there, and they we need to be mindful of that fact.

See you on the flip side.

 

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

31 Comments

  1. Foxlike Mulder on March 13, 2014 at 8:00 am

    I have experienced this problem with two other forums. I even met one of these shills in person at a trade event a few years ago. The depth of manipulation is mind boggling…quite literally mind boggling to the point where most do turn away and don’t bother with the curiosity that led them to a particular issue in the first place.



  2. Levantine on March 12, 2014 at 2:57 am

    Some shills on this site may well be a part of “Online Covert Operations” from Greenwald’s article, I also suspect many are not. Reason? Personal experience and observation of bullies, especially psychological bullies, from schooldays onwards. They quite fit the bill of what you’re describing.

    Before we come to special programs by secret agencies, let’s look at the wider context: the social ecology of our modern societies. While terraforming Mars may be the future, the deliberate shaping of the landscapes of the societies, including major aspects of people’s mindsets, is already a matter of fact and history.

    And as Carroll Quigley, the historian of such shaping, wrote:

    “More and more now we are going to a planetary structure, in which the great dominant lower middle class, the class that determines our prevailing values and organizational structures in education, government, and most of society, are providing recruits for the other groups ….. This group, the lower middle class, it seems to me, holds the key to the future. I think probably they will win out. If they do, they will resolutely defend our organizational structures and artifacts. ….. The people in [this] lower middle class object to anyone or anything different. Anyone who is different is a threat ….. To them, intellectuals are dangerous; aristocrats are dangerous; workers are dangerous; the ghetto poor are dangerous; even religious people, like Father Berrigan, are dangerous…. ”

    – the source is available online, but reads are sweeter if you hunt them down first 🙂



  3. yankee phil on March 12, 2014 at 12:50 am

    This is exactly correct, it is training in psy-ops for the new NSA recruits. Their comments,many to provoke a negative sounding reply so as to throw you off the subject and get some kind of psychotic sounding conversation going. Since I figuared it out about a year ago they had stopped trying to throw me off a subject, but,now I can no longer comment on youtube ever since I pulled the covers off the english royal families financial involvement with hitler. Its also why youtube has gone over to google plus+ whose format is no longer chronological so you can’t follow comments and the conversations that follow as they happen. Thank you for your vigilance and insight,please don’t let lesser minds limit your horizons,the light you see when you look to the heavens for answers would blind them. It takes a lot of heart to use such a gift.



  4. terminally skeptical on March 11, 2014 at 6:22 am

    My experience with shills has been that almost invariably they bark in short sentences. It’s too much bother for most of them to develop an idea or maybe it’s simply their reactive nature on display.



    • Don B on March 13, 2014 at 7:27 am

      Do you mean short as in your post? Sorry, couldn’t resist. Actually some folks don’t need 1000 words to make a point when 10 words will accomplish same.

      db



      • terminally skeptical on March 13, 2014 at 1:41 pm

        Touche, Don B! Actually, 28 words. Not 10 words.



  5. basta on March 11, 2014 at 1:28 am

    If you think they are, they are. It’s your site, so toss ’em when you uncover them. Give them three passes, then delete their accounts.

    Even if they are just trolls, life is too short to put up with such antisocial nonsense.

    The cabal has also monetized paranoia, and since they’ve destroyed the economy and vaccuumed up all wealth that isn’t buried in a tin can, they have the budgets to deploy vast armies of live spambots desperate for a buck. This is so productive./sarc



    • Robert Barricklow on March 11, 2014 at 12:59 pm

      Back in the day when many were dropping acid, smoking hash, Buddha grass, etc., I remember a saying:
      Paranoia separates us all.

      And speaking in the language of monetizing/ The novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by PKD, had monetized romance.



  6. emlong on March 11, 2014 at 12:02 am

    The biggest shillfest I have ever seen gloms on to Youtube videos exposing the 9/11 false flag mechanism. There is a small army of them deployed to keep the first page of viewer comments immediately below the video slanted away from discovery, and they use all of the tactics decribed alreday in this thread. About 5 years ago I undertook to penetrate this ring by persistent challenging and playing various mind games all day long and all night long which is just as they play it. They literally have a tag team of shills that relive each other in shifts. If you just keep hammering at them then eventually some of them snap. I was actually about to get a couple of them to crack and start betraying where it was they came from. I gradually pieced together that most of them were retired Israeli Defense Force soldiers.



    • emlong on March 11, 2014 at 12:14 am

      As to why Giza Death Star does not get much pestered by them, I think they have given up on the site. Another site they have largely abandoned is The Daily Grail which used to get bombarded. Even the social networking site “Tribe” has seen a reduction in calculated flaming which used to be rampant there and had severely crippled the site by driving people away because of the incessant fractiousness. It begs the question whether the movement has become weaker or demoralized in recent years.



  7. Margaret on March 11, 2014 at 1:26 am

    First of all I want to say how much I appreciate what Dr Farrell and Daniel have created here and to thank them for their generosity. I haven’t found anywhere else this quality and breadth of discussion, in an atmosphere so generally receptive and congenial. We’re fortunate to be almost troll-free, probably because the topics aren’t controversial enough, the traffic is light and moderated. Otherwise, a psychological study about the personalities of internet trolls confirms they really are what they seem to be: narcissistic, psychopathic and sadistic.
    http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html

    Re internet shills, Google’s Eric Schmidt, says the same in his speech at this week’s high tech SXSW conference: governments and dictators are afraid of the power of free speech and the internet and realize that they would risk more uprisings and riots by shutting it down so they have decided to infiltrate and manipulate it instead.
    http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/07/google-eric-schmidt-jared-cohen

    Somewhat off topic: for anyone looking for secure, private, encryptable email, chat, etc. I can recommend unseen.is which is hosted in Iceland.



    • terminally skeptical on March 11, 2014 at 6:56 am

      One has to take Schmidt’s “openness” with some skepticism considering the company he keeps. Mob uprising against the tyranny of a heavily compromised ‘net? I doubt it, not until the food supply runs out. IMO he’s genuflecting to the power-to-the-people mentality, babbling happy talk while thinking Corleone’s proverb to keep your friends close and enemies closer.

      And the ‘nets taxable revenue generation is a nice bonus on top of the geo tracking end eavesdropping. Makes it easier, doesn’t it, to herd the cattle when you know where they’re going/what they’re thinking. Moo.



  8. nobodyouwantoknow on March 10, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    Hello Everypeoples — I’m your troll d’instant. Thank you for wasting time reading this. I need the attention, ’cause I wasn’t breast-fed as a baby. Signed, Z. Brezinski



  9. montyhigh on March 10, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    I wanted to use this post as a way of apologizing for my most recent post where I ranted about Dr. Farrells knowledge of elementary school physics when in fact if I’d read the piece in more detailed I would have known the rant was off-base.

    Warm regards,

    MontyHigh



  10. marcos toledo on March 10, 2014 at 6:47 pm

    Cosmos is back their latest host Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson was waxing over Giordano Bruno insight about life in the universe and how he gave his life for that idea. What a laugh if a twenty first Giordano Bruno was to state conclusively that interstellar travel was possible. He would be among the first to light the faggots at that person auto-da-fe for the heresy of believing in a Star Trek Star Wars universe was real. Little off topic but is it really we live in a world that is turning us or trying to quote a phrase the walking dead.



  11. Phillygale137 on March 10, 2014 at 6:24 pm

    You read and research. You watch and pray. You put your life energy into learning and sharing what you see and what you intuitively believe based on so many factors it is un calculable. You share it with people like me who don’t have the time or the insight to piece together what is going on and what what has happened in the past. I’d like to be among the appreciative people in your life and say, quite simply, Thank You! Keep writing, I’ll keep reading!



  12. Leon on March 10, 2014 at 1:32 pm

    We need to see the presence of shills as a definite compliment to the validity of Joseph’s posts. If the beast hates him it has to be good news!



  13. DownunderET on March 10, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    There are two events in history, one is the Tower of Babel and the other is the Enuma Elish, they both ooze “control & War”. There is no doubt where the elite got their playbook from. The problem is that the little people have woken up, and anybody who comes here and starts lambasting Joseph or any of the members stands out in the crowd. You have to understand the mental “position” of these sock puppets, they follow their leaders without question.

    The problem is, for these lap poodles, is that they have sold their soul, they think by following and obeying their leaders they are doing a good job, but in fact their leaders despise them. Why, because they did “sell their soul”.



  14. Horizon on March 10, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    You are not paranoid. If you track these busybodies and can only find fake IP addresses then you are right, you are not speculating at all.



  15. ElaineJune1934 on March 10, 2014 at 11:59 am

    Re: Gail of South Africa – her comment on personal insult. That is what is known in Latin as: ad hominem.



  16. LSM on March 10, 2014 at 11:05 am

    what baffles me, Dr. Farrell, is the dearth of shills on this website: yes, there have been/continue to be one or more; I think the reason for the lack of shill bombardment is that is you come so close to the truth and because most people can’t face the truth the shills feel it’s not necessary to attack you-

    I figure it’s why David Icke is still living (not that I equate you with DI- he’s another subject); Icke’s ideas are for the sheeple just so whack-o that the elite feel the majority won’t pay any attention to him-

    likewise for you: your ideas are just so “whack-o” for the masses (obviously not for us who follow your work- but we’re waay in the minority)- most controllers obviously feel you’re not worth their time- so be it…

    until the lid blows off; I somehow think in the future you will be regarded as a visionary-

    Larry



    • jedi on March 10, 2014 at 4:34 pm

      shills operate in groups, denying there enrollment in the group with the objective of deceiving a target by fraud.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill

      Probably started with the hunting practices on the Asian plains. Thousands of hunters on horseback would steer all animals into a kill zone. The American Indians , use to practice it steering the Buffolos over the cliff.

      Imagine, if you took these practices and used them against human enemies.



  17. Robert Barricklow on March 10, 2014 at 10:46 am

    It is the nature of the beast. It wants control. Absolutely. And we all know where that leads – absolute corruption. To many it is as one corruption/ubiquitous. The reality/virtual reality merging into an ever tightening anaconda of mind-bending tragedy/farce. An Orwellian/Huxleyan Philip K Dick storyline gone live.
    I first came here through The Philosopher’s Stone and found an out-of-the-box cadre of critical thinkers, but more those human beings had passion. It is a MUST to disagree. There is friction. There is emotion, …thank God. The enemy, for me wants to dehumanize, to atomize society. They want absolute control. Here they get resistance personified.



    • Robert Barricklow on March 10, 2014 at 11:19 am

      Just as a side note on comments.
      I just read a story: ‘Sovereign Citizens’ In Georgia To Seve Prison Time For Trying To Take Over Foreclosed Homes(40 years).
      The only comment so far reads/It was just incredulous to me that a citizen could think that she could get away with this. Mortgage fraud could only be done by Wall Street Banks. All others will be treated according to the law.



    • Robert Barricklow on March 10, 2014 at 11:34 am

      This just in also:
      They are starting to float a story that –
      Iranians brought down the Malaysiaairlines.

      Should have seen that coming.



  18. jedi on March 10, 2014 at 9:58 am

    you should do an article describing what shilling entails

    the web we weave when we attempt to deceive



  19. Rideo Ergo Sum on March 10, 2014 at 8:56 am

    Thank you for your observation and comments Dr. Farrell. Allowing for the ever present sophomoric activities of a few, apparently intrinsic to their maturation process, I have long suspected that much of Spam is designed to increase the noise to signal ratio to discourage (fill in the blank), with no real interest in sales of a product. In other words, to discourage intelligent discourage intelligent discourse and sharing of “unapproved” ideas.

    Ten years ago, I set up a Hotmail account. I never used it. Not once. I checked it after a few months later and found several hundred Spam messages!

    In recent times I have noticed batches of the same Spam message, I..e., several identical messages arriving at the same time. When this increases, I move to another mail ISP/account, notifying only a selected few.

    Recently there have been written admissions by a few paid shills. Motives: political objectives, much as you (and I speculate… Conspiracy theorist being favored, as opposed to conspiracy actual factual citation poster.

    Partial solution: moderated comments, when possible…



  20. Gail on March 10, 2014 at 6:23 am

    Had that recently on an anti -fracking web site in South Africa. I posted and article: EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Documents from Secretive Meeting of Global Bankers at the 2013 International Monetary Conference (IMC)http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2014/03/06/exclusive-leaked-documents-from-secretive-meeting-of-global-bankers-at-the-2013-international-monetary-conference-imc/

    My point being that fracking in the Karoo is not a singular problem but a far wider issue and that policies taken in the EU also reflect down here especially as Royal Dutch Shell is involved and has bought off the ANC in order to go ahead.

    Ar first the shill derided me as this having nothing to do with South Africa. I pointed out that it did due to European based companies influencing government decisions to our detriment and that the article laid out their game plan. As has Libor rigging, currency manipulation, gold price rigging etc also had a very bad effect on our economy.

    Then I got accused of being as us usual a “conspiracy theorist,”to which I pointed out that this was not a conspiracy at all but researched policy and asked if they had even read the article properly. Which they had not but had apparently glanced through is with disdain.

    Then I was asked to prove it. To which I replied I did not have to prove anything as the information was right in front of them and they should read it themselves.

    Then I was basically threatened with the Bible, and had I read God’s word? I pointed out that this was not a Bible discussion and perhaps they should take their conversation to another forum.

    Then I was asked if I believed in Jesus Christ, which as far as I am concerned was none of their business. In any casefracking is not a religious issue.

    When all this failed then came the personal insults, and I realized this person knew me enough to launch a personal vendetta. That is when I blocked them and deleted all my own conversation.

    So yeah Joseph, I hope this process helps others. They will deride the issue, deride the subject, ignore all references and information, change the subject and finally resort to personal insults, arguing the person and not the subject.



    • justawhoaman on March 11, 2014 at 7:23 am

      I honestly wish you had simply made your point about internet shills without bringing up the subject of fracking. Like the subject of “climate change” or “global warming”, this is a broadly debated topic with enough misinformation disseminated across the internet to give anyone a headache. If a person disagrees with your opinion on this 65-year old method of oil/gas recovery, then they might have a hard time concentrating on your point about internet shills.



  21. Ramura on March 10, 2014 at 5:57 am

    I have noticed it on your website, too, Joseph. And just yesterday had to “call one out,” although not by the name of “shill,” but rather as being unnecessarily nasty with name-calling and lack of respect. I have noticed this “character’s” snide/snarky tone before but only yesterday had it directed at my comment.

    There have certainly been others, some of whom fortunately for the rest of us have seemed to move on….but I believe you even had to ban one once. An action I know you don’t do lightly.

    Thanks for bringing this out in the open and reminding even those of your members and fans to keep this in mind when reading comments on your blogs or vids….not EVERYONE in this room is a “friendly!”

    Which is a shame because, overall, your content, Joseph, attracts a very intelligent, fun, diverse crowd and I usually very much enjoy most of their comments almost as much as your own.

    S ^i^



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