[turnitoff]

I mean, it's kind of a half-truth, isn't it? We know that this sort of manipulation is going on in an organized way: Sybil attacks are pretty common in politics.

But it's insidious precisely because of this Patomkin-effect: it makes it unclear how many real supporters the issue has, and it gives an easy cop-out for people who would be otherwise responsible for their own defeat.

In a way, it becomes a scapegoat that can unite friend and foe.

(Although I think Doctorow is steering clear from the very stupid interpretation of this effect)

[RobertoG]

>>"[..] it's kind of a half-truth, isn't it?"

More like a quarter-truth that allow to forget the other three quarters.

Economic policies dismantle the welfare state in the U.K. but the people vote Brexit because some adds.

Part of the population in the USA is left economically behind but the reason Trump is elected is because some Facebook advertisements.

One thousand years of history but part of the Catalan people search independence from Spain because the 'Russian bots'.

The economy is not working but people is sceptic about the European Union 'because Internet'.

And you heard all that in mainstream media and in the mouths or politics.

It seems to me that happy people don't vote revolutions, never mind the advertisements. It's when people is angry or scared that they search for "strong leaders" and "guilty parties".

[vertex-four]

Dismantling the welfare state is going to continue to happen well after Brexit, you know that. It has nothing to do with immigration or our membership within the EU.

[RobertoG]

Sure, but the reason people is angry is not some advertisements. That's only a scapegoat.

[vertex-four]

I don’t think anyone has seriously suggested that people are angry because of advertisements, but that certain interested parties made use of that anger to attack something entirely unrelated.

[RobertoG]

I agree, but the debate is, (in the society at large) disproportionally, in my opinion, about the advertisements.

And they are used, I think, like a distraction, instead of looking into the real issues.