Astroturfing

I just got my copy of Taki Oldman's documentary "(Astro) Turf Wars" that was recommended by George Monbiot's blog at the beginning of august.

It is superb. Every one capable of rational thought should watch it. It demonstrates how the so-called "Grass Roots" movements such as the Tea Party and the protests about Obama's health care reforms were in fact created by and for America's Corporate Elite - people like the Koch brothers - who effectively launched the Tea Party movement.

It's quite terrifying to see just how good these people are at manipulating normal patriotic American citizens to vote against allowing access to health care and tax cuts for the super rich. I'm reminded of the way the generally decent German public were led into supporting the Nazi's by the use of fiendishly sophisticated propaganda.

One particularly revealing moment in the film is where one of the coordinator's explains what he does to raise the impact of right wing positions and weaken liberal ones - just go to any review site and put 5 stars on everything right wing, and 1 star on things like Michael Moore's Sicko.

Looking at some of the comments on the Guardian's web site (and others), it seems clear that right wing trolls are very active.