Reply #4: An example: Amazon book reviews [View All]

You go to Amazon to check out a book by a progressive. It has gotten many nasty reviews. Do you buy it? Perhaps you do, perhaps you don't. And there are other shoppers who may not be as insightful as you, who don't realize that the reviews are tilted by an organized conservative attack.

You go to a forum and everyone is supporting X. You support Y, but seem to be hopelessly outnumbered. Do you stay and argue your point or do you move along?

If you knew you were entering a truly free forum and most people opposed what you had to say, you may reconsider your position. You may look at the sheer numbers of people opposing you and re-think your ideas.

Did you come into this forum expecting to hear from people naturally motivated to speak out or to hear people paid to be propagandists?

No one stopped the Democrats from protesting, but that didn't mean that the organized protest that the Republicans put together in Florida in 2000 wasn't effective.

How do you hear the people's voice?

How do you separate the propaganda from a genuine desire for change?

If the internet is only good at spam mail and propaganda, it is ruined.