{"id":129829,"date":"2016-03-02T13:45:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T13:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=129829"},"modified":"2016-03-06T09:05:55","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T09:05:55","slug":"astroturfing-a-word-and-concept-of-which-everybody-needs-to-be-aware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=129829","title":{"rendered":"Astroturfing &#8230; a word and concept of which everybody needs to be aware"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Introduction &#8212; March 2, 2016<\/h1>\n<h5>Grassroots backing is important for getting any imitative off the ground in public life. Be it for the creation of new legislation or a drive for drug-supported improved &#8216;mental health&#8217;: you also need support from professional and public bodies, which helps augment popular support.<\/h5>\n<h5>If that isn&#8217;t forthcoming though you have to manufacture it. This is where Astroturfing comes in; as the term implies, this involves creating the illusion of grassroots support.<\/h5>\n<h5>According to Wikipedia:<\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><b>Astroturfing<\/b> is the practice of masking the <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" title=\"Sponsor (commercial)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sponsor_%28commercial%29\">sponsors<\/a><\/span> of a message or organization (<i>e.g.<\/i>, political, advertising, religious or <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a class=\"mw-redirect\" style=\"color: #ffff00;\" title=\"Public relation\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_relation\">public relations<\/a><\/span>) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" title=\"Grassroots\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Grassroots\">grassroots<\/a><\/span> participant(s). It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source&#8217;s financial connection. The term <i>astroturfing<\/i> is derived from <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" title=\"AstroTurf\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/AstroTurf\">AstroTurf<\/a><\/span>, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to resemble natural grass, as a play on the word &#8220;grassroots.&#8221; The implication behind the use of the term is that there are no &#8220;true&#8221; or &#8220;natural&#8221; grassroots, but rather &#8220;fake&#8221; or &#8220;artificial&#8221; support, although some astroturfing operatives defend the practice (see <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Astroturfing#Justification\">Justification<\/a><\/span> below).<\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">On the Internet, astroturfers use software to mask their identity. Sometimes one individual operates through many personas to give the impression of widespread support for their client&#8217;s agenda.<span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><sup id=\"cite_ref-1\" class=\"reference\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Astroturfing#cite_note-1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><sup id=\"cite_ref-2\" class=\"reference\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Astroturfing#cite_note-2\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/span> Some studies suggest astroturfing can alter public viewpoints and create enough doubt to inhibit action. <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><sup id=\"cite_ref-3\" class=\"reference\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Astroturfing#cite_note-3\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Astroturfing\">Continues &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The correspondent who sent in &#8220;Taking Apart Psychiatry: Fraud-Kings of the Mind&#8221; also sent this in. It&#8217;s linked and together they play a key role in maintaining modern delusions   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Miscellaneous"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129829"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129835,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129829\/revisions\/129835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}