Sometimes, We Should Wonder if We are Puppets on a String

    I wonder if we were puppets on a string two days ago, when the stimulus money was announced. No quicker than the news broke, than I was seeing the same message in every post: Billions for pork, billions in foreign aid, but only a wee-bitty $600 for you and me. 

   Its a valid opinion, but what was strange was that this was reflected in every post that I read. I couldn't help but wonder how everybody arrived at the very same opinion so quickly -- as immediately as the news itself was breaking.

   I would bet they all didn't read the story, and immediately come to the same opinion, and all run out in unison at type the very same thing. As perhaps proof of that, consider how you arrived at that opinion -- that $600 was piddly and an insult considering how much was going to pork and foreign aid. You read someone saying that and quickly seconded the opinion. The opinion was not your own original idea, but one planted there by someone else. 

   A wonderful study in how Americans are influenced, it would be, if someone investigated where the first post came from, and how it spread so quickly. Did it all emanate from one person, and that person was somehow able to scatter it instantaneously? Or, were there a number of sources, all breaking the message at the same time? Either way seems incredible. If just one person broke the opinion, and it spread so quickly that it was out even as the news itself was breaking, that's kind of amazing. Or, if a number of sources planted the opinion at the same time, doesn't that indicate they were probably working in unison? 

  So, to have this opinion disseminated as quickly as it did is strong indication someone was prepared in advance to spread it.

   We have been told there are forces at play in our social media, planting opinions. We have been told they seek they seek to sow discord, division, disruption, and discontent. Long, Russia has dealt in propaganda. I sometimes think we believed that more back in the days of the Cold War than we do in these days when they are hitting us directly through harnessing our social media.

   I will concede I might be wrong. I might be jumping to conclusions. I might be speculating. But, if this is speculation, it comes with a heavy dose of reason. It comes with great cause to think it very well could be so. Speculation might often be unwarranted, but in this case it would be wrong not to wonder. 

  No, I do not "know" the Russians were behind what happened. But, I do know two things: 1.) Our Intelligence agencies told us clearly that they are planting messages in our social media to sow discord, discontent, disruption, and division. 2.) With how quickly the common message of outrage spread, there is reason to wonder if somebody was behind it, if someone planned and coordinated it.

   Sometimes, one plus one equals two. 

   And, sometimes, we should wonder if we are puppets on a string.