And the Conservative Blogs Get "Conservative Tax Concerns" Astroturfing

The new legions of Concerned Christian Conservative Commenters who are -- inexplicably -- suddenly coming out of the woodwork to slam McCain/Palin despite the ticket now having the enthusiastic support of nearly 90% of Republicans are now infesting my blog, too.

Which is doubly insulting -- because they're obviously not reading my blog. Or else they'd know that, having been alerted to this by Jim Treacher, I'm now as obsessive about Astroturfing as a Chicago abortionist is about caring for a born-alive aborted baby.

Friends, I'm confused. While my heart is with my fellow conservatives I have been doing some research. I make 140,000 a year. As far as I can tell I will actually get a larger tax cut under Obama? What gives? I've researched this over and over again and I keep finding the same data. Check it out for yourselves. I have always voted for the person that will extort less taxes out of me, this time it looks like it is going to be Obama.

Posted by: jim at September 15, 2008 10:54 PM (IdU3U)

1) "Friends"/"I make 140,000 per year..."

2) "My heart is with my fellow conservatives..."

But...

3) OBAMA TALKING POINT #22A(1)(b).

Three steps, always three steps.

Later in the thread, someone asked him if he was a Christian (referencing the Conservative Christian Concern troll model), and "jim" answered:

Of course.

That seems a very strange answer. "Of course"? Why would it be "of course"? That sounds like the sort of answer a liberal who doesn't understand Christians would provide -- believing, mistakenly, that stupid Christians labor under the erroneous belief that only their fellow Christians are gifted by Jesus with internet service providers.

A more likely answer is "Why does that matter?" or "Yes, but why are you asking?" Or of course, "No" -- conservative Jews and agnostics are overrepresented in the blogosphere.

"Of course."

Of course of course of course. Of course our new Concern Troll is a Christian. They all are, you know. Just ask them. (If they don't tell you first.)

As Treacher pointed out, "Conservative Concern Trolls" always seem to have simple first names as psuedonyms, which is relatively rare on the internet. It's always "Robert," "Pam," "jim," etc. Just plain folks, you see, like the good people in your small towns you might see outside the feed store, bitterly clinging to their guns and religion.

Always, always, always.

The script--

1. The Pledge: I'm a conservative/I'm a Christian/I'm a conservative Christian

2. The Turn: My heart is with you guys, really... but I have these concerns...

3. The Prestige: I hear all these great things about Obama and/or did you hear this horrible stuff about Palin?

And of course the simple whitebread, just-plain-folks psuedonym.

Honestly, FoxNews, are you going to do anything with this? All you have to do is scan your own comment threads (O'Reilly has them, doesn't he?) and look for "different" posters with different names but the same IPs posting comments that follow this three-point script.

Can Anyone Who Tips Limbaugh on Occasion... tip him about this? I'm not traffic whoring. (Mentions on the radio do not translate into traffic spikes -- which I learned to my disappointment when El Rushbo mentioned me twice with no discernible impact.)

But this seems to be kind of a good story. It's a straight-up shot of 200 proof mendacity, with a kicker of contempt for the intelligence of conservatives. And Limbaugh himself knows well all about "seminar callers" who call his show with a similar script.

Only this time, we know that David Axelrod is the god-damned "Master of Astroturfing," according to no lesser source than Business Week. So this ties directly into a major presidential campaign.

Mark Levin? Great One? Hannity? Anyone?

And if you do push it to El Rushbo -- mention Patterico's "Wasilla Resident" offering derogatory information about Palin, strangely doing so from a computer that traced to Waukegon, IL, just outside of Chicago. And of course Jim Treacher for sounding the alarm on this first.

I've heard so much about this "Right Wing Smear Machine" -- transmitting memes from "hate blogs" to "hate radio" and thence to "Faux News" until it finally gets picked up by the real media -- and I'd just be as thrilled as the dickens to see it actually happen.

Every Great Illusion Has Three Parts: The Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige:

Lame illusions, too, like transforming frothy-happy Palin supporters into Obama voters, and conjuring "Concerned Christian Conservatives conservatively concerned in a Christian way about McCain and Palin" out of mere pixels.

posted by Ace at 01:46 AM

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