I see it every time there is a protest, whether for social or political reasons. Do Americans not have the agency to protest without it being a conspiracy?
I see it every time there is a protest, whether for social or political reasons. Do Americans not have the agency to protest without it being a conspiracy?
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It’s a way to delude yourself into thinking the other side doesn’t actually have any support.
Pretending that the protest is meaningless.
Every accusation is a confession by the gop. Every last one
Up is down, white is black, left is right, good is bad, gop doublespeak and manipulation
Conservatives are delusional
“These people don’t have jobs”
Didn’t trump campaign pay $20/$25 a person to show up at his 2015 presidential campaign announcement so there’d be people around as he came down the escalator in trump tower? Fake or fiction? Regardless, protest, campaign, etc, it’s same as paid audience members for infomercials.
Modern conservatives own the bulk of the ways to communicate messaging to the mass population. They don’t want the average citizen thinking they’re wrong. So they create straw men to argue against. And their supporters believe it because it’s easier than the truth.
Few people want to ever acknowledge there’s a lot of people out in the world who sincerly, rationally, and in good faith believe very different things than they do.
I think the last three decades or so have really ramped up the idea that anyone who disagrees with your group / tribe is either evil and stupid or a paid mercenary.
Because of sites like this.
Brainwashing is a studied behavior..top of the list includes deny, demean, minimize, blame, and declare omnipotence, but it’s a long list. Look up Bidderman’s chart of coercions for a list.. they started by studying POWs after WWII, but the techniques are used in many situations for manipulating others.
“People” don’t say that. Delusional, FB-addicted, gullible MAGA morons say that.
Because in a lot of cases the busses etc to facilitate the protest are but I agree with others its just a way to downplay support
There sometimes are paid protestors, and so to someone who doesn’t like a thing then that is often the default assumption.
They are not always paid, and the people who accuse it often have no idea whether or not it would be the case. And there are also people who fake evidence of attempts to recruit them. But it happens way more than you’d think.
Denial
You can dismiss the entire message with out thought if you just pretend its fake and paid for by some nebulous bad guy.
The problem is its not illegal to pay people to protest and that does happen sometimes. People being paid to protest is a real thing. So there’s real examples to point to. But most of the time people are delusional when they claim “its all paid actors” etc. They just can’t accept that there’s organic grassroots protesting going on.
Because there have been several documented instances where protestors were paid to protest. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they didnt believe in the cause that they were protesting. It could just be supporters supporting it.
It’s an easy way to dismiss the arguments and the opinions of the protestors
It is a strawman argument intended to distract from the actual grievances
Because it’s been discovered that many people at democratic rallies have been paid to be there and have been seen at multiple rallies far from where they live. Sure there may be some real protesters there, but the reality is the left has to pay people to endorse them. Look at all the celebrities that endorsed Kamala, they were all paid.
Republicans are incapable of realizing most normal people genuinely hate them
Why would someone pay for protesters when there are plenty out there that are free? The accusation is just an attempt to de-ligitimize the opposition.
It’s an easy way for one side to distract from the topic of why the protest exists in the first place, It undermines the fact that there are people upset about a particular issue, and implies that the concern of it is overblown, or manufactured.
Propaganda.
It’s a million little mini-Trumpers thinking their lies work like his, you just say them enough and they’re true, better known as the fingers-in-the-ears technique.
There are unintelligent people who think that because everyone they know is right-wing in their limited social circle, that nobody is left wing anywhere. They are unable to conceive of people disagreeing with them of their own volition.
Conservative projection.
It’s easier to say they are paid then to accept that people disagree with you.
Also every accusation is a confession. Republicans are probably paying people to protests
The opposition live in an echo chamber and can’t fathom that their beliefs and agendas are wildly unpopular.
‘people’ don’t say that, republicans say that.
You will get unbiased answers on reddit
That’s not just in the US, I’ve seen the same in Germany. Though not from (many) politicians yet
Right wing propaganda always insists on this LIE. They know DAMN WELL it’s a lie. They also KNOW that the sheep like dupees believes any crap they shovel.”A lie repeated often enough,,,”
Maybe I’m not on the internet as much as most people but I haven’t seen anyone say there are paid actors
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Because Right Wingers can’t fathom that they are on the Wrong side of history!
Because organizations do rent busses like churches do, and everyone that can go piles on
That’s it
It’s one of their many accusations that’s a confession
They have to pay people to show up
We do have the agency, it’s just a tactic for the right to delegitimatize people’s protest by creating questions around the motivation. It’s total bullshit
there was videos and evidemce of them saying they were being paid
the “people” who say that are projecting because they are 100% conservatives who 100% pay ppl to go to their rallies.
Because in many cases they are. Occupy wall street, antifa, were funded.
Projection
People say that because it’s an easy response. On the ground paid protesters are really easy to spot since they don’t actually know about or care about the issues they are protesting.
That’s a right winged narrative that is heard all over the world, or at least in the western world. We have it in Germany, too. We have even a satirical movement around that. A lot of us claim, we ARE those paid actors, and tell in social media, how much we got paid, and the travel and hotel refund, the meals we get… The right winged morons are going crazy about that, because it fuels their prejudices.: They are absolutely right, they must, because they ARE the right, and the right are right, right? So why should anybody protest the truth? So the protesters must be paid actors. There is no other way.
George Soros is funding those protests
“People” don’t say that, the Republican apologists spin doctors are the only ones saying it.
Because the right always uses them so they accuse the left of doing it.
Never EVER admit to anything that supports the opposition.
That’s like rule number one.
Propaganda comes from both sides, all sides for that matter.
No one really trusts anyone anymore.
Because that’s what THEY have to do.
Dang it! George Soros owes me a lot of money! 😜
It’s Republicans. They’re lying.
I was a military intel bubba in the air force and I know it was common in other countries for the crowds to have some number of people paid to be there. Its not a stretch by any means to assume the same happens in the USA.
Is it common? I doubt it. It would be fairly easy to prove if it was widely done.
BLM/Antifa
This happens a lot in other countries too. Source: I am an immigrant living in the USA. It’s a common way for detractors to dismiss their fellow countrymen’s protests.
Well, in our small rural town, one of the democratic county commissioners candidates wanted to have a BLM rally and parade to show support. Only problem being this is a conservative area, so they brought 5 greyhound buses of “supporters” in. Backfired on her though, what support she had dumped her. She then tried to claim it was an “over zealous campaign volunteer” that brought them in. I think she ended up with 20 or 30 votes.
It’s possibly me saying this on every protest sub I see.
But have been forgetting (until recently) to say I’m being sarcastic.
Let be honest here, only one said is saying that. And it’s because they’re too dumb to understand how anybody could care about anything other than their orange leader
Republicans are the least educated demographic and think they are the majority.
They are not.
They are not 50%.
They are not even 33%.
23% of the population helped steal another election.
And, they can’t different fact from fiction so there is no way in hell anything they say about “proof” has merit.
There is evidence to disprove EVERYTHING Trump tells them and they dodge it constantly.
“I am ignorant. Everyone else is ignorant too, and they all agree with me. There are so few people who disagree with me, the only possible way for there to be visible opposition to my position is if these people are being paid. My mind cannot wrap around the idea that anyone would disagree with me because I am always right always about everything forever.”
This is what the “paid actor” people are thinking all day every day, but with even worse punctuation.
There is this mass delusion running through the right wing part of this country. This cohort believes things like:
“ Medbed” technology exists that will cure everyone of everything, and they are coming soon.
This list goes on and on. So it’s people who believe these things that insist protestors are actors. They are so far gone, that they actually cannot understand reality anymore, and they are destroying this country at every level.
This is a belief held by one side of the political equation that shall remain nameless. Because of their religion and oversized patriotism (read: jingoism) which they link to that religion, they believe that people who disagree with them are a loud minority that’s bolstered by Hollywood and the media. To them, there can’t possibly really be a lot of people who don’t see the world as they do. To entertain the idea that a lot of people think they’re nuts, would mean questioning their beliefs. Can’t have that. Song recommendation re this topic: “American Jesus” by Bad Religion
Propaganda. It’s everywhere and it’s extremely effective.
The people pushing it know it’s a lie but they need their voters to believe the lie so they can be dismissive of the argument “No one’s really mad about the cheese touch those kids were just paid to say they are”
Politics in america is basically my team good/ yours bad. So if someone shows up to a protest against things you support they’re paid. If someone commits violence that supports things you like they’re a plant. If its people you hate, then they are the real deal.
They’ve been saying that since the 60s and the Vietnam War protests. “Outside agitators” back then.
Because Frump paid people to go to his rallies. And they’d leave when the money hit their accounts. They were often left stranded by unpaid bus companies. And more than one Craigslist call for attendees from different cities went around during both election cycles. It’s ALWAYS projection with them.
That’s a lot of paid actors, then, especially in these trying times! Looking GOOD, America, keep it up! 💪
Dunno about you but I’m off to cash my Soros check.
Because an enormous number of people are incredibly stupid.
I think it’s hard for a lot folks to realize ppl want to go protest. I care deeply about 4 or 5 issues. I don’t think I would ever protest. Ever. I have my reasons-my garage needs cleaned, I could go for a walk with my kids, grill meat for dinner, watch a movie/sports, go fishing or hunting, or not put myself in a situation that could turn bad in a second (cops, riots, violence, etc).
It’s funny too, because we spend our own money to be there. Gas, food, water, signs, time that could have been spent working.
Because we have a ridiculous amount of immature, unintelligent people here in ‘murica.
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Because they’ll make shit up to further their own agenda. They’re saying George Soros and ANTIFA are behind all the uprisings. I’m liberal AF and watch endless political videos all day long, and I’ve never heard anything about Soros or ANTIFA, whatever the fuck that is.
I always laugh when I see that because of how ridiculous that tactic is.
It’s ok for Musk to try and buy votes in Wisconsin. But it’s not ok to pay protesters? If it’s not ok to pay protesters then it’s certainly not ok to pay voters.
Good thing we told Musk where he could go both on election day and yesterday.
We are not for sale was a strong chant in Madison. At one point it was deafening.
American’s will actually turn almost anything into a conspiracy theory, it’s a weird quality of our culture nobody ever really points out haha.
Because it is easier and cheaper to discredit legitimate grievances than to work to fix what is broken.
The Simpsons were not prophetic. We never fixed the underlying issues they satirize.
Not people, it’s not all people, it’s only the stupidass maga crowd.
Just consider who it is making the accusations. Do they have any to gain from lying? Do they have anything they want to distract you from?
Consider who is protesting, and what is being protested. Yesterday’s protests were about the Republicans dismantling the government. Dismantling social security – something every wage-earning american has paid into. Tax cuts for the wealthy weighed against service cuts for everyone. Who is profiting from any of that – is it your average american, or is it the already wealthy?
To discredit them.
It’s often exaggerated but there is a history of paying people and bussing them in to attend events.
Provocateurs have always existed, there is a documented history of feds / atf infiltrating organized political groups to monitor but also interfere and suppress
The feds and atf infiltrated the black panther party but allegedly didn’t know about each other. One agent started talking about bomb making to see if people were interested. The other agent from the other agency observed this and said OMG they are making bombs, and used it as justification to raid all the homes and they shot many members dead while they were still in bed
So a bit of truth and fiction
It’s an attempt to make those that support whatever is being protested feel like they are alone in a room of fake people. It makes them feel vulnerable and like they need to be quiet. It’s a way to quiet. The minority or dissenters.
Because there are people who hire protesters. The ads are on Craigslist and the busses are seen bringing people in.
This is a fairly new thing to say. It is part of the disinformation (a.k.a. “lies”) that are being peddled by right wing extremists and conspiracy nuts. The first time I heard anything like this was when Alex Jones started saying it about the victims of Sandy Hook. Then it was the victims being actors. Now that has morphed to it being protestors as actors. Just like it was impossible for any rational human to think that somehow someone had paid those kids and parents at Sandy Hook to “act”, it is impossible to believe that someone paid hundreds of thousands to act like protestors.
Discredit the messenger and the message can be ignored.
Because it’s been found to have happened.
Crowds on Demand (Beverly Hills, 2018)
Union-Hired Protesters (U.S., 2007)
Orthodox Jewish Protest (NYC, 2015)
Entergy Protest (New Orleans, 2018)
Soda Tax Protest (U.S., 2014)
Camarillo City Council (California, 2015)
American politics has become hyper-partisan.
Particularly from the right there has been the use of a lot of propaganda techniques to ‘other’ or demean/devalue anyone who doesn’t agree with them. They cannot or will not accept or acknowledge that rational human people can hold alternative options to them.
‘Paid actors’ – denial of grassroots opposition.
‘woke mind virus’ – again implying thought ls not rational, opponents don’t have free will.
Constant references to any opposition as ‘bad people’ etc.
Because that is what Trump did when he first announced he was running and no one wanted to go.
https://entertainment.ie/trending/donald-trump-paid-actors-50-to-cheer-at-his-campaign-announcement-338291/
I know someone that was paid a live-able wage by the union to protest a busy street corner in an influential city everyday for 9 months
I should add this was the early 90s, and I am not saying it happens still (or frequently) just that it “has happened”
Well, it does tend to be one side. Last week, someone heckled Elon Musk – a billionaire who was then in a state with an election he poured a record amount of money for one candidate, on stage 2 days before the election holding a rally, literally handing out checks – blows it off as some boogeyman billionaire must have paid him to effect the election. The amount of cognitive dissonance and need for an excuse over uncomfortable facts is strong with many
Astroturfing is a real strategy used by special interest groups to make it seem like there is more support for their agenda. So is spinning a media narrative that a given protest or movement is astroturfed in order to delegitamize movements towards agendas they oppose.
Conservatives are way worse about doing both.
FWIW, I have never once thought or believed that the MAGA cultists were paid (unless of course, that was the point and they were paid to vote like in PA last year or Wisconsin just last week).
Do I think any, ever, has paid people to be there? Yes. That said, it would be pretty easy to vet, and I’ve never seen broad evidence that it happened at scale. All a false flag would have to do is have some folks there who lie or actually pay some and they make it true.
So, it’s absolutely just a statement trying to undermine the credibility of the “other side” and reassure yourself that you’re on the right side.
I think it’s when people unite across the country at the exact same time that red flags go up. Having paid people to organize in the shadows and others to be the first one to paint a sign or throw a brick is very common tactics used in groups vying for power. I’m not saying either side does it any more than the other. But to say it doesn’t happen, a lot, is niave.
I wasn’t paid, neither were my wife and two kids.
It’s a fearful response from whatever the other side is. People can’t imagine that there would be tens of thousands of people against the ideas they believe in. So they make up that someone is funding all of the protests so they can sleep without fear.
Because there exists projection. And it is strong.
Because bus loads of people unload. Most of the time when there are arrests, they’re from other states
They absolutely have to. Otherwise they have to recognize that hundreds of thousands of people gave up their Saturday to come out and carry signs talking about how much they hate president Trump and what he’s doing. That gets in the way of the narrative that Trump is super popular and doing everything because the American people gave him a mandate. It makes it obvious what a lie this is.
There are people so brainwashed, they can’t imagine that others aren’t.
Projection.
“People” don’t say that, trumptards, do.
Know the difference.
Why do people say the Covid vaccine nanobots in it? They’re stupid.
Yea I’m like how do I get that job?
It isn’t just protesting. If republicans show up to town halls to complain about anything, the party has been telling officials not to hold town halls because they should assume everyone is a paid actor and not real.
People don’t say that. Trumpers say that.
The only payment made was mine to the parking garage
It’s a coping mechanism, they’re afraid it is true and try to belittle it and make fun of it as much as possible, and share it to get approval so they can sleep at night
Because they can’t handle the fact that so many people disagree with them.
People who say this tend to have mental health problems. Someone could stage a protest if they wanted to, it’s not like it’s impossible, but protests are called staged when someone doesn’t like what the protesters are saying. It’s a way of denying reality.
There’s several examples of paid actors protesting.
Herbalife was being protested in LA a few years ago, so they hired counter protesters. It’s in the documentary on Netflix.
What’s the going rate for an actor to do a gig at a protest? $50/hr? If you pay less, they may not be convincing enough.
What was the total turnout? I heard 500,000 RSVPed, but the total was far more than that. 1.5 million, maybe?
How many of the protestors would need to be paid actors in order to make the event nothing more than a stunt? 50%? 30%? 20%?
So let’s say that not everyone was a paid actor; that would be unrealistic and silly, especially since the friends who I know that went are definitely not paid actors. Let’s round down…20% of the 1 million protestors were paid actors. 2 hrs of work @ $50/hr would be $20,000,000. Who paid that?
Because they can.
Social media has made it so that you can say anything.
Don’t like a thing? Make something up about it. Maybe someone will ask for proof, maybe they won’t. Even if they do ask, you’re under no obligation to provide it, unless a legal case is being pursued.
It’s not every time there’s “a” protest. It’s every time there’s a liberal protest. And it’s simple… It’s bc republicans will stoop to any level to discredit anyone who actually cares about the rights of people.
Yes! I guess this means billions of us are about to finally get paid.
It’s really only one group of people accusing everyone of using actors. There is also only one group that gets caught over and over using them. Guess what? There are the same people.
America is in the early stages of the movie Idiocracy
People don’t say that. Republicans say that. Because every Republican accusation is a confession!
These are people who literally cannot imagine anyone doing anything, anything for non-selfish reasons. Think their Dear Leader at Arlington: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Because Glorious Leader paid actors to be supporters at his Gold Escalator event in NYC. And is noted for paying folks to sit at rallys to beef up crowd sizes
What is the better alternative if you are doing things that lead to mass demonstrations? Your supporters want to be the “good guys”. Good guys don’t get picketed. This is why the kids in Florida had to be “crisis actors” instead of victims of a school shooting who wished the dufus who did it 1) Didn’t survive 2) Didn’t have such an easy time getting his weapon. This is why using non Federal means to communicate is the worse thing that could happen besides selling Top Secret information in 2016, and suddenly is not a problem at all and selling Top Secret information is just fine as long as the President is doing it.
I consider it a lot like the ‘tachyon research’ plot aspect of the Watchmen movie which prevented Dr. Manhattan from seeing the future. They’ve spread interest in all these far out conspiracy theories and it’s hard to acurately speculate about what’s real and what isn’t anymore. If we all agree crisis actors are fake, maybe they can start using them more, if people catch on, they can back off and let it be a conspiracy again. Who knows what’s real and what’s not anymore. Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you, but just because they’re out to get you doesn’t mean you’re not being paranoid too. It’s a double bind meant to keep people arguing instead of focusing on the true issues.
The easiest way to try and discredit a movement.
Also there is an effort by people to purposefully spread false information. If they can discredit honest protest and stop even just one person from hearing the truth then it’s a win in their eyes.
Also what constitutes “Paid”? To most it means you are given money in exchange for your presence at an event. Some online are saying that crowdfunding to pay for the gas for buses bringing in protestors was them being paid
I’ve been to protests. Where’s my money?
Because some groups have been dumb enough to run Craigslist ads hiring “protestors.”
Paid protesters are a thing. Even unions have been caught using them (not at union scale of course). So it’s easy to dismiss a protest as a sham because this is a known tactic. Of course, you should have evidence of this before claiming it.
The GOP pays. There is precedent and proof, not the same for Dems
This really ballooned with MAGA. Alex Jones etc.
It’s projection. Americans are extremely good at staging a “revolution”. It’s happened countless times.
if you watch the news, there is some YouTube videos about it, there is always “Crisis actors” involved. they dramatize the situation for clicks and sometimes are repeated faces with different stories to tell. basically “paid actors”.
actually its become harder to find the crisis actor montage videos, YouTube is putting the “conspiracy” ones up in front now.
here’s one of a guy in GAZA who plays many roles on camera.
https://youtu.be/mvUznboCJ6s?si=JvCFbgtkKFD2fLmr
Trump claims that the Democrats do this all the time. No evidence so far. Yet He admitted he hired actors for many of his events. Trump made it popular for the Republicans to claim the other side is doing (even if they are not) what they themselves do.
Because Trump paid people and bussed them in for his rallies.
Remember, every accusation is an admission!