CULT OF EMP CRAZY ASTROTURF
Although the electromagnetic pulse defense lobby is through -- ridden out of town -- for this year, the GOP special interest group is nothing if not rabidly tenacious.
EmpActAmerica has redone its website to furnish ease in astroturfing.
The first thing the visitor notices is the group's purchase of thousands of copies of a novel which describes life in America after a surprise electromagnetic pulse attack. With a forward by EMP Cult/Lobby eminence grise Newt Gingrich, the book has been heavily flogged on paranormal/conspiracy radio in the United States.
One could interpret this as a plan adopted from the strategy used to boost L. Ron Hubbard's sci-fi novel, Battlefield Earth.
"[That] book made it to the top of numerous bestseller lists partly because Scientologists would buy it in bulk, return the copies to allied booksellers for a rebate, and buy them again in a successful effort to boost sales of L. Ron's other book, Dianetics," reads a website on TV and sci-fi biz.
Another EmpAct effort is a link to empower astroturfing through VoterVoice.
The link allows one to produce a form or custom-written multi-mail to the President, the Vice-President, and all your state's elected politicians, entreating them to jump-start electromagnetic pulse defense at once and reinstate Roscoe Bartlett's old stable of electromagnetic pulse commission scientists.
It is, of course, bad and wrong and unkosher to use anonymous services which do not undertake any serious effort to verify real people to fabricate mail which insincerely and cynically recommends some sort of political action which looks like it comes from the grassroots. But everyone knows the number of people who would do such a thing, or the political interests which might abuse it, is so small that it practically never happens. After all, when such things are sent to politicians democracy can be ruined for everyone by creating the indelible impression that all real mail is garbage.
After all, what kind of nice person would punch in an address and name that wasn't their's so as to snail-mail things to the president and politicians in many states?
Or who would think of using Google or a collection of phonebooks and public access computers, like at the library or through a proxy filter, to generate a blizzard of letters from a state or locale mimicking a genuine interest in defending the country against electromagnetic pulse at once?
That would cost stamps, paper and envelopes and the licking of things. That's almost much work, maybe more, than buying thousands of copies of a book on electromagnetic pulse attack. This stuff never happens, especially with fringe issues like electromagnetic pulse defense which is something only for serious people of the greatest intellectual gravity and purity.
However, look at what one naughty Internet person made using that link -- just out of curiosity!
Although the electromagnetic pulse defense lobby is through -- ridden out of town -- for this year, the GOP special interest group is nothing if not rabidly tenacious.
EmpActAmerica has redone its website to furnish ease in astroturfing.
The first thing the visitor notices is the group's purchase of thousands of copies of a novel which describes life in America after a surprise electromagnetic pulse attack. With a forward by EMP Cult/Lobby eminence grise Newt Gingrich, the book has been heavily flogged on paranormal/conspiracy radio in the United States.
One could interpret this as a plan adopted from the strategy used to boost L. Ron Hubbard's sci-fi novel, Battlefield Earth.
"[That] book made it to the top of numerous bestseller lists partly because Scientologists would buy it in bulk, return the copies to allied booksellers for a rebate, and buy them again in a successful effort to boost sales of L. Ron's other book, Dianetics," reads a website on TV and sci-fi biz.
Another EmpAct effort is a link to empower astroturfing through VoterVoice.
The link allows one to produce a form or custom-written multi-mail to the President, the Vice-President, and all your state's elected politicians, entreating them to jump-start electromagnetic pulse defense at once and reinstate Roscoe Bartlett's old stable of electromagnetic pulse commission scientists.
It is, of course, bad and wrong and unkosher to use anonymous services which do not undertake any serious effort to verify real people to fabricate mail which insincerely and cynically recommends some sort of political action which looks like it comes from the grassroots. But everyone knows the number of people who would do such a thing, or the political interests which might abuse it, is so small that it practically never happens. After all, when such things are sent to politicians democracy can be ruined for everyone by creating the indelible impression that all real mail is garbage.
After all, what kind of nice person would punch in an address and name that wasn't their's so as to snail-mail things to the president and politicians in many states?
Or who would think of using Google or a collection of phonebooks and public access computers, like at the library or through a proxy filter, to generate a blizzard of letters from a state or locale mimicking a genuine interest in defending the country against electromagnetic pulse at once?
That would cost stamps, paper and envelopes and the licking of things. That's almost much work, maybe more, than buying thousands of copies of a book on electromagnetic pulse attack. This stuff never happens, especially with fringe issues like electromagnetic pulse defense which is something only for serious people of the greatest intellectual gravity and purity.
However, look at what one naughty Internet person made using that link -- just out of curiosity!
posted by George Smith at 11:04 AM
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