You Keep Using That Word…

Read this comment by Baldr, and it really got my head spinning.

There’s a name for what you pro-gunners are doing: it’s called “astroturfing”…What is supposedly a “flash mob” of grass-roots support from honest citizens is in actuality a swamping of supposed opinion polls by an organized faction. This is not democracy in action, or a representation of society at large. It is unethical (though not illegal) manipulation and sabotage of the democratic process. This little poll is simply a demonstration of this behavior which, when magnified to a larger and more serious polling process can irresponsibly sway public policy.

First up the Irony becomes thick enough to cut with a hatchet when you note this is said by a person who is blogging for “Cease Fire Oregon” which of course is simply a branch of the Joyce Foundation. More irony still, I found Mr. Odinson when he started commenting on Joan Peterson’s blog. Joan of course is both a Board member for the Brady Campaign, as well as a leader of a Million Mom March Chapter (an offshoot of the Brady Campaign), as well as a spokeswoman for a different Joyce Foundation branch. Two people, working for the same cause, and at the same time working directly for groups that are the only voices for gun control, and who are funded by a handful of rich individuals, and in the case of Joan Peterson (and possibly Baldr, but that doesn’t appear to be his real name) she is the lead on MULTIPLE groups, making her voice sound like many. Also Baldr himself tried to deny his ties to Joyce here, this is all discussed here. Of course both organizations have no enrolled members, only hand-picked volunteers and staffers.

What’s interesting is clicking through some links I found this page, essentially claiming the tea-party to be an “Astroturf group”. Linoge discusses the definition of “Astroturf” vs. “Grassroots” overe here to great length.

I’ll just say its pretty funny to find a guy who’s working for a small organization, that’s completely funded by a large national group that’s funded by a handful of wealthy individuals, is claiming that the reason why his little poll swung 12 to 1,000 is because his side is “Grassroots” and the other side is “Astroturf”.

You keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it does…

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0 Responses to You Keep Using That Word…

  1. JD says:

    They are in denial and I hope they stay there. The longer they refuse to face the fact they have lost the less of their owners millions they can spend to try to steal elections or otherwise attach the pro civil rights movment.

    I hope they keep telling themselves they are winning all the way to extinction.

  2. TJP says:

    Hey Weerd, you keep forgetting to send me my marching orders. You’re no better than the NRA. (My wheelbarrow is not only devoid of cash, but it’s sitting under three feet of snow in my back yard.) The Joyce Foundation continues to call itself a “charitable organization”. Why is that? What charity have the performed, exactly? They are clearly a political action committee; like mobsters they make their living by taking cash from other (charity) fronts that have no obvious connection to their activities.

    The only reason the Joyce Foundation is not being torn apart by the IRS is that this microscopic minority of 27 anti-liberty activists happens to share a philosophy with the government. Apparently astroturfing is expensive, too, because they can only get about four people with a budget of $612 million. Wow, Weerd, how do you get so much done with a budget of $0? Oh wait, I know: people know you’re not a fake piece-of-shit shill because you don’t eradicate the results of a poll you don’t like and claim that voting in it was undemocratic.

  3. Thirdpower says:

    He’s still just jealous that he can’t garner the same kind of response.

  4. Linoge says:

    As always, if you tell a lie enough times, and it remains unchallenged, it becomes “the truth”, even though it bears no resemblance to the concept.

    Unfortunately for Baldr, he and his ilk no longer control the message, and not only do we have the ability to learn how very wrong he is, we also have the power to point it out to the masses. Baldr’s ignorance, lies, and distortions depend entirely on the cooperation of his audience, and we can educate that audience far faster and far more effectively than he can keep them in the dark.

    Sucks to be him.

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