In real life (at least in mid-2025) someone has to be a human to walk up to you on the street and start an argument. In that case, you know that you’re dealing with a real person with a real opinion. You can also look at bumper stickers on real cars, flags hanging on homes and businesses, T-shirts, and other things to get an idea of what real people in an area really think.

But, the internet can be deceiving. On social media and in comment sections, one person can raise an entire fake army to spread their unpopular opinions. If you don’t know about this, you might think that the world really is full of hateful people who think the LGBT community belongs in psych wards or that it’s OK for the police to gun down minorities who weren’t a danger to anybody. This is known as “astroturfing”, or making it look like there’s really a grassroots movement where there is none.

But, the illusion falls apart when you take a closer look. Most of the profiles are obviously fake, and only have between 1-50 friends. The rest just don’t look right if you really think about what real people do online. There are very few actual people online spewing hatred and division.

There are a variety of reasons people try to build this fake world. Some people are hateful and want it to appear that hatred is popular. Military personnel from the People’s Republic of China and Russia are also known to do this to sow division in western countries in the hopes of weakening and dividing the population. Politicians from the U.S. who don’t really hate people sometimes engage in this fakery to get people fearful and willing to vote for hatred (this is called “scapegoating”, a common fascist tactic).

But, these people all have one thing in common. They want you to be angry, scared, and most of all, distracted. They want to rob you not only of hope, but of your valuable time. What they fear the most is people getting together and organizing against them. If we build parallel institutions, make our communities more resilient, and reduce everyone’s fear levels, none of these people can accomplish their goals.

If you’d like to participate in such an effort, be sure to sign up for e-mail updates! We’re going to be holding workshops, releasing a book, and doing many other things to actually beat the hateful and manipulative people behind these bots. I hope you’ll join us!