So how bad is "astroturfing" online? Like if I ask a question challenging corporate norms on Quora, I'll inevitably get flooded with people bullet pointing why you shouldn't tip the apple cart, and I have to wonder if these are random people with an opinion or some weird psyops thing.
You get a lot of that, the Gamestop short Reddit stock crusade that ended with the market locked down to protect hedge funds had a bunch of articles defending the move as protecting the public.
I always imagined a sea of well meaning advice and a trickle of bad actors you'd meet once in a blue moon, but now I'm wondering if most advice are PR bots. Just like over 75% of Amazon reviews are fake.