Regulars on sites like Blogcritics tend to get quite snarky about the so-called 'Paulbots', who manifest themselves whenever an article about Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is posted. These commenters range from the rational and articulate to the downright wacky, but are always prepared to promote and defend their hero for as long as the thread stays alive. They pique our suspicions because they appear from nowhere (usually within minutes of publication), have not been seen on the site before, and never visit any other threads. Their modus operandi seems too efficient to be entirely human, so we conclude that these people must be using 'bots': automated programs which trawl the net looking for key words and phrases and alerting their masters when they appear.
Of course, it's not only Dr Paul who triggers this behavior. The title of this piece incorporates - in a blatant and potentially suicidal attempt to get as many comments as possible and clog up the author's e-mail - most of the other topics which tend to attract political 'bots'. For instance, anyone rash enough to post a piece on the shooting tragedy in Nebraska over the next few days will very likely find their comments thread turned into a protracted verbal fist fight between gun control advocates and members of the pro-gun lobby, most of whom will be newcomers or one-issue visitors to the site.
But do these folks really use bots? Surprisingly, perhaps, there seems to be little evidence that they do. You have to remember that idiosyncratic figures like Paul and Venezuelan populist strongman Hugo Chavez stimulate the imagination and attract a large, highly dedicated grassroots following. And emotive topics like race, guns and 9/11 tend to polarize opinion more dramatically than most, with the opposing lobbies becoming ever more vehement in their stance. If you feel that strongly and singlemindedly about something, an obvious strategy is to go online and find other people who are talking about it. Type 'Omaha mall shooting' into Google, for example, and it will take you straight to all the latest news articles and opinion pieces on the subject.
Real political bots - as in computer programs - do exist, of course, but generally they are easy to spot. They leave comments that make no sense or are irrelevant to the topic under discussion, and when challenged they either don't respond at all or do so with a non sequitur. (Of course, some would say that describes the Paulbots to a tee...)
I'll leave it at that, and close this piece out with the obvious signoff, that dread cry familiar to any combat veteran: "Incoming!"
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jacob
“when challenged they either don't respond at all or do so with a non sequitur”
This treatise is loaded with fact. You will find no generalizations here.
2 - Dave Nalle
Jacob, he's talking about actual software 'bots, not humaniform Paulbots.
Dave
3 - johnny 5
I'm not a bot and i support ron paul
4 - Clavos
Doc,
Are you trying to walk away with the "Most Comments Ever" BC Prize?
You do realize that all it consists of is an empty pea soup can with Eric's and Dave's pictures on it?
Even with it in hand, you're still gonna have to pay $5 at Starbuck's.
And you're neighbors will start talking about you behind your back.
5 - Clavos
And on the anniversary of the Day of Infamy, no less.
Damn, Doc. Have you no shame??
6 - Rich N.
I liked the artical, not bad. Just to let you know I'm on deployment surfing the internet, and not a bot. Go Ron Pual.
7 - Gretscher
I support Ron Paul, and I'm not a bot. Just use google news.
8 - leanne
oh give the guy a break. obviously he's a writer who's just starting out, and needs to use Ron Paul's name to get as many hit's as possible. Lame and predictable. Here's a hint, if you want to be a writer, research a topic, and then write about it.
9 - CynicismIsSo2006
Yeah, what a terrible thing. People that are actually passionate about their chosen candidate, who chose to take the time to spread the word and correct erroneous stories about Dr Ron Paul.
Why can't everyone just take their prozac, vote Hillary and enjoy the ride...
10 - Jacob
Hillary Clinton gets elected President and is spending her first night in the White House. The ghost of George Washington appears, and Hillary says, "How can I best serve my country?" Washington says, "Never tell a lie." Hillary says, "I don't know about that." The next night, the ghost of Thomas Jefferson appears... Hillary says, "How can I best serve my country?" Jefferson says, "Listen to the people." Hillary says, " I really don't want to do that." On the third night, the ghost of Abe Lincoln appears... Hillary says, "How can I best serve my country?" Lincoln says, "Go to the theater."
11 - Kerry
I wanted to post just to disprove your suspicions. Yes we are real. Why do Ron Paul supporters appear so fast and out of no where? We appear so fast because there are so many of us and well one of our big slogans is "google Ron Paul" and we do that on a regular basis and read all we can about our man and will either agree or disagree with what is written. We do tend to post more when we disagree but that is human not bot nature. So called scientific polls may lead some people to believe we are in a vast minority but if you look at the real numbers it paints a much different picture. 94375 people have asked Ron Paul to be their friend on myspace. 82423 people have joined 1317 meetup groups. Over 3700 people donated 4.2 million in one day to Ron Paul and the Tea Party planed on December 16th will only be bigger. You should be happy to get our internet traffic and admit we are real people and real readers not some grand conspiracy of netbots out there to get you.
12 - xtrabiggg
As an IT professional, it's amusing but sad to see the term 'bot' so misused in regard to Ron Paul supporters. I surf the web regularly, and find that the plethora of Ron Paul supporters who post on sites are anything but a 'bot' phenomenon. THey are fiercely individualistic, and I have NEVER seenan automated response from a purported Paul supporter. The appelation of 'bot' in regards to Paul supporters seems to be nothing more than a convenient propaganda device for a writer to dismiss a groundswell of support without actually having to research or prove his theory.
How much money does Ron Paul have to raise from individual donors, how many people have to show up at his rallies, and how many straw polls does th man have to win, place or show in (despite massive rigging and fraud against him) in order for the media to take him seriously? Of course, the conventional wisdom is 'he doesn't poll well'. Have you ever looked at the methodology or actual way these supposed 'scientific' polls are conducted? I could pay a pollster to have a poll saying people favor Satan over Jesus by an overwhelming margin, and with the proper way of asking the question, and the right sampling methodology, Americans could be made to look like Satanists in overwhelming numbers!
It's time for reporters to actually do their job, and research their stories. Too many just rely on 'conventional wisdom' and other lazy writers' stories as a basis for their own writings. How about actually calling a candidate for a quote before misrepresenting their position? Perhaps it would be a good idea to look at overall support for a candidate, instead of cherry-picking the 1 or 2% of supporters who are 'kooks' and ignoring the other 98 - 99% who actually are normal, working citizens who are fed up both government corruption and lazy journalism?
13 - Jeff D
We don't use bots, we use Google News and sort it by date. We can immediately read and respond to news articles written within minutes of publishing, and we also will sometimes discuss the most crazy of articles on the Ron Paul forums. Most commenting, however, is done independently and fueled by the commentee's love of their candidate and willingness to defend him in a sea of media who love to discredit and ignore him.
14 - bri
Ron Paul's support is not form bots, bots can't raise 12 million dollars. Ron Paul supporters are just addicted to the campaign because it a chance for freedom. I support Paul, I used to hate politics because I thought nothing could ever change, but then I learned about Paul. Honestly it's not just about Ron Paul it's the constitution message, I have felt the same way he has my whole life I just didn't think anyone in Washington felt the same way, and aside from Paul none of them do. They simply lie to improve their standing and never address our people's needs. I think most of our country has been programmed to feel this way, and now that I see someone who thinks like I do, I will spend hours each day responding to articles like this or any other slander pieces. A year ago I would have called friends of mine that were into politics losers and made fun of them, but now I have become more into it than any of them. I really feel our country has been conditioned to be apathetic, now I realize this and I'm trying to wake up others because our country and our lives could be so much better than what we have now. Until recently I just accepted that I didn't have a choice, but now I realize that we the people are the ones who should be telling our officials what we want not the other way around. I hate to say it, but our society is so brainwashed that they don't even want to hear anything about politics and that's what the people in power want. They abuse us without us even knowing and steal all our money to promote corporations which got them elected and now expect kick backs. We the people are stupid, but not that stupid, we have been fooled for a long time but the internet has saved us, we will no longer be controlled and brainwashed by the mainstream media, who is also corporate run and benifits from keeping us all retarded as well. We may not win this election, but a mass movement has begun and once the freedom bug catches fire you can't stop it. We will not accept your one world bank and one world government bullshit, we don't need that to get along with others. Diversity is a good thing as long as people rerspect each other as individuals. The elites of this world , who profit from these wars know their strangle hold on us could be erased in a second, that is why they are fighting Ron Paul's message so hard.
15 - Greg
They don't use bots. They are technically literate paulites. They seach for the term "Ron Paul" using the 'news'link on the google search page and organise by date. I do it every day when I get up and several times throughout the day to get up to the minute news on anything I want.
16 - STM
Doc, you need a good kick up the bot for this.
Is Jacob a bot, d'ya reckon? He comes out of the woodwork on any Ron Paul thread, yet appears to know nothing about everything.
Nothing a bit of reprogramming with a piece of 4x2 couldn't solve.
17 - Clavos
Doc,
You see what you've done?
You've not only subjected us to long, semi literate, boring diatribe after diatribe, but now we even have to endure them in quadruplicate!!!
And all for Dave's picture on a soup can...
Dante saved a very special place for you, mate.
:>)
18 - Dr Dreadful
And on the anniversary of the Day of Infamy, no less.
Damn, Doc. Have you no shame??
It's still the 6th here, Clav. And I wrote it this morning.
19 - STM
Could we be seeing some learned piece on the day of infamy, stitched in to why America needs to remain ever vigilant?
Dave Nalle, where are you when you're needed?
20 - Gary Blimp
You think we are all bots huh? Well we are normal people looking for news about Ron Paul that you cant find on CNN, MSNBC, or Fox so we go to a web sight named GOOGLE then we hit News and type in the name Ron Paul. Then what do we find writers like you with out a clue of what you are talking about and other who have it together and get it right about Ron Paul and us bots. Thank you sir have a nice day.
21 - JDP
Hugo Chavez? When did Chavez comment on 9/11? Guilt by literal association tactic? What the hell does Chavez have to do with Ron Paul? Then you wonder why we swarm your comments.
22 - Terry L. Smith
paul couldn't find it with both hands
23 - Dave Nalle
What I find amusing is that the Paul supporters are here to dispute at length the article's claim that they are bots, but apparently didn't bother to READ the article, which in fact says that they are NOT bots.
At the very least I think they're cyborgs.
Dave
24 - Dave Nalle
Stan, you're absolutely right, I should have written a piece on Pearl Harbor today. It would fit right in with the book I'm working on, but my daughter had a christmas concert at school and I had to host a podcast show on BTR - check it out at BigTent Roundtable.
So my day was too full to write something decent on Pearl Harbor Day, and it deserves decent treatment with lots of quotes from Churchill and Roosevelt and good stuff like that.
Dave
25 - Correction
They're called RSS feeds, you nitwit.