This is a set of screen captures from a dialogue that, unfortunately, I entered into last night, on some Facebook page related to Vienna development. Some entries may be duplicated as I maintained continuity of the screen capture. Please Google “Neal Rentle” and “Vienna” and see what you come up with.
Just some observations. If you see someone a) who just joined a group a few hours ago, b) who posts under a name that looks real, but is in fact a false name, who c) refuses to offer any verification that they are in fact a Vienna resident, and d) gets obvious points of fact about Vienna completely wrong, and most tellingly, e) immediately deflects to another point when called out on those incorrect points of fact (a form of the “Gish Gallop“), then f) odds are you are looking at a paid “social media campaign” posting. Or, possibly, a sock puppet.
Apparently this sort of thing is now part of the game plan. Do your due diligence, folks, because there really are agents out there, both foreign and domestic. Caveat emptor.
UPDATE: Proverbs 28:1 This thread documented below now appears to have disappeared from that website. Ten seconds thought suggests why that’s perfectly rational. If people are made aware that a paid/orchestrated social media campaign is underway, or sock puppets are in use, that campaign loses effectiveness.
I could not decide whether to go literary or biblical in my response to that latest development. So biblical was given pride of place above, and I’ll finish by thanking George Orwell for giving me this simple shorthand for what just occurred: that thread has gone down the memory hole.
By contrast, I strive not to do that here. Even when I get things dead wrong. Which I have done, and will do again. E.g., in this posting, followed by this posting.
