I knew it... Evilhomer is a paid troll in the pocket of the ponyboy lobbyists in washington!

Look, Eddie Vedder, I don't doubt that organizations do this, or try to do this but I really don't see how successful they could be.

I think what's more important than speculating about hypothetical paid trolls we talk about ones we know to exist like you and your Toad Chieftain who make money spreading fear and fake science.

If my name was Rob Dew, I'd probably kill myself.

Just sayin'.

It's true, though. The attacks on free speech under the guise of "anti-cyberbullying" are real, although thankfully, JHMF notwithstanding, they are still uncommon and unlikely to catch on here in the United States (granted, that's probably what the Wets were saying a year before Prohibition). And Russia has been using trolls to try and drum up support for it's conquest of Eastern Europe. Astro-turfing and paid activism aren't anything new! Whether it happens is not controversial; the debate is over how wide-spread and effective it is online.

Now if you'll excuse, I need to collect some dogecoins from the Estonian state department.

I'd like to be a paid troll.

I don't know about the government, but I thought grey market trolls-for-hire working for businesses doing stuff like posting bad reviews of their competitors' products and disrupting competitors' forums and stuff was a pretty well established practice, along the line of "pay-for-viewcount-boost" companies.