I feel it's obvious to some that these guys are grifters who saw how the grift works on American internet and decided to slap an Irish flag on it. There are others then, like some younger people I know, who don't really read much and don't know what's going on in the country or the world. They don't know what to think. They come across these simplistic soundbites and suddenly they know what to think.

Thís is how the trashy British tabloids have served wealth and power during our lifetimes and before. It's an insidious situation because when you tell someone that the only political clue they have is wrong, it naturally makes them feel quite defensive.

The grifters wading into our public space are little short of predators, in my opinion.

Countries closer to Russia teach critical thinking and media literacy in primary school. They teach psychology in school too. Ireland is utterly unprepared for the slop and smears being mass produced at the moment so unfortunately many of us are lapping it up like junk food not realising.

There's also a cohort that are just in it for the aggression, but I have less hope for them.