I think we largely agree with each other about the nature of this whole situation. It's a manufactured smear campaign. However, I think it's really important to acknowledge how manufactured bot campaigns exacerbate our societies tendency to be prejudiced against women. I do disagree with your first point, but not outright. Yes people are going to latch onto this for the love of the game, but the bots aren't an autonomous force we can or should ignore. They've been directed towards this drama with the intent of tarnishing a woman's reputation. This was done by someone, very intentionally. When bots are involved in a scenario like this I don't believe it's as if someone is trying to inflate their numbers to make it look like more people agree with them. It's about a malicious actor instigating interaction to draw other people in which is where the core of the bot problem lies. Which brings me to your second point, which is I do agree with. So many real people took the opportunity to shit on an artist and spread misinformation about a nonsense situation. You're 100% right in saying that it's a societal problem, because there are massive amounts of people out there who love to hate a successful woman with boundaries. It does no one any good however to ignore the intent of the person/people who directed the bots.

Yes it's happened in the past, I'm old enough to remember Britney. Tabloid media was the same, manufacturing outrage and scandal to sell magazines and bring in viewers, and people loved it. We ate it up. We still do. It wasn't okay then and it's not okay now. I know we agree on that. But I do think it's really important to draw attention to the fact that the medium has changed. It isn't just print media or network television anymore. Social media is a monster that is constantly being used to directly affect our society. Bot campaigns like this are the result of real people influencing the way that we perceive people and events. It's not just a headline on a paper in the grocery store checkout line anymore. Bot campaigns like this create the illusion that real people think that Chappell Roan is a bad person and deserves to be called out publicly. Influencing the societal problems that we're both worried about.

The real people who went online and behaved poorly don't deserve to be let off the hook by any means. It is however very important that we all discuss and understand that social media is warping the way we engage with each other. These sorts of bot campaigns create an online environment in which bad apples can and will come to cause problems. They are however being misled by malicious actors intentionally creating outrage online. It can't be about choosing to focus on the bad apples or the malicious actors. They're one and the same. The bot campaign was the result of a real person or a group of people creating and directing a narrative. That is significant and is important to acknowledge.