Doc Edward Morbius ⭕@vortex_egg The first person who clearly pinpointed that for me was @woozle (UberWensch of toot.cat), in what I call Woozle's Epistemic Paradox:
Because of a high percentage of the population being present, there is now substantial power to be had by influencing the discussions that take place.
(More at the source, from about 4 years ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/5wg0hp/when_epistemic_systems_gain_social_and_political/)
She's not the first person to realise this, of course, and it's not the neatest phrasing, but it's a reframing to the present reality.
You can find this in Sun Tzu (notably in the Use of Spies section), and a whole mess of media theory.
But yeah, the epistemic system has been openly subverted. Largely as a full frontal attack on trust.
