The masses were always easy to manipulate, like sheep.  The  word 
'sheeple',  a  cliche  now, was first coined in 1945. But things have 
evolved.  People  being addicted to a constant stream of social media
bullshit, glued to their phones, are more  fluid  in  their  opinions
than  ever.  Like  a  swarm  of bees, they will happily echo whatever
shows up in the feed on their screens.

    Anyway,  this  is  old  news. Plenty of people have written about
that phenomenon.  What  I  haven't read about much however, is how it
seems  that  manipulation  of  public  opinion,  which  used   to  be
considered  a manipulative game  played by the most vicious entities,
like oppressive governments or military psyops  is now a game  played
by average joe citizen for fake internet points.

    First it was aggressive marketing departments using fake reviews,
and  manipulative  language  to  trick  people  into  purchasing more 
product.  But  it's evolved even beyond that. The gamification of the
social system is now a thing you see eager participation  in by even
people that used to be the good guys, like open source developers, in
order  to  convince  their  peers  that their  way of doing things is 
better than established tools.

END OF RANT