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>Anything pro S&P500 should be suspect, especially when the comments are defending bad news.

That's a pretty ridiculous assertion when you consider how many people benefit from these companies' products/services. (Look at how many people like Apple products.) Subsequently, they will defend the companies that they think are getting unfair treatment.

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> Look at how many people like Apple products.

Maybe Apple is just really good at public relations and turns customers into zealots with their marketing techniques. They get plausible deniability when the fans show up and advocate for Apple and they get a lot of "boots on the ground" (fingers on the keyboard?) for free. Even better, plenty of their PR soldiers are paying them to be on the team.

1 or 2 posting accounts, hundreds or thousands of upvoting accounts.

All of this can change the narrative.

Maybe, but that's not astroturfing, which is what the implication was. Astroturfing is fake accounts or purchased votes.

Flagged as suspect. Just kidding. Well, it could be argued that if you are defending S&P500 you are probably a pawn whether knowingly or not.

No more so than defending a government because you like what it has provided.

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