I use it all the time to describe, well, shills - Formally a person who is paid to support or endorse a product while pretending to be a neutral bystander, although these days lots of people do it for free. I tend to use it in the sense of "X is shilling for Y", ie someone is supporting a product or group or whatever in a way that is dishonest about their motives, or in a way that is pathetic considering they're not getting paid.
One that does put my eyebrows up is "Shyster". It doesn't necessarily mean a Jewish lawyer, but if someone's not from the East Coast and knows "Shyster" it puts my neck hairs up. Apparently there is no anti-Semitic etymology to it and it probably derrives from the German word " Scheißer", ie shitter, one who shits. I'm not even sure if it's widely known or used by fash. But it puts my hair up.
Shills, i.e. paid internet posters, are pretty easy to spot. Just look for anyone who posts in defense of the powerful. Especially when you've just delivered a stinging indictment of the powerful. Anyone who replies "Biden is a good guy, see?" is probably being paid. Or a bot. Either way, super sus.
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True, but I'm just highlighting how it can be used as a dogwhistle too.
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I use it all the time to describe, well, shills - Formally a person who is paid to support or endorse a product while pretending to be a neutral bystander, although these days lots of people do it for free. I tend to use it in the sense of "X is shilling for Y", ie someone is supporting a product or group or whatever in a way that is dishonest about their motives, or in a way that is pathetic considering they're not getting paid.
I had actually thought it was from Yiddish but apparently the etymology is unknown and it entered the lexicon from carny trade talk about a century agoOne
One that does put my eyebrows up is "Shyster". It doesn't necessarily mean a Jewish lawyer, but if someone's not from the East Coast and knows "Shyster" it puts my neck hairs up. Apparently there is no anti-Semitic etymology to it and it probably derrives from the German word " Scheißer", ie shitter, one who shits. I'm not even sure if it's widely known or used by fash. But it puts my hair up.
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Shills, i.e. paid internet posters, are pretty easy to spot. Just look for anyone who posts in defense of the powerful. Especially when you've just delivered a stinging indictment of the powerful. Anyone who replies "Biden is a good guy, see?" is probably being paid. Or a bot. Either way, super sus.