u/unpaidintern4

Journalists and political/social researchers need to study the affect propaganda has when spread on social media using this World Cup as a case study. There is something going on with the amount of people who think it was rigged for Argentina and Messi’s public image taking a complete 180. There’s even credible rumors (journalists are apparently looking into this) right now that influencers were paid (by who?) to spread misinformation about Argentina/Messi/Fifa. I don’t even like Argentina that much (play style and dirtiness) but was rooting for them because of Messi with my team out (Italy). It’s okay obviously if you weren’t rooting for Argentina but it’s actually alarming how much complete bullshit has spread on social media about this WC. If over the span of three weeks, propaganda was able to spread like this about a sport and create such a big narrative hive mind, the effect it has on issues that actually matter is concerning…

Title. I’m not an Argentina fan (Italy supporter) but I like watching Messi for obvious reasons. My general question is though do you think that Argentina just simply play down to their comp? I am not saying any of these teams are bad, especially Switzerland, but Argentina has significantly more quality than all of them. I have a feeling that Argentina may have a better time of it against England than these past three games (it has the potential to be an incredible semifinal though and I hope it is). Thoughts?