The only real internet always takes more effort to find it, because nobody with ideas takes kindly to having ideas deleted. And the places everyone already is, is where the pickpockets, black market dealers and con artists hang around. But if the AIs are intended to manipulate people that suggests that maybe the real reason why the clearnet seems to be a nest of scammers is maybe because those are mostly AI puppets?

My friend who is more comfy with touchscreens has told me that it's a nicer crowd on Nostr than Twitter. I think it's evidence that trolls are more often AI powered. One troll would be able to use AI to get their thrills from thousands more victims than doing it manually. They could just sit there all day long laughing at people taking it seriously, and hardly have to craft any new tactics. Same for all scams.

And so, yes, the dead internet theory is probably pretty much right on the nail when it comes to the mainstream social media.

They are not humans. They are dominated by automated text manglers.