>

2000 people is not a "flood".
Anyone calling this a flood likely works for some loan company, don't they, Business Insider?
Despite a coordinated astroturf campaign they only managed to generate 2000 negative comments for a nation of 332 million? Not exactly a "flood".
Sad. Low energy. >

Comcast spent about 10k flooding the FCC with millions of fake complaints about net neutrality. This was really low effort. >

Did they really? That's fucking crazy if so. >

Is there a non paywall article on this >

Pro tip. Use textise.net to view most paywalled articles. But, it depends on how the page is coded. Don't expect WSJ or Bloomberg to work with this trick. But for most it does. 
Also, pay for good journalism. Even if it's just the New York Times. I subscribe to about five. I'd go broke if I subscribed to all the good ones :(
*Edited for clarity >

Your local journalists thank you for that second part. It's a really tough job, and people who would never walk out on the check at a restaurant are often happy to circumvent paying for content they clearly value. >

I really miss my local paper. It shut down a few years ago and now I don't get to read about the ridiculous shit my neighbors did when I wasn't paying attention. >

A study came out a few years ago showing that Americans in towns and cities without local newspapers pay substantially more for public services than people with them. An investment in a local news subscription is offset to some extent by less corruption and graft. >

How is 2000 people a “flood”? >


Over a thousand people flooded the section with identical comments opposing debt relief.

Not to mention, nothing says "astroturfed" quite like a bunch of identical comments. Wonder who's funding this—Mercer, the surviving Koch brother, and Thiel all come to mind, but I'm sure there're a lot of people I'm overlooking >

acting like it's people and not a script is probably the first mistake lol >

Cable companies did the same thing with net neutrality and the FCC comments. It was effective, until John Oliver set his audience loose on the comments and they crashed the FCC servers so hard the FCC tried to claim it was a denial of service attack. Lol >

I mean, that’s just a manual DDoS.
/s >

DDoS requires an attack.  In this case, it was thousands of people using the website as intended but the government never planned for that amount of public engagement in their website design. >

I should have included a /s. My bad. >

Them on student loans: Pay your debt.
Them on the debt limit: We're not gonna pay our debt. >

Them on PPP loans: forgive them, for my friends. >

Them on government bailouts to the tune of billions of dollars to the banks, auto industry, Wallstreet, etc over the last decade with literally zero oversight or accountability of how the money was spent by rich executives:  "oh that was totally justified" >

Actual names on the list:
Frank Oz
Jerry McGuire
Frank Tootsalot
Mia Mea
Fred Flinston >

Hey, take it easy! My uncle-in-law is named Fred Flinston! >

Your uncle is a jerk for signing that thing. >

Should've said he's a yabba dabba douchebag. >

Dammit. Your upvote should arrive in 0-3 business days. >

2000? that's a trickle, not a flood. A mere drip. Some cat videos get more comments, and those comments are probably from real people. >

These type of public comment periods usually get no comments or a handful at most, which is why the article calls it a flood. >

You’ve made your point. Multiple times >

Sorry, I just kept seeing the same sarcastic comment and was correcting the misconception. >

For the curious:
On the public comment site I searched "I am writing to oppose this regulation" and it provide over 1600 comments. I sorted oldest to newest and skimmed over several, and then sorted newest to oldest and did the same. There appears to be two different versions of copy and pasted comments that say effectively the same thing. They don't support any effort to change the student loan debt system. That's kind of weird because nothing is perfect, but whatevs. There were 1,994 comments when I visited the site.
More searches showed about a hundred more very similarly worded comments that were probably just amended versions of the cut and paste comments. That had common themes of "I didn't take on the debt" and "I worked to pay my way through college." At least these commenters actually put some effort into their comments. 
One comment said something to the effect of, "I worked real hard as a waitress to pay for my college." Sure, in the 1960s I guess.
One commenter said something to the effect of, "I'm retired and my kids and I didn't take on this debt." Must be nice. I have no kids and I have no complaints of the property taxes I've paid to support your kids' (presumably) public school education. I might begrudge you somewhat on the debt your generation (and mine) is leaving to the generations following me to pay for wars and corporate bail outs (bailouts, COVID era PPP loans, certain age subsidies, and so many other federal fiscal programs that so lopsidedly and directly benefit the already wealthy).
A not too through glimpse through some of the remaining approximately 250 or so comments suggests they are a mix of pro, con, and mixed opinions that are original compositions rather than copied as part of an obvious (Facebook?) group effort. >

Thank you for this breakdown. >

Thanks for noticing. >

The Republican Party is the party of pure evil. Full stop. >

The republican party lacks empathy.

“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trails 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
Quotation: Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials

The Nazis that are loudly out among republicans right now shows how this quote still applies. >

Humanity sure would improve a lot if we started acknowledging conservatism as an umbrella ideology for evil rather than a legitimate political ideology of differing opinion. It was literally born out of the French Revolution as a way to keep as much power/wealth in the hands of the arbitrary/undeserving, ie nobility. It was created to maintain status quos of inequality. How’s it’s ever been considered a valid political ideology within DEMOCRATIC (rather, claiming to be democratic) institutions and nations is beyond me. It literally aims to conserve systems of monarchy and nobility, rather than embrace democracy and equality. >

I’m sure we’ll learn from the consequences soon only for our great grandchildren to forget this shit all over again >

I wonder if those same people believe republicans efforts to overthrow the government is also unjust. >

[online petition of 425,000 people supporting something human]: [thrown in garbage]
[online petition of 2,000 people against something human]: Oh dear! We need to fix this! >

"Nearly." Meaning "Less than." 
Truly incredible, really newsworthy numbers right there. >

When 1 or 2 comments is normal, this is quite odd. >

2000 bitter hate-filled people. >

Hey hey i may be bitter and hate filled but… 
What was the third thing? >

Wow that’s an infinitely smaller number than the 10s of MILLIONS who signed up for the forgiveness on the DOE website in October. 🤷🏻‍♂️ >

Yes, but these are the people/bots/lizards/whatever that are putting in an effort to be heard. It's the same as the people that show up to yell at school board meetings. It's important to make your voice, or in this case comment, heard so it doesn't get drowned out by this type of nonsense. >

I’ll never understand how it’s ok to bail out companies for trillions but it’s not ok to bail out students for a few billion. >

Socialism for the rich, cold hard capitalism for the rest of us. >

I wonder how many of those comments were identical. >


from the article: 
"nearly 2,000 commenters, in what appeared to be a coordinated campaign, submitted the exact same comment opposing Biden's student-debt relief plans." >

Too bad those lizards were not as upset about the $2trillion gift to the hyper rich. >

“People” >

Must have been some busy troll farms. >

What GOP donor(s) funded it? I’m guessing DeVos. >

Russian bots? >

Republican bots >

potato potato >

Is potato >

A man stole all my money but I don’t want him arrested because I want him to rob other people >

In Iowa, our governor has been pushing that bullshit school vouchers program.  Just passed the legislature Monday.  I’ve talked to no one in this state who thought that was a good idea, but they refuse to listen to their constituents.  While she’s giving private schools $8k a year, she sued to stop $10k in student loan forgiveness.  And they wonder why younger people are leaving this shithole state. >

Nearly 2000 with IPs coming from Russia, and Iran. >

You don't think people oppose this here? I am for it, but I know many people that don't think this is a great idea, democrats included. They think there are better ways of doing it, like limiting or getting rid of interest. Every time someone disagrees with something that doesn't automatically make them a russian asset. >

You're right. It's a garbage article from a garbage websight. But there are probably hundreds of thousands of people here who hate this "socialist" entitlement. And others who, like you, agree the problem needed fixing, but disagree this was an ideal way to do it.... ignoring the stupid argument about "socialism."  Most important, the one-time loan forgiveness probably does absolutely nothing about the continued astronomical cost of higher education.
To clarify, I'm not 100% opposed to the forgiveness. But I am skeptical about details in the implementation. >

Why is the article garbage? There were almost no comments and then all of a sudden 2000 mostly negative comments overnight? I would have thought Reddit would care since so many here complain about student debt and want to see positive changes. Whatever, I guess. >

2000 identical comments, they are clearly done maliciously and statistically probably by bots.
ETA- it's literally the same as the anti-vax morons flooding vers with false statements about vaccine injuries. >


2000 identical comments, they are clearly done maliciously and statistically probably by bots.

Yep, very likely. >

There are high schools with more than 2000 students. >

Does anyone have a link so I can post something positive on it? >

I wonder if those people were this up-in-arms over the PPP loans. No? >

Did they also oppose PPP loan forgiveness. >

Just gonna say the Bible says it’s a sin to lend money at interest.
Says it several times too, not just once >

Who gives a shit what the bible says? How is that at all relevant? >

Because most Republicans are "Christians" and try to use religion to support their misguided and bad faith agendas. >

jfc .... where does the article mention Republicans, or religion? >

Are you under the impression that a coordinated astroturf campaign of commentary on a Biden proposal was perpetrated by Democrats? >

The comments were identical to one another, how is that not evidence of a coordinated campaign? And no one was suggesting that their holy book drives them to do these things, they were suggesting using the holy book's words to highlight them as hypocrites. >

Wouldn't the hypocrites be the ones who took loans, against the wishes of their holy book? >

The Bible was never interpreted as forbidding the taking out of loans at interest, only forbidding believers from charging interest on loans. For a significant portion of Christian history the charging of any interest on a loan was equated to usury, and was a sin which would prevent one from being buried in hallowed ground or receiving the eucharist. This is why, during the medieval period, the Jewish populations of cities were the primary, if not only, source of loans. Jews interpret the Tanakh's prohibition against usury as applying only to loans between Jews, therefore they were a source willing to offer loans to Christians and the medieval monarchs of Europe took significant advantage of that. With the rise of capitalism and a more contemporary system of finance in the modern era, most Christian denominations revisited there prior perspective on interest. Though there are still sections of the catholic church which hold to that view that interest=usury. >

purely out of their own volition and personal beliefs >

In the grand scheme of things 2000 is a small amount. For absolutely any issue you come up with, you can probably scrounge up 2000 people that disagree. >

Imagine being upset about someone else’s money >

Pretty sure I could hire 2000 people/bots to make posts super easily >

Where was this energy when the government gave free money to banks, PPP loans, corporate kick backs, reduces taxes for the rich, endless subsidies to farmers for corn (we don’t need it! Maybe subsidize eggs) etc? Only when the average citizen gets some relief do these idiots care. Personally, I glad this kicked Biden into gear reforming the entire system. The relief of 10-20k would be nice, but is not going to help people much who have been on income based repayment like REPAYE or IBR for decades with an ever increasing balance. this helps a lot of people who have been struggling for years and years. Count all of our payments, stop compounding interest, REDUCE interest, and make forgiveness automatic once you reach the required payments.
Edit to remove REPAYE as I see the article includes most of these things under that program. I don’t know how this affects the IBR repayment plan. >

The crazy thing is I know very liberal people, who even think that they should be able to live comfortably without working at all, that opposed this because they never got their student loans forgiven. Really? I give up! >


The crazy thing is I know very liberal people, who even think that they should be able to live comfortably without working at all, that opposed this because they never got their student loans forgiven. Really? I give up!

I've noticed that there are plenty of 'liberal' people who don't realize that most of their opinions align more with conservatives, or at least moderates. >

The swarm tactic >

Couldn't even be bothered to come up with their own words for why they oppose, much easier to copy-paste big paragraphs because brain small. >

“People” >

Wait…only 2000 people, who won’t be directly affected, calling against a measure that would directly benefit millions? 
Even if you asume all those are legit signers… >

Wtf only 2000 with a coordinated response?? That’s a pretty shitty turnout, didn’t even crash the server for an hour. Amnesty international has been doing the his kinda thing (form letter) for decades and regularly gets way more than 2000 people to sign on and yet, mostly crickets, and they’re trying to free political prisoners! Why is this news? >

People, please post your comments on the federal register notice! The notice isn't just for your information; it's for public comment. Someone counts all of them and they won't be able to ignore the duplicates. It's not against the rules to post a form letter and there's not a way to check names. We regularly have to respond to nasty comments from a member of the public called Jean (or John) Q. Public even when they're nonsense. I'm not saying the counts of pro vs against matter for the outcome, but someone will have to tally and report it and, c'mom, does it ever look great when most of the comments on a reg are negative? >

“I oppose the emancipation of slaves because I was a slave, so everyone else should have to slave also.” >

This is my favorite comment here. 👍 >

If you verified those 2,000 people comments, I wonder how many are aware that they did this. >

Managed to find 2000 prostitutes to astroturf huh. >

Hopefully these fucking lemmings wake-up before they casually walk off a cliff. >

“Back in my day we worked HARD for 15 hours a week to completely pay for our college” >

It sounds so ridiculous but this is literally the hill my grandfather is trying to die on. He went to college in the late 50s and graduated with no debt because a part time job was enough to cover tuition.
Meanwhile, he has a 25 year old adopted daughter, and he's leaving her all his money in his will to make sure that she's "taken care of" when payments resume. So clearly he knows, but fuck anyone who's not in his immediate family, I guess. >

Republicans hate Americans >

Why do people have to destroy literally EVERYTHING? >

Nearly 20 million people at the mercy of 2000 trolls >


The comment begins: "My name is [NAME] and I am writing to oppose this regulation to 'cancel' student debt."
"This regulation is extremely reckless as it is economically unstable, totally unjust, completely illegal, and would only worsen the problem it claims to fix," it continues. "This student debt 'cancellation' is fundamentally unjust to anyone who chose not to attend college because of the cost, those who worked their way through college to avoid debt, and those who paid off their debt as they promised."

Maybe these people that are upset others are getting help when they didn't should push for free college so they can get the thing they were denied instead of condemning those others to a lifetime of debt.
Just a random thought. >

Tax breaks for business owners are bullshit.  I would've started a business if not for the cost! >

Obvious astro turf is obvious >

Is this anti-student loan forgiveness Pro Gop voters in 2024 trying to block a progressive plan by Biden and Dems >

2000 people, in a nation of 330 million, is a “flood” these days? >

Now how many real people was it? >

Just call them bots, cause they were >

Probably all Republican interns. >

Looks like all the spam comments were the same. Should be pretty easy to filter out then!
Time to go submit my opinion, which will endorse freeing people from crippling debt and expand govt funding of colleges >

2000? I think we can take them. >

All evil Republicans 😈 >

I kinda love the idea:
“Awwww… I’m sorry!! Does student loan forgiveness make you feel sad? Here! Go yell and this website. I promise that your patriotic voice will be heard!” >

I wonder what combination of rotted GQP politician/evangelical fraud preacher/fascist conspiracy news channel gave out these talking points? Or was just their cult leader? Fools. >

A lot of idiots out there too >

More GOPerLord planted Astroturf. Seems those GOPerLords don't think their base has any kids who could get into college - a fair assumption considering the intelligence level of at least 20 of their elected reps. >

I did my part to comment in favor of debt relief. >

Check if your parents are there. Leave them to rot when they are old. Typical old got their fuck yours >

A lot of foreign IP addresses, I bet. >

That sounds suspiciously like dismal Donnie's word usage. Unnecessary intensifiers and all. >

How about we all just get naked and fight that seems like the best course of action. >

2000 people is not “flooded.” It’s a count of whack jobs >

Yes. 2k definitely real people. >

Had a lecture hall in college that was basically an auditorium and would split into smaller discussion sections later, room sat ~400 people. You mean to tell me nearly a whole day of freshmen Bio 100 lectures complained? We put up those numbers just over the online HW system, rookie numbers. >

Banks have been consistently oppose any reforms on bankruptcy laws. Heck they lobbied to change laws to make it difficult to clear debts after the bankruptcy.
Then 2008 financial shit hit the fan and the fuckers were bailed out left and right. 
Change the god damn law, student loan should be written off when a person cannot pay and file bankruptcy. >

They only got 2,000 comments? I could do that all on my own if I really wanted to so this is an absolutely piss poor attempt. >

The second someone looks into how legit those 2,000 comments are, they will be lost in a system "failure". >

Only 2000? We're making progress >

Republicans are the party of hate and bondage. >

Only way to counter this is for everyone to comment. >

The protesters have a point.  
I also think it’s unfair that so many people nowadays have their appendicitis eliminated by surgery, when people back in the good old days had to die of peritonitis.  If peritonitis didn’t kill you, it made you stronger.  And if it did kill you, it made your kids stronger for growing up orphans.  Now this country is full of a bunch of sissies who never had to fight through peritonitis.  Instead they just went to sleep while their appendix was eliminated on taxpayers’ or insurance premium payers’ dime.  We need to bring back ruptured appendices in order to bring back personal accountability and real masculinity.  
I know that if I died of a ruptured appendix, the first thing I’d want to do is make sure my children also got to die of appendicitis when it was their turn.  I don’t want them having anything better than I had.
I also heard that the cabal and the deep state only want to take out your appendix because it turns you gay.  Leave the appendix where God put it, and leave your gay agenda in the trash on the way out, libs! >

The comments amount to “I HAD TO DO IT THE HARD WAY, SO YOU SHOULD TOO!!” Wah wah wah >

Lol.
When the FCC opened comments regarding proposed rules for Net Neutrality they got so many comments (in the hundreds of thousands) that the server crashed several times.
Those comments, the vast majority in support of banning internet providers from providing preferential treatment for a fee, were completely ignored. This despite concentrated effort by entire communities of netizens to get people involved.
So why the hell should we care about a measly 2000 people when the outcome will actually benefit real people instead of corporate profit? >

2000 people? Damn I hope they all get a hobby. >

Lol fail thread >

All votes were from those that overcharged students for the loans.  Universities and Loan companies is my guess are part of the rejection.
Place the blame where it belongs and make sure those that abused have to pay up. >

I just want my teensy little $2,000 forgiven lol that’s ALL I want. I’ve paid $20,000 of loans already for a degree that I don’t even use, and I just would like a little bit of help. It’s not like I’m asking for a multi million dollar bail out >

Slaves protecting their master’s financial interests. >

Lol “people”. 
Hey ChatGPT “write a scripted email in support of the school loan bailout, and send it 3000 times to this web address”. >

It's bots and repubs who are against where their tax dollars go to help people. 🙄 >

Yeah, 2000 bots maybe. >

I hope everyone at least submitted their comment. >

Only 2,000.  Hardly an effort.  I could do that all by myself. >

Deadbeat, from Trailer Park Welfare to VANITY Fair, Connie. >

How bored and bitter do you have to be in order to get that upset about people getting a little help? >

More likely it's people with a vested interest >

No, whats totally unjust and should be illegal is private colleges charging a quarter million dollars for a community college equivalent degree and then the subsequent loan sharks who saddle you with debt for your whole life for one decision at 17 years old. That is what is wrong with the decision. >

Crab like, republicans pull down any poor person that wants to escape debt. >

People of this ilk are just such sad human beings. Imagine how miserable you must be to be so upset that others get relief from something. 
They have made horrible choices their whole lives and are bitter that others tried to improve themselves. >

The sheer audacity of this headline. >

2000 people wouldn’t flood a website >

Angelfire has entered the chat >

How many of those 2K were bots? >

2000 people is pretty dismal >

Why are there so many people who are so against letting people just learn and be educated without going into crazy debt? >

Because they didn’t get the benefit, why should anyone else. >

I really hate this kind of competitive spirit that's taken over our society. >

It’s funny, many of the people complaining are the same ones who want to Make America Great Again, you know back in the fifties when there were more social problems to help people. >

2000 whole people...
Man, in a country of 300 million, that's so significant! >

Lol A whopping 2k people! >

2000 is not a flood. My taxes bailed out the banksters, and they should have gone to prison. I have no issues with bailing out all students. Then make colleges, universities and trade schools free. The richest country can afford it. >

That's not a lot lol >

It's not unjust or illegal. Debts are forgiven day-in and day-out in commerce. I'm more interested in people who did not repay PPE loans because they didn't use the funds as required. >

The government isn’t “day in / out commerce”, you are thinking of private industry. 
Executive branch can’t negate those loans so it is in fact illegal.
This reality is well known in Washington but you can’t find it in the click bait crap that is posted here. 
This isn’t my first day on Reddit so go ahead and down vote these facts >

Banks >

Two thousand pieces of dried up dog shit. 
Or bots. >

This is the actual headline? Not dripping with bias or anything..... >

“I didn’t get loan forgiveness when tuition was a McDonalds summer job wage! WHY SHOULD THEY!!!” >

More than 18 million people applied when The Biden Administration setup the forgiveness application. That’s more than the population of 94% of states. >

A whole 2,000? Wow, Biden must be scared >

Wow a whole 2,000 >

Neatly 0.0000001% of the US population 😂 >

2000 people is less than the number of people that walk through the doors or 1 of 5 schools in my town’s high school district. Why are we constantly being held hostage by a vocal and often violent minority? >


Why are we constantly being held hostage by a vocal and often violent minority?

That's why it's important to make your voice heard. That's what these people are doing. You'd think the other side would want to do the same, but that's often not the case. But they'll definitely complain when something doesn't go their way despite putting in zero effort. >

"people" >

"Flooded" isnt a word I would use for 2000 people. >

Damn, nearly 0.00007% of the population said they hate this idea. Obviously we gotta scrap it and appeal to them. >

Why are they acting like 2000 is a big number? That’s absolutely abysmal. >

That’s pretty optimistic calling 2000 web hits a flood. >

lol 2,000...
That's like practically no one. >

How do 2000 people "flood" a web site? Unless it's hosted on a fucking twinkie, that is both a political and technical drop in the bucket and no one fucking cares. >

WOW 😮!!  That’s 2000 people from the entire country?  Was the FOX Nation included? >

Where were these people when the PPP loans were given out? I’m guessing front of the line! It’s ok to give tax breaks to millionaires, pandemic loans to business owners, but help out the middle class—- oh no!!! That’s a bridge too far!!! >

It’s simply amazing how many Americans root against Americans. Forgiving student debts would be the biggest boom this economy seen in a long time. >

Wonder if they used my parents names and dead grandma again to create the comments like they did for Net Neutrality opposition. >

Americans are hate filled greedy morons. 
Continue proving me right for another 60 years you ‘exceptional’ ‘people’. >

Haha I love this comment. Thank you >

Siding with the predatory lenders to own the libs >

The scripted complaint mentions that debt forgiveness will “drive inflation.”
Remember when minimum wage was defeated because it would “drive inflation?” 
So it was defeated (with a curtsy and thumbs down).
Then, inflation happened anyway. 
Trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals, taxpayer subsidies for corporations, bailouts for businesses that made poor choices. No opposition. No fear if inflation. 
But a few thousand dollars relief to individuals? “Drives inflation!”
A minimum wage increase? “Drives inflation!”
Inflation is the newest boogie man, that omniscient great evil that is never caused by giving money to the powerful and wealthy. It only rears its ugly head when money is offered to help the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the working class. 
We will never learn to see the ruse for what it is, will we? Our minds and hearts are captive to our fears and hates and to the Great Inflation.
But, Inflation is so useful as a pretext: the wealthy price gouge all of us and cry “inflation!” 
They have packages and fed us all a ridiculous illogical logic: that inflation It is both impossible to prevent (the “Invisible Hand” argument) but it is simultaneously preventable if we just don’t give money to working class individuals. 
If Inflation is impossible to prevent, then it needs to stop being used as the excuse to drive austerity. 
If it is preventable, then stop giving money to the wealthiest and stop corporate subsidies, corporate tax breaks, and corporate bailouts. And start giving individual subsidies, individual tax breaks, and individual bailouts. 
Individuals apparently need lobbyists, because America is an Oligarchy and the government is purchased with lobbying money. Otherwise known as bribery and corruption. >

A whole 2,000? 
0.0006% of the population. >

It’s way smaller than that…add two more zeros >

So effectively no one. >

2000 entitled clowns and brainwashed buffoons do not, a mandate, make.  Fuck ‘em. >

What's the link to comment? >

The only thing that's unjust is locking these student loans to a fixed rate, with no refinance options.  What's so different about this kind of loan that the lenders bar you from finding a lower rate?  Money is money, after all, and it certainly goes against the GOPs values of having a free and fair market.  Who the hell is lending out these funds to begin with?  Kings and queens?  That their majesty ought not to be perturbed with a loan adjustment from an impish peasant?  This is America not the UK!!!  If they can find a lower rate than more power to them. >

2,000 people is extremely insignificant in a country of 100s of millions. Servers should be able to handle 2K just fine . >

Fucking MAGA assholes. >

Just paid shills doing what they do. >

I too know how to automate comments with a Python bot.
Congrats on your freshmen Computer Science level astroturfing project. >

In a country of 315 million people?
The opposition isn't worth mentioning. >

John Oliver was able to cause a crash an FCC site. That's what happens when you motivate a group of people. >

Get John Oliver on this then. >

All 2000 people that were at Trumps inauguration >

Jeez, they sound mad. Can you imagine if they knew about corporate welfare? >

"Nearly 2000 people flooded a federal website following the orders of their fascist overlord Rupert Murdoch and his evil Fox propaganda machine."
Calling it how I see it. Millions of brainwashed idiots lining up to get their fox marching orders. Pathetic. >

Lol 2k huh? How did they ever deal with that flood? >

Which church? >

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but that is not a lot of people… >

Spurred of by their handlers at Faux news. When my sister went to college her loan came from the government at the prime interest rate. Ronny Reagun got big government off your back by turning you over to private for profit interests allowing them  to charge whatever rate they liked on a government  guaranteed loan. >

Why are people against it? Is it the fuck your life mentality because I never got help so why should you? Man people are real scumbags, you think people would be like ya cancel them forever loans as most of them are scams ment to never be able to be paid back. It's either ignorant people who don't know anything about the issue or just people who hate others and want them to suffer kinda people. >

Fuck you I got mine is peak american mentality, so yeah, kinda baked in unfortunately, it sucks. >

I’m betting most of them were from conservative activist groups and none have student loans. >

That’s all? >

I bet the website staff laughed at 2k people opposing it.  They now need to put up the number of people show gratitude and thankfullness for a chance at being debt free. >

2000 people on a website. Wow! That’s like unheard of web traffic! >

I WANT to be saddled with crippling lifelong debt at extortionist interest rates! It’s my freedom as an AMERICAN!! >

America has the dumbest citizens. >

no doubt right wingers.  anytime others try doing good things for the poor right wingers have to try to stop it >

get every single one of them, because you know damn well every one of them applied and get and spent their PPP loans >

Let’s pretend that the president had the power to forgive debt which he doesn’t, why put a bandaide on the problem instead of actually fixing the problem. Let’s say we forgive the debt, are we going to forgive student debt again in 20 years? At this point it’s just performative politics. Wanna know why college cost so much? It’s becuase of federal student loans. Look at the increase of the cost of college in the 70’s after we started giving federal student loans. >

Because you should fix a problem in its current state (to help those that it’s already affected) before spending years trying to fix the system for the future >

This doesn’t fix the problem. It’s a temporary band-aide with no plan to actually fix the “thing” that is causing the problem. It’s like taking pills for high blood pressure but not actually changing your lifestyle to actually lower your blood pressure. Just take pills the rest of your life because your unwilling to do the hard work. >

Sure, but taking blood pressure pills while you’re doing other things to fix it longer term makes a lot more sense than just doing nothing. >

My small town high school had a little over 2k students. >

Oh, damn, 2 whole thousands? A mighty flood the like of which the world had never witnessed before! *snickers* >

Those are not real people >

Republicans are pretty good at this grassroots organizing. >

People are so scared of someone getting something more than them whilst the rich fleece them dry. >

I've seen steam game review page bombs with bigger numbers than that >

No more FEMA.
No more Crop Insurance.
No more Blue states funding Red states.
No more oil & gas subsidies.
All financial benefits that don't benefit me. I don't have Student Loans either but I don't see it as them getting something others don't. >

Correction nearly 2,000 paid by big companies who actually love socialism for themselves want everyone else to pay their debts >

Sounds like something redditors would try to organize. >

Funny, that's the same exact number of votes in the "red wave." >

Wow. 2000. That’s not a lot at all. >

Not-two-thou-sand! 😅🤣😅 >

2 whole thousand? Oh my. >

Is 2000 “flooding?” >

How is this even an article? 2000 people is nothing. >

So 2000 out of 340 million citizens. A tiny footnote in the pages of history. Is that smaller than a mouse squeak? >

And how many more flooded the system asking for the forgiveness'? Come on, at least report the facts, ALL the facts, not just the ones that fuel clickbait and internet outrage. >

Did they? I can't find any of those ones. >

That seems like a pretty small number given the amount of voters and people who are struggling with school loans in America. >

Note: this is a notice and comment ("informal") rulemaking under the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
The government needs to review the comments and take them into account; ignoring their reasoning show that the final rule should be tossed out for being "arbitrary and capricious." 
The government does not, and does not need to, accord the comments equal weight. This isn't a popular vote, it's one informed by the reasoning of smart, informed people. 
While you're welcome to post your own comments, repeating form text only bores whoever's reading the comments. Repeating an argument doesn't make it more persuasive. 
If you're motivated, you can write you own nuanced take, or you can make a small donation to organizations (or scholars?) who are likely to write the long, good version of the comment supporting your position.
You can read some of the comments that have already been posted for the program. Here are the last few (as of this comment):

This means tested uselessness is not what we were promised. This worthless face-saving gesture is immensely disappointing. Shame on all of you for trying to pawn this garbage off on the American People. 

or

Income-based repayment is better than what we currently have. However, the slower the repayment, the more the interest accrues. This is a fleecing of young people who want higher education. College should be free, but until the time when America is advanced enough to make that happen, we must stop robbing kids with crazy amounts of interest due on educational loans. It's shameful. 

or

Please consider allowing the 5% for graduate loans as well. Many of us were unfortunately required to have Graduate Degrees for various professions. Not all Master’s degrees lead to higher salaries.

or

This is another plan that placates borrowers. Government lenders are kicking the bucket down the road, which results in a lot of stress for borrowers who mostly cannot pay off this debt. Student loans do not qualify for bankruptcy. This goes against the US Constitution. Ultimately, it is a scheme to hurt the American middle class and the poor. Government should erase these mismanaged and mishandled debts. It would help the economy because people could invest money in their communities. Please stop misleading the American people. 

No offense, but these are no more insightful than the average reddit post. Maybe less. 
Like, do some research, people. 
Thank you for your attention. >

Is this a copy paste from TRump? >

Does anyone have a link to the website so o can flood it with pro loan statements coming from someone who just finished paying tuition. For their kids college >

flooded, flooded!! >

Wow that is a lot of people.  Glad the website could handle the traffic. >

What is this?!?! A flood for ANTS?!?!?! >

You could literally get more than 2k people to support the government killing them. And this is a flood?
Propaganda from Business Insider >

That's a very small number, considering how many applicants. Yet over 10 million PPP loans were forgiven. >

In a functioning society, people pay back their loans. >

Bunch of smart ass comments but the day my taxes are forcibly stolen to pay for strangers’ bad financial decisions is the day I never vote blue again. I wasn’t able to afford further education, so I found ways to support myself otherwise. So because I had the common sense to not borrow money I wouldn’t be able to pay back, I’m now being punished by paying for the people who borrowed the money anyway. Never again. >

Do you feel this way about every other use of your tax dollars?  THIS is your line in the sand? >

So now Russian troll bots are people? 2k isn't newsworthy but that won't stop bothsiders. >

2000 people is not a flood for a federal website meant to handle complaints from a population of hundreds of millions of people. >

Garbage headline. 2,000 isn’t a flood. >

Nancy Pelosi said it was illegal the week he started talking about it. Executive branch doesn’t have the power. It was a sham for the midterms. And apparently most fell for it. >

Nancy Pelosi has an opinion colored by the fact that the executive having more power reduces hers. >

And how many for it? That would be an ark level flood compared to this shower. >

The opposition is cognitively deficient >

I’m so tired of stupid-ass bullshit. A lot of people need to get a hobby. At least, go on a walk, ffs. >

This issue here is that this doesn't fix anything.   The same system that generated the need to even consider student loan forgiveness remains in place.   All it does it give a one time cut to a bill and POTENTIALLY lowers month to month payments of you qualify for REPAYE plans.  
Address the astronomical cost for higher education.  Address the issue of capitalizating interest rates.
Hell CAP the interest rates. >

It does fix something, it frees up income to be spent more broadly than a few large banks. I think this is one of those “AND” situations. Get people out from forever payments on education loans AND address cost of higher education. We aren’t going to see the latter at a federal level for a long while. Personally I’d look to your state legislature to address costs of college or employment requirements >

It should be an "and" scenario but without the latter of those 2 then all this is, is simply trying to pail the water out of a sinking ship.
Under repaye plan, it reduces the monthly payment but your still on that bill for 20 years until it's just forgiven and you WILL be paying it for the full 20 years on the REPAYE because when the interest capitalizes, it's just added to your principal balance to collect more interest.   Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.
States won't do anything either.
I'm not saying nothing should happen because something needs too, the current model isn't sustainable but this isn't a solution, it's a bandaid and not even a good bandaid, like some cheap dollar store one that peels off right away. >

Well don't I feel sheepish.    I didn't see that part.   I read the apart about interest accrual under 12k on the initial loan.  
Thanks for pointing this out. >

Probably mostly paid Trolls seriously why has education been so iexpensive..It's simple educated people are less likely to vote for people who are out to screw them over. >

This is one of those substance lacking stories fox news will gravitate to for weeks, because it allows them to "own the libs" >

Another red wave. >

2000 bots lol >

Were those people or bots? Was there even a Captcha to verify that the commenter was a real person? >

I think if it were bots it would be much higher. >

There would have been more complaints but it seems banks were offering more lones. >

Please please please tell me this headline is sarcastic. >

Sure they did >

The red wave strikes again! >

Wow. That few. Seems like a really popular program. >

Koch brother propaganda. >

In contrast how many people signed up for student loan forgiveness?
about that >

All Christians. >

I want their names.  Let's see what kind of loans they had forgiven. >

Thats how a developed country works. Taxes are paid so people can get a public education tuition free. In the U.S we call it "forgiveness" as if we sinned for wanting public education and had to be "forgiven" by the government. >

Can we get the average age range of the whopping 2,000 people who opposed it? I mean, they represent 0.000006% of the population; is this the Red Wave we heard so much about? >


The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration imposed on the internet is smothering innovation, damaging the American economy and obstructing job creation. I urge the Federal Communications Commission to end the bureaucratic regulatory overreach of the internet known as Title II and restore the bipartisan light-touch regulatory consensus that enabled the internet to flourish for more than 20 years. The plan currently under consideration at the FCC to repeal Obama's Title II power grab is a positive step forward and will help to promote a truly free and open internet for everyone. >

Fuck it man, at this point I’d be happy if they just eliminated interest payments. I highly doubt they’ll actually take anything off the balance >

Is this the title of the article? Fair and balanced. >

right-wing bots >

One question….why should taxpayers pay the (legally accepted) debt of a few when the majority never asked for or received financial assistance? >

I’m so glad you asked that during the TARP bailout in 2008, the 2020 bailouts that weren’t paid back, and during the 2017 tax cuts that benefitted the wealthiest. So strong and brave of you to speak up NOW. 👏