Maybe that's part of why this topic interests me right now in a more broad sense than literal paid shills. I guess maybe I hope I can recognize that something is important or true without making it like that.

I agree with you here. I came to the same conclusion for maybe different reasons. For me it was I used to consider to myself a 'liberal' until all this vaccine and censorship stuff. I realized that individual issues were what was important to me rather than being on the 'right' or 'left' side, as the left abandoned these values, and some on the 'right' started promoting these values.