Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/14/here-are-the-200000-russian-t.html
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Take a step back and ask WHY the Russians did this. They wanted chaos in the United States, and they got it, but WHY? I think that they are trying to build Russia up by tearing the rest of the world down, and attacking the US is a very good start at doing that, and apparently it’s working far better than they could have dreamed it would, with a White House in perpetual disorder and panic mode, and in complete denial that the Russian attacks actually helped them get into power. The White House seems to believe Trump’s propaganda that the world is in complete disorder and that “ONLY Donald Trump can solve the situation, and save the world”. Meanwhile, the world sees us as a complete joke, at least in part for letting Russia influence our elections in the first place. The excellent PBS program Frontline posits that Putin hates the west for not helping the USSR hold together, and he wants to bring down the west as punishment. He seems to be doing an excellent job of that, and, in addition, he’s becoming one of the richest men in the world. The very worst part is that Trump has a raging man-crush on the totalitarian dictator who is intent on bringing the entire United States down, and he’s doing a damn good job of it, with Trump’s accidental assistance.
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Putin blames the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton, for allegedly stirring up protests in 2012 and 2013 in response to Russian elections. Naturally he would want to help Hillary’s opponent. He also hates Obama and everything orbiting Obama because of the Magnitsky Act sanctions, which punish the rich oligarch friends Putin needs to play nice with in order to remain in power.
Trump’s flaws are glaring and numerous. You don’t need to be a psychological expert to realize that he’s easily placated by fawning strongmen. Trump views himself as a macho man and desperately craves the endorsement of other macho men to ratify his vision of himself. Putin knows this, and sought to help Trump because Trump would be easier to manipulate than Hillary, who is much more skeptical of Putin.
You’re also right to point out that Putin wanted chaos in the U.S. Putin takes a dim view of Western liberal democracy, and in order to make Russia look less flawed, engages in whataboutism by pointing out that the democratic countries aren’t so hot, for all their “democracy.” Sowing discord in the U.S. – as he’s tried to do in European countries – allows him to say to his people, “You want American-style democracy? Look what they did: They elected a reality-star goofball as president. He’s on Twitter every day insulting people, contradicting his own staff, and begging to start wars. That’s what American-style democracy gets you. Not like here, where I, Putin, maintain order and discipline. A great benefit compared to the small price for undemocratic sham elections that I win every time. So what if you’re not ‘free’? You’re protected.”
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I followed the link:
View data for ten influential accounts in Google Sheets
It’s just like the comments on Breitbart or Daily caller. How do you tell Russian trolls from good ol’ American right-wing racist bigots? Does anyone seriously think that adding an additional 1% to the home-grown stream of crap could influence anything? There is already more than anyone could read (even with good reading skills).
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Putin doesn’t want the U.S. and NATO to interfere with his plans to expand the what’s known as the Russkiy Mir (“Russian World”), which boils down to reconstructing the Russian and/or Soviet empire and the old sphere of influence. If you want details about broad goals the best source is Aleksandr Dugin’s Foundations of Geopolitics.
Undermining confidence in liberal democratic institutions and promoting disunity and separatism and isolationism and protectionism in the West helps give Putin a free hand in places like Ukraine. Disinformation and black propaganda spread by trollies and useful idiots through poorly policed social networks are very effective means to this end as a force multiplier, something our Shirtless KGB veteran well understands. If you want to know more about the strategies I recommend this short Adam Curtis documentary:
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Moose and Squirrel!! FAKE NEWS!
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This is neo-McCarthyism on steroids. There is zero evidence that these 200,000 tweets are related to Russian sources. The “malicious activity” of “inflammatory tweets” available in the database show a mixture of pro-Trump tweets, anti-Trump tweets, tips on how to survive Thanksgiving, post-Christmas dietry guilt, etc. Very run-of-the-mill stuff.
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is good one! Say together now, “on tree”. raz, dva, TREE!
#Fake News! Moose and Squirrel!
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You joined just to say that?
You left out the part about how the President asked Putin, who said he wasn’t involved. QED!
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Velcome, comrade; ve have been expecting you.
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The more important question becomes: is Twitter doing anything to stop fake/bot/troll accounts right now? When your product’s value is based on the number of users, the answer does not look good.
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I’m less interested in what the ruskies are up to, and more curious about how the USian political system became so damn vulnerable to such a simple minded hack. Over half the eligible population doesn’t vote anyway, so one might say they are already immune to Russian hacking.
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Decades of corruption, in every sense of the word.
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Less than one percent of the vote can win an election.
If it’s one percent of al posts vs just political posts more so. If it’s well targeted to the electorate - hot button issues - selectively tearing down a candidate- targeting saoft support in key demographics- targeting swing states.if it changes a narrative- it effects things.
If advertising or disinformation campaigns didn’t work - why would anyone expends so much money on them?
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that scanned as ‘invoiced’ and was slightly more believable!!!
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I must need coffee because I keep reading the headline as, “Here are the 200,000 Russian doll tweets deleted by Twitter”
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I’d agree more that Russia wants to be in control of its sphere of influence. I don’t think Putin is looking to set up a Soviet-style empire again. Putin doesn’t want to recover India or Cuba as pro-Russian satellites; he’s content to engage in some ethno-nationalism in border states (e.g., Crimea) and try to maintain its status as the power broker in Asia and the Middle East.
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If that’s the measure, it’s more like 0.001%.
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Especially since disinformation requires next to no effort at all. You don’t have to affirmatively prove or disprove anything; you just have to raise a question; i.e., “I’ve heard others saying the Democrats are running a pedophilia ring. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s something I’ve heard.” No matter how outrageous the claim is, you can’t unring that bell. That’s all it takes.
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