• socsa@piefed.socialEnglish
    9814·
    2 months ago

    And before people say “not Lemmy, we are too small” - It’s pretty obvious that a major Lemmy instance is literally a training ground for these recruits before they get promoted to Facebook and reddit duty (either intentionally or otherwise). There have been a few narratives this election which seem to have been tested out on here weeks before getting to Facebook and reddit. “Blue MAGA” was a pretty obvious one they seemed to workshop on Lemmy.

    • kinther@lemmy.worldEnglish
      355·
      2 months ago

      There are certain actors on Lemmy that I’m betting will disappear after the presidential election cycle or significantly pull back their posting.

      Basically fanning the flames of “democrat bad, support israel genocide” while also saying “republican not in power, can’t blame them!”. Genocide is terrible no matter who does it and we shouldn’t pretend Republicans would be any better. In all likelihood, they would be worse.

      • djsaskdja@reddthat.comEnglish
        626·
        2 months ago

        Democrats only want a little genocide, as a treat. Gee, I wonder why people don’t want to vote for that? Must be those darn Russian bots.

        • kinther@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          2 months ago

          I’m not defending their actions. I’m pointing out that there are those that astroturf social media that -only ever point out the negatives of one major political party while completely ignoring the other-.

          So since you seem to be reasonable despite your satire and snark, what do you think about the Republicans and how they would handle the ongoing genocide?

          Or will you prove my point again for me?

          • djsaskdja@reddthat.comEnglish
            27·
            2 months ago

            There’s just no point in criticizing the Republican party. Their supporters don’t use forums like this. They almost never leave their respective bubbles. It’s the equivalent of screaming into the void. Republicans bad, Democrats good is one of the oldest forms of online circlejerking. It’s a complete waste of time and effort. Yes, they would likely handle the genocide as poorly or worse than Democrats have so far. If that’s your only point, you’re only bringing attention to something that everyone already knows. It’s so obvious that it doesn’t even need to be said.

            The two mainstream political parties in the US exist on an extremely narrow spectrum. Both are neoliberal in philosophy and generally right of center economically. Only the Democrats lean left in social issues, but I find any support there to be completely nullified and undermined by their demented economic policies and rabid war hawking.

            • kinther@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              2 months ago

              I disagree that leaving things unsaid is the best approach to online discussion, especially when it comes to soundbite level social media like Lemmy and Reddit. Doing this puts forth the position that only one thing needs to be said, which is underhanded and intellectually dishonest.

              You’re absolutely right that both mainstream parties in the US are closely related in policy, so it is a failure of those arguing against the Israeli genocide to not call this what it is: a governmental policy problem, not a single party problem. Saying “democrat bad, support Israeli genocide” while ignoring the opposite party just because it is not in power is a failure to point out the root cause of the issue. If we don’t want to support any genocide, we need to make sure that no matter what party is in power, it doesn’t happen.

              I’ll ignore the fact that you disagree with their economic policies for now and continue to focus on the fact that this is a systematic issue, not one that is beholden to one party or the other.

    • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
      132·
      2 months ago

      this is a bit scary as the fediverse is likely a bit more difficult than facebook and such. I hate to think we are training them to well.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1615·
      2 months ago

      It’s pretty obvious that a major Lemmy instance is literally a training ground for these recruits

      Is there any evidence to substantiate this claim, or are we doing the “Everyone on the instance I don’t like is a Russian bot, because they disagree with me” line of reasoning?

      “Blue MAGA” was a pretty obvious one they seemed to workshop on Lemmy.

      Wasn’t this in response to the dead-end Biden guys who were growing increasingly hysterical as he tanked out in the polls? Lemmy’s gotten significantly more normal since Harris took the top of the ticket and the numbers have rebounded.

      • socsa@piefed.socialEnglish
        123·
        2 months ago

        Nah, more like “Russian bots exist and some people I disagree with are Russian bots.” Which is pretty much the entire premise of the article.

        It’s also pretty easy to tell the difference IMO. The trolls tend to just do nothing but troll and flame. They don’t really spend much time engaging on other topics.

        As far as why I think Lemmy is a training ground? Call it a hunch. Obviously I don’t have a notarized letter from a troll farm saying that they are in control of a certain worldnews forum, but a lot of the usual suspects fit a bit too neatly into that box to not raise an eyebrow. There are some other patterns as well but its definitely all circumstantial.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
        52·
        2 months ago

        Is there any evidence to substantiate this claim, or are we doing the “Everyone on the instance I don’t like is a Russian bot, because they disagree with me” line of reasoning?

        It’s option B in all cases.

    • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
      45·
      2 months ago

      Yep, i’ve noticed their rhetoric has gotten bad on the Memes sub. I just unsubbed there actually. 196 is more fun anyways.

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1620·
      2 months ago

      Don’t be silly. Those comms are filled with people who could no longer stand reddit-brained commenters shouting all the pro-US propaganda.

      The belief that all political dissenters of the DNC are somehow trained or foolish monkeys tricked by the wiles of a foreign country is itself a powerful propaganda point. Now i don’t expect you to believe that just cuz i said it, but if i were right, what might such propaganda achieve? Does it perhaps cause you to consider all criticisms of the DNCs policies as “russian prop” and then not read more? If it does, is it a "thought terminating cliche? "

      After all, you believe it somehow (even though thinking through it would dismiss the idea as ridiculous) and i bet you’re a smart person generally.

      You might think I’m a ruskie no matter what but consider my POV. I left reddit because i couldn’t stand the politics there, only to have those politics follow me and scream that im some agiprop to fool them.

      No, no, i don’t want anything to do with the childish US-centric worldview of reddit. Its not about them cats, i did it for my sanity, cuz the shit redditors say hurts my soul. I leave to find people who think like i do only to have the most strident screamers follow me. No, screamers, you arent my target, you goldarn children are my endless headache

      I don’t want people to change their politics i want them to stop filling my feed and inbox with stupid bullshit.

    • pop@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1025·
      2 months ago

      I mean the US gets to shape the narrative everywhere else by making the social companies to do so, but the people removed about how they’re being manipulated in return is always going to be hilarious.

      Lemmy is being overrun by brainwashed wankies more than anything.

      There have been a few narratives this election which seem to have been tested out on here weeks before getting to Facebook and reddit. “Blue MAGA” was a pretty obvious one they seemed to workshop on Lemmy

      can you post some links?

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        79·
        2 months ago

        Lemmy is being overrun by brainwashed wankies more than anything.

        It’s all the same people who comment on YouTube and post ForwardsFromGrandma on Facebook. Its not like there’s some secret reserve of “normal” people that are being diluted. Americans are going to American, whether they’re cheer leading our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, freaking out over a gay couple trying to buy a wedding cake, or marching around Charlottesville with torches.

        These assholes are everywhere. And when you call them on their bullshit, their knee-jerk response is “You’re anti-American! No aktuly you’re the extremist! You’re either with us or you’re with the Terrorists! You’re not even a real person, you must be an elaborate engineered computer program / insincere paid special agent specifically tasked with tricking me into questioning my preconceptions!”

        Implying that folks are “brainwashed” assumes they had some better prior understanding of the world that was subsequently overwritten by a nefarious evil agent. But this baseline ultra-nationalism is the original conception we’re raised with. American Exceptionalism is the norm and believing in it is for normies.

        They’re not the freaks and weirdos and wankies for adhering to this very cloistered understanding of the world. We’re the freaks for questioning it, for interrogating it, and god-fucking-help-us-all rejecting it.

  • Telorand@reddthat.comEnglish
    682·
    2 months ago

    In order for this work to be effective, you need to use a minimum of fake news and a maximum of realistic information. At the same time, you should continuously repeat that this is what is really happening, but the official media will never tell you about it or show it to you.

    Yep, that last sentence pretty much sums up right-wing media, especially since “Candidate A” who is definitely not Trump, shhh ran for office around 2016.

  • Zier@fedia.io
    231·
    2 months ago

    So basically the Russian government branch of Fox news.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      271·
      2 months ago

      Fox News IS the conservative plutocracy’s STATE propaganda network. The only difference is they created the state media before they seized control of the state.

  • kandoh@reddthat.comEnglish
    211·
    2 months ago

    ‘In the fox news style’

    Hmmm 🤔

    Also interesting how much they count on white grievances and making white people feel attacked. It’s almost like these things make you easier to manipulate.

        • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
          41·
          2 months ago

          Manga is Japanese comic books; the “print version of anime” if you will. Lots of anime is based on manga.

          It doesn’t make any sense in the context of the document, though; which why I wonder if it was a mistaken translation

          • potentiallynotfelix@lemdro.idEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            It makes more sense than maga though. I don’t forsee them changing an english acronym into cyrillic, and that is the only way there could have been an error

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      It’s really ‘Manga’ in what I read in the end of the alleged original doc. Can’t judge it yet, but it seems weird.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      16·
      2 months ago

      Yes, these are the weakest possible threats that absolutely pale in comparison to the unfettered zionist propaganda coming from almost every USAian news source and almost every USAian politician.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    2 months ago

    Maybe it’s time to return the favor.

    I wonder if Russians are aware of the ways Putin enriches himself off of Russian poverty and suffering. Let’s make sure they know how to solve that problem.

    • InvertedParallax@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      They aren’t but they don’t care.

      You can’t comprehend how psychologically broken Russians are, they’ve had centuries of lies with 0 truth, they just learned to accept whatever, because they know the alternative could always be a gunshot (or open window nowadays).

  • YeetPics@mander.xyzEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    This document has shaped every little chat I’ve had with every little tankie.

    Neato!

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1027·
    2 months ago

    Lol. My TV is overrun with zionist propaganda. Politicians are completely bought and sold by the zionist cult. Our “public” radio and television completely supports an ongoing genocide.

    And they’re going to tell me that some “guerrilla media campaign” is the problem?!? I haven’t seen it at all. The phone call is coming from inside the house, y’all.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      144·
      2 months ago

      It fascinates me how hard it is to make sure people understand that

      1. Two things can be bad at once
      2. You can comment on an issue without whataboutism

      Real people are being hurt, real elections are being won with these operations. Read the full memo, it’s in the crosspost.

      • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
        74·
        2 months ago

        You can comment on an issue without whataboutism

        This point specifically is getting ignored. I feel like this kind of blatant ignorance is starting to make Lemmy a lost cause, because its gotten worse the past few weeks. I’m starting to think Tildes may be more my speed.