I see a lot of people on the left mock claims like this but shit is legit and you're probably caught up in some of it and have been for awhile
[edit 2] Guess I'll address this in the main post since I've seen people posting about it: Bringing up the subject of foreign propaganda attacking the US is not a statement that US propaganda doesn't exist and isn't a serious problem. You're preaching to the choir about the abuses of the US government. Doesn't mean foreign propaganda is a non-issue or imaginary. And talking about foreign propaganda doesn't mean I'm saying the US doesn't have its own purely self-created problems. Please don't hit this conversation with a "So you hate waffles?" That's a whole new sentence. Arguing against things I never said makes you look silly. Don't do that. Thanks.
[edit 1] The Reddit post's status seems to be flip-flopping, manual copy below the fold, and archived here.
because I had no fucking clue about any of this. i’m not online much; I dont do deep dives into reddit to discover these kinds of things. and this post has changed my perspective on the internet a bit
“You are being targeted by a sophisticated PR campaign meant to make you more resentful, bitter, and depressed. It's not just disinformation; it's also real-life human writers and advanced bot networks working hard to shift the conversation to the most negative and divisive topics and opinions.”
another important note that I want to add is that major social media networks such as instagram and twitter/x are disincentivized to do anything about this because rage bait is an engagement farm that is VERY profitable for them, so nothing there is going to change.
another important note that I want to add is that major social media networks such as instagram and twitter/x are disincentivized to do anything about this because rage bait is an engagement farm that is VERY profitable for them, so nothing there is going to change.
This is very much the kind of mentality these disinformation campaigns are trying to instill, and if you're finding yourself thinking this way, I want to gently let you know that you've been hit by this campaign more than you realize.
Just recently the US House of Representatives signed a ban on TikTok because of fears of China interfering and spying via it. It's a heavy handed attempt at stopping a small bit of this, and it's rooted in Sinophobia and general Xenophobia as much as in actual smart policy, but it shows there is a will in our leadership to put pressure on tech companies.
What we need to do is try to pressure representatives to incentivize these social media companies to do something about it. Remember! This isn't a Culture War Issue yet. 80% of the house voted on the TikTok Ban. (Which is a whole other issue that needs to be unpacked more but) There's actual support for regulating this. It is not hopeless, and things can change! Never give up because that's what the trolls doing this want!
In today's world hope is an act of resistance.
Edit: No, I am not in favor of the TikTok ban. Just want to make that clear. Just that part of the motive behind it indicates a possible will to make changes.
People on Tumblr last year suddenly started spreading this story that the “Russian disinformation campaigners” from 2016 and the subsequent bans when Tumblr staff figured out what was happening were actually racially motivated and “only black people got banned”. Like the one post I remember clearly was saying that the Big Russian blog that got banned (I recognize the url when I see it but I can’t remember it rn through my headache) was actually a Southern black girl and not connected to Russia at all. They didn’t have any links or anything to support this but they argued Tumblr didn’t provide real proof that the blogs were Russian… It made me question if the Russian disinformation campaign story was real. Apparently they’re trying to make a comeback on tumblr the same way they got started: driving a wedge into the racism problem and making everything seem so much worse than it is.
I was just on a new follower’s (now mutual’s, and they were questioning that narrative!) page and saw this “only Black people get accused of being Russian bots” and. Guys. They pretend to be black. They ran @/Blacktivist on Twitter and a Black meme page on Facebook that were more popular than the actual BLM pages, it’s right there in the post and there’s sources for everything.
Yes, America is racist and was founded on racism but not every single person who doesn’t want to live under Trump in a red state again (I am multiply queer, disabled, on welfare, a white “woman” with a buzz who doesn’t have any children aka what a Republican considers someone unworthy of much welfare in the first place) and pointing out that Russians have verifiably been creating tension by signal boosting drama and convincing other people they should care too because “look at all these people who already agree with me” are antiblack! The Russians are doing it to Republicans too! They’re trying to destabilize our communities and like. I don’t know, worst case, instigating a civil war?
I don’t want to die in a violent revolution, and I would because I rely on society functioning to survive! I am disabled, I am severely depressed, I need my medications and access to therapy and public transit and all of that goes away when society shuts down because too many people are fighting.
Sorry I don’t want to risk fascism actually taking over this time if Trump wins again. There’s enough young voters to outvote the Republican Boomers pretty much everywhere, and all the red states with cities in enough districts definitely have enough left-leaning young voters to turn the state purple at the very least, and enough Republicans hate or are scared of Trump too that they’re letting they’re electorates split to match the popular vote better! You just have to go put a checkmark on a piece of paper. If you don’t want to be responsible for genocide, boycott paying your taxes this year like my anarchist friend is or something, but don’t let the Republicans turn this country into a fascist’s wet dream as a fuck you to Democrats, that doesn’t get us anywhere and risks further harm to the marginalized communities in Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma, just to name a few states banning books and writing bathroom bills, trying to erase history and erase genderqueer people from the public view entirely.
And like. No one is counting the people who don’t vote because they can’t versus because they don’t care versus because they’re boycotting. How would they? You’re not voting, which is how they count. And it’s not like they don’t count the actual votes if there’s too low a turnout, it just means less people got the power to pick who got electorates!
And if Trump won there’d be more money going to Israel. It’s not Genocide Joe v Dictator Cheeto. It’s Genocide Joe v Dictator Genocide. At least with Biden we can be sure he’ll leave office peacefully in Jan 2029.
