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"the Russians would carpet bomb the nation with their version of the story" But how can they carpet bomb the US with fake news from Russia? "Even in Europe"

"the Russians would carpet bomb the nation with their version of the story" But how can they carpet bomb the US with fake news from Russia? "Even in Europe" Maybe Europe will have to shake off its arrogance and realize how much they have always depended on the US. I say that as an European - and here, also, people are divided over Trump, just as in the US. There are elections in Germany this year (if you meant Germany), although to be fair, no major shakeup is to be expected. But that is only for lack of an alternative, there is no Trump here to vote for. But maybe some adjustment of policies will occur before the election date, anyway. "Yes, but just like Hitler found out: you can't fight wars on all fronts at once." Still, making a tactical error is not in itself evil. And chaos is a tactic that sometimes works. It won him the election already.

jacquesm 10y ago
> But how can they carpet bomb the US with fake news from Russia? Thousands of websites are targeted at the US with fake news skewing the picture and messing with people's heads. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38168281 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38168281 https://www.rt.com/ https://www.rt.com/ On top of that most news fora are overrun by trolls shouting down any kind of dissent and picking up a fair share of support from 'useful idiots' who will endlessly repeat the talking points. Make no mistake: a war is in progress, it is a war without bullets but with bits, the consequences are every bit as real and sooner or later the one may lead to the other. > Maybe Europe will have to shake off its arrogance and realize how much they have always depended on the US. There is no other choice. But that also carries significant risk. > Still, making a tactical error is not in itself evil. And chaos is a tactic that sometimes works. It won him the election already. Yes but that's like congratulating the dog on catching the car.
- facepalm 10y ago
  Putins information war: number of web sites or fake social media accounts does not imply lots of people are reading them. In any case, Trump and Hillary wanted to win - all the strategies of the Russians would have been open to Hillary and Trump, too. Why should Putin be better able to employ them? War - everybody has some interest to pursue, sure. That is nothing new, though. Europe on its own: what risk do you mean? "congratulating the dog on catching the car" Becoming president seems more useful than a car is for a dog, though. Edit: only now read the BBC link. That's even more ridiculous than "The Russians did it". Now it is Macedonian teenagers who rigged the US election? Come on...
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    > only now read the BBC link. That's even more ridiculous than "The Russians did it". Now it is Macedonian teenagers who rigged the US election? Come on... No, but it's but a small wheel in the much larger machine. There has been plenty of reporting on the Russian propaganda machine, if you're going to reject each and every component out of hand then you'll end up rejecting the conclusion as well but that would be a step too far. See, for this to succeed a number of things have to happen: - reliable sources of news need to be discredited - a large amount of flak needs to be generated so people are discussing that rather than the real news - a consistent barrage of the 'right' talking points needs to be presented so people start repeating those things as though they are real All of those components are well represented, I would be highly surprised if all this would amount to coincidence.
    - facepalm 10y ago
      Most "reliable sources of news" discredited themselves in the last couple of months. And the barrage was pretty onesided, too, wasn't it? As for the barrage - again, how do you do that? Like creating bots on Twitter and Facebook and zillions of web sites doesn't mean people will read them.

jacquesm 10y ago

> But how can they carpet bomb the US with fake news from Russia? Thousands of websites are targeted at the US with fake news skewing the picture and messing with people's heads. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38168281 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38168281 https://www.rt.com/ https://www.rt.com/ On top of that most news fora are overrun by trolls shouting down any kind of dissent and picking up a fair share of support from 'useful idiots' who will endlessly repeat the talking points. Make no mistake: a war is in progress, it is a war without bullets but with bits, the consequences are every bit as real and sooner or later the one may lead to the other. > Maybe Europe will have to shake off its arrogance and realize how much they have always depended on the US. There is no other choice. But that also carries significant risk. > Still, making a tactical error is not in itself evil. And chaos is a tactic that sometimes works. It won him the election already. Yes but that's like congratulating the dog on catching the car.

facepalm 10y ago
Putins information war: number of web sites or fake social media accounts does not imply lots of people are reading them. In any case, Trump and Hillary wanted to win - all the strategies of the Russians would have been open to Hillary and Trump, too. Why should Putin be better able to employ them? War - everybody has some interest to pursue, sure. That is nothing new, though. Europe on its own: what risk do you mean? "congratulating the dog on catching the car" Becoming president seems more useful than a car is for a dog, though. Edit: only now read the BBC link. That's even more ridiculous than "The Russians did it". Now it is Macedonian teenagers who rigged the US election? Come on...
- jacquesm 10y ago
  > only now read the BBC link. That's even more ridiculous than "The Russians did it". Now it is Macedonian teenagers who rigged the US election? Come on... No, but it's but a small wheel in the much larger machine. There has been plenty of reporting on the Russian propaganda machine, if you're going to reject each and every component out of hand then you'll end up rejecting the conclusion as well but that would be a step too far. See, for this to succeed a number of things have to happen: - reliable sources of news need to be discredited - a large amount of flak needs to be generated so people are discussing that rather than the real news - a consistent barrage of the 'right' talking points needs to be presented so people start repeating those things as though they are real All of those components are well represented, I would be highly surprised if all this would amount to coincidence.
  - facepalm 10y ago
    Most "reliable sources of news" discredited themselves in the last couple of months. And the barrage was pretty onesided, too, wasn't it? As for the barrage - again, how do you do that? Like creating bots on Twitter and Facebook and zillions of web sites doesn't mean people will read them.