6 ms·

I'm pretty sure that was GP's point. The text is intentionally garbled with no identifiable first-language bias.

by ooqr 10y ago

ktta 10y ago
Not really. The GP is implying that they are Russian with this >since they can't just say "I work for Russia and we're reminding America that they're not invulnerable." But the person who replied is saying how the grammatical obfuscation doesn't look like something that's done by a Russian but by an English speaker who is trying to sound like a Russian with bad English. Because a Russian with bad English wouldn't make those mistakes.
- benwilber0 10y ago
  > I work for Russia ... does not imply it was done by a Russian.
- throwaway71958 10y ago
  To my ear, this obfuscation sounds Middle Eastern, due to the frequent use of "-ing" in verbs whether it belongs there or not. I know an Iranian guy who does this a lot.
  - diminoten 10y ago
    The whole point is to feed it through translation services dozens of times until the meaning remains but the actual word selection is super poor and completely unidentifiable. It's weird to me that you're trying to push this to blame another group so quickly, especially with an 8 day old account.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - mirimir 10y ago
      Yes, that's what I do sometimes, using offline apps with local dictionaries.
  - throwaway71959 10y ago
    I'm middle eastern myself, and this definitely seems like it was written by a native Arabic speaker. Or Farsi. Or Hebrew. Definitely not Russian though, of that I am certaining.
throwaway71958 10y ago
Well, there's no Russian first-language bias in that text for sure. Another argument in favor of the opinion that this was written by an American: the author seems to be well versed in the memes of the US political discourse. Someone from outside the US is unlikely to even know or care about Trump's "movement", or who "Bannon" is, or "drain the swamp", or "white privilege" etc. They're also unlikely to abbreviate "New York Times" as "NYT". The telltale signs are all over the text.
- zzzcpan 10y ago
  While this is true, it doesn't mean that they don't work for Russia or even live outside of the US.
- benwilber0 10y ago
  > the author seems to be well versed in the memes of the US political discourse that's not exactly hard for anyone that payed even a little attention during the very controversial US political season in 2016. Same with Brexit. The terminologies and crux issues have been widely debated on the social web. I would say it has actually been very difficult to escape
  - throwaway71958 10y ago
    I've observed the whole Brexit thing with great interest, but I don't feel well versed in the vernacular. And for someone well versed, it'd be difficult to know what the person who's not well versed wouldn't know. Which is what we're observing here.
    - viraptor 10y ago
      You won't be well versed in the vernacular of any political event unless you follow the news. But that's just as true for native speakers. You seem to imply that people who learn tens of thousands of words to communicate in a foreign language would be unlikely to learn the additional vocabulary of the current events. Especially the big events. Could anyone with a British friend in Twitter never hear of the NHS bus, for example? Unlikely.

I'm pretty sure that was GP's point. The text is intentionally garbled with no identifiable first-language bias.

by ooqr 10y ago

I'm pretty sure that was GP's point. The text is intentionally garbled with no identifiable first-language bias.

ktta 10y ago

Not really. The GP is implying that they are Russian with this >since they can't just say "I work for Russia and we're reminding America that they're not invulnerable." But the person who replied is saying how the grammatical obfuscation doesn't look like something that's done by a Russian but by an English speaker who is trying to sound like a Russian with bad English. Because a Russian with bad English wouldn't make those mistakes.

benwilber0 10y ago
> I work for Russia ... does not imply it was done by a Russian.
throwaway71958 10y ago
To my ear, this obfuscation sounds Middle Eastern, due to the frequent use of "-ing" in verbs whether it belongs there or not. I know an Iranian guy who does this a lot.
- diminoten 10y ago
  The whole point is to feed it through translation services dozens of times until the meaning remains but the actual word selection is super poor and completely unidentifiable. It's weird to me that you're trying to push this to blame another group so quickly, especially with an 8 day old account.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - mirimir 10y ago
    Yes, that's what I do sometimes, using offline apps with local dictionaries.
- throwaway71959 10y ago
  I'm middle eastern myself, and this definitely seems like it was written by a native Arabic speaker. Or Farsi. Or Hebrew. Definitely not Russian though, of that I am certaining.

throwaway71958 10y ago

Well, there's no Russian first-language bias in that text for sure. Another argument in favor of the opinion that this was written by an American: the author seems to be well versed in the memes of the US political discourse. Someone from outside the US is unlikely to even know or care about Trump's "movement", or who "Bannon" is, or "drain the swamp", or "white privilege" etc. They're also unlikely to abbreviate "New York Times" as "NYT". The telltale signs are all over the text.

zzzcpan 10y ago
While this is true, it doesn't mean that they don't work for Russia or even live outside of the US.
benwilber0 10y ago
> the author seems to be well versed in the memes of the US political discourse that's not exactly hard for anyone that payed even a little attention during the very controversial US political season in 2016. Same with Brexit. The terminologies and crux issues have been widely debated on the social web. I would say it has actually been very difficult to escape
- throwaway71958 10y ago
  I've observed the whole Brexit thing with great interest, but I don't feel well versed in the vernacular. And for someone well versed, it'd be difficult to know what the person who's not well versed wouldn't know. Which is what we're observing here.
  - viraptor 10y ago
    You won't be well versed in the vernacular of any political event unless you follow the news. But that's just as true for native speakers. You seem to imply that people who learn tens of thousands of words to communicate in a foreign language would be unlikely to learn the additional vocabulary of the current events. Especially the big events. Could anyone with a British friend in Twitter never hear of the NHS bus, for example? Unlikely.