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So the Russian bots are posting left-wing content? How does that work? EDIT: Looking for clarification, here. Not sure why I'm being downvoted.

by ng12 8y ago

skrebbel 8y ago
If the sources I read were itself not fake, the idea is that they simply try to increase the gap between left and right. Decrease mutual understanding, prevent dialog between sides, increase mistrust. I'm not entirely sure how that can benefit the Russian government though. But hey, I have no idea what their end game is. I'm sure someone here has ideas.
- pnathan 8y ago
  > I'm not entirely sure how that can benefit the Russian government though. Decreases the will of the US to effectively achieve its aims, which run counter in many ways to the Putin regime. If congress is spending its days shouting at each other, then they can't do awkward things like, e.g., provide substantial support in rhetoric and materials to the Ukraine to address Russia's invasion.
- nrhk 8y ago
  Foundations of Geopolitics by Durgin lays out the groundwork for Russia's current western strategy. Putin's been implementing it word for word.
  - theNJR 8y ago
    Interesting to note that Amazon seems to have removed this book https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Geopolitics-Geopolitical-English-Translation/dp/1521994269 https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Geopolitics-Geopolitical-...
- nasredin 8y ago
  There's quite a few old and freshly minted Kremlinologists who have been studying Russia their whole life that you can read. (As opposed to random strangers on this forum!) E.g.: Mark Galleotti
Moto7451 8y ago
If they’re simply trying to create unrest of any kind, you play each side off of each other. They don’t need to support one side to weaken us. Making our political systems grind to a halt through a lack of agreement is something we’re already good at. Perhaps they’re just trying to push our buttons to get us into that gridlock again.
vuln 8y ago
The Russians also ran the #NotMyPresident campaign after Trump was elected. The Russians trolls do not care who is in office they just want to cause mayham.
- skrebbel 8y ago
  I'm nitpicking here, but I dislike that commenters and media alike so liberally use "The Russians" for this. It's the Russian government and their benefactors. There are 150 million Russians and, like anywhere, they're by and large good people with good intentions. Let's not blame an entire people for their government's decisions. Eg if I would blame "the Americans" for the CIA torture program, I'f rightfully get backlash here.
  - vuln 8y ago
    I apologise. I completely agree with you.
    - skrebbel 8y ago
      BTW I didn't mean to single you out. You weren't doing anything out of the ordinary :-)
  - gfodor 8y ago
    Also, "The Russians" narrative contributes to the idea that there is singular state actor doing this. I'd wager that they're not even the most sophisticated one.
    - empressplay 8y ago
      It's always safest to assume that every state actor is doing whatever it can (get away with) to advance their interests.
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    > There are 150 million Russians and, like anywhere, they're by and large good people with good intentions I'm not sure I'd let them off the hook so easily. They elected Putin and, if independent polling is to be believed, seem to still support him. This doesn't make them complicit in his ever crime. But it does remove their total independence.
v_lisivka 8y ago
It's looks like HN is infected too, so they downvoted you. They are not only posting content, they also trying to ban or dismiss their opponents too (or just kill most annoying ones, as in my case).
paulmd 8y ago
Yeah, Russia was also pumping up the Bernie Bros and the Jill Stein campaign. Not that there weren't plenty of people who legitimately wanted to see Bernie win but the goal of the Russians was to do whatever made Hillary lose - hurting her campaign directly with hacking, as well as pumping up both her Republican and Democratic competitors. In the US system, spoiler candidates hurt their competitor more than their opponent, so pumping up Bernie is another way to hurt Clinton. The whole "they just want to cause chaos" trope is true in a sense, but they were very obviously going about it by sandbagging Clinton and pumping up her competition wherever they could. Clinton was very obviously the major-party candidate that would have produced the strongest, most stable US out of that election, and that's really what Russia was trying to avoid, that's the whole "chaos" trope. It's not truly random in the sense of uncontrollable monkeys, it's whatever they think will cause the most damage, and keeping Clinton out of the White House was a specific and key objective. It was quite obvious that Trump was a moron (and very possibly in the early stages of Alzheimer's) and that he'd be the candidate that caused the most chaos. (Sorry Bernie Bros, but if Bernie had won the primary, he would have been an easy target for Trump and the Russians as well, and even if he won the general the country would have been highly polarized, even if his actions would have been a lot better than Trump's. People in that timeline wouldn't have gotten to see the mess Trump caused in this one. His continued campaign sandbagged Clinton into the general and was a major contributor to Trump winning. The primary was obviously over and Bernie dragging it out was doing nothing but weakening Clinton. And I say this as someone whose personal politics most closely align with Bernie's, out of the three, and who voted for him in the primary.)
- ng12 8y ago
  > Bernie Bros I think this (blatantly sexist) term is just as divisive as anything the Russians did.
  - nasredin 8y ago
    SMH. No. A girl can be a "bro" or a "dude" just as much as a guy. A group of girls can be "guys". English language is peculiar! I am just amazed nobody Godwin'd this thing so far.

So the Russian bots are posting left-wing content? How does that work? EDIT: Looking for clarification, here. Not sure why I'm being downvoted.

by ng12 8y ago

So the Russian bots are posting left-wing content? How does that work? EDIT: Looking for clarification, here. Not sure why I'm being downvoted.

skrebbel 8y ago

If the sources I read were itself not fake, the idea is that they simply try to increase the gap between left and right. Decrease mutual understanding, prevent dialog between sides, increase mistrust. I'm not entirely sure how that can benefit the Russian government though. But hey, I have no idea what their end game is. I'm sure someone here has ideas.

pnathan 8y ago
> I'm not entirely sure how that can benefit the Russian government though. Decreases the will of the US to effectively achieve its aims, which run counter in many ways to the Putin regime. If congress is spending its days shouting at each other, then they can't do awkward things like, e.g., provide substantial support in rhetoric and materials to the Ukraine to address Russia's invasion.
nrhk 8y ago
Foundations of Geopolitics by Durgin lays out the groundwork for Russia's current western strategy. Putin's been implementing it word for word.
- theNJR 8y ago
  Interesting to note that Amazon seems to have removed this book https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Geopolitics-Geopolitical-English-Translation/dp/1521994269 https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Geopolitics-Geopolitical-...
nasredin 8y ago
There's quite a few old and freshly minted Kremlinologists who have been studying Russia their whole life that you can read. (As opposed to random strangers on this forum!) E.g.: Mark Galleotti

Moto7451 8y ago

If they’re simply trying to create unrest of any kind, you play each side off of each other. They don’t need to support one side to weaken us. Making our political systems grind to a halt through a lack of agreement is something we’re already good at. Perhaps they’re just trying to push our buttons to get us into that gridlock again.

vuln 8y ago

The Russians also ran the #NotMyPresident campaign after Trump was elected. The Russians trolls do not care who is in office they just want to cause mayham.

skrebbel 8y ago
I'm nitpicking here, but I dislike that commenters and media alike so liberally use "The Russians" for this. It's the Russian government and their benefactors. There are 150 million Russians and, like anywhere, they're by and large good people with good intentions. Let's not blame an entire people for their government's decisions. Eg if I would blame "the Americans" for the CIA torture program, I'f rightfully get backlash here.
- vuln 8y ago
  I apologise. I completely agree with you.
  - skrebbel 8y ago
    BTW I didn't mean to single you out. You weren't doing anything out of the ordinary :-)
- gfodor 8y ago
  Also, "The Russians" narrative contributes to the idea that there is singular state actor doing this. I'd wager that they're not even the most sophisticated one.
  - empressplay 8y ago
    It's always safest to assume that every state actor is doing whatever it can (get away with) to advance their interests.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > There are 150 million Russians and, like anywhere, they're by and large good people with good intentions I'm not sure I'd let them off the hook so easily. They elected Putin and, if independent polling is to be believed, seem to still support him. This doesn't make them complicit in his ever crime. But it does remove their total independence.

v_lisivka 8y ago

It's looks like HN is infected too, so they downvoted you. They are not only posting content, they also trying to ban or dismiss their opponents too (or just kill most annoying ones, as in my case).

paulmd 8y ago

Yeah, Russia was also pumping up the Bernie Bros and the Jill Stein campaign. Not that there weren't plenty of people who legitimately wanted to see Bernie win but the goal of the Russians was to do whatever made Hillary lose - hurting her campaign directly with hacking, as well as pumping up both her Republican and Democratic competitors. In the US system, spoiler candidates hurt their competitor more than their opponent, so pumping up Bernie is another way to hurt Clinton. The whole "they just want to cause chaos" trope is true in a sense, but they were very obviously going about it by sandbagging Clinton and pumping up her competition wherever they could. Clinton was very obviously the major-party candidate that would have produced the strongest, most stable US out of that election, and that's really what Russia was trying to avoid, that's the whole "chaos" trope. It's not truly random in the sense of uncontrollable monkeys, it's whatever they think will cause the most damage, and keeping Clinton out of the White House was a specific and key objective. It was quite obvious that Trump was a moron (and very possibly in the early stages of Alzheimer's) and that he'd be the candidate that caused the most chaos. (Sorry Bernie Bros, but if Bernie had won the primary, he would have been an easy target for Trump and the Russians as well, and even if he won the general the country would have been highly polarized, even if his actions would have been a lot better than Trump's. People in that timeline wouldn't have gotten to see the mess Trump caused in this one. His continued campaign sandbagged Clinton into the general and was a major contributor to Trump winning. The primary was obviously over and Bernie dragging it out was doing nothing but weakening Clinton. And I say this as someone whose personal politics most closely align with Bernie's, out of the three, and who voted for him in the primary.)

ng12 8y ago
> Bernie Bros I think this (blatantly sexist) term is just as divisive as anything the Russians did.
- nasredin 8y ago
  SMH. No. A girl can be a "bro" or a "dude" just as much as a guy. A group of girls can be "guys". English language is peculiar! I am just amazed nobody Godwin'd this thing so far.