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I can't put my finger on it precisely, but it feels like there are outside influences radicalizing people via social media with an ultimate goal of destabilizin
by skyyler 3y ago
I can't put my finger on it precisely, but it feels like there are outside influences radicalizing people via social media with an ultimate goal of destabilizing the United States.
- alex_sf 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency
- asg101 3y agoThe oligarchs want us to fight each other, rather than fight them. Divide and conquer has never failed them. Push the culture wars to distract from the class war.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tehwebguy 3y ago> outside influences radicalizing people Outside of where?
- outside1234 3y agoOccam's Razor: It's the guns.
- sdfghswe 3y agoGuns is a necessary condition, yes, and the problem would be greatly mitigated by removing the necessary condition, yes. But it's also plausible that like OP says outside influences take advantage of the condition being present.
- edgyquant 3y agoThat isn’t what Occams Razor means.
- throwuwu 3y agoAll else being equal my ass.
- sdfghswe 3y agoIf it's plausible that that strategy could work, it's plausible that someone will try it.
- marl0 3y ago100% I'm surprised this isn't more obvious to others. The media certainly isn't helping the situation either.
- LastTrain 3y agoPlease be more specific when you talk about "the media", the most abused term in American culture.
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- atwebb 3y agoWatching city sub-reddits devolve over the years has me feeling the same way. It seems coordinated.
- spacemadness 3y agoI think it is often coordinated but I doubt all of it is “outside influence.” It doesn’t take many extreme nazi/far right folk to make a dent and they can easily coordinate a small group to trash a subreddit to be more effective.
- andrewstuart2 3y agoI think there are probably outside influences involved. But also, we've already had a civil war that predates the internet by a long shot, and I don't think we necessarily need outside influence for this to be an outcome given a lot of the incentives for radicalized viewpoints.
- giantg2 3y agoWith such a large, expansive, and diverse population we are a country with many nations inside it. There has certainly been a long history of different viewpoints in different areas, dating back to the decades long debates over the creation of the constitution and bill of rights.
- jesusofnazarath 3y ago[dead]
- ElevenLathe 3y agoThey don't need to be "outside" influences. We're totally capable of radicalizing ourselves domestically.
- mmmm2 3y agoWe've become the terrorists we feared in the 2000s.
- throwaway5959 3y ago[flagged]
- throwuwu 3y agoLooking through the list of the most recent ones, I’m having trouble finding any white nationalists
- throwaway5959 3y agohttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna83336 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna83336 Took less than a minute to find.
- throwuwu 3y agoRight, exactly what do you think a white nationalist is?
- bryanlarsen 3y agoIt's both. Russian troll farms work by amplifying internal destabilizing factors.
- sg47 3y ago[flagged]
- pphysch 3y agoYou don't need a conspiracy theory to explain why there's a murder problem in a country with a boatload of guns, lax restrictions on violent media, and a culture where infringing on someone's right to do anything can be interpreted as "totalitarian". No foreign influence required.
- Nanana909 3y agoThe “foreign influence” part is when mass shootings are a fraction of a fraction of the deaths, yet 50% of the news coverage. Media publishes sensational pieces about what consumers demand - consumer demand is increasingly driven by online discourse, which is free to manipulate easily. The best kind of misinformation is misinformation that is true but not representative of the real situation. Have you checked our heart disease deaths? It is *factually* an issue many orders of magnitude more important to the average American. And yet…zero discussion seems to happen about it online? And why wouldn’t there be foreign influence? It’s quite an easy checklist: * do Russia and China have the technical capability to make social media accounts and post in English?: Yes, obviously. * do Russia and China have any motive to drive fearful divisive narratives in the US?: Yes - we are their primary geopolitical opponent With both of these true, to assume they’re not doing it for some reason out of kindness requires a lot of mental gymnastics.
- giantg2 3y ago"The “foreign influence” part is when mass shootings are a fraction of a fraction of the deaths, yet 50% of the news coverage." Not foreign influence, but simply that fear and outrage sells.
- Nanana909 3y agoWhy not both? They have the ability to make social media accounts and assist these fearful and outrages narratives, and they have the motive. I.e. they are 100%, without a doubt, doing just that
- 3y ago
- hanniabu 3y agoLate stage capitalism....divide the country through politics so nothing can get done and remove any nuance from discussions
- GoodDomainName 3y ago[flagged]
- licebmi__at__ 3y agoOr maybe American corporations amplified American problems while chasing money like usual, and then problems present themselves based on American realities. No need to look for external causes, although blaming external actors also aligns with American historical actions.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dirtyid 3y agoOr it's just cathartic to laugh at the king, even by the king's vassels (Guardian). Are foreign powers weaponizing US dysfunctional to undermine US society, sure. Are their collective impact remotely as effective as dysfunctional US media weaponizing said US dysunfction for views for massive domestic and international audiences, probably not. Past some point ground reality in US is doing most of the work, pressing these buttons by external forces is just filler work to pass the time. It's not even active measures to undermine US society at this point when US society is doing most of the undermining.
- trasz4 3y agoYup, it's been long known that some state actors, like Russia, do that, usually by amplifying alt-right content.