Anatomy of a Russian Propaganda Troll

[Blue Minuteman]

The most important factor in determining if someone is a Russian Troll is.... "Are they pro- or Anti-Democratic party. Obviously anyone not for it is a Russian Troll!"

I wonder whatever happened to discussions about the Paranoid Style of American Politics?

More like pro- or anti-American.

[Theodarzna]

More like pro- or anti-American.

I am reminded of "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" which is an essay by American historian Richard J. Hofstadter, first published in Harper's Magazine in November 1964; it served as the title essay of a book by the author in the same year. In it, Hofstadter explores the background of political paranoia in the United States against Illuminism (intellectual subversion), freemasonry (corporate subversion), and the Jesuits (religious subversion), then progresses through U.S. politics to its contemporary (1950s–60s) modern incarnations of McCarthyism and the John Birch Society.

While typically the politics of Paranoia are often ascribed to the Right, I'd say the so-called Left and the establishment goons these people serve are more than capable of engaging in the paranoid dialog of political conspiracy theory.

[Blur4stuff]

This has nothing to do with paranoia. It's part of a huge industry that's been around for a long time. There are many companies, smaller teams and independent contractor types that will push messages for money. Most governments have their own people for this or hire out to companies.

Millions of people are involved in this industry not only for pushing propaganda as it relates to politics, but perhaps even more for things like marketing. If you want to pretend these people don't exist then you might as well deny the existence of plumbers and maids.

Right now I can hire people to drop links in forums, flood twitter, and dump all over other social media platforms with whatever I content I like. If I actually had millions to throw away, or billions in the case of big governments, I could convince enough people to believe or do some fairly ridiculous things. It's being done right now by others. It was being done long before this past election.

[Cthulhu 2020]

I am reminded of "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" which is an essay by American historian Richard J. Hofstadter, first published in Harper's Magazine in November 1964; it served as the title essay of a book by the author in the same year. In it, Hofstadter explores the background of political paranoia in the United States against Illuminism (intellectual subversion), freemasonry (corporate subversion), and the Jesuits (religious subversion), then progresses through U.S. politics to its contemporary (1950s–60s) modern incarnations of McCarthyism and the John Birch Society.

While typically the politics of Paranoia are often ascribed to the Right, I'd say the so-called Left and the establishment goons these people serve are more than capable of engaging in the paranoid dialog of political conspiracy theory.

You have to be ignoring everything coming out of the FBI and CIA, and the most recent bombshell - Trump trying to pressure the state department to lift Russia sanctions - to think this is merely paranoid conspiracies.

But we can't exactly expect much from Theo. President Trump has to have won on his own *gag* merits for her vindication against Hillary to be justified.

[The Emperor]

So a guy in the Internet pretends he is from another country to troll that country's mainstream media and succeeds?
Color me surprised. Next time, liberals are going to run a story on how Google was co-created by a Russian and thus is a secret propaganda tool. Gotta love all the liberals in this topic going "we told u so" haha, you keep that red scare tune going, it is a good entertainment.

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You have to be ignoring everything coming out of the FBI and CIA, and the most recent bombshell - Trump trying to pressure the state department to lift Russia sanctions - to think this is merely paranoid conspiracies.

They are paranoid conspiracies. Each of those story mentions unnamed sources, far-fetched and hold-your-hand-articles with readied conclusions. Oh and BTW if Trump ordered State Dept to lift sanction they would've done so, he's their boss, but idiotic liberal media propagandists made a story out of it.

[Muzjhath]

They are paranoid conspiracies. Each of those story mentions unnamed sources, far-fetched and hold-your-hand-articles with readied conclusions. Oh and BTW if Trump ordered State Dept to lift sanction they would've done so, he's their boss, but idiotic liberal media propagandists made a story out of it.

"Deep Throat", was another unnamed source. He just gave himself a pseudonym (or the press did. I really don't know). "Unnamed" != "Unverified". If a WaPo journalists post something from an "anonymous source" they know the name of the source. They just keep it back as the source would be in trouble if it was leaked and thus wouldn't leak. Learn to reality.

[The Emperor]

"Deep Throat", was another unnamed source. He just gave himself a pseudonym (or the press did. I really don't know). "Unnamed" != "Unverified". If a WaPo journalists post something from an "anonymous source" they know the name of the source. They just keep it back as the source would be in trouble if it was leaked and thus wouldn't leak. Learn to reality.

What makes you think so? What makes you think that they just didn't pay $20 to some hobo who'd tell them he is Putin's personal hacker?
inb4 "projecting herperd"

[Muzjhath]

You're doing a fantastic job of projecting your own bias without me trying to reason with you.

[Blue Minuteman]

Gotta love all the liberals in this topic going "we told u so" haha, you keep that red scare tune going, it is a good entertainment.

Bury that head deeper in the sand.

Wait, what am I saying? Russia, is that you?

[fengosa]

Here's an interesting read on bots and sock puppets. It's easy to differentiate between those and normal users based on frequency of words used and date of account opening.

https://medium.com/data-for-democrac...t-7171b1134cd5

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What makes you think so? What makes you think that they just didn't pay $20 to some hobo who'd tell them he is Putin's personal hacker?
inb4 "projecting herperd"

This is right out of Putin playbook. When Samantha Bee did her piece on Russian trolls Moscow responded by saying it was a paid actor and trolls don't exist. It's not even subtle anymore.

[Cthulhu 2020]

So a guy in the Internet pretends he is from another country to troll that country's mainstream media and succeeds?
Color me surprised. Next time, liberals are going to run a story on how Google was co-created by a Russian and thus is a secret propaganda tool. Gotta love all the liberals in this topic going "we told u so" haha, you keep that red scare tune going, it is a good entertainment.

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They are paranoid conspiracies. Each of those story mentions unnamed sources, far-fetched and hold-your-hand-articles with readied conclusions. Oh and BTW if Trump ordered State Dept to lift sanction they would've done so, he's their boss, but idiotic liberal media propagandists made a story out of it.

I like how all the anti-Clinton stuff was from anonymous sources, and you had absolutely no problem with that.

[Shalcker]

This is right out of Putin playbook. When Samantha Bee did her piece on Russian trolls Moscow responded by saying it was a paid actor and trolls don't exist. It's not even subtle anymore.

But those guys she filmed were paid actors who were given a script... what else could be said about it?

[Thoughtful Trolli]

Nobody is gonna pay people to troll mmo-champ when so many people do it for free.

I know! I fucking looked at this shit and seriously thought, "This is just another fuckwad who looks just like every fuckwad here." And it makes me wonder if they really think they're producing anything with this propaganda.

Do they not know the percentage of living people who've posted at least just once on any internet forum is probably 1% of all humanity? I can barely remember the first time I posted, worse than I can remember the first time I masturbated, but not only is it that unimportant, but I'm still sure 99% of people breathing air right now haven't even posted anything anywhere not even once.

The literally most effectual thing accomplished regarding this entire situation is however much compensation the propaganda operatives are getting for doing this worthless task, and it makes me wonder if they get a grand reward for "creating the next meme" because a meme is the only way something might actually take off, and those are by definition jokes. We're better off not wasting our time on this crap. As a matter of fact, counterintelligence on this case risks the officers, like how they found out comey's account.

This is literally bait for OUR agents. The geographic tag was left on purpose, and it's the cyberspace version of leaving out cheap tin cans on a wire to hear our most advanced camouflaged drones hovering in.

Here's an interesting read on bots and sock puppets. It's easy to differentiate between those and normal users based on frequency of words used and date of account opening.

What you have to ask yourself, to understand what they're trying to do, is how much did it cost in total entire sum for us to learn the technique you just said we've gained?

And it cost too much probably.

[fengosa]

But those guys she filmed were paid actors who were given a script... what else could be said about it?

I can't find a source on this. Even RT which claims they were hoaxers who set up Full Frontal doesn't claim they used a script. RTs take on it is also kind of suspicious. We wanted to dispel the notion of Russian trolls, so we invited an american TV show over to troll them.

The hoaxer said that he was fed up with hearing about Putin’s trolls in the western media and simply wanted to break what he believes is a myth.

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What you have to ask yourself, to understand what they're trying to do, is how much did it cost in total entire sum for us to learn the technique you just said we've gained?

And it cost too much probably.

I'm pretty sure protecting our democratic process is worth the cost. I'd rather money go towards that then funding proxy wars.

[The Emperor]

This is right out of Putin playbook. When Samantha Bee did her piece on Russian trolls Moscow responded by saying it was a paid actor and trolls don't exist. It's not even subtle anymore.

Nah it seems this is right from CNN's playbook.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN_controversies
Also read about Carbone vs. CNN, that story is developing. Oh and don't forget about the golden shower story, man, I thought that was the last day of CNN, but I have overstimated their audience's intelligence by a lot it seems.

Oh and since you are so clever as to put words in people's mouth, let me just say that Moscow did not respond by saying "trolls don't exist" actually, I don't think they responded at all, not like there is need to respond to paranoid fake news.

And btw since someone mentioned it, there is still no proof of Russian "troll factory" that is supposedly based out of S.Petersburg. Just some footage of people sitting in front of computers. On a side note, just to completely destroy the troll factory fake news narrative, in 21st century people don't need to be gathered in dimly lit office to troll, because obviously there is a risk of blowing the cover, learning something you're not supposed to learn(like faces of people that tell you to do stuff) etc. It's much more convenient to have people sit at homes and troll, don't you think so?? What am I saying, of course you don't, you brainwash victim, at this point you'd probably believe if CNN made a story about how(according to unnamed sources) Putin raped his dog.

But you keep living in that fantasy. You yourself destroy any remaining shreds of credibility MSM might've had. But today, more and more people refuse to believe unsubstantiated illogical hogwash.

[Haven]

How dare you question the fairness and honesty of corporate media? They're so completely unlike Russian totalitarian media controlled personally by Putin

[Felya]

How dare you question the fairness and honesty of corporate media? They're so completely unlike Russian totalitarian media controlled personally by Putin

Corporate media competes with each other. They are not an entity that is the sole proprietors of news. Your assertion show a severe misunderstanding of how corporations function.

[Haven]

Corporate media competes with each other. They are not an entity that is the sole proprietors of news. Your assertion show a severe misunderstanding of how corporations function.

Corporations work for money, preferences and influence. Competition is in the method, not in the content. Content that goes against the approved narrative will have lower ratings, sensations and clickbait will have higher ratings.

You seem to be under impression that "free market" means freedom and pluralism where the truest prevail. Free market means marketing - manipulation with the client base so that they consume anything you produce and ask for more. And that applies to media just as well as anything else.

[Blue Minuteman]

But you keep living in that fantasy. You yourself destroy any remaining shreds of credibility MSM might've had. But today, more and more people refuse to believe unsubstantiated illogical hogwash.

As you keep living in 45's fantasy world and Faux News destroys the remaining shreds credibility that it has, people everywhere are rising up against your irrational, self-destructive behavior. Conservative and liberal alike. Especially since real conservatives know that fascism isn't conservatism.

It's also funny that you think people even get their news from CNN anymore: so behind the curve that you don't even realize it.

[Haven]

As you keep living in 45's fantasy world and Faux News destroys the remaining shreds credibility that it has, people everywhere are rising up against your irrational, self-destructive behavior. Conservative and liberal alike. Especially since real conservatives know that fascism isn't conservatism.

It's also funny that you think people even get their news from CNN anymore: so behind the curve that you don't even realize it.

Ha. And you think Russians watch RT?