A Powerful Russian Weapon: The Spread of False Stories

[Schmittay]

Are you really saying that Russia doesn't try to undermine governments?

I'm not saying either country is completely clean but it's on completely different levels. The USA are destabilising entire parts of the world to push it's agenda, outright lying to it's citizens all in the name of "freedom", causing so much death and destruction without a second thought. I mean look at Iraq...they LIED about WoMD and used it to invade. That is ILLEGAL. But who is going to say anything? Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria...the list goes on.

What is remotely comparable?

[Feral Druid ist Op]

America has been at 222 Out of 239 wars (93%), brainwash thier own ppl with 9/11 and FoxNews. Funny how this warmongers with 761 military Bases global and multiple inervades in the past years trying to make Russians as some bad evil lol

[sonololo]

Whataboutism in this thread indeed is strong. That's why we can't have nice things.

[Schmittay]

It'd be nice if people like you could actually contribute to the discussion than just one liners that do nothing but make you look really ignorant. It would actually be more constructive if you didn't say anything. Cheers.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6aC-TDQMlc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbZDyr2LkdI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDkWjrbv-rc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdypP11X2P8

A few interesting vids.

[ringpriest]

Srsly , spreading misinformation for political agenda is a russian only thing now ? Like come on....

A "Russian-only thing"? No. Something the Russians have a tradition (or at least reputation) for being good at? Yes.

There's a reason why maskirovka is a word in English (as well as its native Russian).

[Schmittay]

A "Russian-only thing"? No. Something the Russians have a tradition (or at least reputation) for being good at? Yes.

There's a reason why maskirovka is a word in English (as well as its native Russian).

Oh how the US government would LOVE to let the people think today's Russia is any semblance to the old Soviet Union. Hook line and sinker! Do your own research not what they choose to spoon feed you.

The US NEEDS enemies to exist as it does now. How could it justify what it is doing on a global scale without them? Instead of working with elected governments to solve problems (that they cause), they just storm in with bombs and troops against international law (the only country that does so on such a huge scale without ANY consequence) and installs who they want to govern (puppet governments) to get what they want. And if that doesn't work they destabilise THAT government and start all over again. The truth is int ehir actions, not the propaganda they force down your throat to justify basically ignoring international laws.

[Kaleredar]

No one in the United States can agree enough to have a national media machine. People say "Oh well fox news is brainwashing the US with right wing propaganda!" but forget that Fox news is only one part of the prospective "media bias." You'll find just as many people saying that CNN or MSNBC are "brainwashing the US with Liberal propaganda!"

Well, which is it? Is the US media trying to brainwash people into being exclusively liberal or conservative? And you think Obama has some "untouchable cult of personality?" Well tell that to Fox News, the people you just blamed for brainwashing the US. They'll go out of their way to defame the president in any way possible.


It requires a single, authoritarian leader with control over a single government mouthpiece to spread misinformation as collectively and single-mindedly as Russia.

[ringpriest]

Oh how the US government would LOVE to let the people think today's Russia is any semblance to the old Soviet Union. Hook line and sinker! Do your own research not what they choose to spoon feed you.

You're reading a great deal into my post that is not there. -_-

[Schmittay]

You're reading a great deal into my post that is not there. -_-

No you're right, I just get really passionate about international politics and just really worried the direction it's going, my apologies it wasn't an attack against you.

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No one in the United States can agree enough to have a national media machine. People say "Oh well fox news is brainwashing the US with right wing propaganda!" but forget that Fox news is only one part of the prospective "media bias." You'll find just as many people saying that CNN or MSNBC are "brainwashing the US with Liberal propaganda!"

Well, which is it? Is the US media trying to brainwash people into being exclusively liberal or conservative? And you think Obama has some "untouchable cult of personality?" Well tell that to Fox News, the people you just blamed for brainwashing the US. They'll go out of their way to defame the president in any way possible.


It requires a single, authoritarian leader with control over a single government mouthpiece to spread misinformation as collectively and single-mindedly as Russia.

It doesn't really matter who is elected concerning these issues, like at all. It's the direction the US has been going on no matter what party is in. Makes you wonder who really is making the decisions...wow that comes off so tin foil hat...but yeah it's come to that.

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Also I don't mean to come off as strictly pro Russian. I simply respect Putin as President and what he has done for his country and what he stands for, more than I can say for any recently elected President of America. I believe each country should have it's own culture, laws and ideology (within the bounds of international law) and should respect them, not try to impose ours onto others and vie for utter global dominance, economically, socially and militarily.

[ringpriest]

No one in the United States can agree enough to have a national media machine. People say "Oh well fox news is brainwashing the US with right wing propaganda!" but forget that Fox news is only one part of the prospective "media bias." You'll find just as many people saying that CNN or MSNBC are "brainwashing the US with Liberal propaganda!"

Well, which is it? Is the US media trying to brainwash people into being exclusively liberal or conservative? And you think Obama has some "untouchable cult of personality?" Well tell that to Fox News, the people you just blamed for brainwashing the US. They'll go out of their way to defame the president in any way possible.

But there is a nigh-impenetrable Overton Window around "mainstream" media coverage in the United States (not that the US is unique in this regard); sure, you can see fights between the two factions of the ruling parties - they go at each other tooth and nail over which faction is going to get the slightly larger slice of pie (and more influence over the pie-dividing mechanisms), but only within carefully proscribed boundaries and within a large framework of mostly unspoken rules.

This is why Trump is so despised by the establishment - he didn't play the game correctly (and while there is zero chance he will intentionally overthrow the system, he absolutely intends to put himself on top of it while flipping the bird to anyone who fails to fellate his swollen and diseased ego). It's also why Clinton's "scandals" inevitable sputter out - the GOP is willing to criticize her emailing practices, but they won't even discuss banning private email for all public officials - and while they'll cheerfully boil up teapot-sized tempests over Benghazi, doing anything like questioning the war itself, or the US presence and the quasi-covert arms-shipping is verboten.

Despite having the two most-disliked candidates in the modern history of US Presidential Elections, the idea that maybe the Dems and GOP are past their sell-by dates gets scarcely a whisper. The Libertarian ticket (despite my personal dislike of the current Libertarian platform) has two well-regarded state governors on it - they're unquestionably qualified, but have less chance of making the debates than an adult thought has of percolating through Trump's tiny brain.

Despite 2016 being the hottest year on record, Republican denialist positions on global warming are treated seriously, instead of being exposed as the raving lunacy they are - the same goes true for a huge swath of GOP ideas, and not a few Dem-unique ones too, particularly on the "religious"-wingnut front; things that are objectively sheer idiocy are granted credibility by the media (i.e. Trump himself), while real journalism is virtually dead.

Likewise, there are a host of issues, from trade, to the military, to foreign interventions, to domestic infrastructure and the very nature of the national economy where everyone from the public to academia, domestically and abroad, has a grasp on a huge variety of possible directions - all while the Dems and GOP quibble about fractional differences between their two stances and pretend they are gulfs, and the media simultaneously plays along with the kabuki, smoke and mirrors, while studiously avoiding (if not ridiculing) anything that isn't acceptable to the nation's ruling elite.

Yes, the US has a national media machine - probably the largest, most complex (and arguably the most successful) in the history of human civilization; and if its rulers and citizens don't somehow pierce its numbing, self-reinforcing, fog-filled, positive-feedback-looped echo chamber in the near future, they're all going to find themselves relocating their capital to Ravenna and telling themselves it's an advance to the rear.

[Hammerfest]

Oh..wait...spreading misinformation is a new and very Russian thing now?

This is news to me. The old Soviets (most of whom are still in power over in Russia) used to lie to their people and the rest of the world all the time. Big whoop.

[Tackhisis]

As often happens in such cases, Swedish officials were never able to pin down the source of the false reports. But they, numerous analysts and experts in American and European intelligence point to Russia as the prime suspect

That is the only sentence in that article which is not rubbish, and it has no sources. It won't do even for Wikipedia, and the whole article is a low-quality propaganda piece.
Oh, and that little bit:

President Vladimir V. Putin, who invaded Georgia in 2008

[Deleted]

Incoming Putinistas!

Is this u Skroe or is this a common word used "putinista"
I guess anyone who would argue for the US is an Obamanista?...

I love op post "I haven't any evidence but..." as if Sweden couldn't possibly have critical opinions of its own.

[Direpenguin]

Oh how the US government would LOVE to let the people think today's Russia is any semblance to the old Soviet Union. Hook line and sinker! Do your own research not what they choose to spoon feed you.

The US NEEDS enemies to exist as it does now. How could it justify what it is doing on a global scale without them? Instead of working with elected governments to solve problems (that they cause), they just storm in with bombs and troops against international law (the only country that does so on such a huge scale without ANY consequence) and installs who they want to govern (puppet governments) to get what they want. And if that doesn't work they destabilise THAT government and start all over again. The truth is int ehir actions, not the propaganda they force down your throat to justify basically ignoring international laws.

Oh please, enlighten us on how Russia really is.

I want to see how your information may differ from what I get from people who have lived there for the past 50+ years.

[Kellhound]

Propaganda (by what ever name it goes by) is a very old, universally practiced tactic. No country has a monopoly on it.

[Ethas]

Blah blah blah some random shit from untrusted source nyt. Nobody takes you seriously after Kofi Annan.

[Zarc]

I do believe Russia is posturing and exaggerating its capabilities but it's to maintain its position as a strong and independent country that is simply looking out for its own national interests. At least Russia respects international law which the US has blatantly ignored whenever it chooses.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. You got to be kidding. Your whole post was ironic, right? Trolling us as if you were one of those people with a pro-Putin worldview, disregarding the Russian invasion of neighboring countries Georgia and Ukraine. How they have created frozen conflicts in former Soviet states. It's annexation of Crimea after having invaded it with mysterious green men without the official Russian army tags on them only so that they could say "no it's not us" even though everyone knew it was them so it was just ridiculous, unless if it weren't for people like yourself. How they continue to claim that the Euromaidan was a CIA-led protest and how the Ukraine government is a Nazi regime. How they mercilessly bombs civilians in Syria to prop up Assad. How their whole country is corrupt from bottom and up, with Putin himself being the most corrupt of them all having surrounded himself with the oligarch's who have been sucking Russia dry since the early 90's. How the Putin regime imprisons and murders political opponents and molds the entire narrative by controlling all media. An authoritarian dictator is somehow "standing up to the USA", a liberal democracy? A strong country? The population is not free, the whole system is built around Putin being in power. The rule of law and institutions and constitutional framework is extremely weak. It's economy is extremely singular dependent on exporting energy. That is not strength. A diverse economy with a free and diverse media landscape, like the US, that is a strong country. I bet the US could even survive a Trump Presidency (horrible thought) because the constitutional framework and the checks and balances and federal power structure is so strong that no President alone should be able to take over the country. The American people and media would also not subject to it unlike the Russians, who are subjugated by the disparaging reality that "it has always been like this, nothing else could work in Russia", having had Tsars, the Supreme Soviet and now the President of the Federation to rule with an iron fist as they see fit, and every change of power leading to periods of great instability and suffering. That is not a strong country. That is a very, very, very, very weak country. Give me a break.

[Tackhisis]

disregarding the Russian invasion of neighboring countries Georgia and Ukraine.

Tell us more about it.

[Feral Druid ist Op]

Oh, and that little bit: President Vladimir V. Putin, who invaded Georgia in 2008

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. You got to be kidding. Your whole post was ironic, right? Trolling us as if you were one of those people with a pro-Putin worldview, disregarding the Russian invasion of neighboring countries Georgia and Ukraine.

The thing is he dont invaded Georgia (i em Georgien) we actualy startet shooting at russian frontier same for Ukraine.

[Deleted]

Zarc tell us more tinfoil hat notions.

EU report, Georgian president n parliament all blame Sakashvili for starting the war by ordering attack on Rus peace-keepers.

In Ukraine Nuland McCain stood in front of crowd telling them to overthrow the democratically-elected government n president.

Washington would have responded 10 times harsher in Rus place.