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My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

kioski.yle.fi

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Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#71

Post by acqq »

zorf wrote: post #66
acqq wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As far as I can tell, any resulting articles have been written by journalists So she didn't sign these articles? Why would then anybody direct some campaign at her? Something is missing in this story.

She wrote them. Take a look at one of her articles: http://kioski.yle.fi/omat/at-the-origins-of-russian-propagan...

Thanks. But what's "crowdsourced" with it? That article looks like a real investigation. Maybe the term was actually a loss in translation? That's why I hoped to get all the info from somebody who understands Finnish (and maybe even followed these news).

Edit: kaitai linked to an article that has a lot of opinions of other people. It is a better example of what she would maybe call the "crowdsourced" article (it has a bunch of quotes presented in a way to appear to support the message she wants to convey).

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#72

Post by comrh »

acqq wrote: post #43
metafunctor wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She says that Peter Saramo has been affected by pro-russian propaganda, not that he would be directly involved in producing it. Saramo is of the opinion that Russian trolling does not exist, and that Aro is spreading unsubstantiated lies. I can't easily find what the false information is that Aro claims Saramo has been spreading about her.

> She says that Peter Saramo has been affected by pro-russian propaganda, not that he would be directly involved in producing it. She explicitly claims that he "spreads lies" about her. If the Facebook comment pictured is the statement that "she is a shame" then I don't understand that as "spreading" (when it's a Facebook comment) and "lies" (when it's an unfavorable opinion).

It's in the article, he posted: "media prostitutes, who have sold our independence for money and put out anti-Russian scum on a daily basis aiming at increase NATO war mongering".

So he's alleging she's a paid NATO propagandist.

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#73

Post by acqq »

comrh wrote: post #72
acqq wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> She says that Peter Saramo has been affected by pro-russian propaganda, not that he would be directly involved in producing it. She explicitly claims that he "spreads lies" about her. If the Facebook comment pictured is the statement that "she is a shame" then I don't understand that as "spreading" (when it's a Facebook comment) and "lies" (when it's an unfavorable opinion).

It's in the article, he posted: "media prostitutes, who have sold our independence for money and put out anti-Russian scum on a daily basis aiming at increase NATO war mongering". So he's alleging she's a paid NATO propagandist.

No, it's a posting by some other Peter, not Peter Saramo, on the picture is a posting by some "Peter Ilskola" (in Egypt! Al-Whateverghrhqh! Speaking Finnish, about the Finnish journalists!? Appears legit, right?) if I read it correctly.

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#74

Post by icebraining »

talmand wrote: post #39
benten10 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You overestimate people's ability not to be offended, and underestimate the diversity in people's actual beliefs. For example: When someone on HN said over the weekend "I don't see anything inherently wrong with colonialism. Remember that scene from Monty Python -- What have the Romans done for us? A lot of good has come out of colonialism", I was almost certain (almost) it was trolling. Once I saw others agreeing, I…

>> What you may consider trolling, may be the other idiot's actual views. It seems to me this statement is quite unfair. Does it mean that if I think you're trolling it also means I can label you as an idiot? It's not just that you disagree with them, you get to label them with whatever derogatory term you want as well? >> such trolls (and people who actually believe what they say) are really really threatening to th…

Does it mean that if I think you're trolling it also means I can label you as an idiot?

I think what was meant is that people saying idiotic things are not always trolls (who are just trying to stir up an argument), they may actually be idiots.

And yes, of course one may label others as idiots; it might be uncouth when said or written publicly, but that's each person's call.

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#75

Post by [deleted] »

johnnydoebk wrote: post #59
sharetea wrote: post #40

Russian trolls are fascinating. The trolls' messages are low class, hateful, incoherent and always grammatically incorrect, yet they seem to be able to infiltrate discussions on cnn, bloomberg, reddit, zerohedge (which is an anti-western site anyways), and sometimes hacker news, and seem to have some influences amongst uninformed and angry netizens. Case in point, a random stock broker at my brokerage mentions to me…

Corruption level is high in Russia, you're right here. But totalitarian government? I'm afraid, you drink too much someone else's Kool-aid. And as for the GDP fall. Could you please provide some references? Because mine show that it's not even close to what you've written [1] [2]. I'd like to read more about generations in the army and the aged military, too. Lack of any references but very big conclusions. That's ex…

[deleted]

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#76

Post by alendit »

sharetea wrote: post #40

Russian trolls are fascinating. The trolls' messages are low class, hateful, incoherent and always grammatically incorrect, yet they seem to be able to infiltrate discussions on cnn, bloomberg, reddit, zerohedge (which is an anti-western site anyways), and sometimes hacker news, and seem to have some influences amongst uninformed and angry netizens. Case in point, a random stock broker at my brokerage mentions to me…

> In any case, it seems to be that the threat to democracy will come from these paid trolls that seek to influence the minds of the western citizens.

We need some kind of Ministry which would spread the Truth to the masses to counteract this threat.

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#77

Post by ohitsdom »

MisterWebz wrote: post #70
sharetea wrote: post #40

Russian trolls are fascinating. The trolls' messages are low class, hateful, incoherent and always grammatically incorrect, yet they seem to be able to infiltrate discussions on cnn, bloomberg, reddit, zerohedge (which is an anti-western site anyways), and sometimes hacker news, and seem to have some influences amongst uninformed and angry netizens. Case in point, a random stock broker at my brokerage mentions to me…

Literally all your comments are about how China's bad and how it's in deep trouble. These comments span back more than 100 days. I'm not sure you should be the one calling other people trolls.

But they are grammatically correct.

Chinese trolls > Russian trolls

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#78

Post by jonatanheyman »

johnnydoebk wrote: post #59
sharetea wrote: post #40

Russian trolls are fascinating. The trolls' messages are low class, hateful, incoherent and always grammatically incorrect, yet they seem to be able to infiltrate discussions on cnn, bloomberg, reddit, zerohedge (which is an anti-western site anyways), and sometimes hacker news, and seem to have some influences amongst uninformed and angry netizens. Case in point, a random stock broker at my brokerage mentions to me…

Corruption level is high in Russia, you're right here. But totalitarian government? I'm afraid, you drink too much someone else's Kool-aid. And as for the GDP fall. Could you please provide some references? Because mine show that it's not even close to what you've written [1] [2]. I'd like to read more about generations in the army and the aged military, too. Lack of any references but very big conclusions. That's ex…

Limiting free speech, banning political opposition, arresting dissidents, persecuting people for their sexuality, invading neighbour sovereign states etc, etc.

I don't know about you, but I think "totalitarian" draw a more correct picture, than "corruption level is high".

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#79

Post by ysilver »

exelius wrote: post #61
ysilver wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> America and North Korea have both been doing it successfully for years. Much is lost in this comparison. The American media landscape is pluralistic. Take for example our most popular news network: Fox News. Do they kowtow to the federal government? Russia + NK however, rely repressing dissent internally to retain legitimacy.

Russia's media is also nominally pluralistic. They have been careful to permit the existence of dissenting media -- if for no other reason than to have something to discredit. The propaganda outlets are much better funded and organized though, so they can largely drown out the voices pushing an agenda that differs from the party line. The Russian masses (just like the masses everywhere else, including the US) are lar…

> ...our system has become increasingly hostile to "real" investigative journalism...

The burden of proof that there has been a degradation of information quality remains on your side of the court. This "lost paradise" argument may very well be right but it's far from evident to me.

I would broadly characterize media quality as always having been low on average throughout history. We had a brief period of oligopoly after mass media (the networks) monopolized a lot of what we call news but that period was more of an exception to the rule (and it certainly had its own problems).

Re: My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet

#80

Post by acqq »

ohitsdom wrote: post #77
MisterWebz wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally all your comments are about how China's bad and how it's in deep trouble. These comments span back more than 100 days. I'm not sure you should be the one calling other people trolls.

But they are grammatically correct. Chinese trolls > Russian trolls

Specifically, and unsurprisingly,

grammar(Anti-China trolls) > grammar(Russian trolls)

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