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The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

nytimes.com

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Re: The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

#91

Post by irv »

grevutsky wrote: post #87
criley2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel commands a small army of these as well, it's almost comical to see them appearing in social media and comment sections, but I have no doubt they're effective. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/08/14/israel-s...

Comparing an army of mis-information trolls pushing lies to students who are paid to "combat anti-Semitism and calls to boycott Israel" by telling the truth is pretty silly, and intellectually dishonest. There is a wave of antisemitism resurfacing in Europe, as well as antisemitic calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. And there is nothing wrong or dishonest about a country fighting back against attempts t…

and you've just conflated anti-semitism and calls to boycott Israel, which I would certainly class as intellectually dishonest.

Re: The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

#92

Post by mdekkers »

ddlatham wrote: post #72
mdekkers wrote: post #71

This story pops up regular as clockwork, going back before 2012. It's propaganda in its' own right - no doubt, with equally depressing regularity, I shall be downvoted into oblivion for having the temerity of actually pointing it out.

Got any references or links?

here is one of many http://www.businessinsider.com/putin-nashi-anonymous-opyoung... simply search google for kremlin troll army, restrict date range, voila.

Re: The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

#93

Post by jrochkind1 »

blazespin wrote: post #59
astral303 wrote: post #26

My dad claims that the level of brainwashing in Russia far far exceeds that of the Soviet regime, and the propaganda is by far worse (and worse than WWII Germany he says). Of course statements like that evoke Godwin's law and a hard to swallow. However, my dad grew up in Soviet Russia and trained troops on the use of artillery equipment during the Soviet Afghanistan conflict. He's been around the block and has seen f…

Well they didn't really need propaganda in Russia. They had communism. Believe it or not some people actually believed that Communism is better than capitalism, and arguably at one time capitalism kind of sucked.

> arguably at one time capitalism kind of sucked.

Still does!

Re: The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

#94

Post by tim333 »

serg_chernata wrote: post #36
astral303 wrote: post #26

My dad claims that the level of brainwashing in Russia far far exceeds that of the Soviet regime, and the propaganda is by far worse (and worse than WWII Germany he says). Of course statements like that evoke Godwin's law and a hard to swallow. However, my dad grew up in Soviet Russia and trained troops on the use of artillery equipment during the Soviet Afghanistan conflict. He's been around the block and has seen f…

I was born and raised in Ukraine till I turned 14. Still have most of my family there and they visit regularly. They were present during most of the revolution and I can confirm nothing but love and pride to be Ukrainian. All that talk about Ukrainian nazi is garbage. Yes, we aren't perfect and we may have difficulties bringing order but it was all done with good intentions at heart. Most recent revolutions, includin…

Yeah good luck in Ukraine. I see the pro Russian 'rebels' have gone from claiming the Kiev government are nazis to claiming they are 'miserable Jews.' They seem a bit confused in their messaging. If it was just propoganda it would be comical but sadly the Russians seem to be sending troops and weaponry also.

Re: The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

#95

Post by mike_hearn »

lgieron wrote: post #88
mike_hearn wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, fail. The Guardian comments sections are a trashbag of political censorship and general idiocy, but I see no evidence that they are being trolled by the Kremlin. A whole lot of people THINK they are, and the Guardian has levelled such accusations (without presenting evidence) but my own experience is that I am routinely accused of working for the Kremlin there, based on no evidence at all. Their view is simply "…

> The Guardian comments sections are a trashbag of political censorship and general idiocy, but I see no evidence that they are being trolled by the Kremlin. A whole lot of people THINK they are, and the Guardian has levelled such accusations (without presenting evidence) but my own experience is that I am routinely accused of working for the Kremlin there, based on no evidence at all. For me the strongest evidence (…

That's not evidence. That's another supposition. Again, you're just assuming that because a viewpoint you disagree with seems popular it must be due to some kind of manipulation.

Re: The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

#96

Post by lgieron »

mike_hearn wrote: post #95
lgieron wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Guardian comments sections are a trashbag of political censorship and general idiocy, but I see no evidence that they are being trolled by the Kremlin. A whole lot of people THINK they are, and the Guardian has levelled such accusations (without presenting evidence) but my own experience is that I am routinely accused of working for the Kremlin there, based on no evidence at all. For me the strongest evidence (…

That's not evidence. That's another supposition. Again, you're just assuming that because a viewpoint you disagree with seems popular it must be due to some kind of manipulation.

That's the thing though - these posts clearly don't represent a majority in terms of volume and yet they get obcenely large number of upvotes.

Re: The Agency: An army of well-paid “trolls” in St. Petersburg

#97

Post by grevutsky »

irv wrote: post #91
grevutsky wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing an army of mis-information trolls pushing lies to students who are paid to "combat anti-Semitism and calls to boycott Israel" by telling the truth is pretty silly, and intellectually dishonest. There is a wave of antisemitism resurfacing in Europe, as well as antisemitic calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. And there is nothing wrong or dishonest about a country fighting back against attempts t…

and you've just conflated anti-semitism and calls to boycott Israel, which I would certainly class as intellectually dishonest.

Actually, no I did not. This is the purpose of the Israeli students being recruited, quoted verbatim in the article - not my conflation. Can I assume that you agree with my characterization of you comparison as intellectually dishonest (and factually inaccurate) since you did not disagree with my point about your post?
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