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Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

nytimes.com

11–20 of 96 posts

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#11
post #8
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

Crimea. Georgia. Transnistria. It's become a pattern for Russia to use military force instead of diplomacy to resolve disputes. The notion that "Russia has done nothing that any other large country hasn't done" is entirely wrong.

NATO would never use military force to fix stuff, right?

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#12
post #9
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>given that Trump and Putin are on friendly terms with each other which im sure is because putin doesn't think trump is going to win, and he likes trump stirring things up. if trump actually wins, i bet he's going to have a change of heart.

No, he likes him because they're both nationalists. Trump's view of the world is similar to his and Putin believes they can cooperate better. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, wants war with Russia. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/9/hillary-clint...

Hilary does not want war with Russia.

I mean, really. Sigh. This website.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#13
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

Russia occupied half of Europe, against the will of the countries occupied, for nearly 50 years.

Stop re-writing history.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#14
post #8
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

Crimea. Georgia. Transnistria. It's become a pattern for Russia to use military force instead of diplomacy to resolve disputes. The notion that "Russia has done nothing that any other large country hasn't done" is entirely wrong.

Like stopping Muslims from being murdered in the Balkans?

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#15
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

So you exclude Crimea but what about Eastern Ukraine? I have no love lost for the scheming of Nuland and NATO and the rest of that cadre but Russia has some serious internal and foreign-facing issues.

And that man you quoted wasn't really all that wise since you have no need to make peace with your friends.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#16
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crimea. Georgia. Transnistria. It's become a pattern for Russia to use military force instead of diplomacy to resolve disputes. The notion that "Russia has done nothing that any other large country hasn't done" is entirely wrong.

NATO would never use military force to fix stuff, right?

To annex part of a country? I don't remember.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#17
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

One reason that people are suspicious of Russia is that Putin and his state-controlled media have made clear his goal is to restore Russia, to the extent possible, to its former superpower geopolitical status, and there is no way that can be accomplished without a very aggressive foreign policy.

In addition, people in the West disapprove of Russia because of its highly oppressive human rights policies, including massive internet censorship, and also its fossil-fuels centered, crony-capitalism economics.

I feel sorry for the people of Russia. It seems to me that Putin has put them on a path that can't possibly succeed.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#18

Some part of me wonders if these Russian astroturfers might be behind the recent /pol/ Trump obsession, given that Trump and Putin are on friendly terms with each other. Edit: before Hillary shills jump on this, her astroturfing campaign on reddit is just as deplorable.

I strongly also suspect that this might be the case- there are a couple of other motives too: (1) They see Trump as destabilizing or disruptive to the US and its international allies, and (2) they see Trump as ideologically aligned with Putin's own highly nationalistic and oligarchial platform and worldview (Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort has direct close ties to Putin's oligarchy)

It's entirely possible. They have a history of this kind of activity going right back to the 1920's. Survivors of a regime that routinely pulled stunts like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_of_Trotskyist_Anti-Soviet...

wouldn't even regard it as an unusual tactic.

An 'does this benefit Russia in any way' filter on a lot of internet reporting/commenting/activity over the last couple of years can be fairly illuminating. What tends to trip them up is any historical references pre-WW2, which have to paper over some horrible cracks.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#19
post #8
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

Crimea. Georgia. Transnistria. It's become a pattern for Russia to use military force instead of diplomacy to resolve disputes. The notion that "Russia has done nothing that any other large country hasn't done" is entirely wrong.

I'm not an expert on the history of Russian foreign policy, but there are a lot of credible voices outside of the MSM that tell a different story than the U.S. administration does. For example:

1. http://johnpilger.com/articles/a-world-war-has-begun-break-t...

2. http://www.alternet.org/world/exclusive-interview-seymour-he...

Those focus largely on other topics, but both touch on how the attitude towards Russia (and others) has been manipulated by U.S. media.

Given the U.S. administrations' track records for deceit in manipulating foreign affairs, I'm not inclined to dismiss the alternative narratives easily. Western governments do their fair share of astroturfing and media manipulation as well (can give many sources on that, if necessary).

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#20

Some part of me wonders if these Russian astroturfers might be behind the recent /pol/ Trump obsession, given that Trump and Putin are on friendly terms with each other. Edit: before Hillary shills jump on this, her astroturfing campaign on reddit is just as deplorable.

I don't think so. /pol/ and Trump are made for each other.
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