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

nytimes.com

21–30 of 96 posts

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

#21
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

But it's not as though for example, people in Hillary's team don't have connections to the nomenklatura. So I don't think those connections are especially illustrative of anything extraordinary.

Huh? You present that as something everyone knows, but I have never even heard anyone make the accusation.

I may be wrong, but I am guessing you are following a standard Russian troll tactic. This is when someone makes an accusation, accuse the West or someone in it of the same thing. For instance, when someone says the Russian government is immensely corrupt, say there is corruption in the West, too. The goal is not to make people think well of Russia, that is simply not possible, but to make everyone so cynical and discouraged they won't fight back.

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

#22
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're half right. She wants war and doesn't care who with.

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

#23
post #6
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…

> disagreeing with a person is not trolling The word troll has evolved to encompass any sort of dishonest internet activity that is designed to manipulate the response and attitude of the larger audience, but I agree: the right term would be astroturfing . > it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way That hilariously fails to describe Russia in any way…

>> it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way

>That hilariously fails to describe Russia in any way most people would recognize.

I agree. And that's a shame, Russia has always vied for peace and used force where peace was impossible. That's a trend we see all thoughout history (especially in Britain). We can't exactly crucify them for it.

>That's a pretty big exclusion, but concerns about its borders and the threat of annexation - as elevated as it is compared to any other country - is not the main concern here.

Sure. It's not but I was preempting someone else bringing it up.

And while it's a big exemption you have to at least try to understand Russia's position. Not only is it a military base falling into enemy hands, it's control of a southern region, it's potential troubles for its populace that live there in addition and finally they held a refferendum which is certainly the democratically preferred method of agreeing or disagreeing with political change. Just because we didn't send EU troops (who for all russia knows are the same folk who caused destabilisation in the Ukrainian country) to conduct it doesn't mean it was definitely rigged.

It doesn't necessarily mean it was free of corruption either of course but I'm playing devils advocate. Because the devil seems to need one.

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

#24
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.

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

Good point. Seems like we forget this.

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

#25
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo#Declaration_of_independ...

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

#27
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 mass…

Britain is also enacting censorship of its internet. Although pushed by the government on ISPs and only for 'indecent content', who decides what's indecent? The government of course.

I don't see Russia being different in this regard, we just don't understand them and we understand the British.

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

#28

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.

oh please. no need to go all binary just because we work with computers.

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

#30
post #19
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.

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…

So Obama is a blood-thirsty imperialist who plans to conquer Russia and turn them into American colonies? Wow, you could have fooled me.

If he is pursuing such wildly aggressive foreign policy, then how come all the hawks in this country continually condemn him for being a wimpy surrender-monkey?

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