Comment on dear republicans, what's the point of alienating every single ally of the US?
Objection@lemmy.ml 3 days agoThat’s the narrowest margin I’ve ever seen described as “a majority” lmao.
If Russia has the ability to brainwash half the country using a handful of bot farms, then I can only imagine what our own, much more powerful and well funded intelligence agencies are capable of.
This whole, “they disagree with me therefore they’ve been brainwashed by Russia” but is tiresome. Sure, Russia has made some attempts to influence public opinion but it’s not nearly as broad as you suggest. Even if it were, that raises the question of why they were so receptive to Russia’s techniques and why your side can’t employ similar ones to persuade them. Honestly, when people say stuff like this, I have to wonder if they really believe it themselves, or if they’re just saying it to discredit the other side or to resolve the psychological discomfort of other people disagreeing about something.
zenitsu@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I think you just lack the information, here are just a few examples off the top of my head:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_report
…wikipedia.org/…/Russian_interference_in_the_2016…
…wikipedia.org/…/2024_Tenet_Media_investigation
The West can’t engage in the same disgusting tactics even if it wanted to because unlike the authoritian state of Russia, we don’t control our internet to the point of blocking YouTube/Wikipedia. This can’t possibly be news to you.
Objection@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
Yes, I’m aware that Russia makes attempts to influence American public opinion. But you’re vastly overstating the scope and effectiveness of these efforts.
You can’t be serious with this. First of all, the US did recently move to ban TikTok because it had too much pro-Palestine content, when it was unbanned, it sent out a message praising the Trump administration, clearly having come to an understanding with the government. Twitter was bought out by Musk who censors left-wing content and is deeply involved in the government. Zuckerberg suddenly unveiled a bunch of anti-woke policies as soon as Trump was taking office. So, censorship of platforms is an issue in the US.
But secondly, and much more importantly, you’re talking about Russia propagandizing Americans, who have access to YouTube and Wikipedia! If the reason that Russian propaganda is so effective is that they censor those platforms, then how can it be that it’s still so effective when people have access to them? It’s complete nonsense.
Again, you’re doing that thing of getting distracted reaffirming that Russia is bad and lose sight of reality.
zenitsu@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
First, TikTok isn’t banned and the push for it wasn’t because of “pro-palestinian” content. There’s no lack of that in every platform available.
Second, Musk and Zuckerberg aren’t foreign states, try to stay on topic.
None of this made any sense. What don’t you understand? Westerners see the charlatan grifters that Russian fund on YouTube/Rumble because it isn’t blocked, meanwhile the Russian population has no access to Wikipedia and wouldn’t be able to see “western propaganda” on YouTube because it is blocked. Duh
Objection@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
I’m super confused by what chain of reasoning would lead you to say this. First, it doesn’t matter at all that they’re not foreign states, they still have interests directly opposed to the vast majority of Americans. Second, we’re talking about whether the American government has the ability to influence Americans’ media diet in a way comparable to what Russia does, so the point that they’re “not foreign governments” is doubly confusing.
Your argument is that Russian propaganda is effective because they’re able to censor platforms with conflicting views, but they aren’t able to control what media Americans have access to, meaning that your position makes absolutely zero sense.
Also, I’m not talking about the US government using propaganda to influence Russian citizens, I’m talking about the US government using propaganda to influence US citizens. Which seems to be a fully alien concept to you. But US citizens have access to the same set of media that could be used to host either Russian or American propaganda, it’s an even playing field. Except the US has more money and a major home field advantage, so why would Russian propaganda be so much more effective? It’s nonsense, and there are much simpler, more logical explanations.