Be Wary When Racially Divisive Stories Able To Damage Dems Suddenly Take Off

Turns out the kneeling-black-athletes protracted culture war slugfest was surreptitiously pimped to us from Moscow and St. Petersburg over our social media, at a proportion of 10 Russians or Russian bots masquerading as Americans, to every 1 real American.

Leading me to believe that the Russians have to have their big fat hand in our new blacks-don't-like-the-Democratic-gay-white-mayor storm, too.

And that, if so, our mainstream media has swallowed it all hook line and sinker, again.


Washington Post article title:
PETE BUTTIGIEG, STRUGGLING TO GAIN BLACK SUPPORT, USES N.C. CHURCH VISIT TO ISSUE 'MORAL CALL TO UNITY'

Article link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pete-buttigieg-struggling-to-gain-black-support-uses-nc-church-visit-to-issue-moral-call-to-unity/2019/12/01/f00ca46c-1492-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

1,034 reader comments were posted: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pete-buttigieg-struggling-to-gain-black-support-uses-nc-church-visit-to-issue-moral-call-to-unity/2019/12/01/f00ca46c-1492-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html?outputType=comment

To be clear, I'm not trying to claim Buttigieg isn't polling relatively poorly with black Democrats.

I'm saying the fuss we've seen in the media over that fact has almost certainly been significantly inflated and inflamed by Moscow via Zuckerberg's frankenstein monster and similar tools some now-super-wealthy Americans built and laid in Putin's lap.


My first of two comments:

Down In Va With Your Cousin Lou
[ yes, WaPo commenting name is from the R. Stones' "Dear Doctor," off Beggar's Banquet ]
Dec 2, 2019

Only recently we learned that the racially divisive Colin Kaepernick kneeling controversy was pushed through social media by Russians and Russian bots masquerading as Americans by a margin of 10 to 1 over actual Americans. The media at the time, though, reported it aggressively and even sensationalistically, obviously assuming all the hubbub was 100% of domestic origin.

In 2016 the GRU and its hirelings and bots pushed at well-targeted black voters vile lies that Hillary was supposedly racist. Those lies had a real effect in reducing black turnout in key states.

Now here we have this high-visibility eruption of Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg's supposed inability to win support from black voters.

I strongly suspect we'll learn later that a lot or even most of the heat on this story is coming from fake "Americans," too. Race obviously being Putin's favorite fault line in American society to artificially, clandestinely pry apart wider at every opportunity.
thumbs up: 15


Hokiebabe1
Dec 2, 2019
[ her response to an idiot's question ]

No. What he is [ I was ] saying is CK’s kneeling was not a big deal to most Americans (because even if they disagree with someone, they believe it is a person’s right to voice dissent) until Russian bots TOLD them it was a big deal by creating a false narrative and creating a ‘band wagon effect’. 
thumbs up: 20


John The Quiet
Dec 2, 2019

Many Americans are too lazy to question things they see on the internet, and therefore are bamboozled by Russian propaganda!
thumbs up: 14


Hokiebabe1
Dec 2, 2019

...All humans are manipulated.  And they were manipulated here.

There are a lot of people who make a lot of money manipulating groups of people. And not all of them in politics. But the fundamentals are the same.  

BTW people who project a lot are easier targets for manipulation.
[ she's alluding to a rightwing troll/commenter ]


itshardtobecreative
Dec 2, 2019

[In the impeachment hearings] many testified that the Russians are masters at manipulation and that they are, at this very moment, using these tactics online to sow misinformation, conflict, and distrust.

The only antidote is to call it out and demand fact based evidence.


CascadeJoe
Dec 2, 2019

Probably more like the national media was too quick to treat the bot output as real.

The usual suspects used the bot output as gospel because it agreed with their view of things.


nedstark5
Dec 2, 2019
[ My comment drew 10 replies, including this one from this guy, the Rep. Gym Jordan of Washington Post political article commentary -- essentially a rightwing troll. This was one of several attacks he made on others in this article's comments section; it is his only one on me. He accuses me of lying. Like so many conservatives he believes in just always attacking, in pressing the fight, flinging poop, and doesn't seem to care at all whether what he writes is true or false. ]

"Only recently we learned that the racially divisive Colin Kaepernick kneeling controversy was pushed through social media by Russians and Russian bots masquerading as Americans by a margin of 10 to 1 over actual Americans."

Spontaneously made up fake news.

[ his false accusation drew 0 thumbs up ]


Down In Va With Your Cousin Lou
Dec 3, 2019
[ I don't reply to malicious shit-stirrers like nedstark5 but wanted the below sourcing out there, so replied to my own original post ]

The Senate Intelligence Committee's October report on Russia's use of social media to attack our elections, political system, and national unity, can be accessed here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/senate-intelligence-committee-report-on-russian-interference-in-2020-u-s-elections/232bf09a-47ad-4695-b9b6-61f0a2894856/

Every American should read it.

Pp. 53-54 report Russia's inflaming of the kneeling-black-athletes controversy.

The Chairman of Senate Intelligence is Sen. Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina. Minority Co-Chair is Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia. The two senators have worked together closely, acted responsibly, and both are careful to not undermine their Committee's work by overstating anything. It was Sen. Warner who on (Republican) Margaret Hoover's interview show recently provided the quantification of the scale of the Russians' online intervention in the kneeling athletes controversy.

That scale being 10 "stories," posts, tweets, retweets, forwards, shares, recommends or likes by a Russian troll or Russian bot masquerading as American, for every one by an actual American.

It would be wildly out of the norm for Russia if it was NOT currently surreptitiously working very hard online to inflame Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg's perceived problems with black voters. Using the same social media platforms as they have been to date to attack us, only with increasing sophistication and skill as they continually improve their stunningly successful operations.