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First off, I apologize if this has been addressed/asked in the yuge -- I mean very, very YUGE, many thousands it's great -- thread on the Trump administration. But I've noticed something in this election cycle in particular. It's like Trump supporters and those on the right are essentially just taking the same criticisms and comments addressed at them, and then just turning it around and claiming it's the left/liberals/Clinton supporters/anyone-who-doesn't-like-Trump who are actually being that way. For example, the criticism that many Trump supporters, the "true believer," die-hard types, are cult-like in that they act like to admit Trump is EVER wrong or lied is tantamount to betrayal or being a traitor to the cause. I've seen multiple people recently throwing it back and saying the left is "cult like." Or another example is the fake news thing -- I don't think anyone who followed the last year closely can dispute that the amount of fake news being spread around on Facebook by Trump supporters was staggering and was frequently called out by anyone who took time to check. But then they just started throwing it back and saying it's Clinton supporters and the "liberals" who were the fake news generators. Culminating in Trump calling CNN "fake news" and then his true believers have since refused to acknowledge CNN as a legitimate news source. Another example is many (not all) of his supporters and Trump himself spewing hateful, divisive rhetoric, attacking protesters at Trump rallies, refusing to condemn racists/racism, etc. And then they just threw it right back and said it's the left and liberals who are hateful and non-inclusive and violent. I could go on with a few more but I think I've elaborated enough on what I'm referring to. Now from being on the SA forums since it was free to register and back when the best things around were DPPH and NMP3, I am very well aware of organized trolling on a large scale, a lot of it originating from 4chan or other such places and SA itself. My question is, has anyone else thought or considered (or better yet seen evidence of) people or a group who are basically taking these criticisms and just throwing them right back as a way to troll for the lulz? I mean when you think about it, it would be like the ultimate way to troll and show how fickle 'grassroots' support in politics can be. But I could be totally off and maybe I'm just extrapolating too much from it. If it was just one example of it being thrown back on those making the accusations, I wouldn't think anything of it. But it seems to be so widespread. And yes, I acknowledge there are hypocrites on both sides and some of this is true of people on both sides. Also please note I'm not someone who thinks ALL Trump supporters are a certain way, or that they are all uneducated, or what have you. I have an entire family of Trump voters who are incredibly educated yet still fall into the partisan trap.
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Feb 2, 2017 04:05
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Oxxidation posted:SA isn't important enough for well-organized trolling attempts. No I wasn't meaning that it's coming from SA or anything, or directed at SA. The above examples are just things I see happening on various comment pages on Facebook mainly, but also on news sites, etc. I just thought to ask/mention it here because...well I don't know why exactly it just seemed like the right place? But rather just asking if anyone has considered, or seen evidence of, a group of people out there (maybe on The Donald subreddit or 4chan) who are basically just having their people go out and take criticisms from the left to the right, and throwing it back from right to left. If that makes any sense? I could just be crazy though and my moderate, though left leaning, 'snowflake' self needs a safe space and other people to agree with me and tell me the bad men are just being mean. MarksMan fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Feb 2, 2017 |
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Feb 2, 2017 04:09
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Darko posted:Most of the accounts posting the kind of stuff you're referring to and initiating the spread on the Internet are definitely trolls. Basically, what happens is: This is what I was getting at. I was not/am not sure that it is necessarily being 'directed' or 'organized' or if it is just a bunch of rabid, hardcore alt-right'ers who all just kind of on their own (or going off what they see someone else doing) decided to take the criticisms and then just immediately throw it back, make a simple to understand meme for the simple followers of Trump (for the most part) and then post it in places where they know people already inclined to believe that way would latch on to it and spread it. But it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that it's *possible* that high-level Trump campaign members or even just a hardcore PAC or SuperPAC has it's members kind of 'organizing' and 'guiding' it all. Main Paineframe posted:None of this is in any way new. The right has claimed for a very long time that actually, it's the left who are the true racists, corporate shills, violent, hate freedom, or whatever. The fact that you immediately jumped to thinking it was a massive organized disinformation conspiracy rather than even entertaining the thought that right-wingers might actually think these things is honestly pretty disturbing! Yes, I am aware it's not new in any way. And yes I'm well aware the right thinks this way. But again, I just don't think it would be too much of a stretch to think there is some PAC out there who has it's members kind of organizing it, without the rest really knowing it's being organized. For example, how hard would it be to place 3-4 regular posters on The_Donald subreddit, 3-4 others on 4chan (or the same 3-4) and other well-trafficked meeting places of the right? Not very difficult. And then simply make easy-to-understand and succinct memes or fake news articles, and have those people make posts about them and start discussions about them, knowing it is likely to end up and get propagated to tons of other Facebook feeds, Twitter feeds, etc. I don't think it's some kind of grand, organized conspiracy. I don't even think it's likely people are being paid to do it. But from being on these forums long enough, I know for a fact that it doesn't take that many people to get some bullshit story circulated around the internet. Especially when you add in the fact that in this case, as you said, these people that would be seeing the memes and articles already believe what is being said and like it, so they are encouraged and compelled to circulate it since it confirms their bias and use it as 'proof' that validates their bias. Shibawanko posted:There absolutely are groups of paid contractors making right wing posts in various places online for payment, it happens in Japan with the netuyos (recognisable because they all talk and type in the same weird, broken English, probably from set scripts). I'm sure it happens here too. Considering all the money that flows in a presidential election, it's not hard to think it's possible this is going on. But there are plenty out there who would spread the false information without pay, solely because it helps them validate what they 'believe' and validate their bias, so they post it to their friends and family as kind of a, "Hah! See! I was right all along!"
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Feb 2, 2017 23:50
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Did anyone watch Homeland last night? Season 6, Episode 9. They had a scene, where a conservative radio host owns some mysterious company that is hiring tech people on a massive scale. Max, one of the 'good guys' gets hired to see what's going on. Essentially in the basement, they have hundreds of young people around computers. They ask Max to fix their code because, "22,000 sock puppets just went offline," and he proceeds to fix it. They tell him they are on Facebook, 4chan, 8chan, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. When he finally gets it fixed, it comes back online and the guy says "Ok people your talking points are in front of you. Get to work. Get ANGRY!" They explain these are accounts they've created through spoofed IP's and have been maintaining and regularly posting so they appear like regular people. Thousands of them. I'm not saying this is happening, but it's exactly what I meant by my original post. It wouldn't be very hard at all to get something like this going, using people who already are inclined to a certain viewpoint. Imagine how much narrative online through social media you could control. Again, not claiming this is happening. Just that it's not a stretch at all to think it could be.
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Mar 20, 2017 22:36
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Prester Jane posted:An oft-forgotten chapter in this boards early history is that the reason Lowtax expressly forbids SA from organizing attacks on other websites is because we were one of the very first communities to do so and many of the tactics that are in current use in the broader internet were first developed here. Organizing offsite attacks was one of the major sources for comedy in the early days of this forum and "Goonrushing" a website used to refer to organized trolling just as much as it referred to crashing a small website with unexpected traffic. Ahh yes I remember those days. When I first signed up here, registration was free and DPPH and nmp3 were the draws. Man those two forums were f'ing dank. But I recall the "ops" to attack other sites or start crazy rumors, etc. That's why I've always looked at Reddit and 4chan as redheaded step children of SA, which since both were founded a few years after SA, in a way they are. Except the step children became bigger than the stepfather and more idiots populate them and know about them. I feel like the  has kept a fair number of the riff raff out.
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Mar 23, 2017 23:32
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