Edit: https://hexbear.net/post/687917
https://hexbear.net/post/688124
Damn... M-muh feewings... 💔😭
I made it folks!
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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MeanwhileOnGrad
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Communists defending Russia is one of the strangest things Tankies do. Why defend Russia of all countries?
Because they are campists. I'm still convinced it's like 75% edgy teenagers, 10% state sponsored information warfare, and 15% right wingers trying to see how stupid they can make "leftists" look before getting called out.
bruh there ain't no paid shills on lemmy. there is little monetary or propagandist value in small websites. Really wish people (from both tankies and here) would stop saying this stupid shit
There are factually propagandists seeding atrocious ideas in nearly all communities, especially during and after breakaways like 4 months ago. Given the use of AI and scripting, and not to mention the nearly complete absence of countermeasures for either one on a relatively naive space like lemmy, a handful of people are definitely fomenting divisiveness. Subtle white supremacists, surreptitious state actors, website advertisers etc..
Tl;dr: I’ve personally found a few sprinkled about.
Can you link any of these?
About half of the accounts visible from this link. No clue whether they’re site advertisers or what, but they copy and paste identical threads across multiple social media platforms and steal twitter comments. It’s a pretty neat strategy, until you learn that it’s bog standard. Just the ones I noticed most recently, I usually don’t pay them any mind past determining their intent to spread divisiveness.
Oh, I know those guys. They aren't being paid tho
Yog is Dmitri, and he's legitimately a weirdo who thinks Russia is some sort of vessel for the god-race or some shit.
You’re telling me that they’re doing this for free?
Yes
For Hexbear at least, I can see two of the reasons: 1) they support the idea of a polarized world where other powers are able to compete on equal terms with America. 2) They must present a united front to those outside, the "enemy", because doing otherwise would provide them ammunition and weaken their own team. For having lurked long enough on their turf, I've seen more nuanced takes on Russia and China that recognize their wrongdoings. Even by the same users who'll be total shills in a World News comment section.
It's a sport game in short...
Other than the possibility they're shills, it seems to be "we oppose the EU, NATO and the US, therefore China and Russia are fantastic". Which makes no sense, obviously, because making sense would be to oppose China and Russia for the same reasons they don't like the US and the EU.
bruh there ain’t no paid shills on lemmy. there is little monetary or propagandist value in small websites. Really wish people (from both tankies and here) would stop saying this stupid shit
Oh, and I'll add, I was told that on reddit in 2010... when there were people who only responded to threads about glysophate/RoundUp all day. Mention RoundUp, they'd appear. Around 2012, if you mentioned Israel, 2-3 people would come and argue with you about it. Around 2015-6, there was obvious astroturf about 'Walk Away' from the Democratic Party, anti Hillary Clinton, pro 'Q', and pro-Trump total crap. At all times: "bruh there ain’t no paid shills on reddit. Really wish people would stop saying this stupid shit".
So back in reality, people are paid by governments to spread any sort of discord in the US. They don't care what site it's on. I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to discredit and manipulate the real left on sites like Hexbear.
Reddit is huge, even in 2010-2012. Lemmy is tiny in comparison and has no monetary value.
Monetary value isn't relevant, only manipulating people. Hexbear is the largest community of people of that political persuasion.
In 2015-2017 they targeted gamers in online games.
they're not tho. Reddit's communism subs are still larger.
When you say that these fringe communities have government shills, you just look like a nutter, equally of a nutter as to when they think this community has government shills.
As noted, that’s exactly what people said about every community ever. “Shills? Manipulation? Nobody would do that!” except that various world governments funded divisions to do exactly that, it turns out.
Can you list any website or community that has less than 10k active posters that has shills?
Why would I be able to do that? As I mentioned about the roundup thing, that doesn’t matter. They just search for anything relevant.
So you don't have any evidence that there are shills on lemmy. Then why even argue that point if you don't have anything?
There's no shills on Lemmy, dude, quit being paranoid
Okay ~~bro~~ bruh! You’re right! goat is very correct!! I have no ability to use logic either!! Yeah!!
aight dude, no need to freak out. just saying that it's waaay unlikely for government shills to operate on a small internet forum compared to large social media.
What is the basis of your expertise on this?
Same as yours, experience. I've been active on voat, ruqqus, said.it--Almost all the reddit alternatives. No one is shilling.
Like think of it at a logistical level in the perspective of a shill boss. Would you really dedicate resources to shilling a community already self-radicalised by its admins? Or would you dedicate those resources to mainstream social media websites where the admins have a very hands-off approach to politics?
oh, ok.
I got banned from voat
Damn it, until now I thought there was no one who said “bruh”.
Because they've idolized Russia for so long that to now admitt that they're doing bad things is seen as a personal loss.
And some just genuinly believe the propaganda being fed to them. It's very difficult to admit you were fooled and led to believe things that wasn't true. It's far easier to double down and confine yourself to an echo chamber where they can all agree that it's somehow because NATO or US sponsored the Ukrainian uprising and rigged the Ukrainian election.
So when you think about it, they're the good guys trying to restore order to Ukraine.
So... if someone is on the fringe. Don't insult them. Dont belittle them. Welcome them, and congratulate their strength to say "I was wrong" without making them feel bad for doing it. Not directing that to you, just a statement in general.