Slashdot Mirror
Pentagon Reports 2000% Increase in Russia Trolls Since Friday (axios.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in Saturday's briefing that there has been a "2,000% increase in Russian trolls in the last 24 hours," following the coordinated strike against Syria on Friday night.
So we're now calling people who dissent to bombing another country without the approval of congress trolls. Isn't this McCarthyism?
So... what???
This obsession is insane.
I predict a 3000% increase in Rickrolling.
Maybe it's not the Russian government who funds them but actually Assad?
Basically, anything Trump flavored has had a pretty heavy tilt in its moderation, towards the pro-Trump. I've worked in a lot of rural areas, and the brand of angry conservatism/superlibertarianism is pretty rare among IT/Software guys. But for some reason, it's hyper-represented on Slashdot in the past few years.
Not that folks can't hold that view - it just seems disproportionate, compared to the population.
Ryan Fenton
It matches the increase in American trolls.
The media, hollywood, most comedians, all of the big tech companies, and most social media is 24-7 hardcore anti-Trump for almost 2 straight years now. You see a couple of posts on slashdot that are right-leaning get modded up and all of a sudden it's "wildly conservative" now.
Might want to get your sensitivity meter adjusted just a touch.
Have you ever considered that Trump is probably the most pro-tech worker president we've had in ages? He's the first President who wants to do anything about H-1B abuse. He's the first President who is willing to remove burdensome regulation that has been plaguing small business for decades. He's improving the economy and cutting taxes.
Trump has earned the support he has. There's a reason he is the democratically elected leader of the United States.
Not that folks can't hold that view - it just seems disproportionate, compared to the population.
Perhaps you don't recall who won the election and how that works?
Perhaps you don't recall who won the election and how that works?
Oh no, some of us, Trump and his relatively few supporters, recall how the election worked, and how poorly he did.
Here's a hint: It was no landslide.
Have you ever considered that might be the work of Russian trolls?
They're known to play both sides so they can control the dialogue completely.
Although not here. I think we should expect a very heavy dose of that trolling right here in the comments on this one, as usual!
... But the campaign across America through the mid-terms.
Are you saying msmash, BeauHD and EditorDavid are rednecks?
Me, I'm just... well, not even surprised at the fearmongering. TWO THOUSAND PERCENT is so much SCARIER than saying twenty-fold. But by now that, and other clickbait bullshit, has become par for the course. The "pro-Trump" moderation you've noticed I haven't, not really. There's been a lot of anti-Trump shitpost noise, but modding those down for shitposting isn't automatically a political stance. I have noticed a political slant in the moderation, but that one's pro-SJW. Apparently a lot of moderating readers are millennial snowflakes with a "higher ed" background. And I'm starting to think the editors are from there too.
All dissent from the official line should be dismissed as Russian trolls.
Can someone explain to me how this is different than life during the Cold War? Back then, for those of you too young to remember, any dissent earned you the label "Communist." The odd thing about today is how the party aligned with the practice has changed.
The story doesn't even provide any evidence.. just some two paragraph statement that we're supposed to take as fact. The story itself is pretty vague.
Trolling where? Examples?
Sounds and smells like fake news.
The media, hollywood, most comedians, all of the big tech companies, and most social media is 24-7 hardcore anti-Trump for almost 2 straight years now. You see a couple of posts on slashdot that are right-leaning get modded up and all of a sudden it's "wildly conservative" now.
Might want to get your sensitivity meter adjusted just a touch.
Not to mention the story selection and summaries are massively tilted left.
Here's a hint: It was no landslide.
You seem confused about how there could be so many conservatives on Slashdot when Slashdot's core demographic is older, white tech workers. I can't tell if you're stupid, or a Russian bot.
>Oh no, some of us, Trump and his relatively few supporters, recall how the election worked, and how poorly he did.
>Here's a hint: It was no landslide.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Revisionist Historian workin' hard here! Hillary was the one that was going to have her landslide.
"99 to 1 odds"
"We predict at 95%"
"No path to 270"
"Trump will never win the nomination"
Been lurking here since the early days. Glad it's not just me seeing this.
I just don't get how slash ended up populated with trolls. Maybe all the reasonable people (like you) have left leaving only the dregs?
I miss the interesting conversations about geeky stuff that used to be the staple here.
I thought that alzheimers post might bring up some knowledgeable folk and interesting insight but it's just more bitching by small minded whiny right wing trolls.
It's more the down modding of any dissenting opinions that are critical of trump that are the problem. Even when they do end up with a positive score there are always troll and flamebait mods too.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Well, there's no need to panic until it's over 9000%.
#DeleteFacebook
Bombing countries for no good reason is impeachable? You'd have to remove the last dozen guys or so then.
... not a fucking 3-pointer in the whole thread.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I've been very pro trump mostly because trump was an antidote to sjw infestation in the IT/geek space. But Trump is a problem in Net Neutrality and now illegal wars. Time to impeach him.
We don't like the way you kill people so we're going to kill your people.
fucking disgusting how pro-corporate, pro-cia, pro-pentagon everyone seems to be
I see plenty dissenting opinions in my native language, which is not Russian nor written with cyrillic characters.
People in forums or newspapers comments often ask to remember about Iraq in 2003, or Colin Powell. There are tons of comments as well, perhaps more, that recite the official war propaganda that Russian and Syria are war criminals that bomb children and use chemical weapons etc.
Sometimes, people believe that chemical weapons were used but still oppose the strikes somehow.
The question or problem is simple : who is credible? Are France and UK, or more accurately their lonely executive leaders credible?
I think not. I remember when in 2003, France was still able to tell the whole world very publicly and officially that the US was not credible.
We didn't have social media in 2003, but we were able to figure out who is credible and who is not. There is no reason we still can't. In fact the issue is not even than the general public gets its opinions from the social media - and if anything trolls are mostly failing to beat the official western media "narratives". The official or mainstream journalists themselves got locked into a social media filter bubble comprising of themselves, and convenient English-language "Syrian opposition" sources to copy-paste from. Not only the journalists : western politicians get suckered in as well, up to the current President of the US.
Look. I know it's the evil Russians and all, but do you suppose the Pentagon is the right outfit to cast the first stone?
No I do not! it's really saddening that a public official can lie while on the podium, saying OPCW officials were denied access to the alleged chemical bombing site even before they landed in the country. It's really sad.
Hours later, they did indeed land and were welcomed by authorities. The media only finds time to regurgitate government propaganda, sadly.
I take this to mean that American trolls are slacking. This calls for massive tariffs on imported troll posts so that the balance shifts to locally sourced, free-range, gluten and asbestos free troll posts. Step it up folks! Those likes, reblogs, and follows won't generate themselves!
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
No, just tired of hearing about him. Just like Trump.
If by being an ardent opponent of the Pentagon and its' evil, then you'll have to count me a Russian Troll, as well. I stand firmly against the Pentagon, the US State Dept., the CIA, the US Congress, and all those organs of evil along with their foul counterparts in the evil UK.
I predict a 97% increase in me not giving a fuck.
Even you can't help but join in as a 'whiny left wing troll'. Its not like we don't see both here.
KYS
It's more the down modding of any dissenting opinions that are critical of trump that are the problem. Even when they do end up with a positive score there are always troll and flamebait mods too.
Try sorting the dissenting opinions into "insults" versus "insight".
Almost all the "dissenting opinions" here are just simple name calling and deserve to be modded down.
Most of the rest are simple "I think $THE_OPPOSITE", with no background or support.
If you look at comments with that filter, I think you'll find that it's the insults that get modded down.
True insightful posts tend to get modded up.
to tag the Russian Trolls' comments with the byline of "Warning: Russian Troll".
I have come to realise that the problem of troll farms can't be dismissed as easily as I want, no matter how I would hate to give credence to the Pentagon.
A stream of elements made me realise this eventually, not one in particular ; but this video is a strong element that reinforces the thesis of Russian influence. It circulated widely, posted by multiple accounts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ednKK8GlvwI
I think the nature of the Russian threat is different now and the level of the propaganda has gone up. One easily forgets that McCarthyism happened in a real cold war environment. There were some valid reasons. Now there has been an escalation which can be better described as 'Russian insubordination' while in the west the Russians are actually not taken seriously as a threat. When the politicians in the west show so little fear to escalate it becomes very hard to avoid a war with Russia. And it will be our last war. It reminds me too much of the typical rattlesnake victim whose last words are 'hold my beer and watch this!'.
I'm already modded as troll. Could be someone's sense of humor.
both lamented how the information war was being lost to Russia. This seems a fairly logical next move to stop the remaining few supporters of their lies from deserting.
Are you seeing some different version of /. than I'm seeing? Does /. do some sort of tailoring of the scores to the logged in user? Because I've witnessed the opposite. Lots of inane junk like "fuck trump" getting a "+5 insightful", while well-reasoned, thought-out posts that use some logic to defend a particular action of his getting modded as troll, presumably by someone who didn't have any logic to argue back with.
Not without knowing the criteria the Pentagon is using to brand an actor as a "troll".
That said, I doubt an increase in activity of that magnitude from state agents is feasible. You don't keep 95% of your workforce slack. So for this to be true, either they hired a lot of people in a hurry, or they moved a lot of their trolls off of other projects onto the anti-America beat. But the thing is, that takes specialized language skills and training for a Russian.
I don't doubt that paid Russian anti-American trolls are working overtime, but I very much doubt they've upped their output by 21x. We are very likely to be looking at an increase in activity by a mix of paid mindfuckers and Internet randos who are doing it for their own reasons.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
It could be literally this simple "Russians curious about what is going on are checking US media and social media"... literally that.
I mean, who thinks they're doing quality control on that number?
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Nonsense. You user ID says you should remember the level of Soviet propaganda during the cold war.
Granted it didn't get much traction in the USA, outside liberal arts departments at universities anyhow.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
* masturbates over war pics *
oh yeah baby gimme death you sexy sexy missile.
there's every reason to think that the majority of these people are directly (or indirectly) in the employ of the Russian government
And you know this because?...
So both Russia and USA have a successful history record of funding, arming, and training small rebel militia in various countries across the world (South America, Africa, South-East Asia, etc.) to depose vastly superior (in both numbers and organization) stable governments with already established military armies. Documented and declassified cases exist, even Iran being an example with its tumultuous past up to the revolution as a consequence.
Yet neither applied this existing expertise to a fraction of the Syrian people to stop a shitty force of scattered ISIS/ISIL retards in their track before infrastructure is destroyed and 7.5 million refugees pile up as a result, terrorists who are inferior to the governments historically overturned in organization and power and number.
Here's what actually happened:
- ISIS/ISIL can only fester if there are no good people left to fight them.
- 7.5 million refugees and counting, are the good people who are being pulled out, the people who should have been fighting ISIS/ISIL and then rebuilding afterwards.
- The result is battlefield stalemate where destruction of infrastructure is maximized. Whenever one side gets an upper hand, either Russia or USA or Israel or Turkey or others swoop in to drop a surprise bomb and return the status quo.
Maximized destruction of infrastructure = Lowered cost of Land.
Refugees = Lower population in country and therefore easier management of it + lesser resistance to taking over the land because all the good people abandoned it beckoned by the "refugees welcome" crowd.
There's other layers to this like East and West using Syria as a proxy to test each other and test their weapons, but the core is an elaborate land-grab mainly enabled by Europe accepting refugees who not only don't have a home to return to but won't be given the right to return to it because they abandoned that right by venue of not fighting for it, enticed by retarded western liberals and millionaires like Soros playing them like puppets.
In an unfunny Paradox, Syrians need nationalism more than most since it's their nation being destroyed, and they need to unify behind SOMETHING to not see the creation of their ancestors destroyed, yet they are being denied it by both the left and right outsiders.
Reason?
Resources and information. Cheap land now that infrastructure is ruined and no people present to govern it, none with power or goodwill towards it at least since those were enticed out by Europe, smack in the middle of a strategic trade route and multiple competing political and religious spheres.
Perfect land to exploit, perfect land to wage proxy wars on, perfect land for logistics providing ease of supply for the proxy wars since trade routes are pre-established, perfect land to train your armies in where actual blood and fear of death can mold them contrary to peaceful simulation.
All the "total war" threats to date by all sides were mere cock flinging.
The saying goes: "Words are deceit, only acts unveil the true nature of an entity."
So far all words by all sides regarding Syria were superficial cock flinging, while the acts unveiled a constant and surgically accurate maintenance of a status quo situation. It's a beautiful sight to behold to be honest once you notice it.
Does anyone believe the Pentagon? They kill people when they think it is in our country's interest, but you think they wouldn't stoop to lying?
All I see is angry people who only communicate by trying to push the buttons of others. Or they try to give that impression. On the subject of Russian trolls, isn't it better that the dog barks after losing its face instead of biting? They have maneuvered themselves in this position and left no other option for others after vetoing the UN investigation. Lets see how they are solving this impossible situation without showing weakness to their tribal minions.
It's 9 11 times a thousand!
But in all seriousness, I am sure that the Russians increased their troll activity to spin this as much as they can. They have been at war with the West since Putin's Munich speech back in 2007. But these are Cold War tactics on a completely different generation. Apathy plays a larger role the more trolling we get, and it goes both ways. Nobody did anything when Russia invaded and conquered Crimea 4 years ago, nor is anyone making much fuss while Ukrainians die almost daily for several years. The same is true in Syria. The same is true with US rockets into anywhere. And anywhere can be Russia. The Russians are playing Russian roulette everytime they think they are influencing public opinion. They should probably be more careful or there gonna be 2000% more dead trolls.
I'm a (former) CPU engineer :) The science is here has mostly dropped to cargo cult level. It's the same with many other subjects.
So true. Maybe slashdot has aged and become more far right leaning, but I think this hypothesis is more likely.
Please mod parent down for not embracing the liberal agenda of fud and impeachment
lucm, indeed.
I wonder - if any account by someone with a Russian IP address pointing out the history of the accusations that were fake the past 3 times is counted as a troll?
Pentagon has become the new TASS - so ridiculous no-one takes them seriously any more.
People have been commenting on the decline of /. for well over a decade. It's reached a tipping point though as there are just three guys who post stories now and they seem to be recent hires with no real /. connection. The comments suck, but they've always sucked. It used to be you could read at +4 and get gems with no effort, but not anymore. The vibe has changed too; lots of angry, ignorant, immature far-right whack jobs. Some of them I suspect have nothing going for themselves other than the advantages of being straight white males and given the options of either learning something useful and putting in the hard work to get good at it or being a racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic asshole they pick the latter.
Big lies from western govt's breed even bigger lies from opposing side(s).
fucking disgusting how pro-corporate, pro-cia, pro-pentagon everyone seems to be
Have Comrade Putin confiscated your cheese recently?
Russian Trolls ate the rest of the cake in my fridge.
Thank you Trump for putting Israel First!
You are clearly trolling, but still, I don't see why it would be a problem to put a civilized allied country first, as opposed to beheaders, suicide bombers and chemical weapon users that all have in common their hatred of democracy and western civilization. Why don't you guys just stop looking for reasons to hate your own culture and instead help the other half of the country who's trying to make America great again?
lucm, indeed.
Heh Trotsky drooler ... what's with the snot? Stop titling yo head ... slut. Get bitch-slapped this morning by a Trump guy? hehehe too bad! Wipe yo face cause it's a disgrace.
Been lurking here since the early days. Glad it's not just me seeing this.
I just don't get how slash ended up populated with trolls. Maybe all the reasonable people (like you) have left leaving only the dregs?
I miss the interesting conversations about geeky stuff that used to be the staple here.
I thought that alzheimers post might bring up some knowledgeable folk and interesting insight but it's just more bitching by small minded whiny right wing trolls.
Slashdot was originally run with the goal of excellence, then sold to people with a different goal.
Whipslash has said (in a comment) that he's not interested in making Slashdot popular, but that it's being run for a different reason.
He didn't say what that reason was, but my impression was that he wanted to push a political agenda. He used that reason to counter suggestions that people make for becoming more popular.
So comparisons to what other sites do, or looking at Slashdot historical popularity, come to naught: it's not being run for those reasons. In particular, looking at the historical charts, Slashdot took a huge hit in popularity when name-calling became political discourse. For comparison, Hackaday avoids political controversy and has stayed more-or-less constant over the same several years.
It's a shame, really. Slashdot was the premier site for nerd current affairs, but it's management decisions have left it mostly a den of trolls.
If Slashdot were sold to a real businessman, it could probably build it's reputation and popularity once again.
From reading the comments on this story you'd think that all of these Russian trolls solely exist on Slashdot.
Maybe people are just willing to voice their support for Trump anonymously on the internet because they know if they say Clinton was scum in real life it's essentially career suicide akin to saying Xi Jinping is corrupt in China.
Basically, anything Trump flavored has had a pretty heavy tilt in its moderation, towards the pro-Trump.
That is something called observation bias. Like seriously, Slashdot moderating with a pro-Trump bias? Are you living in one of those states that recently legalised weed, because that would explain a lot.
Basically, anything Trump flavored has had a pretty heavy tilt in its moderation, towards the pro-Trump. I've worked in a lot of rural areas, and the brand of angry conservatism/superlibertarianism is pretty rare among IT/Software guys. But for some reason, it's hyper-represented on Slashdot in the past few years.
Not that folks can't hold that view - it just seems disproportionate, compared to the population.
Now that you mention it I'm a software dev in Alberta, a very conservative part of Canada, and a lot of my co-workers come from an engineering background, one of the more conservative technical fields.
Among this group of co-workers I've met a few global warming skeptics, a handful who were skeptical of hardcore progressives, but among the dozens of people I worked with I can think of only one classic Trump supporter and he wasn't a software guy.
I do know several Trump supporters, I have a few friends in Alberta who would probably vote for Trump, and Ontario might be about to elect their own Trump, so I'm not that unfamiliar with the profile. They tend to be small business people, manual labourers (skilled or unskilled), or people with 2-year technical degrees.
But people with 4-year degrees who work in software, even the conservative ones whom I'd expect to otherwise be sympathetic, really do not like Trump.
I think it's more than ideology, IT people tend to be extra skeptical of bullshit out of necessity, bullshit in your code leads to bugs, bullshit in the backup solution leads to lost data. When IT people choose a political affiliation they tend to focus on calling out bullshit on the other side, which is why even the conservatives ones cannot stand Trump, the King of Bullshit.
Now, I don't know if the pro-Trump element on /. is Russian in origin, there's been a strong Men's Right's Activist (MRA) element here for years, and the MRA's tend to be pretty damn Trumpy. But on the Trump articles you're definitely not getting a representative subset of geeks.
I stole this Sig
it's not like Russia cares much about security. We had tons of stories about these troll farms during the last election. They don't need to hide it. It's like the Nigerian scams. You want it to be a little obvious because you're not after people who can think their way through stuff.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
You are to obvious, commie.
It is funny to hear this from a user with 7 digit id addressed to a user who was there before any of us.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
Very few people 'like Trump'. He _was_ just the lesser of two evils.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
That's because people in real life don't like to talk about their real political leanings thanks to the massive propaganda the left-leaning media is churning out.
When you get attacked all day you tend to keep things to yourself. That is until the next election when a predicted 99% victory mysteriously becomes a loss despite all those totally reliable polls.
noticed.
I'm very liberal and when I post my strong dislike for the R's that are ruining things for all of us, I get modded down very unrealistically, compared to how slash used to be (note, I do have a low enough number to know what slash used to be like in the early days).
IT is not conservative; slash is mostly IT based and yet the R's come here in storm and mod things down in a pretty organized manner.
I'd say there are definitely paid shills and trolls here and have been over about 10 years, now.
I dont' really care; since I realize that this place has long been invaded and ruined. I still speak my mind and the message still does get out. but it is a shame that the invasion of social media has mostly ruined it, as a true communication medium.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
It's not a problem if you just browse at -1 and ignore the junk posts. Instead of letting other people's opinions determine what information you see.
I know that's a difficult concept for you, but if you do it for a while you might accidentally develop some critical thinking skills.
fucking disgusting how pro-corporate, pro-cia, pro-pentagon everyone seems to be
Wait so now the Russian trolls are working against Trump, after getting him elected? Or are they pretending to be against Trump so anti-Trumps suddenly turn into pro-Trumps? I know Russians are great chess players but this Russian Trolls narrative starts to feel like the story arc of a bad soap opera that lasted too long.
Here's an idea. Let's close Facebook, Twitter and all those shitty blogs so we can get back to being lied to only by CNN and Fox News. That way, maybe we'll get real republicans and democrats in the next election instead of reality tv stars and furniture thieves.
We might as well get rid of those FBI, CIA, DHS, NSA and TSA buffoons in the process; let's have the military deal with foreign threats and the various states deal with interior ones, like it was always supposed to be until Hoover used the Lindbergh kidnapping to start building this police state we all live in.
lucm, indeed.
I was shaking for the last couple of days or night, thinking my country was going to war. I just got drunk wasting away my week-end, as a good way to wash away that terror. It turned out the Russian threats of defending themselves were specific enough and in the end they helped the Syrians stomach a weak sauce attack by themselves, with zero dead.
All for nothing.
I agree politicians in the West are reckless, but Russia did play the game very well and now I'm hopeful that the "West" won't be able to do anything else. I think Russia is about to win the "psychological war" on this one, they're about to paint the three aggressor countries as powerless, isolated, hypocrites (while two of them, France and UK, are democracies which are about to see parliamentary debate. so not all is lost).
Meanwhile, Russia will gain even more credibility among non-NATO countries of the world and will use it to improve security and peace in Syria's region.
amimojo, just log in. Everyone already knows that you have sand in your vagina.
My own calculations put at 2075%. Although it went down to 1872% on Sunday morning.
You seem confused about how there could be so many conservatives on Slashdot when Slashdot's core demographic is older, white tech workers. I can't tell if you're stupid, or a Russian bot.
I can't tell that you read the preceding posy, or the one it was a reply to, which specifically mentioned the election itself.
Could you post something with more constructive engagement?
See my sig
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Putting a civilized allied country first is not a problem. I applaud it. It isn't the US doing it, though, instead it's Russia and their civilized allied country is Syria.
Putin and Al Assad are war heroes who defeated the Islamic State and have recently liberated over 100,000 people from other terrorists. These people are eating and celebrating.
Israel cares about its own concerns, not so much about beheaders and suicide bombers. They could have helped with the terrorists on their border with Syria if they wanted to. They're free to do so albeit they should consider that respecting the sovereignty of every country is important not only theirs.
It can't be easy to be make a living as a pro-Trump comedian. The man is a parody of our times.
Russia is the deep state you moron.
This is why I usually only visit kuro5hin.org.
down modding of any dissenting opinions that are critical of trump that are the problem
A bigger problem is the off-topic posts insulting Trump in every freaking thread.
If you don't want people to get fed up with your constant whining, quit whining.
Are you shitting me? The past year and a half we had multiple stories every day criticizing Trump and not related to tech at all. Its only calmed down lately since people started bitching. This site was always more towards the libertarian side.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I'm saying the in the cold war the Russian threat was more real so where's the disagreement. If you know Orwell's 'freedom of the press' article you also know that after the war there was too much goodwill and self censorship in the UK towards Russia.
Western level of propaganda now has gone through the roof. We've become a propaganda society. The WMD claims are a good example. Maybe I'm overstating but I would claim that in the last 25 years it has been clear to all regimes that if you have any semblance of a WMD program and it is not really potent - like a fully developed nuclear arsenal, then it can be used as a pretext to attack you. Chemical weapons programs are orders of magnitude less potent than nukes and certainly chlorine.
That is why Qadaffi decided to give up his fledgling nuclear program 15 years ago. That is why Assad was ready to give up his chemical weapons program. That is also why , when Obama drew a red line about chemical weapons in 2012 everyone in the opposition knew what to do: arrange an incident. And Assad knew what to do: too many downsides to actually using chemical weapons. Not worth it. This is not an issue of 'Assad is not that cruel'. It is 'no regime is that stupid'.
With the last incident there have at least been two British generals willing to point out that this was not credible (listed on this page https://timhayward.wordpress.c... , the owner of the page has meanwhile had his moment on the Times front page, accusing him of being a Russian asset). There is military value sometimes to using chemical weapons but in this case Ghouta was about to fall and it was entirely redundant.
And then here are two headlines in the NYTimes from today: ...'
"Pentagon Says Syria Strikes Hit ‘Heart’ of Chemical Weapons Program".
What program?
"A Hard Lesson in Syria: Assad Can Still Gas His Own People".
If Assad had a chemical weapons program it could be verified. There are no such claims. No accusations of suspected sites.
And ‘Mission Accomplished!’ But What Is the Mission in Syria?' starts with :
'The strike on chemical arms sites reflected President Trump’s competing impulses:
There are no such sites.
Russia and their civilized allied country is Syria
Dude, Syria has never been an allied for Russia, the whole thing is just a big marketing operation to sell Russian weapons to Egypt and Iraq since long time customers like Gaddafi have stopped sending orders. Get real.
lucm, indeed.
Are we to discriminate against people based on their Slashdot user-id digit length?
Rose colored glasses. We've always been a 'propaganda society'. The Soviets were a bigger threat because they had a philosophy, which morons bought into, world wide. The Rusky's now are just another bunch of corrupt money grubbers, led by a corrupt money grubber.
Gulf of Tonkin incident, Bay of Pigs, Pearl Harbor, Sinking of the Main, Shot Heard round the World, Caesar's Commentary on the Gallic Wars etc etc etc. Wars have always included propaganda.
Syria is, IMHO, about maintaining a new Shia/Sunni war and keeping it stalemated. Which is a _good_ outcome. Just like the Catholics/Protestants, they need to kick the fight out of each other.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Alex Jones and the other conspiracy theory nut-jobs all turned on Trump around the same time.
totally unrelated I'm sure.
I agree Russia does play the game well in this instance, but the analysts I pay attention to (and people like Stephen Cohen and Gilbert Doctorow are treated as Russian shills) emphasize the sense of impending doom in Russia. That there is going to be war.
At this time the task for the opposition is still clear: set up another incident. Assad is winning, the population is more and more on his side, the presence of the US becomes untenable. The US is controlling most of the Syrian oil , for what reason again? Meanwhile the warmongers will claim with some reason that the restrained attack has only had downsides so they'll insist on going all out. This is far from over.
I should remind people that Obama considered it his best decision not to escalate in Syria and one of his worst was Libya. He refused to go to war with Syria against the pressure of what he called 'the Washington playbook', which means just about everyone around him. I believe Trump has shown the right instincts (it's not clear if he's capable of more than that) in his statements on Afghanistan, Syria, Russia and North Korea before his election, but he is much weaker than Obama and he's easily manipulated. There are those who claim that it was Mattis who did most in avoiding war. This time.
So, Russia does something that's good for their interests. That may be the only reason countries have "allies" at all, maybe.
If your interpretation is right I guess that's fine. Russia wants to sell jet fighters and anti-air missile systems, can't do that if the whole region is run over by terrorists, dying and starving.
The US and Gulf countries etc. seem content with smuggling and selling light weapons, antitank missiles etc. to the beheaders and suicide bombers.
Pepsi's a pretty good soda, though.
Would were! Should is! Could be! And live a hundred times three.
I agree with a lot here. In the time they had a philosophy and now they don't. Now they're just doing 'realist politics'. I appreciate a few realist political theorists (Walt, Mearsheimer) so I can live with that.
I don't agree maintaining the war is a good outcome, I'm not that cynical. But I agree maintaining the war has been the aim, to the extent the aim was not to overthrow Assad. Now things escalate because as they say 'Assad threatens peace'.
Basically, anything Trump flavored has had a pretty heavy tilt in its moderation, towards the pro-Trump.
It does seem like the extremes are over represented, but I suspect those are mostly just a few people using sock puppet accounts or AC. For my part, I find that if you arrive at a divisive story shortly after it’s been posted, the comments that have been moderated up disproportionately represent one side or the other. If you come back through a day or so later, things will have settled more in alignment with the general Slashdot groupthink.
I find that I’m much happier with the state of Slashdot (though I still miss its heydey) if I browse with anything under 3 hidden and wait at least a few hours before I read the comments.
She won the most votes, but they were almost, if not completely, exclusive to urban counties. Hence the electoral college played out as it did; by design.
Should the ICBMs go flying (God forbid) between axis and allied nations, I guarantee Trump would be the least of your concerns!
Treasonous whores. We remember, and in 10 years youll be sueing Google to be forgotten like all the other guilty euros.
Maybe /. isn't as saturated with the extreme hate and intolerance you see elsewhere? Most people here use their heads for more than a place to keep their cap; This results in a more objective view of things... Or more pro-Trump as you put it.
Basically, anything Trump flavored has had a pretty heavy tilt in its moderation, towards the pro-Trump. I've worked in a lot of rural areas, and the brand of angry conservatism/superlibertarianism is pretty rare among IT/Software guys. But for some reason, it's hyper-represented on Slashdot in the past few years.
Not that folks can't hold that view - it just seems disproportionate, compared to the population.
Ryan Fenton
I've always thought that a big part of allowing the trolls to continue was just a matter of tracking them down.
Same with hate speech and some of the more fringe groups. Allowing them on the platform is a great way to keep tabs on them.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Too obvious, Sergei.
Trump lost the popular vote.
The media, hollywood, most comedians, all of the big tech companies, and most social media is 24-7 hardcore anti-Trump for almost 2 straight years now. You see a couple of posts on slashdot that are right-leaning get modded up and all of a sudden it's "wildly conservative" now.
Might want to get your sensitivity meter adjusted just a touch.
It is pretty simple to see that posts not praising Trump get modded down pretty rapidly, and there is a truth to the "Quick, while the Russians are asleep!" meme. Posts made during the normal away time in Western Russia are quickly modded as troll, while the same post made later at night US time would seem to not be so bothersome, perhaps even insightful. I know that has been the case with many of my posts of similar content.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Please mod parent down for not embracing the liberal agenda of fud and impeachment
Wait - was that post ironic?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
"I just don't get how slash ended up populated with trolls."
It's not just here, look at any online site which discusses politics - The Independent is infested with Russian trolls. "I am Canadian citizen and I think secular President Assad is doing great job against the headchoppers."
Slashdot is more prone to this because of the lack of censorship and anonymous posting.
That said, I doubt an increase in activity of that magnitude from state agents is feasible. You don't keep 95% of your workforce slack. So for this to be true, either they hired a lot of people in a hurry, or they moved a lot of their trolls off of other projects onto the anti-America beat. But the thing is, that takes specialized language skills and training for a Russian.
Many of the trolls are probably bots. Ramping them up is expected, and any military command should expect to keep a reserve force. If you go to real-world war or a situation otherwise escalates, you need to have tools in your toolbox to respond.
It is also reasonable to assume that any competent major cyber command in the world is working on AI-powered propaganda bots and has been for a while. Scaling that by a factor of 20x just means throwing more cycles at it.
You are clueless. Russia very much wants Syria as an ally because of its strategic location, not least its Mediterranean port at Tartus.
Russia will overlook the disappeared, the extra-judicial killings, the imprisonment and torture which has been part of Syrian life since Bashar al-Assad's dear old pop was in charge, indeed they'll help, witness the indiscriminate bombing of civilians and their support of its wonderful secular leader.
Good thing in the United States of America, we don't really care about the popular vote.
The OPCW have reported that Assad has used chlorine gas against his opponents many times in the civil war and also sarin and possibly VX.
Basically, anything Trump flavored has had a pretty heavy tilt in its moderation, towards the pro-Trump. I've worked in a lot of rural areas, and the brand of angry conservatism/superlibertarianism is pretty rare among IT/Software guys. But for some reason, it's hyper-represented on Slashdot in the past few years.
Not that folks can't hold that view - it just seems disproportionate, compared to the population.
Ryan Fenton
Seeing as he is our president why it it surprising that there is a large support base for him on a US site? You know a lot of people voted for him. Also moderation on this site requires an account. Do you have any names of accounts that seem to be Russian trolls? I've noticed a strong hyper liberal bias along with conservative bias. Moderation is becoming increasingly hyper partisan which is something you thank our own propaganda here in the states for, not Russia.
He _was_ just the lesser of two evils.
No he wasn't. Just about everything Hillary was accused of supporting he did or did worse. There was just something about Hillary that meant the minority would rather see the greater of two evils as president than have her in the job.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Now Syrians will have to buy all the equipent that got demolished. But that will never pay for the cost of the attack.
Maybe a weapon test on live targets without any risk?
I know. But the sarin case was wrong and VX is just a guess. The chlorine cases could have happened because they plain industrial ingredients and are so far removed from 'WMD', these cases could also be revisited.
"lesser"? are you kidding me ?
Yeah - just look at your current mod score... +4... definite evidence of trolling.
Of course you conveniently forget or blatantly disregard all the mod bombing EVERY conservative comment on slashdot gets.
to counter the uproar over a U.S.A that is spiraling out of control with its illegal wars and bombings of 3rd world countries that cannot defend itself.
(also, anyone who has an opposing view is labeled a "Russian troll")
Damn, now I'm jealous. I thought I was pretty fluent at irony but now I see others reached the 'post ironic' stage.
No, it's not. You just have a problem where you confuse anything not hardline left with some fantasy boogeyman. Just because someone doesn't agree with you about why there aren't as many women as men in IT roles doesn't mean they're automatically "anti-women".
Woohoo--it's the very obvious Russian troll vs the American bonehead who thinks fascists are "liberals". Let's watch. I'll get the popcorn.
Have conservatism and humor ever mixed well? Humor has been effective way to both release social tensions and reduce the fears of the population so that they would dare to stand up for their rights for a long time. Conservative humor that is not self-deprecating would be an interesting academic exercise within some literature degree.
But for some reason, it's hyper-represented on Slashdot in the past few years.
I think you’re still seeing Slashdot as it was when people like you and I joined. Back then, the active membership seemed to be mostly made up of working people in IT-related professions, with a fairly wide range of ages.
Nowadays I see a lot of posts - political or not - which lead me to believe a fair number of our active seven-digit members are young guys in the 16-30 age range who are probably still interested in tech, but may not actually be employed in the field (or at all). It’s a different demographic, and one which coincidentally is more pro-Trump.
#DeleteChrome
You're on to us. Actually the Russian trolls are the only commenters left on this site. And bots of course. It's a honeypot site for the occasional visitor who strays onto the site. I spend most of the time quarrelling with myself under different ids in the hope I manage to trap a visitor. It's a lot of work.
Russia and their civilized allied country is Syria
Dude, Syria has never been an allied for Russia, the whole thing is just a big marketing operation to sell Russian weapons to Egypt and Iraq since long time customers like Gaddafi have stopped sending orders. Get real.
Russia had a base in Tartus/Syria since 1971. Considering this, "never been" is an interesting choice of words.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_naval_facility_in_Tartus
So... Russia hired 20 times as many trolls for this special event? Because 20 times as many English-speaking Russians were unemployed and just sitting out waiting and hoping to get some job... any job to... even to troll? Umm.. what? Ok. I guess sanctions have worked. Even the well-educated Russians can't find work anymore.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
It's way too easy to be an "obvious" Russian troll. First there's the obvious problem of people calling people they disagree with "trolls", "Russia shill", "how much do they pay you Comrade?".
But it's all too easy for me to pretend to be an obvious Russian troll, too!
Then, maybe you are a Russian troll who pretends to be a non-Russian non-troll, faking anger about an obvious Russian troll, because you like US/EU to be angered about Russian trolls.
Huh. An AC upmodded to 5. TFA thesis proven.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies has been around for a while but it's still worth a read. Not that I'm saying any of this is actually happening. Just something to keep in mind.
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Your children will have Putin corner in schools, and will be told stories of how Putin in nation's protective father, meanwhile there will be bread lines and coupons for your monthly soap rations.
People were angry at the time, too, because Comey opening an investigation days before the election and then closing it again ("oooops sorry, my bad, haha") cost the election and hand the presidency, once held by Washington and later by Lincoln, to Trump, a dangerous, stupid, egotistical, narcissistic buffoon.
I have seen multiple indicators that msmash is wildly liberal. Do what you will with that information and reach your own conclusions
Her gender.
%subj%
Why would a paid troll interested in efficacy use a weak, known less-trusted account method on a has-been technology news site filled with people that come here out of habit?
Use common sense. If there are Russian Trolls here, they would bother to log in.
I have been reading this site for close to 20 years now. Based on GP's very similar user ID I suspect he has too. I agree with the GP. I too have noticed a substantial shift towards conservatism in Slashdot's discussions in about the last 2 years. My experience in the software industry during the same time frame is consistent with the GP's observation of disproportion.
It would be interesting to study this and see if there's been a shift or an influx in the population.
She won the most votes, but they were almost, if not completely, exclusive to urban counties.
Factually untrue. You can see a much different distribution if You bother to look.
Or I suppose you could say that Trump's voters were similarly confined to a few urban counties. I don't think you want to admit that though.
Hence the electoral college played out as it did; by design.
Even if the above were true, but as shown, it is false(sorry if you are an innocent victim of the misleading misrepresentation by supposed pundits), this is also not real, you cannot find one element in the Constitution that makes that by design, or even chance.
Sorry, but you're doubly in error. As noted, with the margins of around 100,000 votes in three states, all it would have taken in those thousands in urban counties and bam, Trump starts calling for a revolution again.
I see a lot of grandstanding blusterto try to dodge away from Trump's litany of lies about the election.
If Trump had not said:
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.
Sorry, but it was less than 200,000 voters that decided the electoral college, in states with questionable outcomes, and there is no evidence for his voter fraud claims. Even Kobach couldn't sustain the lie.
Sorry, but the odor coming from the Trump camp reeks. That's the core of his and their incompetence, they go from a possibly accurate complaint into the realm of hyperbole that reveals a lie. Such grandiose posturing is even more detrimental when you refuse to deal with it.
So Trumpublicans, fix thyselves. Stop whining about Obama and Clinton. Remember you hated it when it was Bush? Even the London embassy. Bash Obama?
Hi AC back with a new reply!
You know me too well.
I often feel that way about every website.
So is your reply being modded funny and mine insightful some kind of Russian Reversal?
In US truth is insightful, in Russia truth is funny!
my viagra spam is going crazy
Go well
Common sense tells me that you can only use your mod points when you're logged in. But if you post as a non AC your mod points get invalidated.
Reality has a well-known leftist bias.
What is the US not afraid of now?
The worst thing about Hillary was how open her corruption was. Her supporters will still lie for her, even when it's _just_obvious_.
What happened to the flow of funds going into the Clinton global fund and why? Explain why it just disappeared, if she wasn't openly hocking influence. All the bullshit was revealed, the day after she lost.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
noticed.
I'm very liberal and when I post my strong dislike for the R's that are ruining things for all of us, I get modded down very unrealistically, compared to how slash used to be (note, I do have a low enough number to know what slash used to be like in the early days).
IT is not conservative; slash is mostly IT based and yet the R's come here in storm and mod things down in a pretty organized manner.
I'd say there are definitely paid shills and trolls here and have been over about 10 years, now.
I dont' really care; since I realize that this place has long been invaded and ruined. I still speak my mind and the message still does get out. but it is a shame that the invasion of social media has mostly ruined it, as a true communication medium.
IT has stayed the course of individual empowerment and non-violence. The average US "Liberal" and the US "Conservative" have changed significantly in the time you've been here. Unlike his modern counterpart, the 1990s US Liberal relatively tolerant, anti-war, and pro-free speech.
Anyone that expresses a political opinion online is going to be verbally attacked R's, D's, or both. The vitriol stems from the inherently unethical nature of democracy, that the majority get to tell the minority what to do. I avoid the whole thing, shun voting, and reject the state whole, because it's the only civilised course of action.
I have been reading this site for close to 20 years now. Based on GP's very similar user ID I suspect he has too. I agree with the GP. I too have noticed a substantial shift towards conservatism in Slashdot's discussions in about the last 2 years. My experience in the software industry during the same time frame is consistent with the GP's observation of disproportion.
It would be interesting to study this and see if there's been a shift or an influx in the population.
I think it's more nuanced than that. Over the past two decades, both the Democratic party and the Republican party have shifted more towards their respective extremes, with the Republican party defining itself heavily on wedge issues like guns and abortion, and the Democratic party defining itself heavily with identity politics and shaming the wealth gap. Both have moved far more towards authoritarianism, with the differences simply being on implementation.
Slashdot, in general, I've found to lean pretty heavily toward libertarianism and individual liberties, and away from heavily centralized power. With both D's and R's moving away from that direction, that lean becomes more pronounced. Moreover, with socialism inherently requiring a central authority for management, individual liberty starts looking closer to conservatism.
Finally, the demographics have always leaned heavily male, and presumably straight-ish white-ish as a simple majority. Slashdot has always had its group of non-men (and to all those who are here and reading this, sincerely, thank you), but it's always been a minority. Since the Democrats have in general been the party to host the extreme feminists and the social justice crowd, Slashdot has had a backlash against those camps, which is the logical consequence of the identity politics.
Put it all together, and while there might be some sort of a quantifiable shift in the aggregate demographics here, I submit that it appears far more apparent than it is due to the external motion which has taken place within the general population at the same time.
I have been posting against US involvement in Syria. :)
I'd be happy to qualify as a troll if it means money
How much should I expect? Should I send the invoice directly to Putin?
The worst thing about Hillary was how open her corruption was. Her supporters will still lie for her, even when it's _just_obvious_.
Again, you're confusingly talking about Trump, the brazenly corrupt demagogue, and his cronies, recently revealed to take expensive military flights to vacation spots, expensive office furniture, receive bribes from lobbyists, construct a security room for no defined reason, sell off citizenship, and abuse spouses. All of which Trump lies and grandstands about, and his entourage crows along, sometimes hawking out complaints over...Hillary, the great demon, who you've been futile in your accusations for 30 years already.
Sorry, but that dog don't hunt.
What happened to the flow of funds going into the Clinton global fund and why? Explain why it just disappeared, if she wasn't openly hocking influence. All the bullshit was revealed, the day after she lost.
Actually, not one instance of bullshit was revealed, not one exchange, nothing except smoke and vapors, which isn't even something that took a month for Trump to violate, what with the hawking of his daughter's wares from official White House representatives. And he was lying in his inauguration speech of all things, and he's still lying on Twitter about Comey even today.
Look man, I get it, you can't stand Hillary Clinton, but you're so stuck in your hate that you don't realize you're hugging a fucking cactus of malignancy instead. If she was really that bad, couldn't you do better?
Obvious troll modded Interesting. Typical Slashdot.
His enemies are typically indistinguishable from parody as well, but apparently it's okay to have a platform so inconsistent that it borders on schizophrenia, just so long as one refuses to get off one's moral high horse.
She won the most votes, but they were almost, if not completely, exclusive to urban counties.
Factually untrue. You can see a much different distribution if You bother to look.
Explain how an article from before the election shows how a statement about the election is incorrect please.
Considering moderation points are still random, calling BS. The site also has users from all over the world. Yes, there are places where "Democrats" and "Republicans", mean nothing.
Fun fact, I've been posting as anon for over a decade. I don't do it for karma and I don't think my past replies should have anything to do with each other. If you're going to mod me up or down, you're doing it based purely on the comment, nothing else. No bias. No predisposition. To make matters worse, I doubt many people even know about Slashdot's recent changes. Logged in users are given a +2 bump by default. Anons don't even show up unless you set your filter to 0 _and_ click reload comments.
There literally are threads where people respond to anons but you can't actually see their original comment. I used to submit articles too but can't even do that any more.
My point is there are other reasons besides "Trump" or Republicans.
I'd agree things have changed, but I'm not going to pretend that the way things were anything but an echo chamber. There's always been a strong libertarian vein in IT. It's just evolved.
IT is not openly conservative, because IT is hostile to that. An abrasive "change in the weather" seems likely. I've been seeing in IT in the real world for a while. (And it'll swing back in time, I sure.)
Trolls aren't new here. If your only problem is their politics, then you have probably been contributing to the ruin of slashdot since the early days.
I'd be amazed if people are paid to shill for politics *here*. And for 10 years? Hopefully it just distracted them for more important places of discourse.
You're right!!
Conservative humor seems to consist of laughing at the victim. No empathy at all, no analogy simile metaphor... Fucked up
When spreading dissent the Russians don't care which side they cheer for. They'll work on any fissure in society and do their best to make it a chasm. They have contributed to the MRA element here for years just as they did for BLM.
Whatever happened to the alt-right, who have a sizeable overlap with MRA? Theyve withered away since Trump's win. If Charlottesville was their high point, it seems the vast majority of their support was online. 200lb basement dwellers or Putin's minions?
Of course the Krembots will never argue in favour of bombing Syria or sanctions on Russia (more tomorrow). They might go as far as 'I don't like Putin' but will add a twist to cancel their heresy.
See subject: It's always a pleasure showing everyone how stupid you are drug addict mentalboy https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11987743&cid=56440703/ you piece of SHIT from a country of men w/ NO BALLS (yes, you're from Sweden shitbag (which you tried LYING about to me after your twisted weak ass sent me a postcard from there like the obsessed stinking little CREEP you are fucker) but too bad I saw your post about the restaurant in Stockholm recently)
* >b?You & yours from "SWEDEN"? NO BALLS - you let your women get RAPED by muslims (whereas MY TRIBE, poles, DROVE THEM OFF when all the rest of Europe, except Lithuania, RAN)!
You pitiful little no balls worms (which is WHY You are HOW you are - you can't help it - you're DESCENDED FROM SHITBAG PUNKS!)
APK
P.S.=> Truth HURT cocksucker? Meet me in person (you 'brag' you're a 'world-traveller' (big deal, I've seen europe too) 'rich man' (not - you're just some impoverished little LOSER, no questions asked) - come meet me FACE TO FACE & talk your shit to me bitch... apk
"Wait so now the Russian trolls are working against Trump"
They don't want the US bombing Syria, they don't want more sanctions.
They're working mainly against Trump now because the last thing they want is him to succeed in MAGA, unlikely though that is but they'll still support him in actions which will damage the US and to widen the divisions in society.
They play both sides and always keep an eye on the odds.
Can you provide a little more detail than "just about everything"? Because I'm trying to think of something Clinton did that Trump did worse and I'm coming up with fuck all. Was it something Trump did while he was Secretary of State?
Parody or Putinbot? You decide.
No, I consider the editors to be trolls, not rednecks.
I work in IT in Austin, TX that has some very liberal policies / agenda despite the company founder being a Trump supporter. In the office we keep our mouths shut while the liberals get to say whatever they want whenever they want. But when we go out to lunch, it's very clear that there are a great many of us that are sick of it. So I doubt it's as uncommon as you think.
Overwhelmingly Americans are against any involvement in Syria, and the government is calling these people Russian trolls.
You should probably seek help for your problem. Maybe even just smoke a joint and chill out.
Better than being a moose fucker like APK is
APK loves the moose dick, he sucks it down daily
He complains about open sores but really he is referring to the ones in his ass from all the moose wang he takes
Now shut up and go fuck your moose APK
One could make the case that the media has portrayed Trump in a bad light for at least 30 years but that was just the media portraying Trump as he actually was.
APK is a spamming moose fucker
See below for his near endless spamming
He does it between sessions of fucking and sucking off his moose
He is the internet's leading purveyor of man moose love videos
APK doesn't want any DNS records of his moose beast love searches which is why he pushes hosts file so much
APK is full of self loathing
This is why he fucks moose all the time
Everyone who has ever met him disavows him, even his parents who say he died from SIDS at 3 months
He really hates it when you point out that he is a fucking failure at everything and even the evidence he provides to show that he isn't a failure shows that he is
Explain how an article from before the election shows how a statement about the election is incorrect please.
Chalk up yourself as an example as somebody who did not bother to look for themselves. I mean, really, if you want to complain that the vast majority of the country is in a few concentrated locations, fair enough, it may be dumb, but it will be true. For both parties. That's why the prudent don't believe those insipid maps.
They confuse people almost as badly as a Mercator projection.
Though I suppose if we threw in those who didn't vote at all, it might run even with that.
Anyway, stop and look around for yourself, see if you can find the less inaccurate maps.
Free the peoples of Syria and Russia!
The US now has a very effective way of deflecting the truth: blame Russia.
Slow golf clap, well done everyone...
Some people don't talk politics.
That doesn't mean they don't vote.
Following your logic, Cuba has been a US ally through all those years, with the missile crisis, Castro, the bay of pigs and all that, since Gitmo has been there for over a century.
lucm, indeed.
- Ageism; no company rejects people who have more experience
They do reject people that are more expensive though, there is evidence that older workers find it harder to find jobs and there is evidence in the US that higher health premiums for older workers puts employers off.
- Immigrants; you can't lose out on a job to an immigrant when you have the benefit of a 1st world education, and all the relative benefits of your upbringing in a 1st world nation unless you're a complete and utter fuckup.
That's such total bullshit. My 1st world education counts for shit if the racist cunt running the company only hires people from his home country.
- Females; it's pretty clear the violent hatred for females amongst the dregs of Slashdot
Slashdot has a large and varied community so it's quite likely that there will be idiots here. Even so I just don't see violent hatred for females, and I browse at 0.
You seem to have strong views that are generally full of shit, maybe you can help improve the site quality by fucking off to reddit or somewhere more your level.
Many Internet forums are echo chambers. It still bothers me how the tone suddenly changed recently.
Gamergate, whatever sjw is, “white male” outrage... how did stuff like M$ Winders sux turn into all that hate focused on real people? Can we go back to irrationally hating on software again?
The "Russian Trolls" are actually Trump voters who voted for him as the non-war candiate. **cough cough** Hillary pushing for miltary games on Russia's border could never lead to WW3 **cough**. The idiot became a neo-con when people voted for a protectionist isolationist. Oh, and why would Assad use gas when he was winning the ground war, when using said gas would just give the US grounds for invasion? The Narrative is bullshit.
Russian Trolls don't exist. If they did they'd be pushing liberal values to weaken the country anyway.
It's complicated. We tried hard to keep the modding algorithm credible and coded in human flaws but in the end nobody understood how it worked anymore.
A nasty overlooked fact about foreign trolls: Pretending to be a different nationality is a sign of shame.
Or in other words, every russian troll is ashamed of being russian, of stepping out and telling "look i am a russian and I have this oppinion".
It is rather easy to point out even deeply conspiratorially russian trolls: Just ask them to tell a nasty joke about putin. THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT. And if they ague "I know no jokes about putin" just ask them to quote a putin joke you posted. THEY ARE ALSO NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT EITHER.
Conclusion: no putin joke = payedtroll
So all russian trolls, please quote this:
"Putin said that when Americans claim to be exceptional it offends other countries. This from a man who arrests his political opponents, persecutes people based on sexual orientation, and put a girl band in a labor camp for singing songs he didn't like. We don't think we are better than everyone else. We just think we are better than him, specifically." –Jimmy Kimmel
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
See subject: It's impolite to talk w/ your mouth full as you EAT YOUR WORDS 2x https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11492625&cid=55780295/ & https://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10606043&cid=54411703/ on the quality of my work (many here like & use it) + on your LIES my ware has some 'backdoor' (the ONLY thing that got it up the backdoor is you now, lol (due to your OWN stupidity)), respectively.
APK
P.S.=> I can insert CANADIAN into that "joke" too easily, can't I? It'd fit better imo @ least (since you are "canadian" for whatever THAT means & you DEFINITELY are STUPID per the links above, lol) & as far as ANYONE "booting my ass"? You surely can't & END UP BOOTING YOUR OWN ASS (lol, proof's in those links above)... apk
Everyone whose political opinions differ from mine is out of touch with reality.
I understand that factories need new orders, and that trumps are required for a political theater.
But, please, remember that there are millions and millions of Russian speaking people who have nothing to do with any form of a political populism. And for whom it is becoming not funny.
When IT people choose a political affiliation they tend to focus on calling out bullshit on the other side
That's a good observation.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I hold USA government and affiliates as such, to such low regard as being regarded as terrorists (basically as threatening as enemy combatants in the most general sense). Same with my own country in Europe (norway), always with a lower case 'n' because of how much I have come to dislike it as a 42 y.o. adult, and I am not from an immigrant family either. And so I am not trolling here. Can the 'pentagon' make such distinctions so as to separate ridicule from damnation and living in infamy?
Why should I growing up in a country that apparently thinks it can go attack/invade other countries (Libya and who know where else in addition) seemingly because doing so is in the interest of USA? I think I should not, unless perhaps I was supposed to to believe that I live in an ultra nationalistic state (as if wanting to say "whatever the country does is for the best") and fascists (as if wanting to say "everybody is to agree with the national agenda) , which I am sure are types of labels that few in the western would would like being associated with.
There seem to be a steady stream of horrible things being an adult where I live, and the latest thing annoying me is this thing I read on twitter today. Someone linked to a tweet from a politician (I think) that claims that "There is a difference between a democracy and a liberal democracy", which I bet will sound sort of positive to many people without thinking about it; however I'd argue that this isn't a sensible argument in itself, and shouldn't be a meaningful problem, as one would then be comparing a generalized trait/description with a specific description, which don't mix (and they sound very much related in the first place, leaving no room for being a sensible dichotomy). I don't care much for what the intentions are behind this kind of point, as this dumbing down of language so as to promote empty slogans and 'boilerplate' language, specifically by being suggestive (presumably dulling your senses with positive loaded words), when there would be no merit to such arguments if based on crude juxtapositions which no longer refer to clear concepts, but to loaded words and phrases that probably exists in limited contexts and not so much the real world. I am sure "liberal democracy" is a meaningful term within a given context, but to compare it to the notion of "democracy" in any way seems just wrong, as it seems dumb and exploitative.
But your political opinions are given to you with your wages.
Maybe conservatives don't mention their politics at work, smile & nod at anything you say, and do their jobs so they can cash their checks without controversy?
I'd say there are definitely paid shills and trolls here and have been over about 10 years, now.
I dont' really care; since I realize that this place has long been invaded and ruined. I still speak my mind and the message still does get out. but it is a shame that the invasion of social media has mostly ruined it, as a true communication medium.
Or it could be that a larger proportion of reasonable people simply disagree with you.
What credibility will the Russians gain? That when the US tells them to turn off their air defense network and stand down their missile crews at a set time, they'll do exactly that, leaving their puppet-state to fend for himself as his chemical weapons program is destroyed and his older air defenses are unable to defend against the attack?
That's not a resume enhancer.
C'mon, Billy, that's lazy trolling. Shareblue doesn't seriously pay you for that level of effort, do they?
Is so 2016.
Welcome new readers of /. above you see a prime example of the retard Alexander Peter Kowalski, otherwise known as APK.
If you choose to respond to something he says either to correct his always wrong statements or just to taunt him be sure to do so as AC otherwise he will stalk you for years to come.
APK goes full retard at the drop of a hat and then will kick it up to 11 just to remove all doubt.
Today it looks like he started out at full retard, and is going the threaten violence route from a known pretend internet tough guy.
Watch out or he will call you a ne'er-do-well
Good thing in the United States of America, we don't really care about the popular vote.
Then why did Trump feel obligated to tell such a blatant lie about it?
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.
Trying to get over the fact, the actual fact, that he did not win the Electoral College in a landslide, but instead eeked out a win by a few tens of thousands of voters, and even under-performed in several states. Ultimately resulting in being millions behind, a result which he had previously expressed outrage and calls for violence over, not that that was anything except his own hysteria, but to disguise it, he had to fabricate an excuse.
Yet his own handpicked commission utterly failed to find the evidence of supposed millions of people who voted illegally. Instead, it disbanded due to the inevitable result disproving what Trump said. They couldn't perpetuate that lie.
That's why Trump is playing a game of rushing around, there's no depth, no substance, it's all shallow bluster to score without real development. He runs a con, but can't build. Once you look at his words, you see there's nothing behind them.
It's very telling that the GOP is willingly fooled by that. Politicians have played the rub job for centuries, but none quite so blatantly. And a whole segment of America embraces it. It's open, just like his corruption. Says a lot about his aficionados.
And just for some contrast with the GPs comment retard Alexander Peter Kowalski posts one of his incoherent rants.
It is OK APK, we understand that you aren't fully mentally developed and will never be.
No go and beat off to the latest Trump tweet or InfoWars article like you want to
Does she have proof they are Russian? Does she have proof their intention is trolling? Or is it simply a lot of Americans are not convinced of the offered story and are challenging the story offered?
1) That is your problem right there. The issue that you only had 2 options. The way elections are organized, the only solution is to have a two party system, even if it means the least amount of voters get what they want. "Winner takes all" is the cuse of the problem.
2) Even then I think many people did not vote 'for Trump' but 'against the current politicians'. Those are "protest votes" as we call them in Belgium.
In a multi party system, you will not notice this, unless there is a serious issue. Then enough people will vote some lunatic into parlement. He will have a voice and that is enough to let others understand that they need to change things.
Sometimes these parties grow into something larger. The green parties are such a thing, just like The Pirate Party.
As the Amricans do not have such a way to vote that way, what should they vote?
Then there are the people who vboyted a third party. As far as I can tell, these where mostly Dems who did not want to vote for Trump. So they voted Third Party. If that is the case, perhaps it is the best way to show why "winner takes all" is such a bad thing.
I do not think that Sanders would have won against Trump. Way tgo socialist and socialism is bad, mmkay? And if you want to look at Sanders, also look at all the other candidates on the Rep side that he was able to kick out.
People voted for change away from the way politics is done. They did not get what they wanted, but that is the way people voted.
And last but not least, the bi-party system has people on BOTH side who rather see the world burn than vote for a candidate that is good for them if that candidate is from the other party.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
If only they where as capable as trolls.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
god speed man in this most important of tasks, bring us the fresh blood!!
Does anyone else remember when the people we called "trolls" were just trying to piss you off, not fake grassroots support for some agenda?
Why did we ever bother with the words "shill" or "astroturfing" when we could simply misuse "trolls"?
An 8000% increase in activity among Santa's Elves!
More propaganda at 11.
Haha, that's modded -1. You must have really hit a nerve with someone.
In the world of realpolitik, there is nothing better than having two of your enemies fighting each other while buying their weapons from you at full price and selling their assets at bargain rates to pay for them.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
You would pay attention to balancing them off each other but not necessarily try to make them kill each other off. You don't have to be a psychopath in order to be a realist but it's possible
An example of balancing would be Russia vs China. We used to do a good job there. Now not quite so.
This was done during the Iran/Iraq war.
The invasion of Iraq was orchestrated by the same group of people (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell etc) that had managed that stalemate. It wouldn't have worked if they said their plans outloud. Saudi Arabia is key, they have to fund the Sunni's side of the wars.
It is not a stretch, it's the SOP.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Ask Peter Bright/Dr. Pizza what happened to his IRC server which he CRIED about after I drove them all out of their own chatrooms... lol, so much for the 'tech brilliance' of ARSEHOLETECHNICA!
I also WIPED ARSTECHNICA OFF THE MAP in 2003-2006 @ Windows IT Pro easily - Jeremy Reimer got his website removed by Shaw of Canada his ISP & hosting provider + he was put on a tracking ticket by them for email harassment... his "henchman" Jay Little said "I am an EXPERT on Exchange" which much to his dismay worked against him @ "The Memory Optimization Hoax" where I proved to them AND Dr. Mark Russinovich (former "co-worker" of mine @ Sunbelt where we retailed our wares there & he bitched I outsold his work, awww) that that technology unhalted & sped up frozen Exchange Servers USING MICROSOFT'S OWN DOCUMENTATION TO DO IT (clearmem.exe is the same tech, but not GUI, & I designed the 1st program of that nature in GUI no less).
Jay Little then trolled & stalked me to other websites where I annihilated him on ramdrives as well - he was banned + had his website @ CrystalTech removed by that hosting provider for libeling me.
APK
P.S.=> Bad move bringing up the DOLTS of Arstechnica - all they can do is "gossip" like old biddies behind my back, BUT OUTSIDE THEIR "PRIVATE PLAYPEN"? The results are QUITE different, see above, lol... apk
The invasion of Iraq was the opposite of realpolitik. Instead of offshore balancing there was the intention to overthrow regimes and control countries directly .The Iran/Iraq war evolved from an attitude of 'Iran is the enemy, let's get them' to a somewhat more cynical realist attitude of 'we're fine with it if they remain at war permanently'
You think they were stupid enough to think they would just 'own' Iraq? I think that's ridiculous. Not Bush, leave that question aside. Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell and their staffs?
If you accept my premise 'they' knew that Iraq was unmanageable, even medium term...What was their end game? I think is was Sunni/Shia war, starting as a civil war in Iraq, and developing in unpredictable ways from there.
Iraq was to some degree allied with and armed by the Soviets. Iran, until their revolution, was allied with and armed by the Brits and later Americans. Once Iran no longer had a 'steady supply', Saddam saw weakness in his (Baths are a Sunni political party) traditional enemy.
Saudi funded Iraq throughout those wars, their Sunni brothers. Saudi King famously game Saddam a symbolic solid gold AK-47. Pretty sure that's on YouTube.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
And we know this is true, because the Pentagon has never lied to use before.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.