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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... what???
This obsession is insane.
I predict a 3000% increase in Rickrolling.
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
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 might be the work of Russian trolls?
They're known to play both sides so they can control the dialogue completely.
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.
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
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.
So we're now calling people who dissent to bombing another country without the approval of congress trolls. Isn't this McCarthyism?
Except in this case there's every reason to think that the majority of these people are directly (or indirectly) in the employ of the Russian government and under orders to advance Russian interests by influencing public opinion in the US.
I stole this Sig
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.
'every reason': No, it's just the narrative that has been pushed since the bitch blew the election.
We have 'every reason' to be very suspicious of this narrative.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
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.
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.
Troll checklist:
1) Strident
2) Inflammatory
3) Illogical non sequitur
4) Anon
5) First post
Confirmed troll. If I had to wager, I'd put money on alt-right false flagger rather than Russian, but anymore that could be the same thing...
Nothing posted to
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 can't be easy to be make a living as a pro-Trump comedian. The man is a parody of our times.
Who cares? The question is whether his statements are correct.
There are all sorts of good reasons reasons to be against military intervention (by the U.S. and Russia) but the troll arguments typically blossom only when the US and EU forces are the ones intervening, and their post-truth framing of the issues is often a tell.
Honestly, the cries of McCarthyism about this issue are also evidence of either being a mark, or in on the con.
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.
"Trolls" and "Russian" are merely the latest in the long list of throw away invectives used to dismiss someone with a different opinion.
Both sides do this, although in the last year, "Russian" has moved to the top of invectives, replacing, "Racist!". But only by a small margin.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.