ID: line drawing of an upright bunny with a black bandana tied around their neck, holding a lit match in their mouth like you might a toothpick. The text says “we can’t just vote fascism away, the time has come to disobey. (be brave!)”
ID: line drawing of an upright bunny with a black bandana tied around their neck, holding a lit match in their mouth like you might a toothpick. The text says “we can’t just vote fascism away, the time has come to disobey. (be brave!)”
I’m not sure they are going so hard right now, since the election is done, but the Russian trolling strategy was to sow division by pushing every side of every conflict further to the extremes.
Like say for feminism, there would be some claiming feminists are just anti-man and want to replace the patriarchy with a matriarchy, others would be pushing the message that men are evil and shouldn’t be trusted, while others would be saying women belong in the kitchen to serve their husbands and sons, and yet others would be complaining that men never listen. And they’d do all of this loudly with the hope of drowning out the more reasonable and moderate positions and make it an unsolvable issue because all sides don’t think there’s any compromise possible.
And once you know the pattern, it’s visible all over the fucking place.
Agree, trolls sowing division among society are unquestionably everywhere, operating in countless way, some more direct, some more veiled. But why is it always russian trolls? Don’t you think that others have the motive and tools required to influence societal behavior in a way that aligns with their interests? And don’t you see how the very dismissing of opinions differing to one’s own as trolls is in itself keeping us separated?
Yeah, you’re right, Russia isn’t the only one with troll farms. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some based in every country in the world. Not all of them state sponsored, but it’s an effective strategy to disrupt communities and keep people from working together. Edit: though I’ve come to see it as kinda like Kleenex, where the entire phenomenon is referred to as Russian trolling even though not all trolls are Russian brand trolls.
And you’re also right about that last point. I don’t know if there is an effective way to deal with them. Even if someone called out as a troll really is one, just calling them out can alienate others who resonated with what the troll said.
I’m not sure if there even is an effective counter strategy.