• raccoona_nongrata@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Demoralization of a populace is one of the main tactics by any group that is anti-democratic. The rhetoric is different when targeting either right or left, but the tactics and goals are essentially the same.

    Soviet KGB defector, Yuri Bezmenov, outlined explicitly how countries like the Soviet Union (and now Russia and China) have been pursuing a long-term campaign of demoralizing American citizens and attempting to manufacture disillusionment with democracy.

    It’s important to keep in the back of your mind when having interactions online. We know, obviously, of how the right was demoralized through the Teabag and MAGA movements, which were organized in no small part with the help of Russian astroturfing and troll farms on social media, but the left is not immune to these kinds of tactics either.

    The amount of times on Reddit I saw supposedly left-wing people claiming the only solution in the US was violent revolution and anarchy and that our democratic institutions are not salvageable was very telling.

    Whatever political demographic you might fall into, never labor under the illusion that you cannot be a target of bad actors in this way.

    • Wahots@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      Yep, I remember watching something on him. I always try to get my friends, family, and peers to vote. It’s led to some razor thin elections wins locally, by a margin of just 1,200 votes in the largest city in our state. Suffice to say, voting actually works.