• yessikg
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    11 months ago

    Everytime I read these kind of takes, I think to myself ‘Where the fuck is Russia getting all this money to mess with the USA election?’

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Naomi Klein is a real person with a real history of political opinions not controlled by shadowy Russian masterminds. Maybe, just maybe, you’re hearing this criticism all over the place because it’s actually a real issue and “must be Russians” is a comfortable mental shutoff to avoid thinking about how the ego of the most powerful person in the country could be leading us into political danger.

    • marxistsynths19@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      Maybe the answer is that Russia isn’t doing what you think they’re doing. Blaming the failures of our electoral system on Russia is so 2016.

      • megopie@beehaw.org
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        11 months ago

        Eh, I mean they did mess around, but they were mainly just exacerbating existing issues and fault lines.

        • ɔiƚoxɘup@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          That’s exactly how it works. Find the fault lines and apply pressure. If you do it right, it doesn’t even cost much.

          • megopie@beehaw.org
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            11 months ago

            Eh, it doesn’t move the needle very much though. It only really does anything when there’s already a very close situation. If the case were otherwise then there would probably be a lot less spending on campaigns

            • ɔiƚoxɘup@beehaw.org
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              11 months ago

              I disagree. Flooding the internet with disinformation isn’t that expensive and although it’s probably impossible to measure, I think there’s tremendous potential to sway opinions.

              Russian troll farms and bot farms come to mind.

              To what you said, I don’t think there would be so much effort if it didn’t work.

              This is one example: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/fake-joe-biden-robocalltells-new-hampshire-democrats-not-vote-tuesday-rcna134984

              I haven’t researched this or anything, but this kind of thing feels like low-hanging fruit that moves needles.

              If you know of any interesting articles or studies about the topic, I’d definitely be interested in them! 🙂

            • NattyNatty2x4@beehaw.org
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              11 months ago

              Didn’t like 90+% of the online parts of the trucker convoy nonsense come from like 2 Facebook accounts? Small groups can get the ball rolling far more than you seem to think