"Our task was to set Americans against their own government"

[relayerbob]

Informative article in Business Insider today:

'"It’s not just writing ‘Obama is a monkey’ and ‘Putin is great.’ They’ll even fine you for that kind of [primitive] stuff," he told Dozhd. In fact, those who worked for the foreign desk were restricted from spreading pro-Russia propaganda. Rather, Max said, their job was more qualitative and was geared toward understanding the "nuances" of American politics to "rock the boat" on divisive issues like gun control and LGBT rights.

"Our goal wasn’t to turn the Americans toward Russia," he added. "Our task was to set Americans against their own government: to provoke unrest and discontent, and to lower Obama’s support ratings."'

No surprise, really, but more specific ... and turns out Americans (most of the right as well as many on the left) as a whole were dumb enough to fall for it.

http://www.businessinsider.com/former-troll-russia-disinformation-campaign-trump-2017-10?utm_content=buffer2293a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer-bi

[Freethinker65]

1. Sad that it worked

[California_Republic]

2. Sad that it still works

[calimary]

11. Sad that it will continue to work.

Mainly because it worked very nicely FOR the GOP. So why should they want to rock the boat and do anything that questions the validity or casts doubt upon their “win” last November? That’s all they cared about: that it literally stole the White House for THEIR team.

Now if the Dems had kept the White House, the CONS would be raising holy hell about how horrendous and illegal and not valid the election results were. They’d be climbing all over it, to the exclusion of all else. But since it benefited THEM, they’re gonna drag their feet on any vigorous attempts to get to the bottom of this.

Seriously, NOT ONE of these CONS actually wants to be “investigating” ANY of this. Not a single one. They managed to “win”. So that’s all they care about. And what they really want is for the rest of us, including the news media, to shut up, drop it, and go away.

[Cryptoad]

16. Welcome to DU,,,,,Comrade!

[Hekate]

18. Well spotted. Calexit will be on the ballot and is funded by ... I'm sure you can guess by now.

[CrispyQ]

3. Excellent video at the link.

Less than 2 minutes, but worth the watch. I shared it on FB.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Extensive, targeted, unrelenting propaganda machine has been successful.

[czarjak]

5. Putin is still pissed about the fall of the Soviet Union...

[William Seger]

14. No, that brought him to power. He's pissed about sanctions hurting his gang's bottom line.

[bdamomma]

23. He wants Russia

to be all powerful again, with the US out of the way, he's going to be the next wanna be world dic.............tator.

[roamer65]

29. Putin is a lackey of Beijing.

He’s the attack dog of the Sino-Russian alliance. He’s doing the dirty work for China. Follow the money.

The main goal of SCO is the end of US hegemony.

[relayerbob]

30. Agreed

Revenge is a dish best served cold

[mopinko]

6. i wish they were digging into how far back this goes.

i'm still trying to figure out how they smeared jimmy carter for having a brother who liked beer.

[Hugin]

25. That was a whole different treasonous scam...

Set up by Reagan et al. Oh, and the Iranians.

[ucrdem]

7. Just another off-shored call center.

Trust repukes to figure out a way to outsource the VRWC.

[lark]

8. Still falling for "it" to this day.

Anyone who writes -
Democrats didn't state what they are for
Democrats ran the wrong kind of ads
Americans don't want health care
Democrats don't reflect America's values
Democrats aren't pro-worker enough
Democrats don't care about rural people

are just stating Russian/repug talking points. The election was stolen, not lost. Russia and the Repug Oligarchy are the enemy, not progressivism. Americans by and large support progressive policies.

[LisaM]

9. Thank you!!!!!

EXACTLY my thoughts, but I like the way you made bullet points of them.

[Initech]

12. We need to hammer this point in the next two elections.

You're either with America, or you're with Russia. That is a very simple and effective message we can all get behind!

[PatSeg]

17. And it is so easy to get

Democrats to blame themselves. Right after the election, everyone was asking "What did the Democrats do wrong?" and blaming Hillary Clinton, because she ran a bad campaign. Can't blame republicans or the Trump campaign, because then they look like poor losers.

[Hekate]

20. Thank you. Maybe we can call them Putin Talking Points or PTP when we see them here.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Like the Russian version of Lee Atwater

[smirkymonkey]

13. How will most of the deplorables feel if they know that they were just played by Russian trolls?

Do you think they would still double down or would it sow some seeds of doubt? I don't think they would ever immediately renounce their positions, but nobody likes to feel like they have been played and if they knew that most of this was the work of a foreign government, do you think it would weaken their support of candidates like Trump?

[IronLionZion]

15. the alt-right openly supports Russia

the white supremacists even marched with torches recently chanting "Russia is our friend".

They've published a lot of stuff on RW media in favor of partnering more closely with Russia

[onetexan]

21. even if the truth were to smack them in the face they wouldn't be able to get it

that they've been had. We have a few trumpers in our neighborhood, some of them racist to the core and have called our Muslim neighbors Osama bin Ladens. Their ignorance is horrid and disgusting.

[relayerbob]

31. Flat out denial

Their egos are at stake here, after all

[smirkymonkey]

32. I think some of them are pro-Russia, but a lot of them are total USA rednecks and

I think they are going to realize sooner or later that they were total patsies. I don't think they are really going to like that realization.

[Wounded Bear]

19. The "Right" didn't fall for it, they were active participants...

Have been since Reagan brought out his bullshit "10 most frightening words in the English language." Or was it nine?

Whatever. Repubs and Faux Noise have been undermining our government institution for decades. The Russians just piggy-backed on that.

[maxrandb]

22. Hate Radio and faux News

has been doing that for 30 years now.

[bdamomma]

24. too bad

we could take down their source of stupid brainwashing news. What would trumpie do without them?

[whathehell]

26. They could just be putting the best face on it, now that they've failed to get the sanctions lifted

and are reportedly quite disappointed in Trump.

[CousinIT]

27. Putin's 'chef,' the man behind the troll factory

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029723726

[malaise]

28. From whom do you think they learned this?

Seriously!

[bluestarone]

33. hear this before the ole

make 50% of the people fight the other 50% Boy did we fall for it hook line and sinker

[L. Coyote]

34. Sounds like Trump's campaign motto.

Call it a problem and say you are the only guy who can fix it, a con older than civilization.

Link to tweet

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