General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Does anyone think the Russians are all over social media but not on Democratic Underground? [View all]Iterate
(3,020 posts)At the top, it's Putin and his confidants of course. The ideas and talking points get split into levels of media, from more intellectual journals outward to twitter. They use native speakers, or pass it through native speakers. They rely on the dumb, the true believers, and the compromised to pass it on.
By the time it gets to DU, either by a person or a persona, it often lands in LBN, Editorials, or some other forum, where the idea gets picked up and repeated.
By the time it gets to GD, it's been scrubbed and you think you're dealing with some guy from Michigan, or a retired Brit, or a radical activist living in Guatemala. The idea remains, polished and personalized. Sometimes it's an awkward disruptor, sometimes not.
For example, the idea of "trump the courageous corruption crusader" first appeared on a Russian academic site on 9/26. Now numbnuts repeats daily.
It's the core ideas and assumptions that count, but I wish we could name names.