DrYouth wrote:Someone posted this in my Facebook feed.
http://act.tv/v/17201/
I have no idea how reliable or unreliable this source is... it seems pretty left wing...
But what is the consensus on the forum on whether Russia has been trying to polarize politics in the US and in Europe.
It seems plausible that they would like to destabilize their competition...
In fact this would be a genius move on their part if you think about it...
Are Russians playing 3D chess with Trump as a pawn?
This seems more plausible to me than Trump playing 2D chess with or without the Russians.
I think the Russian intelligence services have a (marginally) better grasp about what makes Western societies tick than the Soviets did because the whole "must make people believe as we do, and then glorious times for the world will be a reality!" died out. Soviet propaganda was aimed at changing the opinions, winning over, the capitalist-liberal West to a Communist mindset. Russia today doesn't give a shit what you believe, as long as it helps weaken US power and prevent the EU from growing strong enough to pose (what they see as) a geopolitical threat to Russian interests in their so-called "near abroad".
The Russian "troll brigade" is simply the propaganda part of that, in much the same way the Communists infiltrated the "peace movements" in Europe (and the US and Canada?). They aren't polarizing Western societies for its own sake, they do after all need to make deals with other countries, trade agreements, etc. The polarization of the US gives Russia some sympathies on the far right, but the same cannot be said among the American far left, the other side of the polarization. In Europe, it's also the old-school Communists who still support Russia - I think mostly out of old loyalities, and for being the main anti-American power in the world. Like in Soviet times, they practise whataboutism and engage in relativism to the point of absurdity.
In practise, I don't think those Russians who engage in the trying to change public opinion,
invent social or political conflict in either US or European countries. They simply try and work out how best to exploit pre-existing simmering conflicts.
I think there is too much focus on Trump in regards to Russia. He's alienating allies and causing the US to lose prestige internationally, but if Hillary had won, Russia'd found some way to exploit that, too. They've been doing this for many, many years before Trump. I think Russia tries to use Trump, for example when Putin keeps defending Trump and calling for the American press to respect their president... something he for some reason didn't call for under Obama, he's probably doing that... not to troll for lulz, but to manipulate with Trumps feelings, so he makes mistakes that weaken the US internationally. The Russian propaganda budget wouldn't be as massive as it was, if Putin did not consider it be working.
That they have been trying to polarize Western countries should be evident from the sort of programming you'd see on RT, or what sort of stories you'd read on Sputnik. Which are state funded. That much isn't opinion. The efficency, otoh, is harder to measure. If I should rate how efficent they've been in *creating* more conflict on a 1-to-10 scale, I'd say their rate of succes was a 2 for the US and 1 for Europe as a whole, yet a 3 for Eastern Europe (including Greece).
Fame is not flattery. Respect is not agreement.
