How Should We Respond to Foreign Attempts at Sowing Discord and Violence

Can't like this enough. There is immense, indisputable, illicit foreign influence in our politics. Almost none of it is focused on swaying elections. Why would foreign bad actors do that when they can sit back and BUY what they want directly regardless of WHO gets elected? Why would they waste a single penny on an uncertain electoral outcome when they can buy certainty directly afterwards in the form of innumerable forms of international graft? Why on Earth would they seek to destabilize and kill a cow that they have been successfully milking for decades and will milk for decades more so long as our central government remains overlarge and overpowered?

"Muhrussia" gives the Complex a twofer towards keeping its low awareness blocs sedated, 1. "not our fault we lose and lose, it's the Russians (or ancient aliens, or bigfoot, or leprechauns) doing it." 2. "Not only are our losses not our fault, they necessarily imply corruption that we may legitimately and violently 'resist.'"

Even birtherism from the other side had more credibility because at least there is some -real- legal underpinning, albeit archaic, for questioning a President's country of origin. Ironically, they don't realize that "muhrussia" is just "birtherism" misspelled and with LESS credibility.

And therein lies the lesson of the true origin of Trump Hate. Just like the Tea Party, Trump is a symptom, not a complete end, of an American electorate waking up and realizing that the whole giant, central mass is corrupt and stealing from them. That is threatening to kill the cow FOR REAL, or at least make the cow more resistant to easy international and domestic graft milking. Can't have them waking up from the Matrix, so deploy Agent Smith. One iteration of Agent Smith is TDS, another is "muhrussia." There are many more iterations, just like the movie. Anything to deflect and project the real, reinforce and bolster the unreal.

 

Your attempt to portray the current state of political divide is dishonest and false.

People are saying things on this forum, on social media, and on radio that would have been considered beyond the pale even a few years ago.

The degree of division in Congress is wider than it has been in any time since 1861.

Your attempt to portray the Russian propaganda effort as "buying a few ads on Facebook" is equally dishonest, and those ads were never the focus of the Russian campaign. Planted memes by fake accounts were, and these were free. The Russians also obviously used data supplied to them by Cambridge Analytica and others to lever their way in to the right wing echo chamber, where they took up residence beginning in 2013 and continuing to this day.

 

OMG, our politicians used to duel each other to the death over politics.

lol

There were actual fistfights in congress.

Today is beyond mild compared to how congress used to behave. In fact the parties are so similar you can barely tell them apart at times.

You really ought to read up on this.

Go look up what the congress was doing under FDR, it was absolutely brutal.

 

the obvious question of "so what?" must be asked with regard to the above. What ultimate, meaningful difference does such make?

 

And clearly you'd LOVE to go back "Bleeding Kansas".

Thanks. I prefer not. Which means people like you need to be roundly ostracized and ignored

 

I still think you're a Russian troll and EXACTLY the sort of instigator who the OP is about.

 

Of course I am a Russian troll, I've admitted that many times.

I get paid very well for it also.

Now go and vote republican because I told you to.

 

You are more than welcome to ignore me.

That's why they added that feature to the site.

Just for people like you.

 

So you're response to the idea that deporting 11 million people would be like the Holocaust is "so what"?

Revealing

 

Thanks,I'll continue to point out your bigotry and advocate for the ostracization of your ideas

Sorry. Sucks to be you

 

Why does it suck to me?

Do you feel that you are so important that your opinion matters to me?

It doesn't.

 

Just as it is revealing how so many individuals believe that those who knowingly and deliberately violate the laws of a sovereign nation should face no consequences for their actions, be allowed to remain in the country they are not legally allowed, and actually be provided with citizenship and essentially congratulated for being criminals by virtue of their mere presence.

 

Amazing the response, Meta. I expected immediate denial by one side in particular and I wasn't disappointed. The replies range from such denial to attempts to divert the discussion with off-topic posts but very little regarding solutions to the very real problem you cited.

I don't have a degree in computer science, but I have had training in software development followed by about 22 years of work in that field and I fail to understand why a digital solution that identifies attempts by foreign elements to commit these crimes is so impossible to develop, or why it is so difficult to prevent hacking into political and other systems.

Education of Americans regarding politics and government is not the answer. It is necessary to go to the source of the problem and deal with it there, I think.

 

Pointing out a hollow, partisan sham is not "denial" whether it's called birtherism or muhrussia.

Watching the more thoughtful members of the left reflect on "muhrussia" endlessly is like watching a sports show where commentators offer near infinite, unnecessarily arcane explication of this or that aspects of the game that are in fact relatively simple.

Just another glass bead game among many.

 

Regarding the release of millions of Russians and Iranian tweets by Twitter today

In the United States, the tweets released on Wednesday also confirmed that Russian accounts didn’t immediately gravitate toward Donald Trump, but initially cast a wider net — including backing Sen. Ted Cruz (R). The tweets were uniformly pro-Trump (and anti-Hillary Clinton) in the lead-up to the actual election, but appeared to revert to stoking animus on both sides of the political aisle after the election.

 

The fact of the matter is that the GOP "For the last 80-something years . . . embraced Soviet interference." Trey Gowdy "met secretly with Soviets to undermine" Obama. "Now the only reason they care is because" the GOP is afraid of losing power. "If Hillary had won, then the pigs in the GOP would" be doing even worse, meeting with the Russkies daily.

 

They are "stoking" the propensity of buyers to click on interesting "stuff" that leads them to specific sites or ads as part of a marketing campaign. If they can get people to click due to politics, religion, health concerns, the desire to see something cool, the desire to see a naked breast, whatever DOESN'T MATTER, so long as they click and prospectively buy something or read an ad for something.

Mischaracterizing that as "trying to sway elections or create violence" is either a) monumentally stupid, or b) monumentally dishonest. No "c" option.

 

The CIA is not just a spy organization. That's part of what they do, but they also attempt to destabilize or help foreign governments remain in power.

Yes, we can keep the CIA, but then you can't complain. It's just how things work. We have spies, we fund enemies of our enemies, and friends of our friends. The rest of the world does the same thing.

Here's a wiki article on how we've done this over the years, including many which are post cold war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

 

So you don't see a meaningful increase in divisions, partisan discord, or partisan accusations in the last 10 years or less?

 

https://www.rt.com/usa/441075-facebook-twitter-banned-accounts/

 

I can't possibly be more clear.

Foreign subversion? Words? Ideas? Improve things?

Adults should not dictate to adults which ideas and words are acceptable, and which are not.

That is fascism.

 

It could be a family member..

 

It's what Jesus would do...

 

Its interesting that all, would actually increase Foreign Interference.

My solution would be to vote Republican at the next election, considering the Democratic party is the ones calling for violence and communism.

Show the Democratic party that violence doesn't pay, and the best way to win an argument is with words, not swords.

 

Family members do not break into the home. If they are an individual who actually resides within the residence, they should know better than trying to suspiciously sneak into the residence at such an unreasonable time, in such a highly suspicious manner. This is especially so if they know the family position on home intruders.