Ranked Vote: How Should We Respond to Foreign Attempts at Sowing Discord and Violence?

Serious times we're in folks... (I assume most folks would agree)
Fitting then for recent events to be covered as part of this serious series. I know its been a while, but I'm back at it once again and that means its time for another round of Ranked Votes for some of the pressing issues of our time! And to kick things off, this vote is going to be a two-for-one deal, so also make sure to check out this thread's sister vote if you get a chance:
Ranked Vote: How Can We Prevent Societal Rifts From Expanding into Violence?

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And with that, the topic this time around is Foreign Attempts at Sowing Discord and Violence within our society, and what exactly we ought to be doing about it. Whether its Russia, China, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, or any other foreign entity, and whether it be through cyber activities or via actions taken in-person, the goal of this thread is to think about the ways foreign governments try to divide us and push us into violence and for us to consider all the different ways we should respond to such active measures and figure out which among them is the best.

For anyone new to the Ranked Vote series, this thread is part of a group of threads geared towards taking important issues, coming up with a broad range of potential solutions to them, and voting on which of those solutions are the best, using ranked methods for tallying the votes:
Ranked Vote: Discussion Thread (includes schedule)
What To Do To Reduce Partisan Dysfunction In Politics
Solutions Oriented Approach to Restoring Meaningful Civil Discourse​

The original discussion thread regarding this particular subject can be found here:
http://www.politicalforum.com/index...tempts-at-sowing-discord-and-violence.543728/

Below is the current list of suggestions.

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

A. Censor conservatives and or liberals from social media
B. Have the AG use the Espionage Act of 1917 with more vigor
C. Discontinue screwing around in foreign nations ourselves
D. Get rid of our CIA
E. Deal with the situation as a Unified Collective
F. Officially make it espionage for a foreign entity to pay for anything that influences US elections
G. Charge any US citizens caught helping or facilitating foreign influence efforts as spies
H. Revoke any favored tax status for 5 years of any organization which employs agitators
I. Foreign actors caught disrupting our society should be denied access to our markets and financial institutions
J. Do a better job educating people about our country and how it is designed to work
K. Come up with a digital solution that can identify attempts by foreign elements to commit cyber crimes
L. Have Government and Private Social Media Work Together to Expose Foreign Attempts at Sowing Discord and Violence
M. Ban all Foreign Access to American Social Media During Election Time [1][2]
N. Develop a healthy level of skepticism towards information found on social media
O. Try to verify information with reputable corroborating sources before believing or sharing information
P. Always try to find common ground with those willing to discuss issues civilly, even if it seems unlikely
Q. Don't lose focus of issues which are important to you, particularly ones you think might be more unifying
R. Call out extreme views for their flaws regardless of what side they occur on
S. Never give up trying to civilly reason with your opposition, even if it seems hopeless
T. Avoid painting either side with a broad brush or blaming a group for the actions of individuals and call out those who do
U. Judge ideas based on their individual pros and cons, not based on who they come from or who supports them
V. Switch to using Ranked systems for various elections, moderating both the electorate and the elected politicians
V1. Adopt Proportional Representation
V2. Stop Voter Suppression
W. Increase sanctions on Russia or any other foreign entity every time they get caught inciting violence or sowing discord in other nations
X. Reduce sanctions if Russia fesses up to what its been up to and can prove its committed to discontinuing its active measures
Y. Crack down on anyone who consistently gets caught inciting violence online with civil and or criminal penalties
Z. Start thinking more long term instead of short term or procrastinating when it comes to societal issues like the debt
!0. No new actions should be taken beyond what is already being done (Status Quo Option)
!1. Don't Feel Qualified/Knowledgeable Enough To Vote In This Poll
!2. No Strong Feelings One Way Or The Other
​

As of posting this, this thread is now open for voting. So post your votes as soon as you're ready. If anyone wants to nominate something which isn't currently in the list of options, you can do so by posting the option in this thread or as a "write-in" part of your vote. I will add these additional options to the list as we go and anyone who wants to change or amend their vote can do so. Aside from that...

To participate in this vote, simply
cast a ballot by making a post in this thread with
a list of the above noted option letters sorted in your order of preference..
(you don't have to include them all, but including more gives your vote more chance to have an impact)

Spoiler: Example Ballot from a past vote (either format is fine, or you can use both):

B, C, D, F, H, M

B. Automation-Induced Job-Loss
C. Unemployment and Underemployment in General
D. Partisan Dysfunction in Congress
F. Too Many Restrictions on Abortion
H. Too Much Gun Violence
M. Global Warming

​

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-Meta

 

There have already been dozens of indictments of Russian government agents, and at least 2-3 arrests and imprisonments of Russians who were caught trying to incite violence within the U.S. They've also been caught several times doing similar things in other countries.
In other words, the whole 'active measures' thing isn't just some fake or imagined rumor. It's happening.
The question is how are we going to deal with it?

So if you were to pick an option from this poll then, what would it be?
Option !0? No new actions should be taken beyond what is already being done (Status Quo Option)?
Or would you perhaps go with options C and or D? Or... assuming that you're not an American,
maybe option !1 would be the best fit??

-Meta

 

I'm asking you what you want to vote for.
You can vote for whatever you want. This vote is open to all politicalforum members.

Just going based off of your last reply, it seemed like !0, C, D, or !1 would have been good fits.
But again, vote however you feel is appropriate.

-Meta

 

Understood, and feel free to take your time.

That still sounds more like option C. What did you think of that one?
Or are you suggesting that the U.S. should try and make some sort of written deal with Russia and or other countries?
Some sort of non-cyber-aggression pact or something? I was actually wondering if anyone was going to suggest
something like that in the discussion thread. But no one ever did. And since I don't really trust the current
Russian government to stay true to any word it might give, I didn't bother suggesting it myself either.
If you think that's a good idea though, I can certainly add it to the list.

As for the evidence against Russia, there is plenty of it around, and more keeps coming out.
I believe the latest person to be charged is this Russian national, Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/19/politics/elena-alekseevna-khusyaynova-russia-charged/index.html

-Meta

 

Still sounds like option C.
Anyways, I'd personally be up for supporting Russia more,
but only after they agreed to ceasing all attempts at sowing division and violence, in any country (not just the U.S.), and also only after they had shown somehow that they were actually committed to following through on such an agreement. And lastly, Russia also really needs to give Crimea back to Ukraine.

I'm sure Iran does their fair share of meddling too, as do plenty of other countries (China, Saudi Arabia, etc.)
But specifically when it comes to incitements to violence and efforts to create general division and chaos,
we already know of several specific Russian individuals who were involved in such activities,
again, dozens have been indicted, and there have also been a few arrests.

And this is only talking in relation to the U.S. Don't forget that Russian agents have also been
caught doing the exact same type of stuff in several other countries as well.

But when it comes right down to it, who exactly is to blame for meddling etc. isn't really the main issue of this thread.
Bottom line is that if foreign governments are trying to divide and get us to kill each-other,
we as a country need to consider how exactly we respond to that, regardless of who it is.

Given that, how would you want your government and or fellow citizens to react
if a foreign nation started trying to cause conflict and violence in your cities and streets?

OK, then great! None of us trusts each-other.
That still leaves the question of what we ought to be doing,
when foreign governments get caught trying to sow division, violence, and chaos.

Then you prefer I use a non-western source? It can be something other than RT, right?
How about Aljazeera, the Guardian, BBC? Tell me all of your approved news sources.

-Meta

 

Here's my vote for this one,

L,V,E,K,P,W,Q,T,Y,U,R,O,S,B,I,H,N,X,Z,F,G,J,C,!0,M

L. Have Government and Private Social Media Work Together to Expose Foreign Attempts at Sowing Discord and Violence
V. Switch to using Ranked systems for various elections, moderating both the electorate and the elected politicians
E. Deal with the situation as a Unified Collective
K. Come up with a digital solution that can identify attempts by foreign elements to commit cyber crimes
P. Always try to find common ground with those willing to discuss issues civilly, even if it seems unlikely
W. Increase sanctions on Russia or any other foreign entity every time they get caught inciting violence or sowing discord in other nations
Q. Don't lose focus of issues which are important to you, particularly ones you think might be more unifying
T. Avoid painting either side with a broad brush or blaming a group for the actions of individuals and call out those who do
Y. Crack down on anyone who consistently gets caught inciting violence online with civil and or criminal penalties
U. Judge ideas based on their individual pros and cons, not based on who they come from or who supports them
R. Call out extreme views for their flaws regardless of what side they occur on
O. Try to verify information with reputable corroborating sources before believing or sharing information
S. Never give up trying to civilly reason with your opposition, even if it seems hopeless
B. Have the AG use the Espionage Act of 1917 with more vigor
I. Foreign actors caught disrupting our society should be denied access to our markets and financial institutions
H. Revoke any favored tax status for 5 years of any organization which employs agitators
N. Develop a healthy level of skepticism towards information found on social media
X. Reduce sanctions if Russia fesses up to what its been up to and can prove its committed to discontinuing its active measures
Z. Start thinking more long term instead of short term or procrastinating when it comes to societal issues like the debt
F. Officially make it espionage for a foreign entity to pay for anything that influences US elections
G. Charge any US citizens caught helping or facilitating foreign influence efforts as spies
J. Do a better job educating people about our country and how it is designed to work
C. Discontinue screwing around in foreign nations ourselves
!0. No new actions should be taken beyond what is already being done (Status Quo Option)
M. Ban all Foreign Access to American Social Media During Election Time [1][2]

-Meta

 

What? Sorry I didn't understand your question there,
I can't even tell what part of my post you're responding to.
But still curious, how would you want your government and or fellow citizens to react
if a foreign nation started trying to cause division, conflict, violence, and chaos in your country??

-Meta

 

OK, and did you want to participate in this politicalforum vote?
If so, I'll just go ahead and mark you down for option,

C​

 

Fixed.

 

OK. Vote unrecorded.

-Meta

 

Woah! Super awkward, Lol, jk.
But if you did want to vote, and just don't see an option that fits your position,
I can add additional options, you'd just have to let me know specifically what
you wanted me to add and how it ought be differentiated from existing options.

-Meta

 

Or, if you're interested, there is also a dedicated discussion thread on the topic.
http://www.politicalforum.com/index...tempts-at-sowing-discord-and-violence.543728/

If you didn't want to vote, and just wanted to discuss stuff without all that voting stuff
getting in the way, we can always move discussion back over to that thread too.

-Meta

 

OK. But how specifically is that different from option C?

-Meta