Reach out and we will beat it together: Russian troll farm inadvertently creates the greatest NoFap meme ever

@Lori: Oh trust me, fundies really are that clueless.

In all seriousness, though, it is a little strange to live in a time in which the Russian government thinks it can gain some sort of advantage in world politics by … creating and disseminating fake NoFap memes.

It’s certainly a step down from their Sputnik-launching days.

I can’t even tell if the Kremlin is actually trying to get something out of this or if they’re just doing it because it amuses them at this point.

To quote someone or other “Jesus ain’t say that.”

*sigh* If the final nail in the coffin for our societies are a foreign government manipulating our self-help needs, I’m going to be very disappointed.

This would be the part where I ask “Who falls for this shit?” But the truth is… systems are built to be gamed and people are desperate to be told they’re right. It’s the perfect storm of the need for brand awareness combined with the fragility of ego multiplied by the instant gratification of information technology.

As loquacious as I can be in my posts, I only do those long-form ones because I do take it upon myself to consider my words carefully. Not to say I don’t do short-form snark, but even my snark I try to think out before deploying it. I think that’s an element that has been lost in the social media atmosphere: careful and deliberate thinking. Algorithms, be it on YouTube or Twitter or Facebook demand hot takes, and that kind of rashness is only a detriment to thoughtful consideration.

Kinda wish there was more of it in the world.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/opinions/dear-trump-loyalists-opinion-dantonio/index.html

Nothing has changed… the bigot base hired a con man because he said unflattering things about non-whites and non-xians… and he still says those same things… and he’s still a con man.

This reminded me that Dave Sim, Canadian cartoonist and definitely-not-a-misogynist*, also decried masturbation. There seems to be a correlation between the authoritarian mindset and a distaste for self-pleasuring. It’s clear that keeping young men feeling guilty and sexually frustrated is a consciousness altering technique.

*When he received letters from fans asking for clarification on his views, he would request that they send him a signed statement that they did not believe that he was a misogynist. Otherwise, he would not engage in correspondence.

I really don’t understand what this is meant to achive. My opinion is that your racist relatives will vote for trump or Brexit anyway, no matter what silly meme they see in Facebook. And if they say they voted because of the meme that’s just a nonsense excuse.

If Russia wants to change election or referendum outcomes (like in Crimea and Donbas) they use force, intimidation and fabrication of votes. They arrest activists on bullshit “extremism” charges, or make it unbearable to live so most people who will vote against the referendum need to run away.

If they cannot occupy your country (but they will do this too if they occupy, even test it in your country before they try on other targets!) they will make DDOS attacks and other cyber attacks on infrastructure and government organisations, even they can cause blackouts.

I believe that they can hack voting machines and other things, and influence media and have strong connections with the alt right and conservatives in many countries, but I find it very difficult to believe that these memes are anything except useless nonsense, which they can congratulate themself for “misinformation” or something.

I am not familiar with South park.
But I am familiar with is Russian occupation and influence, and from the perspective, I can accept the hacking and influences in the government such as connections with politicians and influence in people. I can accept that Alexander Dugin, and other right wing and “traditionalist” movements in Russia have strong connections and influence with alt right and conservatives in the USA. But I I believe even without these memes on Facebook, the election still would achieve the same result. They are inconsequential, and I find that people concentrate so much on their power (rather than how silly they are!) sometimes in expense of what is really responsible.

I recently read some arguments about Russian gov actions to use the history of racial segregation, slavery and genocide in USA for anti-american propaganda, and this is the perfect example. We can critisise the Russian gov for this “low blow” but the problem is real, and the problem is not originated from Russia, but the USA. They are not the only ones making these memes, they are not even in the majority making these memes.

And I know that most people will not *intentionally* do this to try to put the blame in another place, but it opens the door to that conversation, and to people like Loise Mensch and Anne Applebaum to take advantage of the situation to spread panic and lies, and ignore more important topics.

Same also about Brexit, especially since putin recently mentioned that he wishes Theresa May to follow the will of the people, which again people started talking about Russian influence in this referendum. And there is very less information and evidence about Russian influence in Brexit than the 2016 election. But it is to hide the racism, xenophobia, classism and general bigotry which forced the vote for brexit. And the lies told by British politicians to trick people to vote because they thought the national health service will get more money!

Russian gov. and Putin will of course be happy when countries they dislike become destabilized – eben if they have no influence in destabilization. Also, everything they are trying in UK and USA they already tried in Ukraine and Georgia, as well as much, much worse.

This made me laugh, thanks. 😀

As for ‘what could they hope to gain’, I think a lot of it boils down to ‘get American culture to self-destruct’. If that can then be used to go ‘see, too much freedom is dangerous’, and justify internal clampdowns, so much the better.

The best part is that the ‘rugged individualist’ and ‘you can’t tell me what to do!’ attitudes being played on make it impossible for the targets to admit they’re being manipulated.