FBI Director: Russia will work harder for next election

[KevinM1]

The problem isn’t just Putin getting his hooks into a candidate, or voting machines getting hacked.  Russia is waging a comprehensive disinformation campaign in our country right now.

A lot of shit going on on Reddit, on 4chan, on Twitter, on Facebook is due to their influence.  Articles and rumors and posts and, shit, even smear campaigns (like the one trying to paint the Vegas shooter as a radical liberal, much of it originating on 4chan) come from their efforts.  And I mean directly from Russia.  Every now and then one of them will slip and forget to turn off geotagging or forget to use a proxy.  But, yeah, this is well known to anyone even remotely familiar with the basics of cyber security (I’m certainly no expert, but follow/read people who are).  They target young, white, straight males with misogynistic, homophobic messages.  If you call people SJWs seriously, congratulations.  You’re a Russian patsy.

A lot of right wing media is also infiltrated by them.  Either directly (Breitbart, the slow spread of right wing radio stations that primarily source from things like RT) or indirectly (advertising pressure, donations).

The term “fake news” may have been coined by Trump, but it’s a very real and concerted espionage effort that follows classic KGB tactics.  It’s a systematic campaign designed to undermine and chip away at our ability to determine the truth, which, in turn, cripples our ability to engage in our domestic politics.

Expect it to get worse as the midterms approach, and again when Trump is up for re-election (fingers crossed that he’s impeached by then).

[Kosh]

You can't fix stupid.

This may sound harsh, but the typical American shouldn't be on the internet.  It is simultaneously the biggest source of information and disinformation.  Deciding which something is takes a little common sense, and the willingness to verify information as credible by checking a variety of sources.  It seems most Americans no longer know the difference between opinion and news.  I know many people who think Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are news sources.

In years past this wasn't an issue.  The only platform people had spread their ignorance was down at the corner diner.  Sure, people could write a letter to the editor at a news paper.  Usually you had someone with a journalism degree deciding what gets printed.  Again a buffer to weed out the more crazy people amongst us.  IMO freedom of speech does not mean that people are required to hear you.  I have complete autonomy to stand on my property and teach scientology if I desire.  Nobody should be required to give me a platform though. 

The Russians seem to understand Americans better than most Americans understand themselves.  They would be littlefinger in game of thrones sowing chaos and dissent.  They are destroying murica without even firing one bullet.  The terrorist have done their part as well.   They've gotten us waste trillions of dollars.

All empires fall.  It's just a matter of time, but I hope it holds off for about 40 years.   I'm extremely thankful that I don't have children.

[KevinM1]

You can't fix stupid.

This may sound harsh, but the typical American shouldn't be on the internet.  It is simultaneously the biggest source of information and disinformation.  Deciding which something is takes a little common sense, and the willingness to verify information as credible by checking a variety of sources.  It seems most Americans no longer know the difference between opinion and news.  I know many people who think Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are news sources.

In years past this wasn't an issue.  The only platform people had spread their ignorance was down at the corner diner.  Sure, people could write a letter to the editor at a news paper.  Usually you had someone with a journalism degree deciding what gets printed.  Again a buffer to weed out the more crazy people amongst us.  IMO freedom of speech does not mean that people are required to hear you.  I have complete autonomy to stand on my property and teach scientology if I desire.  Nobody should be required to give me a platform though. 

The Russians seem to understand Americans better than most Americans understand themselves.  They would be littlefinger in game of thrones sowing chaos and dissent.  They are destroying murica without even firing one bullet.  The terrorist have done their part as well.   They've gotten us waste trillions of dollars.

All empires fall.  It's just a matter of time, but I hope it holds off for about 40 years.   I'm extremely thankful that I don't have children.

What's maddening is that actual security experts - FBI, CIA, etc. - have been trying to have the government take the problem seriously, but the GOP doesn't want to do shit about it. The GOP is far less about actual governance at this point than actively working to "smash the state" and build something else in its wake. I mean, this was the stated goal of Bannon and a lot of the people Trump placed within his administration, and has become what the Tea Party is all about.

The Russians latch on to that, and the right's general distaste for academia, and do their best to discredit experts, their expertise, or both. We're at a point now that when an expert says "Hey, this shit is real, it's happening, and we need to do something about it" the response from those on the right tends to be "Well, your political ideology doesn't match mine/you voted or otherwise supported someone I don't like, and I don't like what you're saying, so I'm not going to believe you." A.K.A., fake news. It's hardly ever a reasoned rebuttal of presented facts, but rather just an outright dismissal because of feelings.

And, of course, since our news media is more interested in generating ad revenue than actually reporting on things, they're complicit as well.

So, yeah... these issues have been here for the last, oh, 20 or so years, but Putin has found a way to exploit them. And the people who can, perhaps, do something about it really don't want to.

[FFaith]

Was this really thread worthy OP? Russia will get better at working for their interests just like every other country on the planet? Really? We really needed the FBI to tell us that?

Ten years ago on forums like this we talked about religion poisoning everything. Ten years later, and now apparently it's the truth that poisons everything. On an atheist forum, there's nothing scarier than the truth. Sad state of affairs.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Nonsense.

[Silver]

Was this really thread worthy OP?

You've only ever created one thread. If you think you're such an expert on what threads should be created on this forum, have a go at it.

[FFaith]

Nonsense.

Wikileaks still hasn't been wrong once. Perfect record so far.

---

Was this really thread worthy OP?

You've only ever created one thread.  If you think you're such an expert on what threads should be created on this forum, have a go at it.

I don't care to create many threads. There are enough good ones as is. I'm just pointing out that what you posted was common sense. Every country in the world is working to get better at working for their interests. The US does it too and Russia would be stupid not to do it. I just don't think any of us needed the FBI to tell us that. Obviously the only reason this common sense fact was brought up by the FBI and then reported on by MSM, is because they wanted some propaganda soundbite to try to make Trump, Russia, Wikileaks, and all alternative media look scary, which includes progressives who report on Wikileaks stuff, so the establishment can further push their agenda of trying to silence alternative media and push for more censorship, and to further push the story that Trump is illegitimate because "Russia hacked the election and will hack it again".

[Thumpalumpacus]

Nonsense.

Wikileaks still hasn't been wrong once. Perfect record so far.

Yeah, that wasn't the nonsense I was referring to.

[FFaith]

Wikileaks still hasn't been wrong once. Perfect record so far.

Yeah, that wasn't the nonsense I was referring to.

Ok. There was Wikileaks (and let's not forget that much of their info came from inside the campaign, Seth Rich) and then some Russian bots and trolls who said the Clintons had dozens of people killed. I wonder if the people in the States which Obama won but Hillary could not, were more likely to abstain from voting Dem because of the Wikileaks stuff, or these former Obama voters lost their minds and went super far right conspiracy theorist and started to believe that everyone that dropped dead was done in by the Clintons? The truth is what sunk Clinton (plus all of her other faults and poor campaigning, or lack of campaigning altogether in some states).

[Kosh]

At the end of the day the fault lies with Americans.  The Russians new which states were hotly contested and targeted alt-right/pro trump/anti Hillary ads in those States.  I don't think a high percentage of people were swayed, but I do think it was a factor in states where the margin of victory was only in the low tens of thousands.  Some people were probably affected and don't even realize it.  You can bet the farm that the Russians ads were impeccably crafted towards the target audience.  Even if someone didn't see the ads directly, they probably saw them from someone who did a repost.

Honestly, I think all political ads from foreign sources should be banned.  Freedom of speech in our constitution should not extend to foreign governments.