this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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This was from a comment waaaaay down-thread earlier this week, on a post about California Secession (a wedge issue backed by Russia). Thought you’d find it interesting.


Originally Posted By u/Dry_Counter533 At 2025-08-28 07:47:32 PM | Source


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[–] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 4 days ago (3 children)

FYI THIS ISN'T LEMMY, THIS IS A MIRRORED POST FROM REDDIT

For the love of God please don't use this as justification to think that person disagreeing with you is a Russian bot like some people in this thread are doing.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Nice try Vladibot, but we aren't falling for it. Go back to Tajikistan, you Communist!

Too late 🤖🤖bip bop – how can I help you?

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Sounds like something a Russian bot would say.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Cut their international undersea and land links, give them a big lovely slavic lan.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I'm sure no other country is sharing traffic on a trans-Pacific data line, right?

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[–] blarth@thelemmy.club 54 points 5 days ago (30 children)

It’s been all too obvious since I joined Lemmy that Russia’s APT groups are pushing narratives on us. They did a great job dividing the left into “anyone but Trump” and “genocide Joe”. You’ll often see them talk about “leftists” juxtaposed against “liberals”, bit we all know that “the left” and “liberal” are synonyms here. Then they’ll drag you into historical arguments about neoliberalism and blah blah blah to try gaslighting and dragging you down to their level.

They are now trying to get democrats to strike first in a kinetic civil war. It’s my firm belief that Donald Trump is a Russian asset, and sending troops into US cities is a provocation of civil war. The psyops are aligned with his mission.

Up is down, blue is red, liberals are the enemy of the left, no true Scotsman would vote for Kamala, communism will solve all our problems.

They’re doing a good job. Honestly, it’s becoming hard to tell which accounts are the Russians and which are people who have had their ideology fucked by the psyops.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago

You’ll often see them talk about “leftists” juxtaposed against “liberals”, bit we all know that “the left” and “liberal” are synonyms here. Then they’ll drag you into historical arguments about neoliberalism and blah blah blah to try gaslighting and dragging you down to their level.

It’s sad that the language has been once again co-opted. I’m not a new account and I’ve stayed very consistent here. I’m not a liberal, but I will absolutely work with liberals right now. Many of the people I love are liberals and they’re in the best position to realize that capitalism is irredeemable. I don’t hate them, but it’s not a synonym.

[–] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Lot to unpack here:

  1. This is a mirror of a reddit post, about the traffic to a specific post on reddit. This is not proof of some grand Russian plot to tear apart the couple thousand impotent liberals and leftists here.

  2. Liberals believe that capitalism is the best way to organize society and leftists ( Socialists, anarchists, communists) do not. In most other countries liberals are the centrist party with a socialist party to the left of them. You're confusing modern american political identities with broader historical labels that you don't seem to understand because that's boring history. It's important to make the distinction because liberals will often ally with fascists against the left in order to maintain bourgeoisie property relations, study twentieth century history to see examples, or just look at how Cuomo is cozying up to trump and the billions of liberal pac money going to him.

  3. The rest of your post seems to be conspiratorial nonsense with no backing besides a reddit post about the traffic to another reddit post. This is like leftists blaming any disagreement or anything that goes wrong on the CIA. This kind of thinking is corrosive and just leads to paranoia, schisms and a lack of self reflection or critique.

Why did we lose the election? No it can't be our flawed politics it must be Russian psyops. Why is that person disagreeing with me? No it can't be that they have a different view thay I should consider, it must mean they're a russian bot.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 11 points 4 days ago

Given that there are enough tankies willing to work for free because getting to make arguments functionally indistinguishable from fascism while asserting that they’re to the left of all the socdems/shitlibs/ancoms/everyone else jibes well with the damage they have, the GRU can save their budget.

[–] gaybriel_fr_br@jlai.lu 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Liberalism and being on the left are two entirely different concepts.

Pick up an econ book sometime.

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[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It’s been all too obvious since I joined Lemmy that Russia’s APT groups are pushing narratives on us.

The stats are for a subreddit genius.

Trump may be s Russian asset but the US extreme right and it's wish for a violent civil war is a homegrown phenomenon. As is American political illiteracy.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It may be homegrown, but it has been fertilized by Russian propaganda bullshit.

[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

You can't solve your problems if you even refuse to admit them. Russia could go away tomorrow and the US's course towards fascism would not change.

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[–] MourningDove@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean… is anyone surprised at all by this?

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Nope. It's been pretty clear why the Hexbearites spout opinions straight from RT and have such "interesting" ideological hypocrisies. I can only assume Reddit at least demands payment.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You know, can you blame these Russian bots getting paid a cent for every spam they spout? They are saving money to buy plane ticket out of Russia before the country implodes from the economic strain caused by the war in Ukraine. As we speak, economists say Russia is on the verge of a recession.

[–] AlexLost@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Bots can buy plane tickets and go places? I thought they were lines of code on a server?!

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Bot had also become synonymous with propagandist.

[–] jve@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Never heard that, and it’s extremely confusing, in this day of actual software bots generating insane amounts of content.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Bots as in bots are still not good as trolls. There still requires human intervention.

Speaking of trolls, words change meaning all the time, when i was younger, troll used to mean an edgy Internet users who purposefully agitate other users for the heck of it without meaning what they say. Now, troll could also mean online propagandists. I used to be strict with definitions of words, but meanings of words change all the time but what can we do.

[–] jve@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Wow, thanks professor, never in my life did I imagine that words change meaning over time. Next you’ll tell me fire is hot and water is wet. Maybe you should write a dictionary called Captain Obvious’s Guide to Things Everyone Already Knows. Also, by the way, if “troll” now includes “online propagandist,” does that mean your entire comment counts as self-reporting?

The above was just straight copied out of ChatGPT, after copying in your reply. Bots are perfectly capable of trolling without human intervention. They do it all the time.

Language changes all the time, but I’m just gonna come with a big [citation needed] on this particular change of language.

Now, troll could also mean online propagandists.

This is closer to true, though I think the majority of people who discuss these things would agree that the Venn diagram of trolls and propagandists doesn’t have complete overlap on either side

I used to be strict with definitions of words, but meanings of words change all the time but what can we do.

I think you have overcorrected. Then again, I’m one of those sticklers who thinks that “literally “ shouldn’t mean “figuratively”.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Whether you like it or not, there is no point being a stickler for word meanings, that's the point lol. When I was growing up in aughts, the word "ultimate" is plastered all over toys for boys. Everyone thought it means "super duper", but in Greek it means "final". Like, we've been using the word incorrectly all along?! What would the Greeks think?!

Who cares, words evolve all the time. I don't really care about words changing meanings so long as it's organic and bottom up, and not in authoritarian, top-down approach like in 1984.

[–] jve@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You might be right.

That said, you are still sorely mistaken if you believe that software bots are not already excellent at being trolls and at scale

The human intervention is minimal, just need to point it at the right spot.

[–] bradinutah@thelemmy.club 18 points 5 days ago (1 children)

As an American, I do find this interesting. Also, it seems Russians do too.

[–] cannon_annon88@lemmy.today 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm confused, is this talking about Russian IPs on the 50501 reddit, or here on Lemmy? Maybe dumb question. I'll edit this if I figure out the answer.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

On reddit. I dont know if I believe it since if it was actually russian psy op they'd use us residential proxies.

[–] scathliath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 days ago (3 children)

The Russians are kind of comically bad at cyber security and hacking though. Could just be they didn't think about it (or funnier, the Russian population and the American one might agree on the fundamentals of the 50501)

[–] Nico_198X@europe.pub 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

they are exceptionally good at lying and shit-stirring, unfortunately. always have been. it's like their greatest strength. XD evil as fuck, but effective.

[–] baines@lemmy.cafe 3 points 3 days ago

nah they are pretty shit

american republicans are really just that fucking stupid

[–] Magnum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago (3 children)

This is just wrong. Russia has a very advanced and large cyber security scene.

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[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Its not hacking they just AstroTurf comment sections and post/boost extreme messaging. They would buy residential proxies from people who actually can hack. They being the Russian government agencies that conduct these campaigns.

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