Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
Unproven is that they influenced many votes. We examined the Facebook campaign here. It was pretty weak; and most of it didn't even focus on politics, it was more about divisive issues.
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I have a very different view about this. Divisive issues are the biggest problem in our society-- divisiveness is ruining our politics, our civil society, and our lives. I know you don't disagree with this. Our political system is gridlocked by two corrupt entities, and people won't vote them out-- because of divisive, "scare issues." This is the primary method of controlling politics in America-- if you manipulate the divisiveness, you manipulate the whole machine.
I would argue that, in general, the ONLY factor that influences votes is divisive issues.
And, specifically, a way that votes are influenced? By getting people (for example, on the Left) to argue among themselves, and not be able to form a coalition to challenge authoritarianism. In 2016, this was by fueling a contentious Primary--it was contentious on it's own, but the Bots made sure we never stopped fighting about it. In 2019, it's people arguing about Gabbard on Facebook--this is happening today, right now. If "the Left" is having arguments started by Russian bots (on Facebook RIGHT NOW), they end up, for example, voting for Jill Stein (2016) which is what HRC--I assume-- was talking about, albeit in the stupidest way possible. Apparently she never heard "don't feed the trolls"