Bunny Trails

[Bootstrap]

Trump's Tweets Attacking the Election Echo Russian Trolls

Just after midnight following Election Day, a Trump-supporting Twitter account, @pamela_moore13, shot off a series of tweets. “This is Madness! Voter Fraud Also Caught on Tape in Philadelphia! #ElectionNight” followed by “BREAKING! More EXTENSIVE Broward Country Voter Fraud Reported By Elections Worker!” and then “Van Full of Illegals Shows Up To Vote . . . At SIX Polling Places! Voter Fraud is Real! #ElectionNight.”

Were these just more complaints from disgruntled Trump supporters after the 2020 election? Nope. They were actually posted after the 2016 election, not by real-life Trump supporters in Pennsylvania or Nevada, but identified by Twitter as being sent by Russian agents typing from keyboards in St. Petersburg.

Since November 2020’s election, tweets from Trump and his inner circle show how close the Trump campaign is in tone and style to Russian disinformation—@DonaldJTrumpJr, “Ever notice the “glitches” only go one way?”. Yet the current campaign by the president and his allies is different in one important way: total impact. The president has brought disinformation to an audience that the IRA could only dream of. In the week following Election Day, the hashtag #StopTheSteal was used over 1.5 million times on Twitter. Russian disinformation operations have shown some success, but Trump’s campaign has been in an entirely different league in terms of impact. The aftershock of Russian disinformation operations in 2016 strained some Americans’ trust in the electoral process Here, the president—armed with baseless conspiracies about voter fraud—is challenging that trust like never before. No need for Russian trolls; this damage is completely self-inflicted.

Russian disinformation campaigns tried for years to help shape entirely divergent realities for different groups of Americans, hoping to create incompatible realities and groups incapable of compromise. They did so by pulling on the emotions of real Americans to convince them of ideas they were already inclined to believe. As recently as March, accounts we identified as Russian-affiliated were chipping away at America’s trust in fair and free elections with tweets such as that from @DannyMichigan, “I personally believe the driving motive behind the Russia hoax and other diversionary scams by Democrats is to camouflage their campaign of massive voter fraud. Illegal immigrants, dead voters, and their new tactic of “vote harvesting” are suffocating our democracy.” President Trump’s current campaign strategy doubles down on these same efforts and is pulling his followers more and more away from a reality based on shared facts. The president has called 2020 the “most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” This is plainly not true: experts in his own Department of Homeland Security called the election “the most secure in American history.”

[Grace]

But Trump took it to the court of pubic opinion, using his loyal partisan media and refusing to participate in the investigations.

We are seeing that again here.

I don't agree with many of Trump's tactics. However he is a fighter who fights fire with fire. For four years the Democrats and their loyal partisan propaganda arm, the mainstream media, took their case (and sometimes lies) against Trump to the court of public opinion. He returned the favor and is still returning that favor. And I am not talking about the Mueller or impeachment investigation, but as a whole.

A few examples:
-When the mainstream news said that Trump called ALL immigrants “animals”, it was a lie. He called the violent gang MS-13, animals. MS-13 have tortured and brutally killed people.
-When they claimed Trump said reporters are the enemies of the people, lie. He said the "fake news" are the enemies of the people, NOT all reporters.
-They claimed Trump said “We’re the laughingstock of the whole world' it was a lie. Untied States has the most lax immigration laws anywhere in the world.” Trump was talking about our lax border security, not that the whole nation is a laughingstock.
-Pittsburgh Rabbi asked that President Trump wait until the funerals of the shooting victims are done, before visiting.
The main stream news lied and claimed that the Pittsburgh Rabbi didn’t want the President to visit.
-The main stream media News incited the Republican Ball game shooter.
-The Main stream news who told us for two years that the Mueller Report will find Trump/Russian collusion. Wasn’t true.

I am not defending Trump in his not conceding the election. He really should graciously concede.
Neither am I defending his returning in kind to those who so virulently swayed public opinion against him for the last few years.

But in taking the alleged election fraud to the court of public opinion, he is using the same tactic that was used against him in the last four years. The difference between Trump swaying public opinion versus the Democrats swaying public opinion, is that the Democrats have far more people to do it. They have the main stream media, they have Hollywood, even government entities such as the FBI, etc. to help sway public opinion against him.

[Bootstrap]

But Trump took it to the court of pubic opinion, using his loyal partisan media and refusing to participate in the investigations.

We are seeing that again here.

I don't agree with many of Trump's tactics. However he is a fighter who fights fire with fire.

Well, he's a fighter. Every day is a fight. And he doesn't fight fair.

That's what's happening when he avoids courts and bipartisan investigations that have rules and turns to media events to stir up his base, threatens people's careers, flags them with Twitter so that people will dox them and issue death threats and threaten to do unspeakable things to their family members.

Time to retire all that.

I don't think we will see Biden doing these things. Normal presidents don't. This is deeply undemocratic.

For four years the Democrats and their loyal partisan propaganda arm, the mainstream media, took their case (and sometimes lies) against Trump to the court of public opinion. He returned the favor and is still returning that favor. And I am not talking about the Mueller or impeachment investigation, but as a whole.

To you, everything that is not strongly labeled "conservative" is suspect. I don't find labels like 'liberal' or 'conservative' helpful at all.

To me, much of what is strongly labeled "conservative" has become Trumpist, which is a repudiation of most conservative values. Always fighting, using the strongest weapons available, happy to destroy other people's lives, unconcerned with truth ... this isn't the kind of media I want in my life.

To me, there are partisan media on both sides, but there are also media sources that care about facts. These are the ones that don't use inflammatory language and appeal to reason rather than strong negative emotion. That's where critical feeling skills come in. In today's news, they are the ones that focus on reliable sources for what happened in the election, understand how voting machines work and how ballots are validated, correctly construe the Constitution, can accurately summarize the findings of investigations and hearings and court proceedings, provide links to the original sources so they are easily verified. That's where critical thinking skills come in.

And there are media that are mostly interested in keeping people riled up, pitting people against each other because that keeps them engaged and generates traffic.

[Grace]

"Bootstrap"]
That's what's happening when he avoids courts and bipartisan investigations that have rules and turns to media events to stir up his base, threatens people's careers, flags them with Twitter so that people will dox them and issue death threats and threaten to do unspeakable things to their family members.

Time to retire all that.

I don't think we will see Biden doing these things. Normal presidents don't. This is deeply undemocratic.

I can give you a list of horrible actions the "normal (sic) " Obama/Biden presidential administration were part of, that consisted of far more than threatening people's careers, flagging them on Twitter, doxing and death threats. But I won't because it is off topic. Under the Obama/Biden administration People needlessly died, and they lied.

The difference is that Trump is overt and the Obama/Biden administration was covert.

Now back to election investigations.

[JimFoxvog]

If the Trump campaign has its way, no one would be questioning their narrative publicly. The email from the Trump campaign I got today from Donald J Trump, Jr said,

Silence the Fake News Media

They don't want a free press.

[temporal1]

Page 61 / http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=600

If the Trump campaign has its way, no one would be questioning their narrative publicly. The email from the Trump campaign I got today from Donald J Trump, Jr said,

Silence the Fake News Media

They don't want a free press.

Do you believe receiving communications from people you only intend to undermine
is a Christian ethic? i have my doubts.

Possibly, to help out readers, DJT Jr could have been more exacting in his message, for instance:

“Silence the Fake news media.”

And, wouldn’t we all agree with that sentiment?

[Grace]

If the Trump campaign has its way, no one would be questioning their narrative publicly. The email from the Trump campaign I got today from Donald J Trump, Jr said,

Silence the Fake News Media

They don't want a free press.

He is wrong in saying that, even Fake News media should have a right to spout their propaganda and claptrap.

[Valerie]

If the Trump campaign has its way, no one would be questioning their narrative publicly. The email from the Trump campaign I got today from Donald J Trump, Jr said,

Silence the Fake News Media

They don't want a free press.

Correction. They dont want a lying press!!!!

[temporal1]

If the Trump campaign has its way, no one would be questioning their narrative publicly. The email from the Trump campaign I got today from Donald J Trump, Jr said,

Silence the Fake News Media

They don't want a free press.

He is wrong in saying that, even Fake News media should have a right to spout their propaganda and claptrap.

i see it a bit differently.
lies and propaganda, hyperbole, etc., have a place - unless they move into the realm of (example) the NICK SANDMANN case.

However, i believe the news industry should be held accountable to 2 important EXISTING laws that other industries must conform to:

1. Truth in Advertising laws.
If it’s not news, do not use “news” as a label.
Opinion, speculation, gossip, conjecture, hyperbole, entertainment, propaganda, etc., can all be fascinating. They SELL. $$$$ But they are NOT news.

2. Anti-trust laws.
No monopolies. No insider trading.

Other industries face HARSH penalties, big fines. The news INDUSTRY should not be exempt.

Editing suggestion to help out readers:

Silence the Fake news media.

One more thing.
Where are complaints about mainstream news subjectively “pulling the plug” on our sitting POTUS, post-election??! They, at-will censor (this) president??

i recall viewing bill and hillary full-on straight-faced lying into mics+cameras, no interference.
judgments came LATER.


this is someone’s MN avatar. ^^ i don’t recall whose.

[Outsider]

P
Possibly, to help out readers, DJT Jr could have been more exacting in his message, for instance:

“Silence the Fake news media.”

And, wouldn’t we all agree with that sentiment?

Silence? Not really. Expose falsehood? Definately.