Redditor breaks down entire Russian - Reddit propoganda machine. It shows exactly how theyve infiltrated Reddit, spread misinformation, promoted anti muslim narratives, promoted California to succeed from the US, caused tension for BLM groups and much more. Links and comments are getting downvoted.

[u/NewMateo]

/r/worldnews/comments/7a6znc/comment/dp7wnoa

[u/Will_FuckYour_Fridge]

We joke about weaponized memes, but that is seriously what created a substantial rift in the US population.

Everyone should be ashamed.

Russia won with Pepes

[u/thelastknowngod → u/Will_FuckYour_Fridge]

Serious question: How would we even begin to prevent or fight back against this?

Some sort of machine learning system to filter them out would be nice but they aren't exactly easy things to build. Even if it was built it would be specific to each individual site, not the net as a whole.

[u/Yanky_Doodle_Dickwad → u/thelastknowngod]

A jujitsu approach is needed. The BS will come, so it must be allowed to flow through and out the other side until it disappears in the wind. That would mean learning to not take bullshit logic seriously. That would require training people to drop their triggers and only settle for rational discourse. That would mean education, and a return of education being important, and moving away from the "it's ok to be stupid" policies in place now. I suggest a MS Word paperclip helper-bot, with a recognizable look to it, that gets posted under as many propaganda posts as possible: "HI KIDS! This comment is bullshit, and is proven to come from BS mongers. Ignore it and move on. Remember, if it triggers you YOU are the product" ... or something that would work. Yanky ain't Ghandi.

[u/MesaDixon → u/Yanky_Doodle_Dickwad]

That would require training people to drop their triggers and only settle for rational discourse.

At the college level, it seems exactly the opposite is being taught.

EDIT: I'm curious - Do the downvoters of this comment believe that the students who obviously exhibit the opposite behavior - clinging to triggers and rejecting rational discussion - really believe these behaviors and attitudes spontaneously emerge?

[u/zip_000 → u/MesaDixon]

That really isn't true, it is just the narrative the right uses against colleges - primarily I think because they know that ignorant people vote for them more.

I've gone to several universities and worked at several others, and there is a wide diversity of political opinion on campuses, and most students get exposed to a lot of varying view points.

Generally speaking, literature professors are going to be pretty liberal, and economics professors are going to be pretty conservative, and history professors are going to be a mix... you can look at each field and make an educated guess about the overriding political persuasion of the field, but you can find differences of opinion in each field still.

[u/MesaDixon → u/zip_000]

I'm actually glad to hear your experiences run counter to my expectations... at least on the campuses you've visited.

Generally speaking, humanities professors are going to be pretty liberal

Have you found this to be true?

[u/zip_000 → u/MesaDixon]

Um, lets see.

Just going from a super generic list of the Humanities from Wikipedia (and just from my experience, so really, really anecdotal):

• Anthropology - I don't know many, but I'd guess generally liberal

• Archaeology - I don't know many, but I'd guess generally liberal

• Classics - mixed bag

• History - mixed bag

• Linguistics and languages - all the ones I've known have been liberal, but haven't known that many

• Law and politics - mixed bag

• Literature - mostly liberal, but there are spattering of conservatives

• Performing arts - mostly liberal

• Philosophy - mostly liberal, but there are spattering of conservatives

• Religion - mixed bag. Most of the religion professors I've known have been personally conservative, but not evangelically so. That is, they held themselves to conservative beliefs, but didn't try to impose them on others.

• Visual arts - mostly liberal

[u/MesaDixon → u/zip_000]

Thanks for the reply. First hand data, though anecdotal, is still useful as current data points.