{"id":134682,"date":"2017-09-13T08:43:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T14:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=134682"},"modified":"2017-09-13T23:32:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T05:32:44","slug":"russias-efforts-divide-tear-american-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/13\/russias-efforts-divide-tear-american-society.html","title":{"rendered":"Russia’s efforts to divide and tear down American society"},"content":{"rendered":"

So if I were an anti-immigrant nationalist, I’d like to think I’d be a bit taken aback to discover that Facebook page with all those cool cartoons and memes I shared with my friends turns out to have been put together by a Russian media group working for the Russian Government.<\/p>\n

More likely, of course, I’d simply deny that was the case (having been trained by My President to distrust “Fake News”), or, even if I admitted it, just fall back on, “Well, whatever — what they say still makes sense!”<\/p>\n

I could probably go along for quite some time without letting myself ask, “So, why would Russia want to be spreading this sort of sentiment in the United States? What’s their motive here? What’s their end-game? Is it to our benefit, or might there be something here that would actually weaken us, make us less of a challenge to them.”<\/p>\n

Facebook said last week that the 470 \u201cinauthentic accounts and pages\u201d it had linked to Russia and removed had bought about 3,000 ads between June 2015 and May this year. Though some ads mentioned the presidential candidates or the election, most \u201cappeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum \u2014 touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights,\u201d wrote Alex Stamos, the company\u2019s chief security officer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, this is not to say (sadly) that Russia invented<\/i> this nativist sentiment, or an accusation that every meme or protest against Those Darned Furriner Illegals (and other similar causes) originated in the Kremlin. But, clearly, some of them did. And that really does make one wonder: on the assumption that Russia wasn’t doing this for giggles, or to lend a culturally purifying hand to America, why did<\/i> they do it? Or, as they used to say in old murder mysteries, Cui bono?<\/i> And once we figure out who benefits,<\/i> should that cause us to consider those causes in a new, less attractive light?<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nPurged Facebook Page Tied to the Kremlin Spread Anti-Immigrant Bile – The New York Times<\/a><\/span>
\nThe page, posing as an activist group, was one of hundreds of fake accounts Russia used in an information campaign during the election, a revelation that has put Facebook on the defensive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So if I were an anti-immigrant nationalist, I’d like to think I’d be a bit taken aback to discover that Facebook page with all those cool cartoons and memes I shared with my friends turns out to have been put together by a Russian media group working for the Russian Government. More likely, of course, … Continue reading “Russia’s efforts to divide and tear down American society”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,3,532,12,10,380,740,1071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-blogging","category-elections-2016","category-fourth-estate","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-nationalism-exceptionalism","category-race-racism","category-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/trump-russia-anti-immigrant-fb-ads.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132965,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/02\/the-unconvincing-denial.html","url_meta":{"origin":134682,"position":0},"title":"The Unconvincing Denial","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Mar-17 11:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"So let me put it this way: if I were a perfectly innocent, active supporter of Donald Trump during his campaign, even being deemed a surrogate in the campaign, and if I were then nominated as Attorney General, and was going up before the Senate, I would ...1. Be very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131276,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/15\/and-a-bit-more-russian-ish-sleeze-splashes-on-the-trump-campaign-maybe.html","url_meta":{"origin":134682,"position":1},"title":"And a bit more Russian-ish sleeze splashes on the Trump campaign. Maybe","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Aug-16 8:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"On the one hand, Trump's showrunner Paul Manafort has a not-very-good ethical reputation, and his undisputed ties to the previous pro-Russian president of Ukraine (himself a corrupt sleazeball of the highest order) certainly lends at least some credence to the current charges coming out of the Ukraine, especially given all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42450,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/09\/on-not-passing-the-turing-test.html","url_meta":{"origin":134682,"position":2},"title":"On not passing the Turing Test","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-Jun-14 7:54am","format":false,"excerpt":"Um ... no. While it was clever of the Eugene Goostman program to appear dumber less able than it was by posing as a 13-year-old Ukranian kid, that doesn't meet the Turing standards as I'd consider\u00a0them.Reshared post from +Geeks are SexyA Russian computer program is said to have become the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39006,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/03\/a-bloom-before-snowing.html","url_meta":{"origin":134682,"position":3},"title":"A Bloom Before Snowing","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Oct-13 5:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Actually, the chance that we're going to get snow tonight has dropped a fair amount, but it's still going to be blustery and in the 40s. The Agastache in our front bed (seven of 'em, by count) are looking glorious, with a bit of Russian Sage and a stray rose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135123,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/20\/vladimir-putin-explains-sort-political-system-thinks-us-needs.html","url_meta":{"origin":134682,"position":4},"title":"Vladimir Putin explains the sort of political system he thinks the US needs","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Oct-17 4:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Good of Vladimir \"Russia is our friend\" Putin, the one Donald Trump always admires as a leader, has a good scolding for Americans. They are not respectful enough to the President of the United States, Putin asserts. \"Mr. Trump was elected by the American people. And at least for this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/vladimir%2Bputin.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/vladimir%2Bputin.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/vladimir%2Bputin.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":129157,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/17\/putin-loves-trump-of-course.html","url_meta":{"origin":134682,"position":5},"title":"Putin loves Trump. Of course","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Dec-15 6:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Two billionaires with egos the sizes of major continents, who belittle (or worse) folk who disagree with them, and who exhibit fascist tendencies. What's not to love?What's truly crazy is the idea that this might actually increase Trump's support in the US. Putin -- who would just as soon see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134690,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134682\/revisions\/134690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}