disinform and divide

[callmeslick]

for the last month or so, I've been involved in a bit of an experiment/project: In the interest of organizing and healing the Dem faction, I have been encountering a fair number of Social Media posts being circulated that were CLEARLY designed to inflame and pour gasoline on certain political factions to prevent them from getting together. Posting of bogus 'facts', claims and quotes, generallhy aimed at keeping alive divisions between the Progressive community and virtually everyone else. So, I started doing a bit of counter posting, generally debunking AND simultaneously suggesting that Russian operatives were the sourcing. WHENEVER, in the 8 cases to date, I bring up Russia, I am met with an absolute flurry of counter posts, generally in the form of memes, coming at about a post per minute until my questioning post is buried. Often they focus on casting aspersions on virtually any legitimate news outlet or sources. This sequence continues, with me gradually targetting known political activists on the left and center of US politics with tags to bring them to the thread in question as witnesses. At that point, every time, the thread suddenly gets shut down, and everyone related to me is blocked. Within 24 hours, this is followed by exploratory 'friend' requests from seemingly lonely European women(sorry to be boring here, but I'm happily married, so they get sent to Spam). I've been documenting sites, names and all and patiently dropping the data onto Facebook staff.

My bottom line is that I am ever more suspicious of active, ongoing manipulation of American political thought by foreigners clearly intent to promote dissent. Anyone else have any experiences similar, or am I the only crank here with that sort of free time?

[Tunnelcat]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/tech ... l-ads.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/201 ... 639587001/

http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-a ... ion-2017-9