• Addfwyn
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    99
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    9 months ago

    Swaying them to vote…for who? Remind me which US political party would align with Chinese interests. Are they staging a massive coup for the CPUSA?

  • Beat_da_Rich
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    80
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    The dialogue in this next US election is gonna be really ugly for Asian-Americans.

    • Eat_Yo_Vegetables69
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      9 months ago

      For sure, lots of questioning loyalties and “you’re not a real American if you don’t vote X side”.

      Wonder what new slur they’ll create for Asians similar to the one they created for Russians last year…

      • olgas_husband
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        i don’t think that the question is about voting for x, your loyalties will be questioned based on your looks, so it’s going to be really bad for people of asian descent, even if u were born in the country or are there many generations. we seen this in world war 2, when japan attacked, the government made concentration camps for japonese people, even tho they had no involvement in the war or even any ties to japan

        • Eat_Yo_Vegetables69
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          35
          ·
          9 months ago

          lol reminds me of that old reddit comment thread of some really pissed off white person going “eliminate all of those Asians”.

          Another user from SEA: “Just the Chinese, the rest of us are good”

          First guy: “NO, ALL OF YOU”

      • CannotSleep420
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        9 months ago

        Wonder what new slur they’ll create for Asians similar to the one they created for Russians last year…

        They might take a page out of /pol/ and call them soulless bugmen.

        • KiG V2
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          9 months ago

          Thankfully the only time ive heard someone say “bugmen” was my communist friend talking about silicon valley venture capitalist ghouls

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      70
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      The funniest part here is that these kinds of articles sowing mistrust in the electoral process are doing far more damage than China could ever hope to achieve. Both liberal and conservative media continue to fuel the idea that elections are rigged and that the other side is cheating to win. US is now at a point where large portions of the public think that elections are unfair and if their party doesn’t win that must be because the other side cheated or some foreign actor interfered in the elections.

      Democracy is fundamentally a social contract that people choose to abide by. People have to believe that the system is fundamentally fair, and when their side loses then they have to accept that as a democratic choice. However, once the trust in the system is broken then there is no reason to respect election results. At that point people see the winner as an illegitimate tyrant that rules over them. The country ends up in a very volatile territory once the idea that the system is rigged starts to take hold.

      • CicadaSpectre
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        Something that’s darkly amusing about that, living here, is that the election results are almost a 50/50 split every time on the national level, and sometimes even when one candidate has more than the other guy, the other guy wins anyway. So, even if everyone had faith in the system and that the numbers are accurate (which politicians do cheat, so they really aren’t), that still means that: a) roughly half the country is going to be against the winner and support any effort to undermine them, and b) even getting a majority doesn’t really mean much if the Electoral College can just support the other candidate.

        But yeah, I just gotta keep voting Blue for that harm reduction they can’t deliver on, while living in a state that’s consistently 2/3 Republican in every election, and which passes laws that make it difficult to vote for anything else.

        I’m not bitter in the slightest.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          16
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          The fact that the system is very obviously broken from the perspective of a working class person is definitely a big factor. I think most people realize that US isn’t a genuine democracy, and this is one of the reasons there’s prevalent voter apathy. Deep down, people understand that this is all just a circus to make them feel that they have a voice.

          • redtea
            cake
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            9 months ago

            It’s the same where I am. If you asked almost anyone I grew up with about voting, the only reason they wouldn’t laugh at you is because they’ve been taught to be polite. There isn’t anyone to vote for who would represent them, and they know it.

            The stats are roughly the same throughout the west: ⅓ red, ⅓ blue, ⅓ nobody. This makes it look like roughly 50:50 support for one party over the other. That apathetic third is mostly people who are ignored by every other official metric.

            What’s really happening is ⅓ are bigoted reactionaries, ½ of the second ⅓ think the ‘progressive’ side will make things better (or not), and the rest is ⅓ who don’t vote and ⅙ who only vote as harm reduction without much hope or faith of getting it.

            Which means ½ the population is unconvinced by liberal electoralism. And the reactionary ⅓ are often people with no other way of expressing their alienation or frustration other than voting for the colour that promised to oppress the people they’ve been told are the problem.

            As soon as any revolutionary party gains traction and wins over the apathetic third and the harm reduction sixth, it’s game over. A not insignificant chunk of the reactionary third will jump ship as they see it as a route to actually fixing the things they’re concerned about.

            The tiny minority that has faith in liberal electoralism (😂—sorry, I can’t help but laugh) will take their historic place of irrelevancy. They only think they’re relevant now because they bootlick for and support a system in which the people they vote for already hold all the power.

            Let’s hope that you’re right and these stories increase the ranks of the apathetic. It’ll mean less work for the socialists, later.

          • CicadaSpectre
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            Exactly this. Unfortunately, nearly every American I’ve met - even the left-leaning - is convinced that, in spite of its flaws, the US is still the safest/best place to be. They’re so disillusioned with the American government and society, but still fervently believe every other system and place is worse (except the Nordic model). And they’ll believe me if I tell them why whatever they do support isn’t as good as they think, but they take serious convincing to even entertain the idea that China isn’t as bad as they think. Us Americans have been hardwired to be distrustful of any good thing, to a fault, and it’s really sad when you think about it. It’s just bizarre we can be so anti-government as a country and still blindly do exactly what the government wants.

          • CicadaSpectre
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            I’ve considered trying to move to Massachusetts someday. Maybe not Boston, because living in cities always seems like a hassle to my small town ass, but somewhere near it.

      • ElHexo [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        9 months ago

        At that point people see the winner as an illegitimate tyrant that rules over them

        You’d think so but Americans love Bush now even though he stole the 2000 election

        • JucheBot1988
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          9 months ago

          Americans love Bush now

          Especially the Democrats, weirdly enough. When he was in power, they basically considered him a dumb redneck (who grew up in New England and went to Yale), and they were constantly bemoaning the fact that his stupidity and his rhetoric were alienating important American allies. Now Bush seems to have gone through a Marvel-esque redemption arc, and the east coast establishment simply loves him – he’s the grand old senior statesman of our time. Simply not being Donald Trump is apparently the bar we’ve established for wise statecraft.

          Seeing the Starbucks-drinking libs go from “Bush is the worst president in the history of America,” and “He’s a right-wing extremist who needs to be assassinated” to “let’s applaud this loveable old man who made some mistakes, but was basically a welfare state leftist all along” has been pretty surreal.

        • ButtigiegMineralMap
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          9 months ago

          Yea, I was dumbstruck when a family member said that Bush is cleaning up his legacy by saying Trump is mean. They used to hate George Bush and the Iraq War, now they just wanna see “Drumpf” behind bars and couldn’t care less about other Republicans

    • Muad'DibberA
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      9 months ago

      It’s the ingeneous sit back and let the US slowly destroy itself strategy that seems to be working out pretty well.

  • HornyOnMain@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    ·
    9 months ago

    “The report provided limited examples of the recent activity and did not explain in detail how researchers attributed the posts to China.”

    Everytime

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      9 months ago

      “The report provided limited examples of the recent activity and did not explain in detail how researchers attributed the posts to China.”

      Sounds like a sh.itjust.works power poster.

      YOU ARE ALL BOTS I WILL CONTINUE TO YELL AT YOU BUT YOU’RE ALSO BOTS maybe-later-honey

    • KiG V2
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      9 months ago

      These mfers KNOW 80% of people just read headlines and 19% of the rest who actually read will not budge from their preconceived idea if you hit them with a few buzzwords

  • Eat_Yo_Vegetables69
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    68
    ·
    9 months ago

    source: their ass

    What interest would they have in swaying voters between 2 different wings of the same imperialist party that both want the destruction of the PRC lol

  • loathesome dongeaterA
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    65
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    Beginning to think that Americans on social media are feeble minded babies with no agency of their own swayed in whichever direction foreign shills and bots want to take them in.

    • Rinox@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      9 months ago

      It’s not just Americans. It’s anyone who stays on social media for too long. You can actively defend for some time, but if you spend 4-5 hours a day on Facebook, you’re bound to get trapped in this shit.

      Hell, even here on Lemmy there are instances full of nutjobs circlejerking over the political flavor of the week…

      • loathesome dongeaterA
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        41
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        The bigger point is that the USA is pretty much the technological leader of the world and a frontrunner in information warfare. All the major social media companies have to have close ties with the US state department to be able to function at the scale at which they do. So why is it that Russo-Chinese bots and shills are running circles around Americans?

        • Shrike502
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          35
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          Projection, as always. Ever heard about google ads running pro-ukraine videos? Or perhaps about auto-callers, dialing numbers in Russia with pre-recorded anti-government messages?

          And that’s even before we get into the NGOs

          • loathesome dongeaterA
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            44
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            Russiagate has always been copium for Western liberals who cannot accept the fact that reactionary tendencies are weaved into the fabric of their culture and institutions so they tell themselves bullshit like how their redneck racist uncle only voted for Trump and is anti-abortion because Putin seductively whispered some arcane incantation in his ear. In truth Russia’s propaganda is not very effectual

            • In 2017 before RT was shut down in the UK, it accounted for 0.04 percent of the UK’s total TV audience.[1]
            • A New York University study published earlier this year found that the supposed Russian Twitter influence campaign ahead of the 2016 election which dominated headlines for years had had “no measurable impact in changing minds or influencing voter behavior”.[2]
            • An earlier study found that suspected Russian accounts showing up in Facebook’s news feed during that time amounted to “approximately 1 out of 23,000 pieces of content.”[3]
            • A study by Adelaide University found that despite headline after headline warning us about a massive wave of Russian bots manipulating online discourse after the invasion of Ukraine began last year, the overwhelming majority of fake accounts they examined (more than 90 percent) were pro-Ukraine accounts.[4]

            [1] https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/02/rt-is-irrelevant-banning-it-would-just-give-putin-propaganda

            [2] https://archive.is/9NKXl

            [3] https://archive.is/6Xyld#selection-1327.271-1327.321

            [4] https://declassifiedaus.org/2022/11/03/strongmassive-anti-russian-bot-army-exposed-by-australian-researchers-strong/

            • COMHASHOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              20
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              9 months ago

              It was all about a well planned hoax to prepare the westerners for a war against Russia. Trump only likes Putin, well he is anti woke as Putin is but Trump is just another comical puppet under MIC, even Putin told oliver Stone that fundamental anti Russia policy hasn’t changed since Trump got elected. And Americans are not so much educated to understand Trump and Putin are 2 different persons. Putin and Xi shared pancakes and boat rides when Western propaganda started the Uyghur genocide propaganda. Russia has a strong sense of socialist nostalgia and anti Nazi feelings where as US don’t have that.

        • 新星 [they/them/🏳️‍⚧️]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          23
          ·
          9 months ago

          why is it that Russo-Chinese bots and shills are running circles around Americans?

          We’re just better, okay? The Americans will swallow anything. china under the bed

    • KiG V2
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      9 months ago

      Really though the majority of those shills and bots have been USian/Western. For example they found the vast majority of bots talking about Ukraine were pro-Ukraine. Yet again the Yankee commits wolfery on itself and then cries wolf.

  • CriticalResist8A
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    64
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    honestly you’re a failed country if other powers can so easily tamper with your elections.

    • KiG V2
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      👆👆 almost like they raised one of the biggest countries in the world to be full of people who can’t think critically and just react to snarky quips and fear

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        It reminds me of the moment in Dune when God Emperor try hard to not absolutely despise the Museum Fremen by telling himself “i cannot blame them, i made them what they are”.

  • lil_tank
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    Ok so, Putin sponsoring Trump sounds … eh, at least there’s some kind of proximity in discourse

    But who the fuuuuuck do they think China is willing the burgerlanders to vote for??? The communist party??? There are two electorally viable parties and both are super anti-China. It just doesn’t make sense

  • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    For a country that harps on about personal responsibility we sure do blame everybody but ourselves for the fact posting racist Facebook memes is an effective way to influence the beliefs of 60% of this country.

  • DamarcusArt
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    53
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    I guess the “Russiagate” stuff only goes so far.

      • PeeOnYou [he/him]
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        maybe they’ll go with a more sinister sounding “sinogate” which will have the added benefit of most people not knowing wtf that is

    • relay
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      9 months ago

      I’m glad that I never seen that 3rd dude.

      Peter Jordanson and Bench Appearo I have seen in my recommended despite detesting both of these incoherent fools.

      • o_d [he/him]
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        9 months ago

        That guy shit his britches when he got to the pronoun selector in starfield’s character creation

        • relay
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          22
          ·
          9 months ago

          I never understood why people hate on that kind of thing. I can understand not understanding the perspective of trans people not being included in various things. But to a cis person that wants to play a cis person, this is just another box to select.

          Are they scared of treating people like people? I don’t judge people on how much of a man/woman they are, but more of how good of a person they are first.

          • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            14
            ·
            9 months ago

            Good. You shouldn’t understand it. It is just them being irrationally angry it is just hate. It is a reminder that everything thry think is important is a lie and they can’t handle it.

          • o_d [he/him]
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            9 months ago

            These reactionary psychos want trans people to not exist. They want games to take them to this “ideal” world of theirs and any small reminder of the fact that trans people do exist is triggering for them.

          • iByteABit [he/him]@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            It’s not about the checkbox, it’s about them not wanting to conform to a society where everyone picks their pronouns and should learn each other’s too, they don’t understand it and see it as a problem being accepted as reality instead of treated, and also don’t want to society to become overly complicated because of it.

            Essentially the problem is that people with low empathy (who statistically also tend to be bad people) can’t and won’t understand this foreign concept unless they live through it themselves, which usually won’t happen.

          • PZK [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            9 months ago

            I believe it simply comes from them believing that these people are destroying their country. They see trans acceptance as proof they are losing the culture war which they feel will have political consequences for them. It isn’t going to affect them but they have been told it will by every pundit and cultural convention they are familiar with. At best they see it as strange and the ground is moving from beneath them. To put it more simply, its fear. They don’t understand it so their reaction is to hate and destroy it because it signals societal change.

            Everything is zero-sum game to them. If someone is getting more recognition and rights, they believe it means they themselves have less.

            • relay
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              9 months ago

              To a certain extent yes, there is loss of privlidge when cis supremecy is undermined, when cis people are treated like trans people, but there are not that many trans people for them to really undermine the cis people.

              • PZK [he/him]@hexbear.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                edit-2
                9 months ago

                Disagree. There is nothing that says someone needs to be subjected due to trans acceptance. I do not feel threatened by, or feel that my “privilege” is being attacked by the existence of trans people. They want to exist and be accepted and I don’t see this as an assault on my existence. For the record am a cis lmayo male. I know I lose nothing by accepting trans people.

                What you described is what they believe will happen. Their minds are always in a place of believing that someone needs to be losing.

                As a tangent for the sake of example: I recall during the George Floyd protests that white people flooded gun stores to buy guns because they seriously thought that black people were going to come into their neighborhoods, drag them out of their houses and kill them. They think this because that is what they would do in their place. Its a silent admission of knowing they fuck minorities over and they have a right to be angry. They were scared of being casualties in a race uprising that they assume has been brewing because they know how they treat black people in America. They also assumed black people would just indiscriminately murder people because they see them as animals and not human beings. I was blind-sided by the entire white-panic mentality and one of my black friends had to explain to me why the lines were so frenzied and long at the sporting goods store.

                The same goes for trans people and the gamer throwing a crybaby fit about being reminded that they exist and people respect them. They don’t understand them, so they hate them, and assume they… or someone else is working to undermine their lives. It is a lot more premeditated and sinister than you think. They want these people to disappear. Trans people make them scared. They worry they will have to question their own identity or sexuality which their culture has told them to strictly adhere to and demonize deviants. It does not look like it in the video, but the gamer dude raging about pronouns is utterly terrified of them because he has been propagandized and programed to do so.

                Its built on layers of punditry and propaganda that all feeds off of their basic human instinct of fear. Their reactions and solutions are reinforced by western civilization. They believe they would be undermined their privilege because that is what society teaches them, and not reality.

                • relay
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  I agree with most of this. I’m just saying that techically, with a limited resource pool of jobs provided by capitalists, and with trans people are treated equal to cis people, that means that the number of equally qualified people is greater. Any one cis person now has to compete on equal grounds with all other cis people and all the trans people now.

                  However this is not that important. This is like saying you filled a measuring cup to the 300 ml mark at one point, then put a drop of the liquid in. Is there more liquid in the cup after the drop falls in? Technically yes. However, for all practical purposes involving cooking, that difference is functionally discarded.

        • ButtigiegMineralMap
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          18
          ·
          9 months ago

          He’s so good at gaming that he couldn’t play a game for more than 2 minutes without malding so hard that he rage quits

          • o_d [he/him]
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            14
            ·
            9 months ago

            It’s pretty funny the way he pulls up the game menu almost immediately after he’s done raging. 10/10 reactionary moment.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      9 months ago

      I bet some of these politicians have decried Russian/Chinese foreign influence in American politics in the same week or on the same day as they attended some AIPAC event.

  • Life2Space
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    49
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    Russia, one day; China, the next. Perhaps, Iran, after that?

  • flan [they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    43
    ·
    9 months ago

    Is Microsoft trying to win some huge government contract? I don’t understand why they would put their neck out there like this. I imagine China is a big market for them.

    • LarkinDePark
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      How would Microsoft even know this? They make software, they’re not a counter espionage group. It’s just some poor appeal to authority or something.

      • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        9 months ago

        Microsoft definitely has a large enough employee base of security dweebs to put together a team to do stuff like this for a government contract

        • LarkinDePark
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          If it’s for a government contract then they wouldn’t say “Microsoft Says”. It would just be, “We have evidence…”. This easy they get to keep their distance from the claim.

  • Grimble [he/him,they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    9 months ago

    So what’s the “Chinese AI” saying, grandma?

    I’m what? No no no, my tone is fine its just-

    I KNOW you saw it on your feed but thats not the same as news gr-

    Ok, ok. No, Im not trying to bother you. Do you know if the AI-

    Yes, yes, I know he’s a Dictator grandma, you told me. Did the-

    No? Ok well why dont you google it?

    It’s active there too? …Oh. Sure.

    Too many…? No grandma, that was like four questions. Bye! (hangs up)

    • Simulation of your relatives discovering this article