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How do you identify a Russian troll

beancounter said:
Is that what Siberia looks like in the Summer? The building in the background must be where you post all of your propaganda.
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Beautiful aren't I....ahem...I mean ... isn't it?
 
beancounter said:
Yea, but they're all American. That's part of the point.

Overtly patriotic avatar you have there...
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Can you prove they are all American? How do we know that they aren't European trolls who are trying to spread European style liberalism here? Wouldn't that be equally disgusting? Not sure what you mean by my avatar being overtly patriotic. I picked it because even though I am ModerateRight and slightly conservative, I am an independent and pretty much hate both parties. I vote a mix of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.
 

Re the avatar, did you read my OP on ways to ID a Russian troll? Regardless, I was pulling your chain, that's why the smiley is there.

Sure, European trolls are possible, but I haven't seen any articles from any sources suggesting such a scenario.
 

Godwin just gained a new catagory.
 
It's hard to tell the difference between many right wingers and russian trolls. THey both post intentionally stupid things, they deflect constantly when proven wrong, they only post about 1 or 2 line response, no substance what so ever
 
apdst said:
What's wrong with overt patriotism?
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In general, nothing. However, it can be used as a cover/distraction to hide an agenda.

e.g. Just like when politicians and Evangelicals use phony piousness to cover their illicit activities.
 
Moderate Right said:
LOL. There are one million anti-Trump troll threads. The left is way far ahead of the Russians.
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Yup, fact based posts, and reasoning behind people's opinion, verse dumb deflection from the right LOL Yeah, we really know who the trolls are.

Trolls don't write multiple paragraph responses backing up their position, they post dumb **** like you just did
 

I am curious as to why you would think this is important and why you would waste valuable time on this.
 
Mason66 said:
I am curious as to why you would think this is important and why you would waste valuable time on this.
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I am curious to know why you assume beancounter's time is valuable.
 

So everyone posting at DP is Russian?
 
Proteus said:
I am curious to know why you assume beancounter's time is valuable.
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Because I tend to think people have jobs and families and have actual things to do.

If he is a kid then we need to know that so we can all ignore him until he grows up, or find out he is from Russia.
 
beancounter said:
Well, it's one of those, "you know it when you see it". I'm sure they make up less than 10% of the membership.
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Detailed descriptions of what identifies a paid Russian troll would probably exceed the 5K word limit, so I'm also mostly going with the Justice Potter theme of "You know it when you see it."
The one thing that seems to stand out, however, is the distinct lack of local color in their posts.
By that I mean, since this is primarily a site aimed at North American politics, with an emphasis on U.S. politics more than anything else, it's interesting what happens when you press one of these people for some local color.

Example: Here in Whittier, these neighborhoods went from being borderline street gang "no go zones" in the 80's and early 90's back to being the quiet and somewhat boring baby factories that they were in the postwar years, because so many of the gangs moved to the Inland Empire and to Palmdale.
They were, quite simply, priced out of the market and the rest were reduced by attrition due to law enforcement stepping up and doing their job.

Remarks about local cultural and ethnic trends, local housing prices, local employment prospects, food, music, local crime, local "anything-at-all", are notably absent in posts that come from paid Russian trolls, because the only thing local that they could comment on would be 55 Savushkina Street, Saint Petersburg.
You'll also never hear from them about family, kids, job, pets or even what they ate that day.

I don't think any of them have an opinion on issues like pot legalization either, or if they did, would they be pro or con, and why.
It would be interesting to push them on an issue like that, because if they're in Russia, it would be difficult for them to be very aware of local trends, like say for instance, the new pot dispensaries opening up OR being forced to close in "their Amerikansky city".

NOTE: Some of the more sophisticated Russian trolls MIGHT have been to or have friends living IN one of the Russian diaspora cities here like West Hollywood, (Fairfax District) for instance.
One way to trip them up would be to ask about a local business, say perhaps a local eatery which has been closed in the last year. If they say they just came back from lunch there....BUSTED.

It's maybe a little bit difficult to fake being an American resident if you've never lived here.
You can maybe get away with it for a little while but sooner or later someone can trip you up.
 
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Basically you're trying to paint or at least plant the seed, conservatives here are Russian trolls so you can dismiss them without doing any work. We saw something similar when liberals tried to say most white nationalist(aka anyone who supports Trump) is a Nazi and therefore violence against them was justified.
 
Mason66 said:
Because I tend to think people have jobs and families and have actual things to do.

If he is a kid then we need to know that so we can all ignore him until he grows up, or find out he is from Russia.
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I can ignore you too... But I can understand if you're afraid to address the topic directly

It took me 5 minutes to come up with the OP. Should I claim that everything you post is a waste, because it doesn't fit a certain narrative?

Or is this topic triggering you for a reason... :2razz:
 
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dobieg said:
Basically you're trying to paint or at least plant the seed, conservatives here are Russian trolls so you can dismiss them without doing any work.
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Nope. If you read through the thread, I stated that I don't think it's more than 10%.
 

For ME, no not at all, and I can back that up right here at DP because there are quite a few conservatives I get into discussions with. Paid Russian trolls aren't usually very good at actual debate or have you not noticed that?

Quite simply, they tend to suck at it pretty badly. It's not their job to debate.
 
Mason66 said:
I am curious as to why you would think this is important and why you would waste valuable time on this.
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You don't think it's a problem if a hostile foreign power makes a concerted effort to instigate dissent, mistrust and hatred among the people of the target country?

Any red blood, god fearing, true American patriot should be concerned. Aren't you a patriot?
 
beancounter said:
Nope. If you read through the thread, I stated that I don't think it's more than 10%.
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You believe that as much as 1 out of 10 members here is a Russian operative?




































































bwahahahahahahahahahahaha! :2rofll:
 
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