https://www.npr.org/2017/11/01/561427876/how-russia-used-facebook-to-organize-two-sets-of-protesters
Over a year ago, Russian trolls organized two separate movements; one pro-Texan independence, the other pro-Muslim. Tell me, do you think these two sides saw eye to eye a lot?
I don't know if the Russians directly colluded with Trump. They probably preferred his victory over Clinton because Trump's comments about NATO, since the Russians hate NATO, but I don't know if they actually colluded. And frankly, that's not what concerns me the most about all this.
The Russians directly set up online groups and used social media for one primary purpose; spread dissent and social unrest across America. They specifically encouraged conflicting groups to challenge one another through ads, organized protests, and specifically sought to aggravate American political issues to further divide us. They wanted to pit Liberal vs conservative, blue collar vs white collar, and numerous other groups, all for the purpose of sowing disunity and wreaking American trust in our democratic institutions. Meanwhile, the Russian government has cracked down on it's own dissident movements and undermined opposition groups within Russia. They've weakened our political infrastructure by encouraging hyper-partisanship while simultaneously removing their own domestic challengers.
The Russians are trying to play us against one another so American involvement in the world stage is limited. They want to undermine NATO, our role in the Middle East, and compromise our global influence.
America's not perfect. We've had our fair share of **** ups and mistakes. But I think the US can be a force for good in this world. We're not going to do any of that, however, if we spend all the time accusing each other of harming America. Today in our political atmosphere, it's normal to accuse a political opposite that they're intentionally undermining America for their own gain. At one point in time, this was an accusation analogous to treason and false statements about it were enough to ruin careers and livelihoods, but now it's common political rhetoric. We're loosing our competitive edge because we're too busy tearing ourselves apart over immigration, spending, taxes, race relations, and a host of other issues. The term compromise has become synonymous with "weakness" in some circles. It's ridiculous.
