I don’t lose sleep at night knowing that these bots exist (or those of any other government). They shouldn’t exist for the simple reason that public institutions shouldn’t be in the business of deceiving people, but unfortunately, deceiving the public is a bunch of what the State actually fucking does “for” “us”. I especially don’t think the Russian government cares to run bots/trolls on our little corner of the internet when bigger targets exist.
Vacuously, I don’t disagree with literally everything that the Russian bots say because they can be found saying just about anything.
I cannot stress enough that I do NOT approve of state-sponsored botting or trolling of public spaces in general. However, when you see Pro-Russian or Pro-whatever opinions on the Internet, you are probably reading the words of a “useful idiot” or non-State troll.
This reality is a lot scarier than if the opinions were all just from some Russian troll farm, because now we have to interrogate the reality that these people have different and complex reasons for why they ended up with those opinions. It means that the task of persuasion is a lot more complicated than just shielding people from bots and trolls.
You wrote down a reason why Russian bots are bad and one that is not really true. Russian bots aren’t saying just about anything. Not to mention most people wouldn’t mind if a self proclaimed Russian bot started to push for vanilla ice cream over chocolate agenda. They would “not lose sleep” over it, but then some still go out and buy some vanilla. Even if they don’t believe in marketing.
It doesn’t really matter if they are a bot or a useful idiot if they are doing the same job.
Russian bots do exist but they are “not that bad”. Also if someone from Russia they are not necessarily a bot because they have a different opinion…
That’s all fine to have that position but who are you to tell other people if they encountered a bot or a real human being ?
Do you have any idea how prevalent Russian bots are ? What are their latest strategy?
I cannot answer these questions and you shouldn’t either.
The people you are bashing for pointing at “Russian bots” could be completely right. Their perception of internet is not the same as yours.
If anything it’s good that people are suspicious of any Russian information on the internet. It’s much better in my opinion than your alternative which seems to be built on contempt for people falling for bots and a very prominent ego yourself for thinking nobody ever got you.
So basically what you are saying is : Russian bots aren’t all that bad 🤣
Yes, in two senses:
I cannot stress enough that I do NOT approve of state-sponsored botting or trolling of public spaces in general. However, when you see Pro-Russian or Pro-whatever opinions on the Internet, you are probably reading the words of a “useful idiot” or non-State troll.
This reality is a lot scarier than if the opinions were all just from some Russian troll farm, because now we have to interrogate the reality that these people have different and complex reasons for why they ended up with those opinions. It means that the task of persuasion is a lot more complicated than just shielding people from bots and trolls.
You wrote down a reason why Russian bots are bad and one that is not really true. Russian bots aren’t saying just about anything. Not to mention most people wouldn’t mind if a self proclaimed Russian bot started to push for vanilla ice cream over chocolate agenda. They would “not lose sleep” over it, but then some still go out and buy some vanilla. Even if they don’t believe in marketing.
It doesn’t really matter if they are a bot or a useful idiot if they are doing the same job.
So basically:
Russian bots do exist but they are “not that bad”. Also if someone from Russia they are not necessarily a bot because they have a different opinion…
That’s all fine to have that position but who are you to tell other people if they encountered a bot or a real human being ?
Do you have any idea how prevalent Russian bots are ? What are their latest strategy?
I cannot answer these questions and you shouldn’t either.
The people you are bashing for pointing at “Russian bots” could be completely right. Their perception of internet is not the same as yours.
If anything it’s good that people are suspicious of any Russian information on the internet. It’s much better in my opinion than your alternative which seems to be built on contempt for people falling for bots and a very prominent ego yourself for thinking nobody ever got you.