r/The_Donald helped radicalize users into far-right identities and discourse – Active users on r/The_Donald increasingly used white nationalist vocabularies in their comments within three months.
I know most people that were on reddit at the time are fully aware of this and won't be surprised but don't dismiss the findings out of hand. It's important that studies are being conducted and the fact that the finding match our lived experience is still noteworthy.
insert shocked pikachu here I mean, is this really surprising? That place was a cesspool disguising as irony. But news flash, it stops being ironic after a certain amount of time.
It’s not about how expected this was. It’s about the fact that we have data to prove it, and it is definitely a probable phenomenon.
Incidentally, I’d be fascinated to see the data the alphabet agencies have doubtlessly gathered on what major players on /r/TheDonald are affiliated with foreign agents (primarily Russia, though China and Israel absolutely had a hand in it too), or just straight up foreign agents themselves. I hear they’re going to release a big report about that on February 31st.
Agreed, it's such a dereliction of duty to not report on this.
As well as letting all the kompromized 4th of July legislators, et. al., and one former commander in chief in particular continue their treasonous subversion.
Remember when they popped the DNC’s email server and released stuff tactically at just the right moments to have the most damaging effect on Hillary?
It’s kind of an open secret that they popped the RNC’s email server too… and then didn’t release anything. Ockham’s razor might suggest there wasn’t anything there, but if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’ve been looking to sell. FancyBear/FSB/Russian Mafia/whoever is kinda obviously blackmailing like at least half of the Congressional Republican caucus, as evidenced by the entirely astroturfed opposition to Ukrainian military aid and extremely peculiar Russophilia.
About this. It was legitimately funny at first, when the Orange One had no chance.
The thing that turned it so fast from absolute satire into not at all satire was the immediate, within seconds, banning of anyone who called it out as a joke. The speed of those bans convinced me that someone was being paid to steer the narrative in their desired direction 24/7.
It was a masterclass in modern propaganda, and I'm glad it's being studied.
I learned personal lessons from it. I'm absolutely more PC now, because you never know who's going to take your absurd joke seriously. As Waddle said, if you say something ironically enough, it stops being ironic.