cygon

I assume this is about the physical connections.

It could be for monitoring (even with unbroken encryption, the routing information and time/server correlation can shed light on social media influence campaigns or where VPN beachheads are located). This information could probably be gathered with ISP cooperation, too, but private business and Russian money can be a problematic mix.

It could also be preparations to isolate Russia from the internet when/if their war expands into Europe. Russia has done the reverse already in 2019, BBC: Russia 'successfully tests' its unplugged internet, probably either to stop Russian people from getting news outside of government-controlled media if the tide turns against Putin or to fend off the possibility of Western countries turning the tables and running disinformation campaigns inside Russia.

Incomplete map of internet crossover points to Russia (sorry, couldn't find a better one, it had low resolution and I upscaled it):

Um, no? You can vote and push for change at the same time.

Imagine half of the people in the room wants shrimp pizza, which you happen to detest. Yet you're exclusively dunking on and shouting at the mushroom group to keep it shut and stop suggesting mushrooms. Well?

You could do both. Keep the fascists out and actively pressure the Democratic Party to move left. These memes don't do that though.

So, like,

1. Still do exactly as the "don't vote" stooges say and let the fascists win
2. But now also join them in posting anti-Democratic memes to actively aid the fascists

I believe the idea is:

1. Mention nukes and grab everyone's attention
2. Run social media campaign ("oh noes, is leading us into war with nuclear power, they bad")
3. Have bought politicians and lobbyists push to reduce sanctions or block additional sanctions
4. Profit.

.

But increasingly, I see step 2 fail and people simply hate the guy more for his destructive megalomania, as they should.

Typical past ceasefires or truces with Russia:

• +0 Hours: Shelling stops on both sides, occasional gunfire erupts in places.
• +1 Hours: Russians rush supplies to their troops.
• +3 Hours: Russians violate truce and try to gain as much ground as possible in a surprise attack.

.

Fool me once...

I wonder what their idea of the outcome is.

Tankie: "I convinced 20 Democratic Party voters to stay at home (and did the same for 0 Republican Party voters). Wait until Democratic politicians see that more voters favored the far right party. Then they're going to move left and fall on their knees and beg me to forgive them."

(Cue scene: swastika-adorned tanks rolling past the window)

"Stupid liberals, unwilling to fight the fascists like us true leftists." (Watches tanks and twiddles thumbs.) (Fetches keyboard.) "Let's tell everyone online that it's their own fault and they deserve this." (Sudden sound of harsh knocking on front door.)

At best, their actions will "only" cause another grid-locked presidency where progressives can't get their reforms to pass (which will then be used as the reason to abandon the likely last line of non-violent defense against fascists).

If you're wondering about the downvotes:

I think @pacrist quoted tankie statements there to show how they're aiding fascists (should have prefixed it with "things tankies say" or so).

A subgroup of people on the left who believe in communism and mostly hold pro-Russia and pro-China views, while often having a "doomer" mentality in regard to the US.

Unfortunately, that has them made very susceptible to Russian propaganda, to the point where they're now doing the bidding of Russia and helping fascists rise to power.

The mechanisms are similar to MAGA. They've disconnected from classical media and their echo chambers censor posts that highlight positive developments in the US or posts critical of Russia/China. Once inside, their world view collides with the outside and it's hard to get out again. Similarly to Russians and Republicans, they vilify liberals ("liberals are complicit in xy", "scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds", "Marx warned liberalism inevitably leads to fascism", etc.).

On here, they're largely the people dissuading US Democratic Party voters from turning out, via "both sides bad" and recently via claim-to-purity (I'm sure you've encountered one of those "genocide joe" posts, which are kinda awkward, since tankies commonly support/deny China's genocide on the Uyghurs and Russia's genocide on Ukrainians).

Theistic Satanists

These would be the (mostly imaginary) ones that conservative Christians are fearmongering about. They'd believe the actual devil exists and that by serving him, they could gain something.

Atheistic Satanists

The kind that is pulling this stunt to fight for religious freedom. Specifically, The Satanic Temple. Their "commandments" are secular compassion, empathy and justice.

Amusingly, the biblical Satan seemed to value many of those things. Freedom ("non serviam" / "I will not serve"), Reason (apple from tree of knowledge in paradise), and perhaps Self Reliance and Equality (in some variants of the creation myth, Adam has a divorced first wive named Lilith who gave him the middle finger when he pulled that alpha male malarkey)

Not seeing it, sorry.

1. It's pretty normal that main stream reporting looks critically at fringe groups. That can be frustrating, but it's not an attack. Also consider that any time MSM publish anything that could outrage the political fringes, it is cherry picked and makes its run through the fringe communities.
2. To consider that as liberals attacking the left, I'd have to put on a tin foil hat and buy into the far-right conspiracy theory of "liberal bias in media" or even assume the main stream media and liberals are synonymous.
3. And if I was taking "MSM" literally, the most-watched news medium in the US happens to be Fox News, which essentially put the idea of blaming and vilifying liberals for all the ills in the world on the map.

Make it two: emerge firefox (Gentoo users only)