Did Russia influence the election?

[Irving]

I decided not to post this in the politics section because I think it goes beyond that. I've been pretty checked out of politics for the last few years, so while I constantly hear about certain things, I'm not following them or really looking into them much. One thing is the investigation into Russia tampering with the 2016 election. I listened to the Joe Rogan podcast today with Renee DiResta and was pretty fascinated with the info on what the Russian company was actually doing as far as social manipulation of people in the US. So here are links to the Joe Rogan podcast, and also the podcast from a few weeks before with Sam Harris if you think that you don't like Rogan. I've only listed to the Rogan one. I think it's pretty interesting the depths and specificity that Russia went to, to accomplish whatever it was that they were after. I'll conclude by saying that if you don't think that this affects you personally, there is a very strong chance that it does. If you're on any social media (including here), it definitely does, and even if you aren't, there is a pretty small chance that you aren't at least in contact with people who've been directly engaged in this campaign. Give it a listen, it's fascinating.

ETA: This doesn't really answer the question in the title, because I don't really think that they know. It just demonstrates the things Russia did from collected data, and it's way more than I ever imagined.

*Protip, if you listen on Sticher or something similar, you can speed up the play back and knock this out in less time. I find that 1.5x speed doesn't take much to get used to but 2x right off the bat is tough to adjust to. Pretty sure you can adjust the speed with YouTube as well.

[Ah Pook]

Russian trolls are nothing new on JR. Looks like it's done on both sides.

Listening at 1.5 or 2.0 sounds like Minny Mouse.

Try and listen to it this week.

[Great-Kazoo]

I don't believe they did anything to give the election to trump. IMO they did or do the same thing all PAC's do, only better.

[Irving]

It's definitely done on both sides from what I gather.

[brutal]

*Protip, if you listen on Sticher or something similar, you can speed up the play back and knock this out in less time. I find that 1.5x speed doesn't take much to get used to but 2x right off the bat is tough to adjust to. Pretty sure you can adjust the speed with YouTube as well.

Right there in the Youtube settings (gear) icon is the speed. I almost always listen at 1.25 or 1.5

[Great-Kazoo]

Here are a few question for the OP and anyone else.

At what point after the candidates were selected, on the R & D side, did you know who you were voting for?



Do you also believe there were as many "undecideds" going in to election night as the media said there were?


Did you believe, based on the media's non-stop blabbering about the Super Delegates. HRC was going to run away with the electoral college?

I ask, since the questions are based off the 24/7 ass kissing of the media for HRC. Who i believe did more to try influencing the election that any russian bot.

[Eric P]

So the US influences foriegn elections. Why is anyone surprised that a foreign government influences ours?

[FoxtArt]

The question is too narrow in my opinion. The objective isn't election interference, per-se. Not like the US, where we desire certain people in to influence favorable politics with our nation state. Russia invests heavily into simply causing discord, division, and separation, and they have for many years (decades, actually) but they've advanced it a lot recently. They're already known for having probably the most prolific espionage engine (arguably we may be more so, depends on perspective). However, their espionage pales in comparison presently to their efforts to sow discord.

Even before Trump was nominated, it's an easy yes- they tried to "influence" the election, as they have many times past, not exactly hidden information. Not so much for people to win, just for us to hate each other. What gets surprising is it's not limited to that. Think things like B.L.M., Antifa, etc. have some "hands" in them as well.

And it all comes down to a simple equation. Our enemies will never declare war upon us because the costs - both in life and finance, as well as the risk is too high. It's almost asymmetrical what would occur in declared WAR. But we have an asymmetrical weakness they can permanently exploit in peace time: A free press (sort-of). They try to incite hatred and division among ourselves - and you might argue, they've been wildly successful. It's easy to get controversial garbage to run nationwide here, it's click-bait and our press engine runs on it.

However, they are all but immune from the same. If we spend resources and operatives to try to sow the same kind of discord, Russia and China just publish patriotic bullshit in their press and ignore it. Their end-game should be obvious, they want America to cannibalize itself. China, to be the only, uncontested superpower, Russia, because of old history. I don't really see a path where they don't ultimately succeed.

[WETWRKS]

Obama spent millions in tax dollars to influence the Israeli election. Hillary colluded with the Russians and British to make the fake dossier. The DNC has voted to allow foreigners to vote in our elections. It doesn't matter any more. We have been sold out.

[def90]

The Russian troll farms go beyond the election. They are involved in day to day current events as well. If you see some anti gun meme or pro gun meme or you visit and post in the comments section of an online news article there is a good chance that those memes or some of the article response posts are from a Russian troll farm. After mass shooting events it has been found that these troll accounts will post inflaming info on both sides of the conflict in order to spread division. The photo that was posted that strparted the Covington controversy was from a troll account. These troll accounts have been found to create opposing side demonstrations accross the street from each other. The list goes on and on, the election was just a small side show.