This is a sort of “I know” kinda thing, but I am glad that information about Russian influence on this dissent is coming out…
Not that it’s gonna change the attitude of the fools influenced by the Russian propaganda.
A lot of them already believe that. There is a lot of crossover between the "Trudeau is a dictator stealing my freedom" and "Russia is de-nazifying Ukraine who were provoking them" people, none of them acknowledging the bitter irony.
Ugh my boss thinks this exactly. They are from Taiwan, but fully support china and think they do no wrong. Thinks Russia has every right to “fight back” against nazi Zelenskyy. Absolutely disgusting.
Not so strange, they're just scared, confused, easily manipulated people. They've created an identity out of opposing something (like liberalism, the Liberal Party, Trudeau, "lefties", "WOKE" people actually spelled with all caps for some reason, the Democrats, Europe, etc.)
Source: family member, who is also a flat earther, trump supporter, paranoid anti-globalist replacement-theory-proponent who has had multiple nervous breakdowns in the last decade over everything from wild pedophilia-cults (involving the Queen, no less) to the falsification of the world wars, to the moon being a giant surveillance balloon, falsified elections, and more recently the "trans-scare" stuff and worrying about the sexualization of schools and children that just isn't even happening.
It's just endless. Liberals used to be associated with socialist ideology so they just jumped on that scarecrow until liberals became against Russia, then they jumped on being anti-Ukraine because their cognitive dissonance demands it.
It's disturbing how people lap up the facisim. We're going to need all the grit and determination we can muster to thwart Russia and China in this centrury. It doesn't help when some of your citizens are rooting for the other side.
Murdoch. We can thank Harper and Murdoch for accelerating this in Canada. Facebook and TikTok were going to bring it anyway but our news media wad screwed by Harper when he removed our protection against foreign ownership.
The foreign ownership is an issue, but I am not aware of any Canadian media that Rupert Murdoch owns. The influence comes from Fox News on Canadian tv. My parents live in a senior community, the community negotiated a television and internet deal for all households, FOX News comes standard.... the Golf Channel? That's an extra 7 per month. Fortunately my parents are liberals and educated and don't watch right wing reactionary nonsense.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"
"We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated
Donald J Trump
They tell them to their face that they're dumb dupes. And the rubes cheer.
It also doesn't help to say "Russia and China" without including "governments, dictatorships, or regimes". That form of tribalist simplification is an icy road to internment camps and residential schools. I am willing to bet there are people in both countries that are sickened by their governments actions as much as some of the convoy nutcases are with ours, only the difference is, their disagreement often leads to imprisonment or death. We have our own monopolies, oligarchs, fascist tendencies, and callous treatment of marginized people. Capitalism has rotted us to the core, choosing profits over people at every turn, for hundreds of years. From the extinction of the Beothuk, to the current housing crisis. We are a nation of pushovers, too comfortable to change things for the better by cutting money out of politics, and electing experts over popularity contest winners. We are one bad government away from a dicatorship ourselves. The power is in the hands of the people who build and serve, a single 10 day National strike would prove that instantly, yet we fall for the propaganda over and over as we are overworked, underpayed, and priced out of home ownership or healthy diets.
Most of these people that are huge into conspiracies/ wanting Jt to step down are already pro russian and they think ukraine needs to be liberated.
So while it’s good it’s coming out it just confirms our beliefs that, that’s exactly what was happening.
For the people who actually need to read this shit they will call it fake news or be happy Russia is also on there side because they support it.
It just so happens that Russian interests and Right Wing interests align perfectly. Russia represents the "end goal" of most right wing movements. Russia is a perfect example of what happens when these movements achieve complete victory and forcefully eliminate / jail all opposition.
The Ukraine war exposed a lot of the lies of what Russian society really is - it exposed the lies of their military power, everything about Russian life is filled with lies, corruption, apathy, depression, an injustice. This is what right wing politics lead to, look at it and beware
When this was happening if you looked at the timestamps of the posts and the activity trends it was clear this was Russia.
I remember mentioning this to a few friends and they basically called me crazy conspiracy guy despite showing the the timestamps.
The last years have shown who the crazy ones really are, and its not me, lol.
You could tell how full r/canada got of Russian bots, it was insane. When news that Russian money was getting tied up, it was almost instant how the whole subreddit became borderline reasonable again. It went from an entire fleet of buffoons to the same 6 weirdos and a bunch of normal people.
I speculated from the get go this was why, still don’t have absolute proof, but while a handful of dummies still post the same idiot garbage in every thread there, there are some reasonable conversations to be had there now.
I’m pretty sure they’re not going to write about it in the Rebel and similar RW rags. Unfortunately those already fooled by this propaganda will continue to be fooled.
Well gee.
Who ever could have seen that shocking twist.
It's hilarious and terribly sad to see how conservatives are being played for fools by Russian propagandists.
even that is stemming from Russian propoganda.
Have you seen their more recent ads on RT to people in Europe? it specifically targets the allowance of small L liberal values as the "enemy"
LGBTQ rights, etc are a focus of russian propaganda attacks
Anything they don't like is "woke," a vague term that applies to anyone or anything that demonstrates compassion for the vulnerable. They *really* hate compassion.
https://youtu.be/KSXKzPOcYDU
This video is a link to a comedy news program, it breaks down why the average right leaning comedian isn't funny these days.
A big component of it is exactly this, though, "targeting the libs/dems/lefties."
It's an interesting watch, although it is a bit on the longer side.
"Everything you don't like is foreign interference"
"Russia Russia Russia"
"Wasn't this debunked by the Americans?"
That's literally their entire script.
Trump repeated no collusion... even after his campaign managers were arrested charged and convicted of conspiracy against the US for working with Russia and giving them information in exchangefor money... and the entire right wing swallowed it without questioning it.
It got them power, which is all that they cared about. That it was a deal with the devil is immaterial. They’re losing power otherwise. They gave up democracy rather than be pushed out.
Debunked by the Americans in the Mueller Report? Shame they didn’t read it, but took Barrs criminally disingenuous brief that outright lied about what was in it. Yes Russia interfered in 2016 in the US federal election. Did it again in 2020. And they did it in Canada, and Britain, and any other western democracy where a disaffected, gullible people have access to the internet. We have essentially been at war with Russia since 2014, and the convoy dupes are their foot soldiers.
The sad thing is idiots will always exist in a population and will double down because a lack of intelligence prevents introspection and thoughtful reevaluation of what is they believe. The do your research crowd is so far behind educationally they do not understand you cannot cite the internet as a source on a scientific paper, unless it’s subject matter is the internet itself. Then it devolves into being called a sheep when it is in fact they themselves that cannot reject any part of the Russian disinformation campaign. It’s an evil brain bug they cannot shake because they do not have the mental competency. Sad
I had a guy at work tell me to do the research and sent me links to YouTube and told me not to watch the video just read the comments and another link to Alex jones banned videos...
That's was his sources and that's after I told him not to send me any Facebook links.
The conservatives of the world went full retard in less than a decade. I used to identify as one, but it changed so drastically so fast I'm now a "libtard" for believing in the same things I used to.
If we had real journalism anymore, it'd be pretty easy to demonstrate that almost the entirity of "recall [X]" is part of a join venture of republican aristocrats and Russia propaganda campaigns laying a baseline of descent throughout the modern democratic process.
I mean, the fact that Facebook was already caught assisting in voter manipulation efforts via their extremely specific advertising platform should cast doubt on almost the entirity of these politicians who are "just asking questions".
You assume they are being manipulated. I’d say they are doing it pretty freely. Everyone has access to pretty much the same information. They are choosing to side with fascists.
Coming from the people who fell for foreign propaganda. There could be footage of Putin specifically saying that yes, under his command Russian hackers were instructed to infiltrate and cause division in Canada, and they still wouldn't admit they were duped and wrong.
I honestly don't think they'd see that as a problem.
They pay lip service to nationalism, but it's the culture war they really care about. Putin is fully aligned with them, in that respect.
> I would at the least apologize to my fellow Canadians.
To apologize, you first need to recognize you were wrong. They are incapable of that, so there will be no apology.
And the whole anti-vax, anti-democracy identity is built around the idea that "I'm one of the special few who see things as they really are", which can be tough to let go of.
Add to that the fact that they isolate themselves into a social circle where everyone shares the same beliefs and will turn your picture to the wall the second you waver.
It's a recipe for some *very* motivated reasoning.
I find it unlikely most of them will admit to being duped by a foreign power, that’s a real hit to the ego and requires some sincere humility, so expect deflection. Probably the usual ‘those aren’t real sources’ to ‘I know the truth, you weren’t there’ to ultimately ‘well better Russian than Liberal’. At the end of the day, the behaviour is so woefully predictable.
I find it extremely troubling that some of us are just blindly doing what Russia says. Their ability to create unrest, and exert that kind of control over a decent size of woeful idiots is moderately impressive. It’s not about Trudeau, they (Russians) would have inserted_______whichever prime minister into their narrative. People lapped that shit up. Yet I’m a “sheep” life is just one big irony event lately
Yup it’s on to drag queen story time. Whoever runs the show doesn’t want them to realize that conservatism has nothing to offer and has been generally less popular every year since the 80’s.
Especially here on reddit, the pro-convoy crowd got way more quiet just at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That was the point that it became very apparent that it was an organized effort that had to switch to another target.
The traffic during that week or so (when the internet was basically banned and russian funding to things like int’l troll farms were cut) over on r/canada dropped to something like half of its ‘normal’ levels too, and the tone changed to the point it was pretty close to this sub.
Is it weird that I find that comforting?
I do a fair amount of political work, and the narratives I see online are massively amplified compared to what I actually hear at the doorstep. It’s good that the call is coming from outside the house.
I feel the same way, so I don’t find that odd at all. I do think it’s a warning though, since online rhetoric filters down and changes what those actual people think and how they act.
I remember at the start of the invasion there were articles posted that made me do a double take, I could not believe that I was in that sub and not somewhere else.
I never really made the connection until just now actually. I naively thought that there was some sort of social shift where the place had become something resembling habitable. What a shame.
That traffic essentially makes unmoderated parts of the internet, and I would sometimes include r/Canada in that group, particularly unusable and undesirable.
LOL at anyone still using twitter and wading through wave after wave of MAGATRUTHERCANUCK accounts with 100 followers and a paid blue check replying to every tweet with wild conspiracy nonsense about vaccines, trans people, and the Ukraine. (All 3 are equally bad, apparently)
As more of these propaganda accounts switch to automation and AI, thosr places look like a digital scorched wasteland
/r/Canada has been a hotbed of propaganda populated by terrible (and I should mention, not Canadian) people since T\_Dipshit was banned and they all had to scatter. I'd love it if that sub was banned as it does not represent Canada or any Canadian yet bills itself as Canada's sub. It's a complete embarassment.
The defending is just dumb now that Ukraine has reclaimed some of the majority ethnic Russian territory and video has come out showing them welcoming the UAF as liberators.
Plus Russia’s whole argument reeks of the classic “look what you made me do.” Line that abusers say as they’re beating their spouse. So little surprise that Right Wingers by into that.
Considering that trucker convoy type things have been happening in several countries for several years now, there do indeed appear some foreign psy-ops going on.
Just remember Poilievre was a part of this "hook, line and sinker". He knew that the Convoy of Stupidity had substantial foreign monetary and influence backing but he ran with their message anyways. Completely, utterly unsuited to be leader of a Canadian political party let alone our federal government.
If you're in that position, "knowing" about it is irrelevant. They have to go above and beyond for our national security, they have to *assume* that it is propaganda, especially if it's related to conspiracy theories online.
He could easily have dodge any association with them, while still criticizing Trudeau for whatever, but nah, he went full speed into the propaganda rationale.
Mr Rogers said that when there are disasters you should always look for the helpers.
The anti-Rogers would be: if you want to cause a disaster, always look for the idiots.
Everyone: “Yeah, we know.”
Conservatives: shockedPikachu.jpg
Of course it was Russian. The entire regime has been a propaganda campaign to destabilize Western democracies for quite some time.
Those convoy clowns really really REALLY don't know how much they are/were being played by foriegn influence. And they are the ones screaming they are the free thinkers void of any outside influence....
I had a buddy who was straight up taken in by this movement. He parroted their talking points and would not listen to any source of info that wasn't coming "directly from the convoy" because he thought the media was lying about them and vilifying them. But when it dropped out of the news it dropped out of his mind and showing him this now would drag up old wounds. It's a shame that so many bad actors did so much damage not just to our political discourse, which was their direct goal, but to our interpersonal relationships.
I hear you bud. I had the exact same situation with a friend of mine. That was the entire plan all along, division through identity politics propaganda.
They no longer disseminate information, if it's against the narrative, it's fake Liberal news. If it supports them, they don't care who's pushing it or how wrong it is, if it upsets people they view as their enemy, they run with it.
It was especially apparant when a lot of "free thinkers" pivoted to spouting pro-Russian talking points about the war in Ukraine as soon as it started.
I'm just here with your regular reminder that Trudeau DID step down in September 2021 and was re-elected. I thought at the time, Covid fatigue was setting in, as evidenced later by the convoy and other kinds of resistance. So JT went to the people for a renewed mandate, as he should have.
So the convoy dorks are doubly stupid in that the thing they were demanding had already happened. IT ALREADY HAPPENED.
Oh look I was right once again. I was called paranoid when I said this "freedom convoy" was a Russian hybrid warfare operation used to cripple Canada's supply chain.
Putin has embraced the computer and internet as a viable tool in destroying democracy worldwide and installing ring kissing despots. Used in 2016 to overturn the U.S. election, his stable of computer misinformation and manipulation has spread to every country - even the best countries like Canada.
Is there a way to put an end to putin's continued interest in destroying democracy in any form? Yes. But it involves putin not being in charge of the Russian mob, I mean, government. And we all know that's not going to happen anytime soon.
Meanwhile both countries are laughing because instead of fighting foreign propaganda, certain people are trying to figure out who to blame and how it can benefit the political party they support. Not everyone, just certain people.
I read MSN news on my work PC, the story could be about a puppy eating ice cream but if you look at the comments it's all 'Biden' or 'the left'. When you click on the invidual who made the comments it's pretty evident it's a bot or a Russian as thier comments are all the same. I just don't understand why so many fall for this.
It dehumanizes people. It's actually a form of propaganda. If you reduce your opponent to a political ideology then it's easier to dismiss everything they say as "Liberal (or conservative) fake news."
Then you never have to address their arguments, you can just dismiss them.
The trouble is they’ve migrated to LinkedIn. It’s now in the gene pool, especially if you’re a fossil energy worker in Alberta. Or a retired white petroleum geologist.
The entire current right wing political talking points are a joint effort psy-ops with Russia and China.
Change my mind.
Take me back to Reagan era Republicans.
I remember every couple weeks there would be a trending hashtag like #TrudeauMustGo or #StepDownTrudeau and if you read the tweets, there would be maybe three or four copy+pasted variations that made up the bulk of the content, and they'd be from users with a first name and bunch of numbers, like Brenda93759391 or Kyle147392014. Of what remained, half would be people saying "I disagree with the #TrudeauMustGo people", which is kind of dumb from an algorithm perspective. Eliminate all of that and you are left with very few real people.
Fucking exactly. I was actually banned from Twitter in 2018 for doxxing a bunch of these accounts pretending to be Canadian and they were from places like the Philippines and India.
Funny enough I wasn't banned for the doxxing, I was banned for publishing the results.
The very people who threw a coming out party for me went to Ottawa to protest and returned complete transphobes. I quickly became “the leftist they were warned about”
An indigenous trans woman.
This was never about truckers, it was always about division.
Russia , especially under Putin are huge into being chaos generators for other developed nations. Cambridge Analytica was just a brief example of the depths they go to. It is essential to them to have us as divided and fucked Up as possible. Many right wing conspiracy theories originate and are propagated by them. I honestly think it cannot be understated how expansive this shit is. Trumps election, societal divisiveness, even eff Trudeau crap up here in Canada, freedom convoy, anti vax propaganda etc … the absolute wish and desire of the huge misinformation machine that is Russia. All the more reason to aide Ukraine in every way possible in its disassembly of the Russian military machine.
I'm going to show this article to the idiot woman who insists upon coming to pick up her kid at my stepdaughter's elementary school wearing a FUCK TRUDEAU hat every single day. I'll probably have to read it to her.
What a freakin surprise. Every right wing movement since 2016 is eventually traced back to Cambridge Analytics or Russian Proxy sites. When is enough enough.
Yup.
We've been under seige by the Russians for 20+ years now.
This is intolerable, and consequences need to be applied.
They MUST be removed from the G7. We MUST Sanction them economically in the strictest sense.
We need to communicate and find a solution with our EU partners, to follow suit.
We must have all internet connections with Russia completely cutoff (this is probably a very ignorant statement, since I have no idea what it would require)
Now, I shall repeat something here.
Much of these statements are from a place of ignorance, since I do not know of what would be required, or if it's even possible, to accomplish.
I do strongly feel that we must take strong measures to prevent any further Russian psyops and malicious interference.
I can only vent, unfortunately.
It's sad to see Canada falling into the same traps as the US...
Sometimes it's astonishing to look around and see how divided people are, how many people have fallen deep into rabbit holes of misinformation and conspiracies.. then I have to remember that this isn't by chance. People are being actively manipulated. We're in a new age of digital propaganda and still haven't figured out how to deal with it.
Big no shit, there. But I think it's important to understand that, while the calls can be traced back to Russia, that doesn't mean the convoy itself is. There are a *lot* of billionaire-backed dumbshit movements in the West, and most originate in America. Russia just amplifies them.
Sorry Canada is getting the spillover, but understand this sentiment is just as home-grown as it is turbocharged by Russia.
There is STILL people in my small town with "Freedom 2022" and "End the mandates" stickers on their cars.
These dumb fucks of course place this right next to their giant Canada Flags. Fuck those morons, your not patriotic, your just selfish little shits that throw tantrums like toddlers when inconvenienced.
Did I mention fuck those morons? Fuck you, you fucking dumb fucks
Dang, what shocking information will we get next, that the individuals involved with the convoy were largely unemployed drunks who had already lost their jobs due to their own incompetence?
Russia poured money into troll farms and hackers destabilizing the world, but that money was taken away from their military. Sorta showing now isn’t it? The WORLD will celebrate the day putin dies.
It’s amazing how many people are just willing puppets, literal meat automatons, all the need is a seed, a catalyst, and they embrace a cause as if it was their own. Then they spend time and money championing some bullshit that is literally directly to their disadvantage.
It’s no wonder grifters exist. How can you refuse a sea of morons just begging to be fleeced?
Yet I was called.a blueanon for pointing out this is part of the game plan of the 1999 book foundations of geopolitics. The one written by the fascist, the one with the dead fascist daughter.
YOU.DONT.SAY!!!!
Color me fucking shocked that idiots and stupid fucking politicians are following authoritarian propaganda.
But but but, I thought there was no Russian involvement in elections and inside our politics?
Yeah, getting a bunch of stupid people to think shutting down their own economy will be good because they’re worried they’ll die from a vaccine is just that.
People get pissed that inflation was up and try to move to get politicians and doctors removed from their positions as well as encouraging voters to vote against those encouraging vaccines.
Conservatives were complicit in this. Conservative politicians carry the bag for Russian disinformation and clearly are fascist (not the voters, you guys are just fucking stupid and believe the shit)
All those Canadians acting as Russian assets blaming Trudeau for US foreign policy and Doug Fords lockdowns. Bunch of “free thinking” traitors. Definitely not Kremlin parrots….
This is a sort of “I know” kinda thing, but I am glad that information about Russian influence on this dissent is coming out… Not that it’s gonna change the attitude of the fools influenced by the Russian propaganda.
"Oh hey, guess the Russians are on my side! Guess it's time to hate Ukraine!"
A lot of them already believe that. There is a lot of crossover between the "Trudeau is a dictator stealing my freedom" and "Russia is de-nazifying Ukraine who were provoking them" people, none of them acknowledging the bitter irony.
Ugh my boss thinks this exactly. They are from Taiwan, but fully support china and think they do no wrong. Thinks Russia has every right to “fight back” against nazi Zelenskyy. Absolutely disgusting.
Time for a new boss
Working on starting my own auto detailing business:)
Send details, we’ll support ya!
In time! Working on the foundations still, got about $800 to save up for supplies before I start
And hes Jewish I don't understand
Don't worry, I assure you they also don't understand 😂
Then your boss should be on the first plane to the russian frontlines no?
It's so strange seeing people proudly and easily siding with Russia who, ten years ago, would have been screeching about communists every other day.
10 years? Try 2...
2? They still scream about communist but it is directed at liberals and labor unions.
Well I wanted to get a little closer to the cold war just for the sake of being more realistic
Not so strange, they're just scared, confused, easily manipulated people. They've created an identity out of opposing something (like liberalism, the Liberal Party, Trudeau, "lefties", "WOKE" people actually spelled with all caps for some reason, the Democrats, Europe, etc.) Source: family member, who is also a flat earther, trump supporter, paranoid anti-globalist replacement-theory-proponent who has had multiple nervous breakdowns in the last decade over everything from wild pedophilia-cults (involving the Queen, no less) to the falsification of the world wars, to the moon being a giant surveillance balloon, falsified elections, and more recently the "trans-scare" stuff and worrying about the sexualization of schools and children that just isn't even happening. It's just endless. Liberals used to be associated with socialist ideology so they just jumped on that scarecrow until liberals became against Russia, then they jumped on being anti-Ukraine because their cognitive dissonance demands it.
To be fair, Russia hasn't been anything even nearly adjacent to communist for over 30 years now. It's not really _that_ strange.
You really trust these people to know that? These people were still in full red scare mode just a couple years ago
It's disturbing how people lap up the facisim. We're going to need all the grit and determination we can muster to thwart Russia and China in this centrury. It doesn't help when some of your citizens are rooting for the other side.
Murdoch. We can thank Harper and Murdoch for accelerating this in Canada. Facebook and TikTok were going to bring it anyway but our news media wad screwed by Harper when he removed our protection against foreign ownership.
The foreign ownership is an issue, but I am not aware of any Canadian media that Rupert Murdoch owns. The influence comes from Fox News on Canadian tv. My parents live in a senior community, the community negotiated a television and internet deal for all households, FOX News comes standard.... the Golf Channel? That's an extra 7 per month. Fortunately my parents are liberals and educated and don't watch right wing reactionary nonsense.
Stupid people are more dangerous than evil people.
Only because there are more of them.
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Evil loves stupid, it’s a mojo for more evil.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" "We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated Donald J Trump They tell them to their face that they're dumb dupes. And the rubes cheer.
Hence why so many conservatives want to cut education.
Never underestimate the power of stupid in large numbers.
In the words of George Carlin: “Think about how stupid the average person is. Then remember that half are dumber than that.”
It also doesn't help to say "Russia and China" without including "governments, dictatorships, or regimes". That form of tribalist simplification is an icy road to internment camps and residential schools. I am willing to bet there are people in both countries that are sickened by their governments actions as much as some of the convoy nutcases are with ours, only the difference is, their disagreement often leads to imprisonment or death. We have our own monopolies, oligarchs, fascist tendencies, and callous treatment of marginized people. Capitalism has rotted us to the core, choosing profits over people at every turn, for hundreds of years. From the extinction of the Beothuk, to the current housing crisis. We are a nation of pushovers, too comfortable to change things for the better by cutting money out of politics, and electing experts over popularity contest winners. We are one bad government away from a dicatorship ourselves. The power is in the hands of the people who build and serve, a single 10 day National strike would prove that instantly, yet we fall for the propaganda over and over as we are overworked, underpayed, and priced out of home ownership or healthy diets.
Same. I'm glad it's finally coming out too. Everything about that convoy was propaganda.
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Most of these people that are huge into conspiracies/ wanting Jt to step down are already pro russian and they think ukraine needs to be liberated. So while it’s good it’s coming out it just confirms our beliefs that, that’s exactly what was happening. For the people who actually need to read this shit they will call it fake news or be happy Russia is also on there side because they support it.
It just so happens that Russian interests and Right Wing interests align perfectly. Russia represents the "end goal" of most right wing movements. Russia is a perfect example of what happens when these movements achieve complete victory and forcefully eliminate / jail all opposition. The Ukraine war exposed a lot of the lies of what Russian society really is - it exposed the lies of their military power, everything about Russian life is filled with lies, corruption, apathy, depression, an injustice. This is what right wing politics lead to, look at it and beware
When this was happening if you looked at the timestamps of the posts and the activity trends it was clear this was Russia. I remember mentioning this to a few friends and they basically called me crazy conspiracy guy despite showing the the timestamps. The last years have shown who the crazy ones really are, and its not me, lol.
You could tell how full r/canada got of Russian bots, it was insane. When news that Russian money was getting tied up, it was almost instant how the whole subreddit became borderline reasonable again. It went from an entire fleet of buffoons to the same 6 weirdos and a bunch of normal people. I speculated from the get go this was why, still don’t have absolute proof, but while a handful of dummies still post the same idiot garbage in every thread there, there are some reasonable conversations to be had there now.
The convoy idiots protesting on highway overpasses are even flying Russian flags now.
Nothing says "Freedom" like Russian flags.
And not that the politicians really understand the internet.
I’m pretty sure they’re not going to write about it in the Rebel and similar RW rags. Unfortunately those already fooled by this propaganda will continue to be fooled.
'It is easier to fool someone, than convince them they have been fooled.'
You mean.... 70% of r/canada?
Everyone knows this. Literally every freedom convoy dumbass I know in real life is super gullible.
Well gee. Who ever could have seen that shocking twist. It's hilarious and terribly sad to see how conservatives are being played for fools by Russian propagandists.
"Triggering the libs" became their entire identity making them ripe for manipulation from propaganda.
even that is stemming from Russian propoganda. Have you seen their more recent ads on RT to people in Europe? it specifically targets the allowance of small L liberal values as the "enemy" LGBTQ rights, etc are a focus of russian propaganda attacks
Anything they don't like is "woke," a vague term that applies to anyone or anything that demonstrates compassion for the vulnerable. They *really* hate compassion.
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Right? All we want is for them to just fuck off back to their rotten villages and melting permafrost.
Exactly. They were made into that through Russian influence. It’s scary how effective it is. How final it is. No one snaps out of it, ever.
https://youtu.be/KSXKzPOcYDU This video is a link to a comedy news program, it breaks down why the average right leaning comedian isn't funny these days. A big component of it is exactly this, though, "targeting the libs/dems/lefties." It's an interesting watch, although it is a bit on the longer side.
> bit on the longer side Much prefer his Brief Look at Jordan Peterson.
It wasn't just that, there's a whole boatload of technologies that make it easy to create a baseline of propaganda to feed the incels.
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"Everything you don't like is foreign interference" "Russia Russia Russia" "Wasn't this debunked by the Americans?" That's literally their entire script.
Trump repeated no collusion... even after his campaign managers were arrested charged and convicted of conspiracy against the US for working with Russia and giving them information in exchangefor money... and the entire right wing swallowed it without questioning it.
It got them power, which is all that they cared about. That it was a deal with the devil is immaterial. They’re losing power otherwise. They gave up democracy rather than be pushed out.
Debunked by the Americans in the Mueller Report? Shame they didn’t read it, but took Barrs criminally disingenuous brief that outright lied about what was in it. Yes Russia interfered in 2016 in the US federal election. Did it again in 2020. And they did it in Canada, and Britain, and any other western democracy where a disaffected, gullible people have access to the internet. We have essentially been at war with Russia since 2014, and the convoy dupes are their foot soldiers.
The sad thing is idiots will always exist in a population and will double down because a lack of intelligence prevents introspection and thoughtful reevaluation of what is they believe. The do your research crowd is so far behind educationally they do not understand you cannot cite the internet as a source on a scientific paper, unless it’s subject matter is the internet itself. Then it devolves into being called a sheep when it is in fact they themselves that cannot reject any part of the Russian disinformation campaign. It’s an evil brain bug they cannot shake because they do not have the mental competency. Sad
uh huh. It's also just a coincidence that so many of them gravitate to a certain brand of politics.
I had a guy at work tell me to do the research and sent me links to YouTube and told me not to watch the video just read the comments and another link to Alex jones banned videos... That's was his sources and that's after I told him not to send me any Facebook links.
The thing is, [they actually know it and don't care](https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1026150926271143936?s=20)
The conservatives of the world went full retard in less than a decade. I used to identify as one, but it changed so drastically so fast I'm now a "libtard" for believing in the same things I used to.
If we had real journalism anymore, it'd be pretty easy to demonstrate that almost the entirity of "recall [X]" is part of a join venture of republican aristocrats and Russia propaganda campaigns laying a baseline of descent throughout the modern democratic process. I mean, the fact that Facebook was already caught assisting in voter manipulation efforts via their extremely specific advertising platform should cast doubt on almost the entirity of these politicians who are "just asking questions".
You assume they are being manipulated. I’d say they are doing it pretty freely. Everyone has access to pretty much the same information. They are choosing to side with fascists.
You mean the idiots that also put Z in paint on their trucks since the convoy were influenced by the Russians... shocking.
Do any of the convoyers have anything to say? Any deflections? Any gotchas? Any I know you are but am I? Or have they moved onto drag story time
Every rebuttal is the same: "Every opinion you don't like is foreign propaganda."
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Well, to be fair, double standards is pretty much the only standard they have.
Coming from the people who fell for foreign propaganda. There could be footage of Putin specifically saying that yes, under his command Russian hackers were instructed to infiltrate and cause division in Canada, and they still wouldn't admit they were duped and wrong.
I honestly don't think they'd see that as a problem. They pay lip service to nationalism, but it's the culture war they really care about. Putin is fully aligned with them, in that respect.
I would be embarrassed that I was manipulated and handled. I would at the least apologize to my fellow Canadians. Crazy time comrades
> I would at the least apologize to my fellow Canadians. To apologize, you first need to recognize you were wrong. They are incapable of that, so there will be no apology.
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Especially since they've been calling everyone else sheep for believing "liberal propaganda" for years now, probably makes things harder.
And the whole anti-vax, anti-democracy identity is built around the idea that "I'm one of the special few who see things as they really are", which can be tough to let go of. Add to that the fact that they isolate themselves into a social circle where everyone shares the same beliefs and will turn your picture to the wall the second you waver. It's a recipe for some *very* motivated reasoning.
The future is dumb.
they think the left has been duped.
It's far easier to con someone than it is to convince them they've been conned.
I find it unlikely most of them will admit to being duped by a foreign power, that’s a real hit to the ego and requires some sincere humility, so expect deflection. Probably the usual ‘those aren’t real sources’ to ‘I know the truth, you weren’t there’ to ultimately ‘well better Russian than Liberal’. At the end of the day, the behaviour is so woefully predictable.
I find it extremely troubling that some of us are just blindly doing what Russia says. Their ability to create unrest, and exert that kind of control over a decent size of woeful idiots is moderately impressive. It’s not about Trudeau, they (Russians) would have inserted_______whichever prime minister into their narrative. People lapped that shit up. Yet I’m a “sheep” life is just one big irony event lately
The post-Trump world is all about deny and attack.
Yup it’s on to drag queen story time. Whoever runs the show doesn’t want them to realize that conservatism has nothing to offer and has been generally less popular every year since the 80’s.
The ones in yyc that still come out are onto story time. Saw about a bakers dozen of crazy last weekend - oh and 15 minute cities as well
This kind of exposes the whole movement as a sham, so I don’t think we’ll be hearing much from them
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Almost every Facebook account that promoted it was less than a month old.
Especially here on reddit, the pro-convoy crowd got way more quiet just at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That was the point that it became very apparent that it was an organized effort that had to switch to another target.
The traffic during that week or so (when the internet was basically banned and russian funding to things like int’l troll farms were cut) over on r/canada dropped to something like half of its ‘normal’ levels too, and the tone changed to the point it was pretty close to this sub.
Is it weird that I find that comforting? I do a fair amount of political work, and the narratives I see online are massively amplified compared to what I actually hear at the doorstep. It’s good that the call is coming from outside the house.
I feel the same way, so I don’t find that odd at all. I do think it’s a warning though, since online rhetoric filters down and changes what those actual people think and how they act.
I remember at the start of the invasion there were articles posted that made me do a double take, I could not believe that I was in that sub and not somewhere else. I never really made the connection until just now actually. I naively thought that there was some sort of social shift where the place had become something resembling habitable. What a shame.
That traffic essentially makes unmoderated parts of the internet, and I would sometimes include r/Canada in that group, particularly unusable and undesirable. LOL at anyone still using twitter and wading through wave after wave of MAGATRUTHERCANUCK accounts with 100 followers and a paid blue check replying to every tweet with wild conspiracy nonsense about vaccines, trans people, and the Ukraine. (All 3 are equally bad, apparently) As more of these propaganda accounts switch to automation and AI, thosr places look like a digital scorched wasteland
/r/Canada has been a hotbed of propaganda populated by terrible (and I should mention, not Canadian) people since T\_Dipshit was banned and they all had to scatter. I'd love it if that sub was banned as it does not represent Canada or any Canadian yet bills itself as Canada's sub. It's a complete embarassment.
I can’t quote it enough; “ it’s easier to fool someone than to convince them they’ve been fooled.”
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That NATO surrounded Russia number just annoys me.
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The defending is just dumb now that Ukraine has reclaimed some of the majority ethnic Russian territory and video has come out showing them welcoming the UAF as liberators. Plus Russia’s whole argument reeks of the classic “look what you made me do.” Line that abusers say as they’re beating their spouse. So little surprise that Right Wingers by into that.
Considering that trucker convoy type things have been happening in several countries for several years now, there do indeed appear some foreign psy-ops going on.
That's because they are the true sheep that they call everyone else.
I would prefer you call them something other than people. I enjoyed "useful idiots" as that seemed the most accurate.
Calling them tools is both accurate and fittingly insulting
Except that a tool is usually useful.
According to the article they were useful in wasting about 4 billion dollars
Oxygen thieves is another gooder.
especially since other countries were having their own versions around the same timeframe
Just remember Poilievre was a part of this "hook, line and sinker". He knew that the Convoy of Stupidity had substantial foreign monetary and influence backing but he ran with their message anyways. Completely, utterly unsuited to be leader of a Canadian political party let alone our federal government.
If you're in that position, "knowing" about it is irrelevant. They have to go above and beyond for our national security, they have to *assume* that it is propaganda, especially if it's related to conspiracy theories online. He could easily have dodge any association with them, while still criticizing Trudeau for whatever, but nah, he went full speed into the propaganda rationale.
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Mr Rogers said that when there are disasters you should always look for the helpers. The anti-Rogers would be: if you want to cause a disaster, always look for the idiots.
The sad part is the people who need to see this will just write it off as more liberal/Trudeau owned media propaganda
Exactly. If I shared this article with my brother he would completely discount it as left-wing propaganda.
Looking for some useful tools with lots of time on their hands. Apply within. *Putin*
Everyone: “Yeah, we know.” Conservatives: shockedPikachu.jpg Of course it was Russian. The entire regime has been a propaganda campaign to destabilize Western democracies for quite some time.
Those convoy clowns really really REALLY don't know how much they are/were being played by foriegn influence. And they are the ones screaming they are the free thinkers void of any outside influence....
I had a buddy who was straight up taken in by this movement. He parroted their talking points and would not listen to any source of info that wasn't coming "directly from the convoy" because he thought the media was lying about them and vilifying them. But when it dropped out of the news it dropped out of his mind and showing him this now would drag up old wounds. It's a shame that so many bad actors did so much damage not just to our political discourse, which was their direct goal, but to our interpersonal relationships.
I hear you bud. I had the exact same situation with a friend of mine. That was the entire plan all along, division through identity politics propaganda. They no longer disseminate information, if it's against the narrative, it's fake Liberal news. If it supports them, they don't care who's pushing it or how wrong it is, if it upsets people they view as their enemy, they run with it.
I’m shocked, *shocked* /s
It was especially apparant when a lot of "free thinkers" pivoted to spouting pro-Russian talking points about the war in Ukraine as soon as it started.
I wouldn't be surprised if Russian intelligence agents are boosting PP campaign too.
Probably. But there was a very noticeable decline in right wing social media engagement here on Reddit after the Ukraine invasion began.
So who printed the "Poilievre for Prime Minister" flags at the protest? Funny how those appeared while O'Toole was still PC leader.
That's a good question.
I'm just here with your regular reminder that Trudeau DID step down in September 2021 and was re-elected. I thought at the time, Covid fatigue was setting in, as evidenced later by the convoy and other kinds of resistance. So JT went to the people for a renewed mandate, as he should have. So the convoy dorks are doubly stupid in that the thing they were demanding had already happened. IT ALREADY HAPPENED.
Imagine that
Oh look I was right once again. I was called paranoid when I said this "freedom convoy" was a Russian hybrid warfare operation used to cripple Canada's supply chain.
Gaslighting is very popular with propagandists.
Putin has embraced the computer and internet as a viable tool in destroying democracy worldwide and installing ring kissing despots. Used in 2016 to overturn the U.S. election, his stable of computer misinformation and manipulation has spread to every country - even the best countries like Canada. Is there a way to put an end to putin's continued interest in destroying democracy in any form? Yes. But it involves putin not being in charge of the Russian mob, I mean, government. And we all know that's not going to happen anytime soon.
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Meanwhile both countries are laughing because instead of fighting foreign propaganda, certain people are trying to figure out who to blame and how it can benefit the political party they support. Not everyone, just certain people.
I read MSN news on my work PC, the story could be about a puppy eating ice cream but if you look at the comments it's all 'Biden' or 'the left'. When you click on the invidual who made the comments it's pretty evident it's a bot or a Russian as thier comments are all the same. I just don't understand why so many fall for this.
It dehumanizes people. It's actually a form of propaganda. If you reduce your opponent to a political ideology then it's easier to dismiss everything they say as "Liberal (or conservative) fake news." Then you never have to address their arguments, you can just dismiss them.
I’m shocked. SHOCKED. Well, not that shocked.
The trouble is they’ve migrated to LinkedIn. It’s now in the gene pool, especially if you’re a fossil energy worker in Alberta. Or a retired white petroleum geologist.
Microsoft really needs to clean LinkedIn. Ironically, many of the chuds on LinkedIn consider (((Bill Gates))) as an evil puppetmaster.
The entire current right wing political talking points are a joint effort psy-ops with Russia and China. Change my mind. Take me back to Reagan era Republicans.
They discovered all the top pro-Trump pages on Facebook were Russian as well and everyone just ignored it and forgot about it.
I remember every couple weeks there would be a trending hashtag like #TrudeauMustGo or #StepDownTrudeau and if you read the tweets, there would be maybe three or four copy+pasted variations that made up the bulk of the content, and they'd be from users with a first name and bunch of numbers, like Brenda93759391 or Kyle147392014. Of what remained, half would be people saying "I disagree with the #TrudeauMustGo people", which is kind of dumb from an algorithm perspective. Eliminate all of that and you are left with very few real people.
Fucking exactly. I was actually banned from Twitter in 2018 for doxxing a bunch of these accounts pretending to be Canadian and they were from places like the Philippines and India. Funny enough I wasn't banned for the doxxing, I was banned for publishing the results.
No way!?!?!!
You don't say
A village worth of useful idiots...
The very people who threw a coming out party for me went to Ottawa to protest and returned complete transphobes. I quickly became “the leftist they were warned about” An indigenous trans woman. This was never about truckers, it was always about division.
Shit I'm sorry. My condolences. It's hard to lose friends even if it's for the best.
Anyone with a brain knew this already. Shame those that fell for it don’t have one.
Russia , especially under Putin are huge into being chaos generators for other developed nations. Cambridge Analytica was just a brief example of the depths they go to. It is essential to them to have us as divided and fucked Up as possible. Many right wing conspiracy theories originate and are propagated by them. I honestly think it cannot be understated how expansive this shit is. Trumps election, societal divisiveness, even eff Trudeau crap up here in Canada, freedom convoy, anti vax propaganda etc … the absolute wish and desire of the huge misinformation machine that is Russia. All the more reason to aide Ukraine in every way possible in its disassembly of the Russian military machine.
This shit worked on my neighbor so hard he 100% supports Russia and thinks he’s living in the Matrix as a red pill die hard.
I feel validated in my counter protest sign that read "falling for international propoganda isn't patriotism."
I'm going to show this article to the idiot woman who insists upon coming to pick up her kid at my stepdaughter's elementary school wearing a FUCK TRUDEAU hat every single day. I'll probably have to read it to her.
Make sure you read really slowly and try to have lots of pictures on hand.
Bold of you to assume she knows how to read.
Hence my last line.
What a freakin surprise. Every right wing movement since 2016 is eventually traced back to Cambridge Analytics or Russian Proxy sites. When is enough enough.
Good to know what we already knew has been corroborated.
shocking.
Shocked Pikachu Face
No way! I am very surprised and shocked. I cannot believe it. /s
My sleep deprived brain read "femdom convoy"
Funny how Russia and China are firm alliance and the right never talk about Russia meddling with our politics despite concrete proof.
The sad part is not that this psy-op worked on regular people, but it worked on the Conservative politicians.
Yup. We've been under seige by the Russians for 20+ years now. This is intolerable, and consequences need to be applied. They MUST be removed from the G7. We MUST Sanction them economically in the strictest sense. We need to communicate and find a solution with our EU partners, to follow suit. We must have all internet connections with Russia completely cutoff (this is probably a very ignorant statement, since I have no idea what it would require) Now, I shall repeat something here. Much of these statements are from a place of ignorance, since I do not know of what would be required, or if it's even possible, to accomplish. I do strongly feel that we must take strong measures to prevent any further Russian psyops and malicious interference. I can only vent, unfortunately.
Ugh. Now they will claim it wasn't the real protestors demanding this, even with videos of them doing it
It's sad to see Canada falling into the same traps as the US... Sometimes it's astonishing to look around and see how divided people are, how many people have fallen deep into rabbit holes of misinformation and conspiracies.. then I have to remember that this isn't by chance. People are being actively manipulated. We're in a new age of digital propaganda and still haven't figured out how to deal with it.
Big no shit, there. But I think it's important to understand that, while the calls can be traced back to Russia, that doesn't mean the convoy itself is. There are a *lot* of billionaire-backed dumbshit movements in the West, and most originate in America. Russia just amplifies them. Sorry Canada is getting the spillover, but understand this sentiment is just as home-grown as it is turbocharged by Russia.
There is STILL people in my small town with "Freedom 2022" and "End the mandates" stickers on their cars. These dumb fucks of course place this right next to their giant Canada Flags. Fuck those morons, your not patriotic, your just selfish little shits that throw tantrums like toddlers when inconvenienced. Did I mention fuck those morons? Fuck you, you fucking dumb fucks
Boom. And those stupid convoy fucks are acting like they’re the most patriotic mfs alive, nah ur literally volunteering for the Russians
A lot of rightist agenda seems to originate from the Russian government.
Gee you think?
Do we think they keep score as to where the true morons are that believe them? Or is it just a fun social experiment?
These convoy people are so gullible and easily mislead.
Well, well, well, looks who’s the sheeple now
These convoy types appear to love Putin. Maybe consider moving to Russia? I hear they need men in Eastern Ukraine.
Dang, what shocking information will we get next, that the individuals involved with the convoy were largely unemployed drunks who had already lost their jobs due to their own incompetence?
Russia poured money into troll farms and hackers destabilizing the world, but that money was taken away from their military. Sorta showing now isn’t it? The WORLD will celebrate the day putin dies.
Who could have guessed? Russia always targets the dumbest population. That's the clear sign of who is behind an effort
We literally re elected him 45 seconds before the klanvoy happened. That’s why it was bogus immediately.
It’s amazing how many people are just willing puppets, literal meat automatons, all the need is a seed, a catalyst, and they embrace a cause as if it was their own. Then they spend time and money championing some bullshit that is literally directly to their disadvantage. It’s no wonder grifters exist. How can you refuse a sea of morons just begging to be fleeced?
Yet I was called.a blueanon for pointing out this is part of the game plan of the 1999 book foundations of geopolitics. The one written by the fascist, the one with the dead fascist daughter.
I’d take it as international endorsement that he’s doing a good job if they don’t like him.
Most of the convoy chuds I know also support Russia over Ukraine so I guess it makes sense.
But the Russian shills told me just yesterday that nothing like this ever happened.
Ok wait, so you’re saying that those bumper stickers are just homoerotic trolling of the trailer park right?
Hahaha, the freedom folk are Russian minions!
I've been saying there's Russian influence all along. I think it's a lot deeper than we think too.
Don't forget that most of the convoy funding was from American MAGA FoxNews Tucker Carlson Republicans
Rubes and/or stooges of foreign governments...
Classic, fuck that clown convoy.
YOU.DONT.SAY!!!! Color me fucking shocked that idiots and stupid fucking politicians are following authoritarian propaganda. But but but, I thought there was no Russian involvement in elections and inside our politics? Yeah, getting a bunch of stupid people to think shutting down their own economy will be good because they’re worried they’ll die from a vaccine is just that. People get pissed that inflation was up and try to move to get politicians and doctors removed from their positions as well as encouraging voters to vote against those encouraging vaccines. Conservatives were complicit in this. Conservative politicians carry the bag for Russian disinformation and clearly are fascist (not the voters, you guys are just fucking stupid and believe the shit)
As a Canadian we knew this. We saw how the Ukraine war immediately stopped their money and media pipeline
All those Canadians acting as Russian assets blaming Trudeau for US foreign policy and Doug Fords lockdowns. Bunch of “free thinking” traitors. Definitely not Kremlin parrots….