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In reply to the discussion: Report: Russian troll farm included pro-Jill Stein messaging on social media [View all]karynnj
(59,503 posts)politicians. Jill Stein's own connections to Russia, given that she attended the same Russian dinner Flynn did, need investigation, but this story goes beyond politicians. Several of the MSNBC discussions speak of how they used any fracture in the US or in the Democratic party to increase discord.
Democracies are healthy when people feel free to get out and protest when they want things to change - whether it is against systemic injustice, inadequately regulated guns, environmental issues etc. Here, it seems that by shouting online pretending to be on each side - they aimed to rile up each side against the establishment and the other side.
Note that they speak of them repeating Black Lives Matter and the tea party - obviously not for the goals of either organization. Could they have prolonged the negative discussion of Sanders and Martin O'Malley for saying that "all lives matter", converting what in other contexts would be a pretty non controversial comment into proof that they did not "get" the unigue systemic inequality that minories face. The anger over that, which could have been quickly quelled, was pushed for weeks. Did that argument lead to anger and cause fear among some non political whites and alienation among many African Americans, who could well have been frustrated at the lack of understanding when it seemed that African Americans were killed by police with a steady frequency?