In the past week I’ve been absolutely roasted for criticising two different countries. Normally I’d be okay with that, I can handle a mild toasting and after all debate is a good thing.
On both occasions though I was flamed for mentioning human rights issues that are established facts and have been known for many, many years. I was critical of the actions/laws of their governments and not the people, their race, religion, general political ideology or nationality.
On both occasions I was bombarded by long posts that parroted propaganda, and in the case of one country I was told (on multiple occasions) that I was ignorant, racist and even fascist for mentioning the issues I did. I’m not complaining about how I was treated, but as a reminder, I was discussing internationally-recognised human rights concerns that can be verified and based in fact.
I could just be paranoid but I’m fairly convinced the responses weren’t from patriotic citizens. I think they were paid trolls or bots, and I think their purpose was to quiet negative talking points about the countries that were mentioned.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
A KGB agent and a CIA agent meet up for drinks off the clock, and after a few drinks they start to talk shop. The CIA agent extols the strength of the Party’s propaganda, “All your citizens believe the propaganda! It’s incredible! So little dissent.” The KGB agent responds, “No my friend no, we are good at what we do, but you are the true masters of the art. No one at all questions your propaganda!” to which the CIA agent says, confused, “What do you mean? We don’t have propaganda?”
Lemmy does have a propaganda problem, and it is not from the instances you’re referring to.
Didnt refer to any instances mate
They’re from .ml, don’t mind them.
You weren’t flamed for mentioning established facts, but for dogmatically repeating easily disproven claims. People brought receipts and explained how your views were not actually based on evidence but instead propaganda, and now you’ve deleted those comments, making it hard for others to verify that they were indeed wrong. You weren’t using internationally-recognized consensus, but purely western consensus, portraying that western consensus as the totality of international thought.
Either way, no, no paid trolls nor bots, just a bunch of communists. Lemmy was made and developed by communists, so there are lots of communists here.
I suspect that your vague, unsubstantiated feelings that someone you had a passing interaction with might have been a bot (it’s possible! who knows!) is not the valuable contribution to this community that you presumably thought it was going to be.
vague, unsubstantiated
I deliberately left it vague because I didnt want this to turn into a similar bunfight. And if in ‘unsubstantiated’ you mean there’s no evidence - I deleted said evidence cos of the responses I was getting.
might have been a bot (it’s possible! who knows!
I didnt say it definitely was bots, I said it might have been. Given what’s happened over on Reddit I think its something we should be vigilent about.
valuable contribution to this community that you presumably thought it was going to be
Well aren’t you a wonderful human being. Your mother must be so proud.
its something we should be vigilent about.
Meaning what, exactly? Do you really think the experience is improved by everyone screaming “bot!” At everyone who disagrees with them?
So many comments about blocking.
Whatever happened to just ignoring people? Everyone these days is block this block that.
I have been online since bbs days, never blocked anyone. I don’t get it.
I would rather notice the bullshit repeating talking points and ignore then then pretend they dont exist. Helps keep my aware.
Don’t feed the troll, but no need to not acknowledge they are there.
This is a good example of propaganda in kind of a meta form.
Propaganda works through exposure and subsequent peer pressure. Comments like this influencing people not to block are applying social pressure to conform and then ensuring further exposure. It’s likely this account belongs to an agent with a vested interest in a niche or destructive idea.
Would be wise to block it.
Lol you think you should block me because I am propagandizing?
Lol wtf. Seriously WTF.
At this point you become a bizarre person who hides from everything because it’s all “propaganda”.
Wow. You really are not very good at the internet.
Edit: wait a minute! This person is trying to peer pressure others into blocking me. Maybe they are the propaganda and don’t want anyone to consider that everyone is an anonymous liar on the internet because then they will not engage in the propaganda! I say you should block them!
This is so stupid.
Cowbee is pretty notoriously long winded and erm, prolific in their comments, if that’s who you’re talking about.
I think China + Russia might be their special interest which would explain the level of “enthusiasm” they have at mention of either. It may also explain the repetitiveness of what they say. Not that they’re necessarily right, but they don’t seem botlike from my experience.
There are a handful of full rabid tankie trolls over in .ml though, so if you dealt with any of those and haven’t blocked I’d recommend doing so now.
i think people are too quick to call anyone like that a “paid troll”. like i just don’t think one can reasonably expect a government like china to waste their resources on a platform as small as the threadiverse…
If they were .ml, hexbear, or several other instance users… Yea. Their instances are echo chambers for their own dumbass ideologies.
Different instances have different ideologies and cultures they prefer, which cannot happen on twitter or other monolith services.
You’ll just have to learn to ignore the absolute braindead takes rampant from some instances, and don’t feel bad for blocking the cretins that don’t care for human rights.
You’ll just have to learn to ignore the absolute braindead takes
No you don’t :)
You can block them, or whole instances, depending on the client your are using
As everyone else has said, there is definitely this issue on Lemmy, when criticising China and Russia especially. Happened to me a few times. It’s weird.
I once did a test to see if the bias was really that bad and commented on a relevant news article on .ml something like “fuck Putin. Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine” maybe with a couple of extra similar phrases. Comment deleted by mods with no explanation. Insane.
I could just be paranoid but I’m fairly convinced the responses weren’t from patriotic citizens. I think they were paid trolls or bots, and I think their purpose was to quiet negative talking points about the countries that were mentioned.
This is a common suggestion. I can see why people say it, but I just find it hard to believe people are really spending time here to do that. Wouldn’t you just go to reddit? What, do you want to convert the trekkies and Linux evangelists?
I think it’s much scarier than that: some people are just fucking nuts
I was being insulted and flamed on an ml instance when I posed China isn’t my friend like the USA government. I reported the offending posts and was banned because I made mention these tankies seem angry over Taiwan. It’s a cesspit, disregard it.
the world is full of useful idiots who derive meaning from being propaganda parrots.
it sucks, but just block them. they aren’t going away, and in their POV you are the propagandist.
https://lemmy.world/post/40009107
In addition to .ml, you’ve got people like DonaldJMusk. I didn’t believe them at the time about 300 accounts, but I can believe a dozen or so as I’ve been watching it happen for a year.
Just the other day somebody tried to call them on their bias… Banned.
What a douche. That papaskwat account banned me when I asked why they were posting a mix of real and AI art.
I could just be paranoid but I’m fairly convinced the responses weren’t from patriotic citizens. I think they were paid trolls or bots
Possibly. Me personally, I’m not getting paid to post. Not yet. I’m working up to that. Eventually, I plan to print out pro-China comments I’ve made and fax them to the Chinese embassy in the hopes that they’ll hire me. For now, I’m just padding out my CV.
This whole conspiracy theory is so bonkers. Lemmy was created by communists. You look inside, you find communists, and then it’s all this “What!? People who disagree with me!? On the internet??? Impossible! They must be paid secret agents!!!”
If you want to avoid the existential horror of realizing that people exist with different views from you, different instances have different user experiences, and you’re free to choose one that doesn’t federate with communists.
This is not about having different opinions, this about a solid group within Lemmy spouting oblivious propaganda
Where “propaganda” is defined as “having different opinions,” yes.
It’s very well documented that Russia, China, Iran and others operate troll farms to influence people on the internet.
Just those countries?
They’re the top three.
Welcome to the internet. Tbh you need to grow a thicker skin.
Great contribution 👎
Lemmy is a software; there are multiple instances (servers) that run lemmy and federate (talk) to each other. So it does not sanitise your feed the way corporate social media does. The advantage is that you do not end up in an echo chamber. The downside is that you get the weirdest and most incoherent conspiracy theories known to man. But you’re (hopefully) an adult, and can use your reason to decide what’s what.
The advantage [of Lemmy] is that you do not end up in an echo chamber.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that haha
But its easier to pick or flip between echo chambers!
I was bombarded by long posts that parroted propaganda
Turns out that when you define “propaganda” as “anything that I disagree with”, and then go to spaces where a lot of people disagree with you, you’re going to see a lot of “propaganda”.
