• Biolabs In Ukraine

    From MIKE POWELL@618:250/1 to THECIVVIE on Sun Mar 20 10:26:00 2022
    |Since the Internet and Facebook, it has got a lot worse. And the data is coming
    |from Russia that is dividing America.
    +-[T=>MP]

    It has gotten worse, but I am not convinced it is all coming from Russia.
    I suspect there are other foreign bad actors, in addition to Russia, that
    are assisting.

    That said, I still believe we were more divided that people realize, even before facebook and "Russian collussion." Back in the 1990's, there was a presidential campaign where the person running for President didn't do much more than any one else running in the past, but his eventual First Lady, and
    a loud-mouthed friend from Louisiana, were stirring up the poo any time
    someone stuck a microphone in their faces. She, in particular, would
    sometimes even contradict her husband when it came to their political goals.

    It seems to me like, once this person was elected, congress started getting into the act. Something else that happened about that same time, I think,
    was that the equal time laws got changed. That may have been thanks to
    talk radio, which was really coming on then also, but TV and radio stations
    no longer had to give equal time to both sides of spectrum.

    The cable news networks eventually took sides and became unwatchable to those of us who remember what they used to be like. Local news broadcasts no longer had to label opinions as "opinion" before stating them. They didn't do
    this because of Russians or social media, they did it to bring in eyes and
    sell advertising.

    Fast forward to 2016. When one side lost the election, they immediately pointed the finger at "Russian collusion" and Russian disinformation on
    social media. Funny thing, though, if you pay attention, that same side
    trots out "Russian collusion" whenever others speak out against them.

    Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020, said some disparaging things about Hillary Clinton. It was no time at all before
    Hillary herself was supposing in interviews that "the Russians" had influenced one of the primary candidates. Without naming names, she painted a picture that could only fit Gabbard.

    Since then, on at least one other occasion, Gabbard has spoke up about
    Clinton and the corruption of the Democrat party and, right after, here
    came the "Russian collussion/influence" rumors again, this time naming her directly.

    I don't doubt that Russia, and others, have used America's reliance on
    social media to attempt to influence what goes on here, but I more so
    believe that American politicians have used this possibility to continue
    their own misinformation campaigns, that have been going on since before
    social media became a thing. "Russian mininformation" has become a "boy
    who cried wolf" phenomenon.

    Just this past week, both the New York Times and New York Post reported
    that the Hunter Biden laptop "conspiracy" which the White House called
    "Russian misinformation" back a year or so ago may actually exist.

    Something else I have noticed on other BBS networks. I am the moderator
    of FIDO POLITICS, and have also noticed this on another network that has
    since banned politicial discussion... there are often discussions that are pretty tame, between mostly Americans, until someone from outside the US
    gets triggered and jumps in with rants laced with profanity and eventually
    gets the discussion killed. Those folks usually seem to originate from
    Central Europe, or Australia, but not always. My point here being that
    some of the division being witnessed in BBSland does seem to originate from beyond US borders, but not Russia.

    ##Mmr 2.61b. !link T 3-14-22 12:28
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