My grandfather fought in WWII for the Royal Thai Army against the Japanese. When the dictatorship in Thailand surrendered to the Japanese and then tried to form an alliance with the Japanese, my grandfather participated in a resistance movement to overthrow the dictator and oust the Japanese from Thailand. Thereafter, my grandfather worked for the Royal Thai Army’s intelligence branch as a two star general and cooperated with the United States during Vietnam. I still have a photo of my grandfather standing with unnamed Americans at Roosevelt University, Chicago. It was at the University where my grandfather was apparently receiving “counter-intelligence” training and education (the Americans he was standing with did not work for the University).
After Japan, my grandfather’s enemies were Vietnamese and Chinese Communists. My grandfather knew then that the danger was not so much Communist bullets or bombs, but rather agents from China and Vietnam crossing the boarder into Thailand. My grandfather knew that, with support from the United States, Thailand would never fall to communism from foreign invasion. However, my grandfather understood that Thailand was not impervious to collapse from within from discord and division.
Another fellow Community poster, Dalbert, wrote an excellent piece on a disconcerting problem that has surfaced here in DailyKos — a problem that plagues all other corners of the internet where politics can be discussed: Trolls.
You can read Dalbert’s journal here: www.dailykos.com/…
In 2024, we are not fighting the Soviets or Vietcong. We are fighting against domestic fascists who are aided and abetted by enemies of the United States (see Trump and Russian Collusion). Here is the thing about our fight.
We have been winning. We are winning (as I explain in greater detail here: www.dailykos.com/...).
More to the point, Biden and the DNC have been winning. Biden and the DNC are winning.
Biden stated the failures of Conservatives and their pundits best when he said Monday morning, “They were wrong in 2020. They were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They're wrong in 2024… I am not letting up.”
To Trump and the RNC, who already vastly have the numbers stacked against them, this is frightening. They know that they cannot beat liberals in a fair fight, and now we are realizing we can win too. Worse still for them, Trump and the RNC are starting to see independents and undecideds siding with the Democrats. Part of this is because we have a widely trusted, historically centrist, white President — independents who “just could not bring themselves to vote for a female president” love that. This is unacceptable for the RNC. This means we are getting to a point where we are too confident and powerful for the RNC to contain and control.
What is Trump and the RNC’s solution? “Divide et impera,” as Julius Caesar once said.
Divide and conquer.
They know that if we stick together, they cannot stop us. They know that if we fight as one, we cannot be beaten. So they have to divide us against one another, or they will never realize their evil dreams.
Now how best can this be accomplished? It should go without saying that virtually no one here at DailyKos, or other hubs where liberals and Democrats consume media, would ever go to FOX News and listen to their tripe (the only exceptions being individuals trying to document what the conservatives are up to and saying). So, influence cannot be exerted from outside, and if influence cannot be exerted from the outside, it must be exerted from within. Think Trojan Horse.
Now, am I saying that everyone who panics and cries “Democrats are going to lose” or “Biden has to drop out now” is a conservative agent on an RNC payroll? Am I saying that it is ALL Project 2025? No, of course not. Many probably are conservative “rattf#ckers” (as Dalbert said) — but not ALL. This is where many of the the WWII propaganda posters come from, including this one:
The point behind this poster is: “Keep your mouth shut before you say something that will aid the enemy, like reveal where one of are ships is.” If you are panicked, keep it to yourself. If you give in to the panic and add to the noise, you are helping the RNC saboteurs.
We may not believe that we are at war, but no one told this to the RNC. They believe the war has already started, and they are already engaging us in battle :www.dailykos.com/…
January 6th was only the beginning.
This is where MAGAist Trolls and the RNC’s greater strategy of “divide and conquer” comes into play. You don’t need to rely solely on deepstate agents or spies so create discord within a group. Just frighten people and take advantage of their ignorance. Once you do that, they will parrot whatever defeatist undertones you want to disseminate within your enemy’s ranks. This will give their own agents (trolls) an air of legitimacy — it blurs the line between legitimate concern vs. sabotage.
Here’s an example of how that has been happening in real-time with Biden and the DNC after the debate.
The mainstream media, as has been discussed heavily here in DailyKos for years, is more or less in the pockets of conservatives (and by extension the RNC). I go into greater detail how/why exactly the media is the way it is here: www.dailykos.com/…
You take the debt-ridden, conservatively owned, and desperate mainstream media platforms and you feed them a story. You give them the story that Joe Biden is having “problems.” You do not even have to specify what the problems are. Just have the anchors get on the air and broadcast statements such as, “I have never seen a candidate deliver such a shockingly poor performance, not even Joe Biden.” Then have the stations host a couple of “experts” who have “been in politics for a long time.” Then you get those experts to say, “yeah I have never seen a candidate do something like this and win an election,” or, “I don’t know — after this, the odds are heavily stacked against the DNC. There are going to be a lot of tough decisions ahead.” Have these stories and headlines pollute the air in primetime on national television.
Now you sit and wait. You need not wait long. You sit and wait for people to start being worried, and you wait for them to start talking about how they are worried. Before long, people’s own anxieties will get the better of them. There will be people who say, “oh yeah that performance was not great… Yikes,” and “This is not what I expected at all,” or “oh my goodness. What was that anyway?”
Now you use this manifesting doubt as air cover to release your army of trolls.
You have the media and other faux experts start saying things like, “Democrats nervous after debate,” or “Biden performance creates questions on his ability to be president.”
Now sit back and watch the chaos as trolls feed on the anxiety by saying things like:
“Oh my god, Biden needs to drop out!”
“Oh my god, Biden really is too old — I knew it!”
“We need to replace Biden before it’s too late!”
“It’s already too late — we’re going to lose!!!!!”
There will be calm and collected individuals (who the “in-community” trusts) trying to stop the panic. There will be people trying to calm everyone down (“It’s okay folks, all the data and reason shows that we are okay”). All while this is happening, you take advantage of the growing fear and attack the people trying to exude calmness with lines like:
“I said it from the beginning — Biden has to go. People like you should never have chosen someone as old as him, and now it is back to bite us.”
”Biden is too damn old, and anyone who thinks he can still do the job is a f#cking idiot.”
“You are why we lose.”
And when people try to create logical arguments as to why there’s no cause for panic and why Biden and the DNC are winning (again: www.dailykos.com/...), the trolls will go:
“You are in a Biden cult.”
“You are blindly biased.”
“You’re words will sink us and the Democrats in 2024, just like people like you always sink us.”
“You would convince more people if you were not so hostile.”
Who is actually who? Who is actually an RNC sleeper and who is actually just a panicked liberal? Does it really matter? Loose lips sink ships. Both are helping the RNC by fueling discord, division, and chaos. The RNC is trying to get people to doubt and panic, and they are encouraging the people who are panicking to get louder and more forceful — all to try to divide us. They are trying to cause a stampede. Their goal is to make us look into Fascism’s eye and blink.
While some are just legitimately panicked liberals, I personally believe that most are not.
Dalbert’s piece explains some ways the trolls who are not in our camp and want to sabotage the 2024 election can be identified (here it is again www.dailykos.com/...). Here are some of the ways I think trolls can be spotted (some are inspired by Dalbert):
1) They have been chain posting comments that are solely bashing Biden and Democrats.
1a) They do not post/comment often, but when they do they are bashing Biden or the Democrats.
2) They have been posting bashing comments throughout several articles in DailyKos.
3) They were inactive, but they started commenting a lot right after the recent presidential debate.
3a) Or, alternatively, they have been bashing Biden/DNC for years.
4) They use trigger words against you such as: liar, fraud, misinformation, biased.
4a) They also use things such as what Dalbert called “tone policing” (“not in my experience,” “you’re harming the community,” “you won’t convince many people like that”).
5) They threaten to report you or your posts if you do not remove them or refuse to edit them based on what they tell you to do (i.e. “If you do not get rid of this statement, and change it to THIS statement, I will report you to the help desk.”).
6) They argue with you without providing points or evidence to support their claims, again using trigger words. Then, no matter what you say, they repeat the same talking points using “what aboutisms.”
6a) “In my experience this can never happen, you are lying,” and then they do not give examples from their own experience.
7) They have never posted articles, have not posted articles within the last several years, or they have only posted articles that bash on Biden and the Democrats (i.e. An article like “Biden was never a good choice, and we will lose because of him just like we always lose.”).
8) They have low “Mojo.” This one is trickier to assess because Mojo is gauged by how many (and how often) people recommend your comments, articles, and give you tips to the tip jar. In theory, someone with high activity but low Mojo is someone who the wider DailyKos community disagrees with. At the same time, they could also just be someone who has not gotten a lot of recognition whilst making valid points. I would only use low Mojo to be skeptical of someone if several other red flag traits are present.
Now, if you look at someone you think is a troll and you only see one or two of these traits, they may not be a troll — just someone who is panicked. Arguably just as dangerous, but not a saboteur.
If, however, you look at a potential troll and you see several of the above traits, then they could very likely be someone who is trying to sabotage us so that the DNC loses in 2024. They may well be someone trying to make us “blink.”
I will end my piece with these points.
My mother’s friend is a frightened liberal. She is in her late 60s now, and she has a small community of friends on Facebook (point is, she is not some celebrity with a large following like Taylor Swift). Now normally when my mother’s friend posts something that is pro-Democrat or pro-Biden to Facebook, she gets some foot traffic from her friends but otherwise does not make the world explode. It is rare there will be comments. Just last week, my mother’s friend posted on Facebook about Project 2025 and how groups (such as the Heritage Foundation) are trying to abuse lawsuits to gum up the election and thwart the Democrats. Out of nowhere my mother’s friend had comments posted that she was a liar, was spreading misinformation, and accused her of spreading “Democrat Propaganda.” These were people who had previously never interacted with the postings from my mother’s friend, but they came out immediately as soon as Project 2025 and The Heritage Foundation were mentioned. She got classically trolled (www.dailykos.com/...) whilst sitting on a quiet end of the internet.
Think that cannot happen here? Guess again.
The RNC and their agents know that people who frequent places like DailyKos will never watch things like FOX News, and they know that places like DailyKos are trying to spread pro-Democratic, pro-Liberal, messaging. The RNC recognizes any mentioning of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, or attempts to abuse the legal system (like what I warned of here: www.dailykos.com/...) are an existential threat to their plans. And so they will disseminate trolls into comment sections of these postings to try and subvert Democratic efforts to alert the public and win the 2024 election.
Only you can work toward stopping trolls. If you see an article that makes logical sense and has a good message, boost it. If you see trolling occurring, do not feed into them. If you see people panicking, try to calm them down if you can so that they are not giving cover to trolls.
And if you see a troll article or post out on the internet, do not interact with it on impulse. If it is in DailyKos and it violates the rules, by all means report it. The reason I give this warning is because in many sites any form of interaction will cause a coded algorithm to go “Oh hey! This one is popular and is making me money! I need to push this content onto more people!” and cause the site to push the piece onto more and more people. This is how YouTube works, for example, and it is one reason why a lot of “both side” and other conservative media gets propagated more so than liberal content — because people will argue not knowing they are contributing to the algorithm’s coding.
Here are some recent examples of individuals who I think were either “classic” or “concern” trolls in DailyKos (I covered over their names so no one attacks them, and I numbered them so you can see when comments are from different individuals):