You’re pointing at a thing our own politicians and billionaires are currently doing and going “What if Russia did it too”.
Understanding that the media amplifies particular stories to promote a perspective that is in their interest and against your own doesn’t require the addition of a foreign power, that just muddies the issue.
Russia buying some facebook ads is utterly inconsequential next to the rest of FB, Fox, CNN, Reddit, and every other propaganda outlet directed at us by the capitalist class.
It’s funny. Putin has a personal fortune of over $200 billion and yet somehow he isn’t part of the ‘capitalist class.’
You’re not really addressing what they said, thouoh. A Wikipedia article doesn’t make their statement incorrect.
Don’t know why you’re getting down voted. Bots and media manipulation are a thing, Russia and many governments are almost certainly doing it on different scales. But you make a good point that our own governments are doing it do, and even before social media stories were prompted or hushed up for reasons other than newsworthiness or public interest. That’s not a conspiracy theory, that’s basic media history of the last century.
In September 2017, Facebook told congressional investigators it had discovered that hundreds of fake accounts linked to a Russian troll farm had bought $100,000 in advertisements targeting the 2016 U.S.
That year, CNN, Fox, and others spent billions influencing Americans.
Those politicians and billionaires who have very, shall we say, friendly thoughts about Russia?
Now, why do you think that is?
Because peace is more popular than war. I assure you the western capitalist class haven’t been outbid by the Russians, although the distinction between western international bourgeoisie and Russian national bourgeoisie is complex.
TBH, I don’t think it’s that complex. They’re all obsessed with accumulating wealth and power over others. The main differences are where they are from and how direct they are able to be in their pursuits under the constraints of their societies. Modern Western bourgeoise appear to envy those in Russia who seem to be able to take actions without needing PR. In the West, the working class aren’t accustomed to people “falling” out of windows and, occasionally, the Western bourgeoise sacrifice one of their own to maintain the illusion that laws apply to them (frequently with minimal actual consequences for the sacrificee).
Yeah, I kinda suck at rhetoric. What’s a better way to present to people that the media pointing at foreigners exercising .001% of the malign influence they do serves to distract from the 99.99% of influence they exert? CNN wasn’t presenting wall to wall coverage of Trump in 2016 because of Russia, nor are they essentially giving republicans free advertising by accepting their framing on crime and foreign policy in Israel right now because of Russia.