Russian Trolls Terrorize the west with old KGB Methods…

These are two very interesting articles on the subject of Russian Trolls….

And “useful idiots.”

The Troll’s job is to create chaos, to disrupt the conversation, to misrepresent and to confuse the audience in any way possible.

They will attack you, your opinions, and your values, make you change the subject twenty times over and try to sow any seed of doubt into the minds of rational readers.

However, there is also a second category.

They are those who, unfortunately, either got under the influence of Kremlin trolls or succumbed to some other form of propaganda.
They do not get paid, but the trolls are actively using them to promote the agenda.

They are called “useful idiots,” and they may be persuaded by means of a debate,” says another frequent participant in virtual discussions and a web technology specialist from Washington, Serge Breslaw.

The activity of Russian trolls in the West has already gotten a lot of media coverage. However, sometimes it seems that the seriousness of the problem is underestimated both in Ukraine and in the European countries. It were internet users from Poland, the Baltic States and the United States of America that first drew attention to the seriousness of the effect of Russian propaganda on public opinion outside Russia and Ukraine.

Source: https://euromaidanpress.com/2015/10/29/russian-trolls-terrorize-the-west-with-old-kgb-methods/

Russian trolls infest social media

The goal of these trolls isn’t just to manipulate elections, it’s to fundamentally damage our democracy and undermine our trust in American institutions.

Perhaps the worst part of all this is that we do a lot of the Russians' work for them. While there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of online troll accounts, there are also constant accusations across social media that genuine posters (usually ones the accuser disagrees with) are actually Russian trolls. For someone bent on damaging this country, you could not do better than ramping up our paranoia and destroying our sense of trust.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/02/20/2020-russian-trolls-disrupt-social-media-how-to-fight-back-column/4749642002/