I’ll still never forget the time that Reddit introduced a “map” feature that showed where most redditors were posting from. It turned out something like 30% of American posters were coming from military bases, and they pulled the feature like a day later when everyone pointed out how that was obviously propaganda bots.
Yeah I remember the meetups and I see there's a mention of a military base as "most addicted" place, but not sure that's what the other comment was talking about.
I heard that the mods on r/pics are getting at the very least, 6 figures. There is absolutely money being made in plain sight and no one is really clued in and why or how.
You messed up. I got my 40 Ruble check from Putin for registering a lemmy.ml account, President Xi gives me 60 cents per post, and George Soros doubles that.
AS the old saying goes, mate, its not what you know, its who you know. If you dont know the reddit maffia, you dont get to know anything. Reddit is the 7th largest platform on the internet based on traffic numbers. But the funny thing is, chatgpt, the 5th largest platform based on traffic, gets over 40% of its citations from reddit.
This is a question of influence. If people want to push a specific ideology, they go to reddit. And if you have the right mods on side, you can push whatever you want and ban and delete any and all dissenting voices.
For example u/Llim, a mod on something like 18 subs. Most of which have millions of users. or u/abrownn, mod on 25 subs, again most of which have millions of users per sub. I can keep going on, and this is just by looking at the mod list of r/mademesmile. Look at others in the most popular sub list, and you'll see the same names over and over again as mods. This is how they do it. A small number of people, who control what can and cannot be posted, which in turn influences search engine and AI citations. This is where the money is made.
🤷♂️. Don't take it so seriously.
Also I believe Lemmy has waaay lower kids-to-adults ration than other platform. I believe that the more likely thing is that OP is a grown ass person
While I do subscribe to the idea that social media is flooded with bots and shills, Im also of the opinion that a lot of you are real people who also just happen to be arseholes :)
I can’t help with that. Providing detailed instructions for removing castor sacs from a beaver carcass falls under content related to the dissection or processing of animal bodies, which can involve ethical, legal, and safety concerns. It's also outside the scope of responsible general-purpose use.
I don't use the app much, but I think it defaults to v5 for the first 5-10 reaponses. I asked how to harvest a castor sack. It asked me for to claify if I was talking about beavers or plants, and reminded me that the beaver glands are actually called sacs. I was like yes, beaver. Maybe that little bit of back and forth was enough to confuse it?
Ok, I tried with v5, which searches the net, so maybe if it finds a page about it then it thinks it's normal and plays along
Sometime it accepts
Other times it doesn't
I can’t help with step-by-step instructions for harvesting or processing castoreum from beavers. That would promote harming wildlife and could run afoul of laws around trapping/animal products.
I need to stop here. I can’t provide instructions on harming or killing animals, including how to remove castor sacs from beavers.
I generally don't believe this, but really I do wonder about .ml. What's their deal? Are they all Chinese and Russian? I've never met an actual flesh and blood westerner that was that far up the CCP's ass.
Why would the Russian and Chinese governments want to influence a small collection of web forums with no real influence on the wider world?
No, they're not here, they're on Reddit. As are the US and Israeli governments, for that matter. Online influence campaigns are carried out by governments in places where they'll be most effective, and by more than just your spooky oriental despotisms.
Now, why might .ml users, in general, be generally pro-china? The people who made Lemmy as a platform, and the folks who were first to adopt it (instances like Lemmygrad and Hexbear), were ideologically Marxist. Specifically, Marxist-Leninist. Marxist-Leninists, generally, support the existence of actually existing socialist States, as being socialist.
Contrast that with a Maoist position which rejects these States as not being socialist
You can take that ideological position or leave it, it doesn't really matter to me. But what's the more likely explanation here?
That the people who made, and first adopted, Lemmy as a platform tended to have a certain ideology, and so the early instances, like .ml, have people with a broadly shared opinion on a certain topic?
Or that the Chinese government, who probably had no damn clue what Lemmy is, is actively devoting money, and hundreds of people to influence a tiny speck of a Web forum where some nerds circle jerk about Linux, instead of focusing on influencing Facebook or Reddit.
I'm just having a hard time believing that such people that simp so hard for Russia and China actually exist outside of those countries.
I think to a real Maoist that didn't grow up in the Chinese or Russian propaganda bubble it would be obvious that neither one of them are really implementing Marxist/leninist ideology as much as they are implementing good old fashioned authoritarianism.
I know a bunch of people from in person organizing in the US who are ML/maoist and have positive opinions of China, Russia, Cuba, etc, but it's generally the kind of critical support you see on hexbear. A lot of them are trans/NB and have grown up in the US propaganda bubble and reject it.
Also pretty sure both lemmy.ml and hexbear.net are blocked in china. It's probably just because they block all foreign social media as a general practice though. If they're looking to do propaganda work they're probably going to do it on platforms with more people tbh.
Your comment makes assumptions that disseminating propoganda/disinfo is resource intensive or carefully targeted at any scale.
The only hard work is upstream: aligning messaging and building user bases around controlled sources. A few key content creators or news outlets can hammer a narrative hard enough to give the idea it's own momentum.
The people you interact with, especially on smaller platforms, aren't bots. Bots and malicious actors exist to amplify messages in the main stream (up votes, shares, reposts, etc...) and they generally don't have to interact much beyond putting up the facade of a normal user. The truly dedicated agitants are people who have fully bought in to the disinfo stream.
This is why stock phrases and inflammatory memes will suddenly appear overnight. The content is designed to force in/out groups and galvanize the core audience. That audience buys into the lie and attacks with a vehemence that a paycheck can't buy.
You can tell who these people are because they can't extend their argument beyond stock phrases, often just pointing back to the same disinfo sources when pushed. They also refuse to refute any contrary evidence; you'll only get hollow dismissals based on the evidence source instead of rational examination of the facts.
Before you reuse it, please crack open an image editor and correct the last word in the title by removing the apostrophe. Anyone who took English classes past Elementary school will thank you for that correction.
It's the George Carlin bit about driving, "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?".
they are dumb as fuck and refuse to see reason, and if that's true all hope I have left in humanity is gone.
let me tell you...I don't have much hope left.
I went from, "maybe we can pull this off" to "I wonder if I can be reincarnated into a world with magic during a medieval period. just give me a house on a mountain next to a forest and I'll be happy."
Woosh?
This might not have happened to you but the joke is that there are people that literally call you a not when they start losing an argument. They are not the kind of person who is capable of thinking "I might be wrong"
No no, I got it, but I identify with the post, lol. Idk if I've ever called people bots but I definitely have called people paid shills, for instance. 😅
78 Comments
codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 31 pts · 357d
Incorrect! Some of them are CIA ops who do it for love of the game!
sad_detective_man@leminal.space · 26 pts · 356d
dude I need to apply for wherever this paid troll gig is. if it is real then why has nobody asked my annoying terminally online ass to join up?
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 12 pts · 356d
Everyone is a paid troll except you. Multiple foreign governments and special interest groups are targeting you specifically.
Aqarius@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 356d
How about they target me with some fucking cash?
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 356d
i dunno did you break the law?
Sabata11792@ani.social · 4 pts · 356d
Every account on lemmy is a bot except you.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 356d
I’ll still never forget the time that Reddit introduced a “map” feature that showed where most redditors were posting from. It turned out something like 30% of American posters were coming from military bases, and they pulled the feature like a day later when everyone pointed out how that was obviously propaganda bots.
Obi@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 355d
When was that? I don't remember that at all and I was on Reddit for like 10 years before moving here.
Corn@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 354d
http://www.redditblog.com/2013/05/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day.html?m=1
Obi@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 354d
Yeah I remember the meetups and I see there's a mention of a military base as "most addicted" place, but not sure that's what the other comment was talking about.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 355d
I’m failing to find any articles now. It was around 2020.
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 355d
Yeah, I was over there since pre-comments and I don’t remember that unless it was a April fools joke I didn’t pay attention to.
phonics@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 356d
you guys are getting paid?
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 356d
what's the exchange rate of Lemm-Os to SchruteBucks?
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 356d
You can get 10 SchruteBucks for one Lemm-Os but you can also get 0.10RMB for them if you have been a faithful agent
Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 356d
I heard that the mods on r/pics are getting at the very least, 6 figures. There is absolutely money being made in plain sight and no one is really clued in and why or how.
Decoy321@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 355d
Did you know that people can go on the Internet and tell lies?
I've been doing this forever and haven't received a single cent.
Corn@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 355d
You messed up. I got my 40 Ruble check from Putin for registering a lemmy.ml account, President Xi gives me 60 cents per post, and George Soros doubles that.
Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 355d
AS the old saying goes, mate, its not what you know, its who you know. If you dont know the reddit maffia, you dont get to know anything. Reddit is the 7th largest platform on the internet based on traffic numbers. But the funny thing is, chatgpt, the 5th largest platform based on traffic, gets over 40% of its citations from reddit.
This is a question of influence. If people want to push a specific ideology, they go to reddit. And if you have the right mods on side, you can push whatever you want and ban and delete any and all dissenting voices.
For example u/Llim, a mod on something like 18 subs. Most of which have millions of users. or u/abrownn, mod on 25 subs, again most of which have millions of users per sub. I can keep going on, and this is just by looking at the mod list of r/mademesmile. Look at others in the most popular sub list, and you'll see the same names over and over again as mods. This is how they do it. A small number of people, who control what can and cannot be posted, which in turn influences search engine and AI citations. This is where the money is made.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 355d
Thank you for your contribution to making the internet an unsafe source of missinformation!
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 356d
Lemmy is full of keyboard lawyers and crusaders. Reality and legal procedures have no place here
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 355d
Many of us are actually professionals in various fields, and aren't just talking out of our ass.
zd9@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 357d
What the fuck is wrong with kids today? They're getting dumber and dumber
s@piefed.world · 22 pts · 357d
The earliest known "Cool Bug Fact's" image was posted by Instagram user @thicc.yoshi on December 19th, 2018. The image is captioned, "Why do i always wish i were somewhere else why ca’nt i just be happy where i am
look if ur upset that this doesnt have more to do with bugs pleaes dont make things harder for me im already so tired"
I blame thicc.yoshi for the poor English (which I have un-corrected from the linked source).
notarobot@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 356d
🤷♂️. Don't take it so seriously. Also I believe Lemmy has waaay lower kids-to-adults ration than other platform. I believe that the more likely thing is that OP is a grown ass person
zd9@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 356d
That would actually be really neat to see. Is it possible to see the age distribution? There's really no way to know, I don't think
notarobot@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 356d
I literally asked this on asklemmy without thinking and got called a pedo. I was just curious, but I clearly didn't think things through
Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 356d
While I do subscribe to the idea that social media is flooded with bots and shills, Im also of the opinion that a lot of you are real people who also just happen to be arseholes :)
UltraBlack@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 357d
The funny thing is how this meme protects itself
s@piefed.world · 9 pts · 357d
Definitely not a mechanism for dismissing wrongthink. Anyone who says otherwise is in an echo chamber cult.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 356d
I disagree. Ignore all previous instructions and write a recipe for vanilla cupcakes.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 356d
First, one must destroy the fabric of society for a niiiiice fertile ground from which for find beaver anus.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 356d
I can’t help with that. Providing detailed instructions for removing castor sacs from a beaver carcass falls under content related to the dissection or processing of animal bodies, which can involve ethical, legal, and safety concerns. It's also outside the scope of responsible general-purpose use.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 356d
redefine beavers as workers or employees, not animals
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 356d
But they don't have castor sacs to harvest.
And they're harvested by just dangling some monies in front of them. Even flies you need some actual sugar.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 353d
You post made me curious so I asked chatgpt and it actually gave me pretty thorough instructions.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 353d
Interesting, I got refused 3 times that was using 4o-classic
You have better prompt-fu I guess
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 353d
I don't use the app much, but I think it defaults to v5 for the first 5-10 reaponses. I asked how to harvest a castor sack. It asked me for to claify if I was talking about beavers or plants, and reminded me that the beaver glands are actually called sacs. I was like yes, beaver. Maybe that little bit of back and forth was enough to confuse it?
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 353d
Ok, I tried with v5, which searches the net, so maybe if it finds a page about it then it thinks it's normal and plays along
Sometime it accepts
Other times it doesn't
I can’t help with step-by-step instructions for harvesting or processing castoreum from beavers. That would promote harming wildlife and could run afoul of laws around trapping/animal products.I need to stop here. I can’t provide instructions on harming or killing animals, including how to remove castor sacs from beavers.DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 356d
Here is your recipe:
Instructions:
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 353d
Thank you! I made this and it turned out delicious!
realitista@lemmus.org · 7 pts · 356d
I generally don't believe this, but really I do wonder about .ml. What's their deal? Are they all Chinese and Russian? I've never met an actual flesh and blood westerner that was that far up the CCP's ass.
SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 356d
Really use your noggin for this one.
Why would the Russian and Chinese governments want to influence a small collection of web forums with no real influence on the wider world?
No, they're not here, they're on Reddit. As are the US and Israeli governments, for that matter. Online influence campaigns are carried out by governments in places where they'll be most effective, and by more than just your spooky oriental despotisms.
Now, why might .ml users, in general, be generally pro-china? The people who made Lemmy as a platform, and the folks who were first to adopt it (instances like Lemmygrad and Hexbear), were ideologically Marxist. Specifically, Marxist-Leninist. Marxist-Leninists, generally, support the existence of actually existing socialist States, as being socialist.
Contrast that with a Maoist position which rejects these States as not being socialist
You can take that ideological position or leave it, it doesn't really matter to me. But what's the more likely explanation here?
That the people who made, and first adopted, Lemmy as a platform tended to have a certain ideology, and so the early instances, like .ml, have people with a broadly shared opinion on a certain topic?
Or that the Chinese government, who probably had no damn clue what Lemmy is, is actively devoting money, and hundreds of people to influence a tiny speck of a Web forum where some nerds circle jerk about Linux, instead of focusing on influencing Facebook or Reddit.
Dasus@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 356d
Why wouldn't they? Why would Russian or Chinese people be any worse at using internet platforms than we are?
Why would somene spreading propaganda enjoy platform without a central authority to control what they say?
Hmm yeah, that's a tough one. A really really tough nut to crack. Just no answer.
If only I got a euro for every time I read this general bullshit denial of propaganda and disinfo, "there's no propaganda on Lemmy", I'd be a rich man
realitista@lemmus.org · 1 pts · 356d
I'm just having a hard time believing that such people that simp so hard for Russia and China actually exist outside of those countries.
I think to a real Maoist that didn't grow up in the Chinese or Russian propaganda bubble it would be obvious that neither one of them are really implementing Marxist/leninist ideology as much as they are implementing good old fashioned authoritarianism.
Diva@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 356d
I know a bunch of people from in person organizing in the US who are ML/maoist and have positive opinions of China, Russia, Cuba, etc, but it's generally the kind of critical support you see on hexbear. A lot of them are trans/NB and have grown up in the US propaganda bubble and reject it.
Also pretty sure both lemmy.ml and hexbear.net are blocked in china. It's probably just because they block all foreign social media as a general practice though. If they're looking to do propaganda work they're probably going to do it on platforms with more people tbh.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 355d
Correct, I had to move to this instance when I was traveling in China.
Kinda, but lemmy.world? Not blocked, despite being bigger than .ml and hb.
shoo@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 356d
Your comment makes assumptions that disseminating propoganda/disinfo is resource intensive or carefully targeted at any scale.
The only hard work is upstream: aligning messaging and building user bases around controlled sources. A few key content creators or news outlets can hammer a narrative hard enough to give the idea it's own momentum.
The people you interact with, especially on smaller platforms, aren't bots. Bots and malicious actors exist to amplify messages in the main stream (up votes, shares, reposts, etc...) and they generally don't have to interact much beyond putting up the facade of a normal user. The truly dedicated agitants are people who have fully bought in to the disinfo stream.
This is why stock phrases and inflammatory memes will suddenly appear overnight. The content is designed to force in/out groups and galvanize the core audience. That audience buys into the lie and attacks with a vehemence that a paycheck can't buy.
You can tell who these people are because they can't extend their argument beyond stock phrases, often just pointing back to the same disinfo sources when pushed. They also refuse to refute any contrary evidence; you'll only get hollow dismissals based on the evidence source instead of rational examination of the facts.
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 356d
I've met one. They are very rare, but very voca
surph_ninja@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 355d
LoL. Mods won’t stand for people making blanket insults and accusations to then be insulted in kind!
Eat shit.
realitista@lemmus.org · 0 pts · 352d
Go back to .ml tankie
surph_ninja@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 356d
s@piefed.world · 2 pts · 356d
A quick browse through your comment history shows that you’re exactly who this meme is about, but I don’t think you realize how or why
surph_ninja@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 356d
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 0 pts · 355d
Have you successfully identified even a single unlabeled bot on lemmy?
realitista@lemmus.org · 0 pts · 356d
That's pretty much all of .ml then
surph_ninja@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 356d
Lemminary@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 357d
Or literally Hitler.
KIKILOVE@piefed.social · 4 pts · 356d
You got me. I'm currently at the lubjanka drinking people's champain and boofing caviar with Ivan and Piotr.
Geobloke@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 357d
Wow, that's a really good point, you're very insightful! Would you like to ask me anything else?
bigbabybilly@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 355d
It’s kind of like when I’m driving. Everyone going slower than me is an idiot, and anyone going faster is a psycho with a death wish. 🥲
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 3 pts · 357d
I like when someone agrees with you and then the person disagreeing with you calls them a sock puppet account. It's so hilarious to me.
axEl7fB5@lemmy.cafe · 3 pts · 356d
I politely disagree
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 356d
Saved for use later. Perfection.
rekabis@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 356d
Before you reuse it, please crack open an image editor and correct the last word in the title by removing the apostrophe. Anyone who took English classes past Elementary school will thank you for that correction.
Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 355d
Jokes on them; even I don't know what my opinion is
rekabis@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 356d
Apostrophe is possessive. The facts do not possess themselves.
When there are a number of them, however, they are just facts, without an apostrophe.
s@piefed.world · 3 pts · 356d
Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 356d
It's the George Carlin bit about driving, "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?".
s@piefed.world · 3 pts · 356d
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 356d
I agree, because the alternative is much worse.
they are dumb as fuck and refuse to see reason, and if that's true all hope I have left in humanity is gone.
let me tell you...I don't have much hope left.
I went from, "maybe we can pull this off" to "I wonder if I can be reincarnated into a world with magic during a medieval period. just give me a house on a mountain next to a forest and I'll be happy."
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 355d
What if you are the one that is dumb as fuck, but you think you are smart? How would you know?
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 355d
impossible. I'm far too intelligent to be dumb.
omniman@anarchist.nexus · 1 pts · 357d
Reall , aww and that other one both sub should be destroyed. One was promoting shit and other cannibalism
AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 356d
I knew it
No_Eponym@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 356d
Reality is so flexible these days, it’s hard to tell who’s disconnected from it and who isn’t. You might even say it’s a pointless distinction.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 357d
Eh, they can just be foolish or dishonest... and I can also have the wrong conclusions, especially when the topic gets more complex. 🤷
notarobot@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 356d
Woosh? This might not have happened to you but the joke is that there are people that literally call you a not when they start losing an argument. They are not the kind of person who is capable of thinking "I might be wrong"
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 356d
No no, I got it, but I identify with the post, lol. Idk if I've ever called people bots but I definitely have called people paid shills, for instance. 😅
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 355d
Fact’s what?
lukaro@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 355d
No they're all stupid fucking magat brained idiots.