I have written comments about this before, but the very simplified guide on, how to spot the russian and chinese propagandists on lemmy, is:
Defending russian invasion in Ukraine, defending genocide of the chinese minorities, claiming Tianamen square massacre and the treatment of uighyr people are a hoax, being racist towards tibetans, doing the “I do not support [them], but…”
Equating the USA = NATO, claiming everything any NATO country does is NATO as a whole doing it, blaming NATO for trying to attack Russia, saying NATO is trying to expand when border countries are joining voluntarily, blaming small border countries for aggression towards Russia
Talking about “the West”, starting to speak about colonization times in unrelated discussions, trying to dismiss you by blaming you or you country for European colonization
Trying to downplay and derail discussion on what Russia/China does, because the USA/“the West”/someone else has done bad things as well
Writing longer and longer responses with multiple claims, often so you have to look into their sources/find reliable sources on the things by yourself, so you can argue against, in attempt to tire out out by making you answer each claim individually
Using chinese state sponsored sources, supporting pro-russian/chinese politicians
Blaming you for supporting genocide in Gaza, when you talk about some other genocide being bad, especially if it is related to Ukraine or China
Dissing capitalism and saying China and/or Russia are true communists, marxists, etc., supporting the governments of China/Russia, either directly or hinting they are Better Options, arguing against calling China/Russia authoritarian regimes
You know, you found them, when your comments saying anything negative about Russia/China get downvoted, or someone starts arguing against you. Essentially there is no difference between the useful idiots and the bots and propagandists themselves. The people honestly identifying as tankies or defending tankies, are hanging in the metaphorical nazi bar without realizing it, and will not change their opinions, because they belive you are either bad, or brainwashed, so arguing does not get you anywhere.
The easiest way to deal with these, is to block the and move on. Arguing against will only give them more visibility, and make you tired and angry. If you feel pissed off, just explain these points as an answer, so others can consider with a different perspective, what they are reading, then block and move on.
Trying to downplay and derail discussion on what Russia/China does, because the USA/“the West”/someone else has done bad things as well
Blaming you for supporting genocide in Gaza
Nice try at derailing. I am against all genocide, everywhere. I do not defend nor deny European powers or the USA doing shit all around. I am talking against Russian and Chinese propaganda.
Still a miss. I am Finnish, and have the fuck all to do with the politics of the USA. There is a reason, why I am familiar with the Russian propaganda tactics.
Alright, I do not think I can get any better responses to deconstruct as an example, so I will do it to this exhange.
First attempt is pretty direct insulting, in attempt to get me angry. This is a good way to bait people into writing long explanations, on why what they said is wrong, so they can exhaust you more quickly, and start spouting more of their propaganda in return, which you are more inclined to answer enraged. Making you hurl insults at them also makes you easily look like a jerk too, to someone else reading, which might make them less likely to put any weight to what you say.
Also notice the immediate derailing, with the tactics straight from my list, which I pointed out in the answer.
As I called out the attempt instead of taking the bait, and gave them a little info about my thoughts, they tried to grab onto it, and find another thing to make me write angry rant. In this case they made the mistake of assuming I was from the USA, and tried to use the democrats-support-genocide fight, since it easily causes fighting in lemmy. Sometimes they will dig through your comment history, in attempt to find stuff to use against you.
I offered them a bit more information - my nationality, in this case - so they immediately grabbed onto it, and went to dig something, they could use to both again to piss me off, and make me/my home country seem bad, to make what I say sound less appealing.
Because they used such a weak thing (you can read it in that article even: the swastika-symbol was used by the Finnish air force, before nazis started to use it), it makes me believe they are just either someone trolling, or one of the useful idiots. Someone from Russia would known better examples to use, like accusing me of “russophobia”, or talking about the side who won our civil war being fasciscts. They could also have accused my country for supporting Israel, because our right wing government is making weapons deals with them, which is a pretty low hanging fruit - which they seem to not have known.
Trying to draw a link between you and nazis is a common one to use. In some other country’s case they might have tried to use the European colonizing, or some military operations your country has going on. Finland is a bit more difficult on that part, since we only benefitted from the colonizing indirectly, and we are not known to meddle around that much.
The point of all of this is: do not take the bait. Do not engage, and if you do, do not give them things to use, just point out the propaganda. I am going against that here, since I had a purpose in mind, so this was a bit of a special case. Usually I would have just blocked them.
Now, if anyone does not trust what I say, and thinks I am a propagandist too - that is probably just a good thing, you should likely not trust internet strangers. Go read from multiple sources, like the ones linked up there, and form your own opinions. If you encounter someone filling the criteria I wrote, do not believe what is being said without doing the same, check several sources on the subject. Media literacy is extremely important right now, but that is a different subject, I will not tackle more than that here.
Thank you for your help! Explaining how this works, is easier with a practical example. Interacting with me like this, also helps to boost the visibility, allowing more people to potentially see this, and learn how to avoid falling for the propaganda, and wasting their time with it.
Ironically proving my point… lmao. Though I should have added, “calling Ukraine/you/your country nazis”, and “trying to insult you/your country personally, being rude in attempt to get you enraged”. There are probably a few more I forgot.
I have written comments about this before, but the very simplified guide on, how to spot the russian and chinese propagandists on lemmy, is:
You know, you found them, when your comments saying anything negative about Russia/China get downvoted, or someone starts arguing against you. Essentially there is no difference between the useful idiots and the bots and propagandists themselves. The people honestly identifying as tankies or defending tankies, are hanging in the metaphorical nazi bar without realizing it, and will not change their opinions, because they belive you are either bad, or brainwashed, so arguing does not get you anywhere.
The easiest way to deal with these, is to block the and move on. Arguing against will only give them more visibility, and make you tired and angry. If you feel pissed off, just explain these points as an answer, so others can consider with a different perspective, what they are reading, then block and move on.
Lmfao your list is just anyone who doesn’t deepthroat western propaganda on every aspect of their “enemies”
Do you believe western news and governments that they are not in the middle of genocide in the middle east?
Nice try at derailing. I am against all genocide, everywhere. I do not defend nor deny European powers or the USA doing shit all around. I am talking against Russian and Chinese propaganda.
Oh you’re against genocide!! That’s great! Which third party candidate did you vote for?
Still a miss. I am Finnish, and have the fuck all to do with the politics of the USA. There is a reason, why I am familiar with the Russian propaganda tactics.
Congrats on finally getting rid of the Nazi symbols, lmao.
Alright, I do not think I can get any better responses to deconstruct as an example, so I will do it to this exhange.
Also notice the immediate derailing, with the tactics straight from my list, which I pointed out in the answer.
Because they used such a weak thing (you can read it in that article even: the swastika-symbol was used by the Finnish air force, before nazis started to use it), it makes me believe they are just either someone trolling, or one of the useful idiots. Someone from Russia would known better examples to use, like accusing me of “russophobia”, or talking about the side who won our civil war being fasciscts. They could also have accused my country for supporting Israel, because our right wing government is making weapons deals with them, which is a pretty low hanging fruit - which they seem to not have known.
Trying to draw a link between you and nazis is a common one to use. In some other country’s case they might have tried to use the European colonizing, or some military operations your country has going on. Finland is a bit more difficult on that part, since we only benefitted from the colonizing indirectly, and we are not known to meddle around that much.
The point of all of this is: do not take the bait. Do not engage, and if you do, do not give them things to use, just point out the propaganda. I am going against that here, since I had a purpose in mind, so this was a bit of a special case. Usually I would have just blocked them.
Now, if anyone does not trust what I say, and thinks I am a propagandist too - that is probably just a good thing, you should likely not trust internet strangers. Go read from multiple sources, like the ones linked up there, and form your own opinions. If you encounter someone filling the criteria I wrote, do not believe what is being said without doing the same, check several sources on the subject. Media literacy is extremely important right now, but that is a different subject, I will not tackle more than that here.
Bro, get a fucking hobby, lmfao.
Thank you for your help! Explaining how this works, is easier with a practical example. Interacting with me like this, also helps to boost the visibility, allowing more people to potentially see this, and learn how to avoid falling for the propaganda, and wasting their time with it.
100% agree. If you’re explaining, you’re losing. Some of the replies to your list are hilarious.
Ironically proving my point… lmao. Though I should have added, “calling Ukraine/you/your country nazis”, and “trying to insult you/your country personally, being rude in attempt to get you enraged”. There are probably a few more I forgot.