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    Reddit Has Become a Battleground of Alleged Chinese Trolls

    (www.buzzfeednews.com)
    142 points mzs | 15 comments | 15 Mar 19 15:33 UTC | HN request time: 1.247s | source | bottom
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    neaden ◴[15 Mar 19 16:27 UTC] No.19401182[source]▶
    I think right now there are three main kinds of internet trolls in things like this. First would be the government sponsored ones who tend to post in unison or have some theme. These seem to mainly be Chinese and Russian. Second are the freelance trolls, people in it to make money by building an audience for advertisements. A lot of these people are in Macedonia where they can make relatively good money spreading false blogs on Facebook or something. Finally are the home grown true believers who are just posting their honest views in an abrasive, hostile, or threatening manner. I think the majority of trolls belong to the last group, but the first two have an outsized impact at creating new stories and coordinating messaging that is amplified by the third.
    replies(5): >>19401231 #>>19401761 #>>19401993 #>>19402953 #>>19412907 #
    tomatotomato37 ◴[15 Mar 19 16:30 UTC] No.19401231[source]▶
    If you're going by the original meaning of troll you're missing the fourth category; the people who post something inflammatory because everyone freaking out and arguing at each other is amusing to them
    replies(6): >>19401276 #>>19401278 #>>19401334 #>>19401569 #>>19401641 #>>19403314 #
    neaden ◴[15 Mar 19 16:34 UTC] No.19401278[source]▶
    I think that type has mostly gone away/become the third. People "ironically" posting racism seem to all just be flat out racists now. As Kurt Vonnegut said “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
    replies(4): >>19401383 #>>19401482 #>>19401914 #>>19402744 #
    1. lohszvu ◴[15 Mar 19 16:41 UTC] No.19401383[source]▶
    I strongly disagree. Look at the flatearth communities.
    replies(3): >>19401462 #>>19401495 #>>19401504 #
    2. SlowRobotAhead ◴[15 Mar 19 16:46 UTC] No.19401462[source]▶
    Shhh... people still think they are being serious.

    edit: Think about it this way... There are dumb people on both sides of anything, it's tough to say "only their side needs to own their idiots" when lots of stupid and people run around talking absolute nonsense about climate change when it's hot out. That doesn't mean everyone that agrees with them is as dumb or even wrong at all.

    If 10% of people believe it and the rest are acting - how could you tell?

    replies(2): >>19401955 #>>19401988 #
    3. snazz ◴[15 Mar 19 16:49 UTC] No.19401495[source]▶
    I think you’re both right. Being an ironic flat-earther is easier than being an ironic racist, especially since sarcasm doesn’t transmit very well over text, especially on contentious topics.
    4. ineedasername ◴[15 Mar 19 16:50 UTC] No.19401504[source]▶
    What the heck is with the resurgence of this? Where is it coming from? I remember stuff like this, flat earth sites and the time cube thing [0] in the earlier days of the internet, but can't understand where it's coming from now.

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Cube

    replies(6): >>19401586 #>>19401883 #>>19402047 #>>19402141 #>>19402227 #>>19405691 #
    5. astine ◴[15 Mar 19 16:57 UTC] No.19401586[source]▶
    The time cube was the product of a single, elderly, schizophrenic man. People in that demographic post to Facebook these days, I think.

    Flat earth, I think, is caused by crazy people finding it easier to find each other with the Internet and social media, and putting together communities on the Internet.

    replies(1): >>19402632 #
    6. grawprog ◴[15 Mar 19 17:19 UTC] No.19401883[source]▶
    I'm guessing it comes from people who have never been in an airplane, on a very tall mountain or in open prairies. Ya know...all those places you can actually see the Earth curve at the horizon...
    7. rootusrootus ◴[15 Mar 19 17:25 UTC] No.19401955[source]▶
    Only people who stop at the headline. If you go to the flatearth subreddit they're pretty clear about what they are doing. They don't quite say it explicitly, but you'd have to be pretty dense not to see the game they are playing.

    Though I have charitably believed in the past they are mostly having fun with each other rather than trying to troll the rest of the world.

    8. PhasmaFelis ◴[15 Mar 19 17:28 UTC] No.19401988[source]▶
    Sure, a lot of them are trolls, probably almost all of them at first. But the problem with pretending to be an idiot is that actual idiots will rally around you and take heart.

    Have you seen Beyond the Curve, the documentary about flat-earthers trying (and failing) to prove the earth is flat? You'd need pretty strong evidence to convince me that everyone in the film was in on it.

    replies(1): >>19402254 #
    9. darkpuma ◴[15 Mar 19 17:32 UTC] No.19402047[source]▶
    It's a trend, like yo-yos or pokemon. People see other people doing it, it looks fun, so they join in. Facebook and youtube have made it easy for people to join in on the fun.

    What you need to understand is that for a minority of people who take truth, facts, reason and science very seriously, flat earth is infuriating. But for a lot of people who are just looking to have some fun, it turns out to be a lot of fun. The protests from the first group that you shouldn't joke about things like that, that it's wrong to be wrong, etc just sweeten the deal for the people having fun. It's trolling in the classic sense.

    For most of them. Of course when you have people pretending to be idiots inevitably a few real idiots will join in, thinking themselves in good company. But for the most part flat earther arguments are constructed with obvious comedic intent that very serious people seem blind to.

    Or you can think of it this way: being wrong is a taboo, and some people enjoy challenging that taboo.

    10. NedIsakoff ◴[15 Mar 19 17:42 UTC] No.19402141[source]▶
    If you ever go to the flat earth events like conferences, you'll find as I have there's two group of people. The first is the real believers. The second group (which I am a member of sometimes) is there to sell stuff and really doesn't believe.
    11. dstick ◴[15 Mar 19 17:48 UTC] No.19402227[source]▶
    I wondered the same thing and then stumbled over “Behind the Curve” on Netflix. It was an eye-opener. You’ll learn where it came from and more importantly, how to handle people with these beliefs. It changed the way I will approach the topic for sure. The earth is round! Don’t misunderstand me, but the psychology that drives flatearthers is fascinating and we can help them find the right “path”.

    It’s a great watch! Highly recommended :)

    12. Pharmakon ◴[15 Mar 19 17:50 UTC] No.19402254{3}[source]▶
    There is also the tendency of mentally unstable people not getting the joke and more or less taking over the meme. Then the profit-seekers and cult leader types emerge, and suddenly what was a joke is a movement. On a much smaller scale the same thing happens with satirist news outlets, and the process is:

    Outlet makes a joke (for a real example “Joe Biden is refusing to leave the White House and has armed and barricaded himself.”)

    Joke is spread devoid of context, still as a joke.

    Trolls get a chuckle by posting it to some extremist group.

    Extremist group doesn’t get the joke and adopts the narrative, fitting it into existing ideology.

    Pizzagate and QAnon are great examples of this process. The other process is that schizophrenics dig up old ideas to fit their current delusions, such as “Orgone” and “Chemtrails.” Some of these ideas fit into the delusional ideation of non-mentally ill groups and it becomes a widespread conspiracy theory.

    Note that this can all be very profitable, if you look at people like Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, and David Icke.

    13. cthalupa ◴[15 Mar 19 18:22 UTC] No.19402632{3}[source]▶
    The "main" Flat Earth Society (tfes.org) isn't made up of people that believe that the earth is flat - they are trolls. I'm sure there are plenty of 'True Believers' out there, but they're just as fringe as any other conspiracy theory.
    replies(1): >>19403066 #
    14. y4mi ◴[15 Mar 19 19:04 UTC] No.19403066{4}[source]▶
    It started as a joke by trolls. It's debatable if it still is
    15. kthejoker2 ◴[16 Mar 19 00:54 UTC] No.19405691[source]▶
    My boss Ryan Postma told me back in 2004, and I quote

    The real fun is yet to come. The people that believe the really crazy shit haven't got PC's yet.

    So not a resurgence: just the emergence.