This write-up the Finn made about the demographic make-up of /chug/ inspired me to do my own write-up this morning. It’s pretty interesting, but I don’t buy it. Not all of it, anyway. Specifically, he mentions that he doesn’t think that /chug/ consists of Russian disinformation agents. Why? Because they don’t post much info about the war on the board.
But that doesn’t really matter. Being a disinformation agent in the age of the Internet doesn’t necessarily mean spreading information. Rather, it means creating a culture, and constructing a narrative that protects and serves the culture you’ve created.
The astroturfed culture of /chug/ is one that is intentionally averse to war-based information (specifically because the reality is that the war is going very poorly for the Russians).
Again, let’s quickly look at the main characteristics of /chug/gers: 1) Against gore-posting (in a general about war, no less) 2) Pro-Russian narrative and language (would frequently post disproven FSB Military, anti-“Kyiv”) 3) Projection and lies (Mariupol theatre bombing, recent Donbas strike, hospital bombing “faked”) 4) Gauging organic sentiment (Biolabs? Pedo dungeon under Chernobyl? Cocaine Zelenskyy? Now they’re making nukes?) 5) Frequent use of “edgy” otherisms (ex: nigger, redditor, tranny, kike) 6) Spam 7) Lewd photos of real women and anime girls
The first four characteristics serve to create an explicitly pro-Russian climate:
Against Gore Posting 1) Gore posting is contrary to Russian interests for three reasons: it undermines the Russian narrative that “it’s just a special operation” by revealing the true size and scope of the conflict; it can’t go toe-to-toe with Ukrainian gore posting since Russian losses are disproportionally higher than Ukrainian by every measure; and these two aforementioned points create demoralization. The most demoralizing thing about the war for pro-Russians is the REALITY of it.
Pro-Russian Narrative and Language 2) Anything and anyone perceived as pro-Ukrainian is immediately insulted, driven from the thread, or ignored. Facts, truth, and realities that are pro-Ukrainian are mocked. Again, an alternate reality needs to be constructed and maintained. Even down to the language used in the thread: while /uhg/ doesn’t really care whether you say Kiev or Kyiv, /chug/ is a safe space constructed for pro-Russians where even the Ukrainian language is abhorred. There is no pretense of objectivity when it comes to reporting information about the war.
Projection and Lies 3) Truth does not matter to /chug/posters, unless that truth is anti-Ukraine. In absence of other examples, /chug/posters continue to bring up proven-false Ukrainian propaganda from the very first days of the war (Ghost of Kyiv, Snake Island), but refuse to take accountability for any of the numerous lies they have told. They challenge every loss Russia takes, and then ignore the proof when presented with it. They often accuse Ukraine of committing the same atrocities they commit, or false flags they stage. This was best seen in the aftermath of the Mariupol hospital bombing. The optics were terrible for the Russians, so /chug/gers played defense by throwing out every accusation they could think of: the hospital doesn’t exist; that specific building doesn’t exist; the hospital was under renovation; Azov were in the hospital; the Ukrainians bombed themselves; ordnance doesn’t make craters that large; the woman wasn’t actually pregnant; she changed her clothes between shots; she’s on Instagram so clearly it’s a false flag; the photographer is famous so clearly it’s a false flag. Lying as much and as quickly as possible is called the Firehose of Falsehoods. This is a propaganda technique that Russians invented, and it serves to muddy the waters of debate and get people to question everything. And then, after all of these narratives were proven summarily wrong, they moved on to the next hot topic. Which brings us to…
Gauging Organic Sentiment 4) The Russians needed desperately to look like “good guys” in this war. Not that any major powers would believe them of course, but they needed plausible deniability. They needed something they could point at and say, “LOOK! All of these people believe THIS THING so it justifies our war! We’re doing the good thing!” It’s why they said they were going to try to try to de-Nazify a country with a Jewish leader. It’s why the conversation radically and rapidly shifted to “MUH BIOLABS!” and then to “PEDOS????” and “NOW THEY’RE MAKING NUKES!”. But not enough people were buying these narratives they tried to hastily construct. And to be honest, it’s a wonder, too. After the previous few years of misinformation invading our homes and taking over dumb boomers’ brains, I’m surprised the biolabs narrative never really caught on. And I’m still not quite sure *why* it never caught on, desu. I’m sure the Russians are just as confused.
The fifth characteristic creates a climate of “us against them”:
Edgy Otherisms 5) Yes, insults like nigger/redditor/tranny are used all the time all throughout Any Forums, but they’ve been used to particular effect in other right-wing safe spaces like /ptg/ or convoy trucker general that follow the exact same techniques I’m outlining here. For starters, they make up a disproportionate amount of the total word count in a number of anti-/uhg/ posts. These terms are simple appeals to emotion. By branding your enemy with these terms, you attempt to deprive them of a voice. Any valid points, facts, or criticisms this person says are rendered obsolete by simply calling them “redditor”. It doesn’t matter that “redditor” doesn’t have a coherent meaning. “Redditor” is simply “anyone who says something against the pro-Russia narrative” – especially if they value factual information, write something more than a single sentence in length, or use paragraphing. Doing this permits anyone reading to relieve themselves of their critical thinking skills and simply “hate the other”. Basically, it’s the ultimate appeal to NPC.
The final two characteristics serve a simple purpose: distract and dissuade actual conversation from taking place.
Spam 6) /chug/ is substanceless exchange of noise in which actual discussion is impossible. This is important, because actual conversation allows a sharing of ideas, information, knowledge, objective fact. These things are discouraged, because the reality is that the war is going poorly for Russia. Simply compare the average words per post in /uhg/ to /chug/ and you’ll see where the real discussion is. /chug/ simply moves far too fast for any meaningful conversation to take place. This too is by design: encourage spam, one-word posts, etc.
Pornography 7) /chug/ appeals to the average comer. Why, though? Something interesting I learned while typing this up is that men think less rationally when aroused. Hence the constant use of porn in these threads. From a study: “Sexual arousal […] can impact individuals’ ability to think rationally and make good decisions for themselves.” Porn images literally break our brains and make us think dumber.
Haha Jesus Christ quite the narrative man. I have actually fought and stared death in the face before, but thanks for spreading your own insecurities onto me. How many wars have you been involved in? This is my third. Also happily married so not sure who I'm impressing with the ladies. Also you want to tell all the refugees I assisted in medical tents that I was pretending to be playing COD? Cause I'm sure they wouldn't take much of what a keyboard warrior says seriously anyways
Justin Lewis
So the tricks are: render actual conversation impossible and dissuade critical thought; spam pro-narrative/anti-non-narrative lies; brand and demonize non-narrative posters as “others”; gauge sentiment for new pro-narrative conspiracies.
One final thing: something I noticed after the sanctions were first placed on Russia is that pro-Russian sentiment seemed to die down everywhere on the Internet for a few days. Divisionist Facebook pages got fewer likes and comments, Instagram comment sections were devoid of pro-Russian shills, and /chug/ moved at a much slower pace than now (which would be the opposite of what you would expect, since this was the start of the war). Recently however, pro-Russian sentiment has picked back up again. It seems like there was a period of uncertainty after the sanctions were first imposed, after which time Russia decided, “Fuck it. Go all-in on the propaganda” even though it doesn’t seem to be working quite as well as they’d hoped.
tl;dr: /chug/ is a Russian psyop that demands supporters stop reading and using their brain.
…And before anyone says “FBI GLOWNIGGER CIA VPN”, here’s proofs I am who I say I am.
Yeah, I’m just a (overpaid) wageslave.
THAT’S RIGHT: I DO IT FOR FREE. And if Russia wants to contract my services, they can fuck right off. You couldn’t pay me enough to sell my soul for those lying, murderous shitlords. I hope their country burns.
>Ukrainian gore posting since Russian losses are disproportionally higher than Ukrainian by every measure The Russian army does not have phones. Just a few Russian journalists embedded. The only people with phones are the LPR DPR partisans. There official telegram is kinda boring. Its just them showing off captured equipment and captured towns. goreposting is a ukrianian thing. Its makes for good propanganda because ukrians hate russians and like seeing them harmed. This is not shared by the russians so russian porpanganda does not show such things. If you want ukrainan gore there is tons of it on telegram taken by random people in the area.
>This is not shared by the russians go on VK and see how many Russians want to "exterminate the hohols", both sides despise each other and this war is not helping matters
Elijah Morgan
1) No one wants to see gore except for weird deranged fucks 2) Damn people in a pro-russian thread post pro Russian things, imagine my shock. Kyiv is forced newspeak and it's cringe as fuck, Ukrainian is not English, the pronunciation is different either way 3) It's a war, information is very unreliable from both sides, the truth will only come out once the dust settles 4) Congratulations, you just discovered that propaganda exists 5,6,7) this is Any Forums retard, cope more
>/chug/ catches up to and about to overtake uhg. >uhg wants to control the narritive so much they have the same obvious professional set up to keep it that way. >it is nothing like other happening threads (hence chug)
Suddenly some college boys start bringing out their narritive control bullshit to distract.
Its not fucking rocket science. chug is full of stupid weeb spam shills from yet another organised group done to take it less serious.
The website is literally under complete surveillance and monitored by groups wishing its destruction.
>The Russian army does not have phones. Just a few Russian journalists embedded. That's not true. This guy was tiktoking videos from within Ukraine before his mommy recalled him to Chechnya. They get paid a ruble every time they say it.
>That's not true. This guy was tiktoking videos from within Ukraine before his mommy recalled him to Chechnya. There are volunteers under the command of Kadyrov. Kadyrov does the same thing himself. I don't know how much they coordinate with Russian regulars. I have only seen footage of them with partisans.
Jackson Adams
Holy based I noticed alot of strange grammer from us and canadian flags
