0. INTRO tl;dr: Any Forums is rife with propaganda and brainwashing. I think we can all agree on that.
Last week I did an analysis of /chug/. It proved divisive, with some lauding it, and others hating it. I'm back for more. Specifically, I'm going to be focusing on the pro-Russian bots/shills/useful idiots that commonly post in /uhg/. However, if you zoom out a bit you can see that this is more of an analysis of common Russian propaganda methods and narrative control, simply viewed through the lens of the Ukraine war.
OP pic is a really interesting read (and even has a tl;dr version in accessible Stonetoss comic form for the low-IQ individuals amongst us). If you're at all interested in learning about the ways that movements are infiltrated by glowies, perceptions are shaped, people are radicalized, and brainwashing occurs online, I recommend reading it. If you're not even *interested* in reading it, then congratulations: you're an NPC, and their goal has been achieved, so turn off your brain and proceed with shitposting lies and spam.
If you're still reading, there's hope for you.
I’m going to be looking at popular Russian shill techniques, and giving evidence for each one. You can follow the evidence and verify for yourself. You’d be stupid not to.
RUSSIAN SHILL TECHNIQUES: 1. Culture creation 2. Scapegoating 3. Infiltration 4. Amplify the message 5. Firehose of falsehoods 6. Repetition
From the next post on, I’m going to be referring to “Exhibits”. They’ll reference evidence in pics attached to each post.
1. CULTURE CREATION tl;dr: “READING IS GAY. THINKING FOR YOURSELF IS LAME. YOU’RE BEING LIED TO (trust us)”
OP pic talked about Russians infiltrating movements and shifting them so that they align with their objectives. Russian propagandists cultivate a specific culture on the board. The Russian-led hivemind dissuades critical thinking, elevates the lowest man to the highest position, creates a culture of lying, establishes common enemies, appeals to emotion, and ostracizes anyone who pushes back against the narrative. Much of this culture creation is not “grass roots” because it’s not organic. It doesn’t come from the people, but instead is manufactured, and only *appears* as if it comes from the people. This is called astroturfing, and it is (mostly) organized and coordinated off-board because otherwise it would be too blatant. See Exhibit A for evidence of this astroturfing campaign. Other, more general evidence can be found by Googling “Glavset” but Russian shills will tell you it’s all fake, not true, etc.
For Russians, the most important aspect of culture creation is to dissuade critical thinking, analysis, independent research, etc. If you stop the populace from thinking for themselves, you can make them believe anything. Make thinking uncool. Call reading “gay”. Just call it reddit, then it’s bad! Reddit spacing is bad because paragraphing is bad because writing long posts is bad because reading complex things is bad because analysis is bad because thinking for yourself is bad.
This is what I meant in my original post when I said “Otherism”. It wasn’t just about saying “nigger” or faggot” or “reddit”. “Otherism” is demonizing things that encourage critical thought and analysis. Otherism is villainizing those who question the pro-Russian narrative. See Exhibit B. If you’re not a complete newfag you know what I’m talking about already though.
Now, you’ve laid down the plastic turf of your narrative, you’ve dissuaded critical thought, next you need to elevate the lowest man. Basically you need to make the low-IQ individuals think that *they* are the most intelligent ones. They need to believe that they have access to secret knowledge – the TRUE knowledge, the knowledge that NPCs are ignorant of. You need to make them think that the common narrative is the wrong narrative, the duplicitous narrative, and there HAS to be an alternative explanation! Basically, foster contrarianism at all costs. See Exhibit C for more info.
Samuel Kelly
Fuck off Saudi glownigger
Lucas Thompson
>he doesn't use a memeflag because so many people have them filtered
Jack Ramirez
2. SCAPEGOATING tld;r: Make an enemy. Anyone who does not oppose the enemy is also the enemy.
Alinsky wrote about this in “Rules for Radicals” which has been used by Russian propagandists to great effect: >Alinsky would find an external antagonist to turn into a "common enemy" for the community within which he was operating. Often, this would be a local politician or agency that had some involvement with activity concerning the community. Once the enemy was established, the community would come together in opposition of it. This management of conflict heightened awareness within the community as to the similarities its members shared as well as what differentiated them from those outside of their organization
Soros! Reddit! Hillary! These are your enemies! Whatever the situation is, the facts don’t matter because we have already built a boogeyman!
If someone points out the lies of the boogeyman, you can just call them a shill. Discredit their news source, whatever it is. The details don’t matter; you’ve already brainwashed your base to not read anything you’ve emotionally primed them to disagree with. See Exhibit A.
…Is it any wonder that all of these conspiracies are connected, or that supporters of all of these movements follow the same posting format? Compare the posting style of modern-day /ptg/ to /chud/. They’re the same. Also, notice how those movements that don’t catch on are promptly forgotten and/or memory holed. Any Forums is a litmus test to see which bullshit gets enough traction, and then they run with it. See Exhibit B.
Reinforce the message: If you’re NOT diametrically opposed to the boogeyman, then YOU are the enemy, and it will be publicized everywhere. Anyone who associates with you will ALSO be associated with the OTHER enemies! It doesn’t matter if you’re just questioning the accuracy of these boogeyman claims. You’ll be branded an outcast regardless. See Exhibit C.
3. INFILTRATION tl;dr: Be amongst the enemy, in order to reroute them – to your advantage.
Next up is infiltrating your enemy. You just have to convince them that you’re one of them.
You can do this for a variety of purposes: 1a. You can try to nudge them along a path that’s more favorable for you. For example, by trying to force a /chug/-style logo on /uhg/, you make /uhg/ appear like unoriginal copycats striving to be like /chug/. You also make it more difficult to post new war-related stuff since the logo obscures so much of the image. As we know, information is damaging to the Russian narrative because the reality is that the war is an overwhelming failure for the Russians!
1b. Somewhat related – you can see the same technique used when Russian propagandists trying to stoke divisions put their graphics team to work creating a flag for Ashli Babbitt. But this was eventually abandoned because they weren’t able to whip up enough organic support for the cause (in brief, most people agreed she was just a retard). Curious how SO many different professional, high-quality flags were created, voted on, etc…. only to be completely abandoned shortly after because no one gave a shit. Totally organic tho amirite guys? See Exhibit A.
2. Make your enemy appear sympathetic to causes the board culture is against. See Exhibit B.
3. Sow discord and confusion. Spamming and trolling are popular ways of doing this. Avoid contributing to the discussion altogether and you can grind all meaningful discussion to a halt and you make your target look foolish for bringing themselves down to your level. Plus, you can get some precious, precious (You)s. At 15 rubles per (You), just a couple of dozen will get you a loaf of bread! Snekposting is the best (worst) example of this. See Exhibit C.
You created your culture, you have your scapegoats, now you need to amplify the message. You need your movement to appear organic, so pretend to be an oldfag. Use their lingo, use their memes and meme formats. Anyone who does not talk EXACTLY like you, this is when you “otherize” them. Call them reddit, call them newfag, etc. It doesn’t really matter if YOU are the newfag. Just make THEM look like they’re not part of the astroturfed community you rolled out. See Exhibit A.
In order to make your narrative seem more organic, you’re going to have to post with a variety of flags. If all of the pro-Russia posts are coming from Russia, it’s going to look sus. Use VPNs to make it look like Canadians, Americans, Italians, Greeks, memeflags are posting.
There are different categories of these posters, but the main principle they adhere to is: deny or refuse to engage with anything unfavorable to the narrative. Continue parroting official Kremlin talking points until they change. Never admit you were wrong about anything.
(Aside: Is the Dominicanon a VPN-using Russian shill? I can’t say for sure. It’s quite possible he’s just completely and utterly retarded.)
For characteristics of these posters, and how to spot them… See Exhibits B.
5. FIREHOSE OF FALSEHOODS tl;dr: Lie, keep lying, never stop lying
Once you’ve established the culture, you can openly and easily lie to them. Your “kin” will trust you blindly, even in spite of all of your lies being proven wrong. And the more people that appear to believe the lies, the more believable the lies will appear. This is effective with long-form “Charlie map-meme”-style posts (about biolabs, for example). Overwhelm them with information, tell them to do their research (which they won’t, because you’ve dissuaded them from reading, and because most of those schizoposts are, by design, fucking incomprehensible and impossible to follow, and rife with misinformation), and if the post gets enough updoots (sorry, I mean “””organic traction””, replies, and reposts”) they will simply take you at your word. See Exhibit A.
There’s also a “spaghetti at the wall approach” used here where you throw every false narrative you can at a wall and see what sticks. They did this with the justifications for the war: biolabs, dirty nukes, false flags, etc. You can see me dismantling these hastily-constructed narratives about the pregnant woman from Mariupol here, as the Russians were doing damage control in real time because of how terrible the optics were for them: archive.4plebs.org/pol/thread/367864284/#367869141
5. FIREHOSE OF FALSEHOODS (cont) Another example linked to infiltration -- just manufacture false claims while pretending to be the enemy (concern trolling). Separate post because bigpics are big. See Exhibit B.
>>Dont get brainwashed yes >ebil shills ebil? just meh >trust glohomo why? about what? >trust NATO why? about what exactly? >eat the bugs. why?
Ayden Roberts
All this shit is much easier to do on reddit.
Hudson Martin
6. REPETITION REPETITION REPETITION tl;dr: To say it loud, say it more.
Repetition is invaluable. It doesn’t matter if your narrative has been conclusively disproven. Keep sharing it, keep posting it. Pretend that it wasn’t disproven. See Exhibit A.
And hey, don’t stop there. Any time the enemy makes a mistake, hold it over their heads. Yes, everyone now knows the Ghost of Kiev and Snake Island shit from Days 1 and 2 of the war are false propaganda, but don’t stop repeating it. Pretend your enemy still believes it. Muh ghost of Kiev! Muh snake island! Who cares that those happened a month ago and you have no new material since then? Your enemy cannot be wrong even ONCE, because if he is, you’ll hold it over his head for the rest of his life. You, on the other hand, get a free pass on all of the brand new blatantly false bullshit you and your kin peddle every single day. NICE.
7. CONCLUSION This is the last effort post I’m going to make about this shit. I’ve wasted too much time on this shit and need to go back to being productive.
There’s enough evidence here and elsewhere on the board if you care to look for it. If you still haven’t accepted reality at this point, you’re either a shill or you’re beyond redemption.
>This is the last effort post I’m going to make about this shit. I’ve wasted too much time on this shit and need to go back to being productive You did a great job user. Why stop?
Anticipated replies: >You’re spreading propaganda too! You’re guilty of brainwashing! You’re using the same techniques! By encouraging critical thinking? By telling people to verify claims they see themselves? By sourcing every one of my claims? That’s the opposite of brainwashing. >/uhg/ does the exact same thing though for all of the things you outlined here! No, not to the degree that /chug/ does. See Exhibit A. >I don’t care; I still support Russia and what Russia is doing. Then the best justifications for your stance are: -I don’t mind these people lying to me, and -I don’t mind lying to people as long as it serves my goals -Haha trolling funny >WHATABOUT The other side isn’t perfect either. I’m not saying the pro-Ukrainian support is entirely organic, but at least it’s rooted in reality. If you want to write about pro-Ukrainian astroturfing, shills, on Any Forums, go for it. It’d probably be way more interesting than this post desu because it’s a lot less blatant. I’d love to read it (but unfortunately with the nature of the anti-Ukraine posters, it'd probably consist entirely of blatant lies). >tl;dr In other words, you accept your brainwashed state, and your life as a contrariaNPC. >You’re not one of us 1. Textbook example of otherism. So nothing I said matters because you perceive me to be (or smear me as) not from here? Even if that WERE true, would it fucking matter? You’re attacking my authority instead of addressing any of the evidence I provided. This is how you know you’ve lost an argument. 2. I’ve been here for years. Check my flag collection in picrel. See Exhibit B. >You’re a glowie! Thanks for acknowledging the high quality of my posts, but I unfortunately do it for free. And that’s why this is the last time I’ll be doing it. >Yeah but you’re not racist so therefore you aren’t one of us Sure I am. I fucking hate Russians. >Why do you do this? Because I fucking hate Russians.
>all these fags proving me right by using the exact same techniques I outlined in my posts kek they only have one playbook, and they revert to it even when it's revealed.
>Alinsky wrote about this in “Rules for Radicals” which has been used by Russian propagandists to great effect: >>Alinsky would find an external antagonist to turn into a "common enemy" for the community within which he was operating. Often, this would be a local politician or agency that had some involvement with activity concerning the community. Once the enemy was established, the community would come together in opposition of it. This management of conflict heightened awareness within the community as to the similarities its members shared as well as what differentiated them from those outside of their organization >Soros! Reddit! Hillary! These are your enemies! Whatever the situation is, the facts don’t matter because we have already built a boogeyman!
You must realize that Russia is the “common enemy” promoted to us in america. Any time anything happens that challenges their power, somehow russia is the one who did it. In 2016 anyone who supported Trump or was critical of Hillary was a Russian shill. When Trump won it was because of Russian interference. When Hunter Biden was exposed as profiting from his position as son of the VP and it was implied that “the big guy” was getting a cut too, that was also blamed on russia. So, as it relates to /uhg/ and /chug/ if you can only see shills in one but not the other then you are completely brainwashed by one side. And as usual, OP is a faggot.
Nolan Gomez
Or perhaps people actually value good neighbour relations? Not everyone who doesn't drink the western propaganda is a russian bot.
Jacob Kelly
this post ended the chudniggers. Thanks for fighting the good fight kind stranger!
I would choke you to death and smash your teeth through your neck pedo rat.
Adrian Parker
Has it ever occurred to you that the hostile domestic government and media is pushing people towards an anti-establishment position?
Gavin Anderson
>saudi faggot is back after a week of seething and coping no one cares about your faggy little "research", you're wrong, you're brainwashed.
Jonathan Nguyen
The whole thing has really shown how this board is full of complete cucks. They screeched like hell about being encouraged to wear a fucking cloth mask during a global super-flu pandemic as if they were stripped of all personal freedoms but have no problem bending the knee to an ultra authoritarian ruler who jails people for 15 years just for saying the word "war".
Oliver Smith
>kek they only have one playbook, and they revert to it even when it's revealed. well yeah, that's what is meant by playbook: the whole set of techniques. what else can they revert to?
one thing you're missing is that it's not all shills. one half is organic useful idiots. but through joining efforts with inorganic shills they copy the playbook unconsciously
>1. One cannot fight the Ukro-Shill by positive means. He is a negative, and this negative must be erased from Any Forums's system or he will forever corrupt it. >2. One cannot discuss the Ukranian question with the Ukro-Shills. One can hardly prove to a person that one has the duty to render him harmless. >3. One cannot allow the Ukro-Shill the same means one would give an honest opponent, for he is no honorable opponent. He will use generosity and nobility only to trap his enemy. >4. The Ukro-Shill has nothing to say about Any Forums questions. He is a foreigner, an alien, who only enjoys the rights of a guest, rights that he always abuses. >5. The so-called religious morality of the Ukro-Shills is no morality at all, rather an encouragement to betrayal. Therefore, they have no claim to protection from the mods. >6. The Ukro-Shill is not smarter than we are, rather only cleverer and craftier. His system cannot be defeated logically — he follows entirely different moral principles than we do. It can only be broken through shitposting means. >7. A Ukro-Shill cannot insult an user. Ukro-Shill slanders are but badges of honor for an user opponent of the Ukro-Shill. >8. The more a Any Forums user or a whole Any Forums board opposes the Ukro-Shill, the more valuable it is. If someone is attacked by the Ukro-Shills, that is a sure sign of his virtue. He who is not persecuted by the Ukro-Shills, or who is praised by them, is useless and dangerous. >9. The Ukro-Shill evaluates Any Forums questions from the jewish standpoint. As a result, the opposite of what he says must be true. >10. One must either affirm or reject anti-ukro-shilling. He who defends the Ukro-Shills harms his own board. One can only be an Ukro-Shillian lackey or an Ukro-Shillian opponent. Opposing these shills is a matter of personal hygiene.
