Of Those on SW You Feel Aren't of the Russian Diaspora But Who Still Make Excuses for the Invasions of Ukraine, What % Do You Think Are...

@Burnley123

There are a handful of users with very anti US & pro Russian (or pro communist) views.

But as you implied, not many.

@Burnley123 @beckyromero I agree. There are indeed a couple of Russian propagandist trolls on here. As you have mentioned, one wouldn't expect many on such a comparatively small site, but a small number do exist. They usually pose as Americans, but they frequently trip up by using words and spellings and phraseology that give their non-American origins away. And when they are called out, they are strangely silent. I doubt they have any impact on changing minds or votes.

@Burnley123 There's one exception to that. A gentleman who thinks he's painting pictures of a better tomorrow.

@Burnley123 I don't think it matters, because if they plant a "seed" somewhere, it eventually reaches little places like this by the gullible MAGA rubes.

Russia/Putin are smart. All they need to do is plant a seed in a few places - a fake youtube video, a clever facebook meme, or a fake account on X. Trump, Musk, JD and the like pick it up, share it, and next thing is the MAGA folks lap it up like chocolate ice cream and spread it to all reaches of social media. The key is to make something that will be shared by Trump or one of his mouthpieces.

This is what I saw back in 2016. Memes that likely had an origin in a Putin troll farm got shared millions of times on Facebook and soon were believed by half the country, no matter how absurd. The one that really made me pay attention to what was going on was a meme with a photo of a concrete wall with razor wire stretching across a desert, claiming to be Mexico's southern border, with language to suggest if Mexico does it, why is it so bad for us to do it. Anyone with elementary school geography education or the ability to use Google Earth knows the southern border of Mexico is not a desert and not a fortified concrete wall. Yet, it got shared millions of times and commented on thousands by folks saying "F Yeah! MAGA! TRUMP 2016!"
All it took was one meme that probably took all of 15 minutes to make and shared in the right spot, and suddenly we have millions of SUCKERS.

@LordShadowfire Pics is a tankie.

It's different to being a Trumpster in fundamental ways but ends up being Putin apologism due to anti-american contrarianism and post-soviet nostalgia. Obviously, Putin's regime isn't any version of socialism but somehow retains that kind of pull for some reason.

@windinhishair I really don't think Russian troll farms have even heard of SW.

It probably has maybe a few thousand regular(ish) users. I absolutely think they target Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok.

There are plenty of users here who have opinions on US politics who are not American (😇). I've seen this Aussie girl post so much pro-Putin and pro-Russian stuff. I really think that she is a real person. Just extremely online and alternative-right.

Though as @trollslayer says, they are no doubt influenced by things planted by trolls.

Russia paid a bunch of rightwing American Youtubers to push their lines, after-all. Dave Rubin, Tim Poole etc.

@Burnley123 There is absolutely nothing wrong with non-Americans posting about American politics. Indeed, many of them are better informed than Americans are. But I do see a few trolls who say they are American and post pro-Putin/Russia stuff, and then will use words like "whilst" or "colour" or "offence" instead of the American versions. Anyone can make a mistake, but when it happens repeatedly, the odds are that person is not an American who was born and raised in the US as they claim.

The Americans who were paid to post pro-Russian propaganda made huge amounts of money. Now they are claiming they are victims. lol