from Hacker News

A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans

by philbo on 7/3/24, 6:18 AM with 101 comments

  • by Animats on 7/3/24, 7:10 AM

    It doesn't have to be credible. It just has to be noise.

    The West can push back. Here's a 2023 list of separatist movements within Russia.[1] Most of these are small and weak, but with outside support, pieces of Russia might be destabilized. St. Petersburg/Leningrad oblast has potential, because it's close to Europe. With Finland and Estonia both in NATO, access to St. Peterburg is available. The Russian military is rather busy with Ukraine, and there might not be enough troops available to quickly suppress an internal revolt.

    [1] https://www.aalep.eu/major-secessionist-movements-russia

  • by Mordisquitos on 7/3/24, 8:21 AM

    A bit of an unfortunate first 3 paragraphs resulting from the writing style (emphasis mine):

    > A network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election, a BBC investigation can reveal.

    > A former Florida police officer who relocated to Moscow is one of the key figures behind it.

    > It would have been a bombshell report - if it was true.

    > [...]

    I had to do a double take before I realised that the emphasised paragraph was referring to the following text yet-to-be-read and not to the preceding opening paragraphs.

  • by BiteCode_dev on 7/3/24, 11:20 AM

    If you go on Tik Tok, sometimes you see fake French news, with the proper setting, format, voices, and sometimes faces.

    It's quite believable, especially on a platform where you scroll mindlessly.

    But if you look for the bit online, you will not find it on the official TV channel website because it never happened.

    I'm used to my gov and American propaganda, but they are rarely faking the whole thing, mostly selectively presenting a certain truth or point of view.

    That's new to me: completely fabricated, sophisticated facts and media.

  • by surfingdino on 7/3/24, 8:40 AM

    The thing Russians never understood after 1989 is that nobody is going to be marching on Moscow. Even Eastern European countries do not care about Russia. It is seen as a failed neighbouring state with nothing to offer. They lied to the West and used all opportunities offered to them to wage wars and weaken Western democracies instead of improving the living conditions of their own population. If you think this is all propaganda, compare the numbers of Russians migrating to the West to the numbers of Westerners migrating to Russia after 1989. Almost nobody wants to go and live there. It's a shithole. A dangerous shithole that keeps murdering people wholesale.

  • by jolmg on 7/3/24, 5:33 PM

    Why is this flagged?

  • by forloni on 7/3/24, 8:09 AM

    The Nord Stream 2 pipelines where blown up and Reuters were reporting that Russia did it.

  • by wwilim on 7/3/24, 7:47 AM

    In 2024, it's completely rational to be a paranoid conspiracy theorist. Because this time, the Russians are really behind all of it.

  • by guesswho_ on 7/3/24, 7:59 AM

    What happens when Americans kill civilians in other countries in millions?

    What about the time Amiricans topple governments?

    What about unnecessarily starting an war with ukrine as proxy?

    News shifts the viewpoint. HN calls that whataboutism.

    Americans murdered natives, destroyed world peace and talks about "west".

  • by briandear on 7/3/24, 8:07 AM

    I will never forget the Ghost of Kiev nonsense.

    As an American, I wish we’d stay out of the Ukraine war. The Ukrainians have actual Nazis. And no, that isn’t “propaganda.” The Russians were wrong to invade but the Ukrainians aren’t any more righteous.

    But it isn’t my problem — tens of billions of American tax dollars are going to Ukraine with no accountability. In the U.S., open borders policies have led to the rape and murder of a 12 year old girl in Houston, along with many other high profile violent murders by illegal aliens who should have been blocked from entry and deported.

    Trump wanted $5 billion for a border wall — Democrats said “we can’t afford that” — and then promptly send $100 billion to Ukraine when Biden’s elected.

    I am not arguing for a border wall, but it’s curious how “we can’t afford it” but found plenty of billions to support a country with whom Biden has a financial history. The profound quickness with which the left wing in the U.S. started displaying Ukrainian flags and hashtags ought to be studied. The Ukraine propaganda machine took American money and spends it to convince Americans to give more money. Astounding how clever that was.

    Ukraine can’t win this war and I’m tired of paying for it. If they want to keep fighting, then they can keep funding it.