"A good person makes you feel good. A hostile person makes you feel poorly, consistently. That is a surefire means of identifying a hostile party."
No truer words spoken in an online setting, about an online environment.
And there's an important point: it doesn't matter if the person making you/us feel poorly is possessed by the Devil, is owned by Putin, or is just lashing out because of an unsupportive childhood and a lousy marriage. You can't really know what is behind it, unless they tell you outright (and even then, they may be making up stories), but it really doesn't matter. They're toxic, and the proof is in how their words consistently make you feel and think, and the effect they have on the discourse here.
Calling out a person on this site as GRU or MOSSAD or CIA is an exercise in speculation and name-calling. Calling out a person as abusive, insulting, or misleading is not: it's a direct response to the words on the screen. They may be paid provocateurs, but they may just be ass-trumpets. Their motivation is irrelevant. Their effect, however, is real.
I think it's credible that there are paid foreign agents on this site. HCR is (has become) a potent "influencer" in US American politics, and that will certainly have put this site on lists all over the world, friendly and unfriendly. That seems only reasonable.
It's also credible that they have tried, or are trying to do the hysteria-inducing gaslighting that has worked so well on Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't seem to work as well here. It doesn't work at all if we don't allow ourselves to be whipped to a hysterical froth by others' comments.
"A good person makes you feel good. A hostile person makes you feel poorly, consistently. That is a surefire means of identifying a hostile party."
No truer words spoken in an online setting, about an online environment.
And there's an important point: it doesn't matter if the person making you/us feel poorly is possessed by the Devil, is owned by Putin, or is just lashing out because of an unsupportive childhood and a lousy marriage. You can't really know what is behind it, unless they tell you outright (and even then, they may be making up stories), but it really doesn't matter. They're toxic, and the proof is in how their words consistently make you feel and think, and the effect they have on the discourse here.
Calling out a person on this site as GRU or MOSSAD or CIA is an exercise in speculation and name-calling. Calling out a person as abusive, insulting, or misleading is not: it's a direct response to the words on the screen. They may be paid provocateurs, but they may just be ass-trumpets. Their motivation is irrelevant. Their effect, however, is real.
I think it's credible that there are paid foreign agents on this site. HCR is (has become) a potent "influencer" in US American politics, and that will certainly have put this site on lists all over the world, friendly and unfriendly. That seems only reasonable.
It's also credible that they have tried, or are trying to do the hysteria-inducing gaslighting that has worked so well on Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't seem to work as well here. It doesn't work at all if we don't allow ourselves to be whipped to a hysterical froth by others' comments.