Thread by @TrumpFile

THREAD: I'm going to read this article on 17 disinformation techniques used by Russia and see how they relate to what we're seeing in the U.S. today. bylinetimes.com/2020/03/04/big…

#1 - Creating a narrative that the West is losing power and influence, because of other countries and global organizations.

We see this in the U.S. with many Trump narratives. It's especially clear in the Trump/GOP lie that Democrats are owned by China and only they can save us.

#2 - Normalizing extremist voices.

This one's obvious with the GOP normalization of people like Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Lindell, Lin Wood. But even look at Fox News right now and you'll hear them defending white extremist militia members and "Cue"Anon believers.

#3 - Producing "an overflow of images of violent protests, vandalism, fire, injuries, deaths intended to shock the nervous system & cause stress"

Trump ads did this. All of those "Biden's America" clips using BLM footage from one or two nights and saying it's happening everyday.

Another thing this technique reminds me of is the police-free zone in Seattle. I watched as Fox News painted it as the whole city being overrun by anarchists. In reality, the police-free zone was just a few blocks down one street.

#4 - Influencing groups who lack critical thinking, using emotionally charged speeches followed by suggestions.

Trump's 01/06 speech. "They stole it, they'll destroy us" followed by "go to the Capitol," "watch what they do."

This technique is Tucker Carlson's bread and butter.

One of the groups specifically targeted by this technique are "people in a state of fear." Right-wing media and Trump himself provoked fear for years, but especially after Trump lost the election. "China will own you." "They'll destroy the constitution." "Deprogramming camps."

#5 - A similar method is influencing by persuasion. This works on people who can think critically, by using faulty evidence and statistics to create bias.

"Of course Trump won; look at these affidavits / lawsuits / vote count changing overnight."

#6 - The 60/40 method was created by Hitler's Minister of Propaganda. It says that if 60% of news coverage is fair and balanced (😉) then the other 40% will be believed by the audience even if it's disinformation or propaganda.

That sounds like Fox News before Trump.

#7 - The "Angle" technique relies on presenting only one perspective & choosing commentators who agree with the desired angle to a story.

Fox News does this everyday with guests like Dave Rubin and Charlie Kirk among others. But One America & Newsmax are this way by design.

#8 - Distraction / Deflection: shifting attention away from stories that are bad for the party and making them about the enemy or something else.

Fox News turned "QAnon is a threat to democracy" into "The Left created QAnon to label you as dangerous. THEY'RE dangerous."

By the way, I'm not writing this thread to specifically target Fox News. It just so happens that the first examples that come to mind while reading these Russian disinformation techniques are from recent Fox News segments.

#9 - "Trolling." Russia uses this technique on forums, social networks, chat rooms, and news sites. The technique uses aggressive, mocking, or abusive messages to spread harmful ideas and discredit opponents.

I don't think I need to add a U.S. example here.

#10 - Russian propagandists (and grifters, I assume) rely on heavy repetition of disinformation so that people get used to the lies. The lie starts to feel true.

Election fraud lawsuits. The # of voters who believed the election was stolen in November versus today is incredible.

#11 - Creating a positive image of politicians both in the country and abroad, even if it's a lie. Voters will trust a politician because they think others do, too.

Donald Trump, obviously. But Madison Cawthorn, anyone? His entire campaign was built on a manufactured past.

That's a pretty vague example. A Russian example: Russia spread a fake story about New York naming a burger after Putin to celebrate his birthday. It made it look like he was gaining U.S. admiration.

Maybe a U.S. example is "Trump's inauguration was the biggest in history."

#12 - Rotten Herring: A lie about a person / group is placed online or in the news. It's an obvious lie. But it gets so much coverage that the repetition makes it feel like it could be true.

Trump is the ultimate source of this, beginning with Obama's birth certificate.

#13 - The Big Lie is the same technique as the Rotten Herring, but it has a much bigger story woven through it.

Our Big Lie in the U.S. is the "stolen election." A Red Herring was "fake ballots." A Big Lie is "Dominion, Venezuela, Soros, Clinton, Biden, and Batman rigged it."

#14 - Rumors. While similar to other techniques, rumors are often targeted towards enhancing stereotypes towards specific groups, and they have elements of truth.

Trump didn't just say that Mexicans are crossing the border. He said they're rapists and they're bringing drugs.

#15 - Half-Truths. Only telling the part of a story that is negative or will upset the audience.

Turn on any right-wing show talking about Biden, and they're doing it right now. "Biden undid this Trump policy!" but never mentioning why or how it will help the country.

#16 - False Equivalence. Comparing two things that can appear to be the same but 100% are not.

Two days ago, Laura Ingraham compared Robinhood stopping people from buying GameStop stock to Twitter censoring "people they think are stupid or crude." (There are better examples)

#17 - Gaslighting, making the opponent doubt reality or question facts. An example is Russia claiming that its foreign enemies did something that Russia actually did to the enemy.

The GOP does it everyday. Trump did it everyday. That's why @GaslitNation is called Gaslit Nation.

A great example of the Trump gaslighting is claiming Democrats are all doing business with China... while he has a Chinese bank account and Ivanka has dozens of Chinese trademarks and all of his campaign merch is made in China.

"There’s one principal goal to Russia’s disinformation efforts: weaken the Western democratic system from within."

That was a great read. Feel free to respond to any of the techniques with your own examples if some come to mind. (End of Thread)