this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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The Russian state media network RT was one of the first outlets to broadcast graphic footage of the assassination last week.

Russia and other foreign adversaries have pounced on the assassination of Charlie Kirk as an opportunity to spread propaganda aimed at aggravating U.S. political divisions and painting America as an unstable country on the decline, according to researchers.

Soon after the news broke about Kirk’s murder, Russian state media and pro-Kremlin voices on social media suggested that the United States was poised for a possible civil war and that dark conspiracies — possibly involving elements of a “deep state” — had played a role in the murder.

Chinese state media portrayed the attack as yet another example of a troubled society in decline, plagued by political disorder and gun violence. State media posted video of lawmakers arguing in Congress and highlighted U.S. experts discussing a climate of violence.

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[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 35 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Americans really underestimate how much China and Russia are contributing to US decline. They have full information control in their countries and they see information freedom as weakness. These countries literally have professional trolls that go to office 9-5 just to disrupt the internet. These aren't just few hundred bots - it's millions of professional provacoteurs and liars.

[–] stickly@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If you're old enough to remember the internet as it was 15-20 years ago it's fairly obvious. Even in the early days of social media a narrative wouldn't spread a fraction as quickly or with as much explosive rhetoric. In a week after a major incident we might get 4 or 5 waves of conflicting or compounding narratives.

You can imagine our social discourse as a massive pool of competing ideas going back and forth; a large disruption might cause a sizable wave. You'd expect rebound waves (opposing ideas) from the opposite fringe to naturally counteract and disperse the original and each other, keeping the water choppy but level.

With a larger network (ie: Twitter in 2025 vs Twitter in 2008) you'd expect to see more inertia and more stability, the fact that we don't is damning. Forcing the mass uniformity of rhetoric that we see these days (massive waves sweeping across hundreds of millions on multiple platforms) is not something that could be orchestrated by anything less than state actors. It takes the planning and coordination of both the initial narratives and responses.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

Yup I'm a daily internet user since the 90s and I grew up in Soviet Empire and it's so obvious how gamed the internet is today. I love internet and would never trade it for China's intranet or similar but the world needs to wisen the fuck up and treat this trolling like any other weapon. Just because its information and not physical gas or nuclear bombs doesnt mean it's not damaging.

The problem here is the hubris of everyone involved "they run information campaign against us well ours will be better!" It's fundamentally idiotic way of approaching mass information the same way governments approach geopolitical information as in "tit for tat, if you leak our shit well leak yours etc" when this doesn't work at the scale of the web.

There will be a day where the camels back will be broken but I'm afraid it'll be too late and we all end up either in a war or isolated, dystopia networks like China or Russia.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

i think china is new on the scene, but russia has been using troll farms for the last decade+, it drastically increase when trump got elected his first term.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

China is definitely not new.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Good thing the US would never do that. Or other awful things like overthrowing democracies and installing fascist dictators.

Not trying to justify any of this, just pointing out the reality that all the major players are actively destabilizing each other.

Could you imagine the world we could build if we weren't wasting so much time and energy fighting imaginary others.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (2 children)

If we could stop being dicks to eachother for like 5 minutes and spend our money on something other than espionage and bombs, we'd probably have interstellar travel by now.

[–] Son_of_Macha@lemmy.cafe 1 points 2 days ago

It's all about greedy bastards getting rich.

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 3 points 4 days ago

Impossible. Psychopaths always get priority elected over normal people. They just break-through easier.

It's like meta-gaming, in that non-psychopaths are basically non-viable.

When was the last time you heard of Muhamad Mamdami?

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world -4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Ugh americans with their "but its both sides" is exactly why you guys are so fucked rn.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's what you took from that?

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yes, this falacy is my biggest pet peeve "all sides are bad and resistance is moot".

We get better gradually not through some silver bullet policy. Call out all mistakes, be it US, China, Russia etc. - we absolutely have the power here to resist all injustice and nothing should be justified.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

All sides are bad if you are comparing superpowers for sure, but that has nothing to do with resistance.

Yes, things can get better through incremental changes and that is also the most realistic way to fix our many problems. I completely agree.