Russian Trolls Tried Influencing the Identity Politics Of The Left, But No One Is Talking About It.

Not surprised. Especially when it comes to trans rights.

I think at this point something has to be made very clear.

Trolls are part of the troll community.

The T in LGBT stands for Trans. Trolls are NOT part of the LGBT Community.

Actual members of the LGBT community know the difference. Actual members of the LGBT are aware of the "Divide and Conquer" trolling scheme and they don't fall for that. Actual members of the LGBT community can spot the "I am gay / lesbian / gay ally / Liberal, but ..." trolls a mile away the same way we can spot the "I am a diehard Liberal, but the way Hillary handled her emails ..." trolls. Same goes for the Russian Trolls.

Trolls can pretend to be members of the LGBT Community, but they never will be. Even when they come up with cutesy "I am part of the LGs or LGBs!" claims.

Is exactly troll at R3

I just linked to this old DL thread elsewhere, from a year ago when FB hinted at some of these divisive groups run by Russians.

Josh Emerson unearthed a lot of Russian troll accounts, including an LGBT one that held a memorial for the Pulse victims after the massacre.

And the NYT article about it from last year.

[quote]the disinformation campaign spread well beyond Facebook to sites like Reddit, Instagram, 4chan and Imgur — other popular online social networks — making it more difficult for any one company to curb the tide of fake accounts.

R2 is sadly part of the problem and his attitudes make life so much easier of the trolls.

When hardliners like R2 decide that anyone with an opinion >10% different than the party line is a "troll" then pretty much everyone is a "troll" and it makes it easy for actual trolls to slip in, either to support the official opinion "see what those awful Christians want to do to us! That's why we can't allow for any dissent!" or to pretend to be the voices of dissent that are so frequently stifled.

^^for the trolls

She got the other anti-T thread deleted. OP is the only real troll. She can't stand the most rational people do not support T.

What R9 said. BTW, the NYT article on the front page about "defining away" trans people completely conflates "sex" with "gender" and is so tendentious as to be in substance trolling. Really, their writer doesn't understand the difference?

That's not what R2 said at all.

R2 was being reasonable and speaking from experience, not saying anyone who disagreed a tiny bit was a troll -- and your weird example about Christians doesn't make any sense, either.

I agree with r3 and I'm tired of being called a troll or worse for not going along with a homosexual re-education platform that includes Mengelesphere mutilating surgeries as The Final Solution. And I'm really sick of supposed progressives going along with a movement that approves of men beating feminists with baseball bats.

r9, that's like saying that it's stupid to dismiss bigots because they come off like bigots.

If you fan the flames of Divide & Conquer trolling your are a troll.

The anti-trans trolls have been on a rampage for days. What the shit? Will they disappear after midterms?

How about using your critical thinking skills and don't believe everything you read? I try to get my news from several sources before I draw conclusions. Are people that easily duped these days?

[quote] [R16] is there no gray?

With all the Russian and alt-right trolling going on? No, there is no "a little bit bigot-ish".

We all have our differences but we know that the conservatives want us weak and less powerful. "Divide & Conquer" is real and the conservatives use it against the LGBT Community for their benefit (not ours).

You'd have to be blinded by rhetoric or profoundly stupid to not see how fundamentalist theosophy is the driving force behind the T movement, both economically and ideologically, and that natural allies, gays and women, who are not coincidentally enemies of all fundamentalist religions, are the ones being Divided & Conquered by transageddon suicide terrorists.

r22, = Milo Y. and his "look at these Liberal Nazis!"

R20 is saying "there no room for dissent from the Party Line". If that's not totalitarianism, what is?

Guys, the trolls descended on this thread with their over-the-top "trans are literal Nazis who murder women" to distract from the fact that the OP is right: [bold] alt-right and rightwing trolls target LGBT websites to divide the community. [/bold]

Don't let them distract you from the fact that they are doing this to hurt us, even if they claim they just want to save us from "being erased."

You should probably also know that people like the "trans are Nazis" guy upthread weasel their way into DL by starting Underwhelmed threads and stuff like that. It's similar to how Dvida used to start threads "by request" for people who couldn't/didn't pay to post, just to make it seem like she was being a helpful member of the community.

Typical trolls crying foul that they can't do their dirty work when being dismissed as trolls.

Sure, we need to hear them out, listen to their "valid" arguments that have been used against gays for ages (gay is unnatural, sick, it's a mental disease! They recruit children! Sick perverts pushing their agenda down my throat! Disgusting! Their fight for equal rights is erasing / demeaning me and my life! Don't let them!).

r26, your paranoia and knee-jerk incorrect assumptions should be worrisome to you. I've been on DL since 2003. I'm not a Russian troll. In fact, most of the people you encounter who disagree with you simply disagree with you. Maybe you're the troll-? If you're unable to break out of this black and white baby thinking, you're never going to have an original thought in your life. And you're certainly not a progressive if you assume and demand groupthink. It's you, with your loyalty oaths to those who would exterminate us, who is doing the most damage to our community.

In the 1950s, Conservatives warned of the Russian menace that would destroy US democracy.

In 2018, Liberals warn of the Russian menace that would destroy US democracy.

"If I keep asking stupid, leading, inflammatory questions, I'll get everyone on Datalounge to forget that I'm a troll!"

[quote]She got the other anti-T thread deleted. OP is the only real troll.

I've got the two most recent anti-trans threads on my watchlist and they're both active.

[quote]a homosexual re-education platform that includes Mengelesphere mutilating surgeries as The Final Solution

[quote]transageddon suicide terrorists.

[quote]your loyalty oaths to those who would exterminate us

Seek professional help.

Not surprised. Trump would not have won the end of America. The left and liberals would've lost it.

Ugh another troll thread. What is going on with you losers? Is it just the midterms? Regardless, FF and block

Apart from the Divide & Conquering the Russian and alt-right trolling is about controlling the narrative. It's all about making Datalounge look like it's alt-right central and that gays are against trans. It's about "Hey gay allies, look at these gays attacking each other threats at Datalounge! You really want to support gays when they turn on their own like this? They will turn on you, too! Those fickle gays!".

When you ignore them and not challenge them and their trolling that's how they win.

Sorry, "look at these gays attacking each other at Datalounge! ..."

Speaking of trolls, hi R37!

r37 is exactly right. Here is a good example: a thread on Twitter by an anti-trans activist who, of course, met a "furious" gay man who hated the trans for ruining gay activism. In the middle of the thread is someone who says that these anti-trans threads on DL prove that gay men are victims of trans, and know trans are ruining the entire LGBT community.

Everything said by the trolls here on DL is blamed on gay men.

Why doesn’t DL just ban trans threads and filter the word?

[quote]No, OP. The trans movement was funded by rich men who enjoy cross dressing and/or blurring boundaries that keep them away from women and children.

How does being trans blur a line with children R12?

No matter how hard they try, Russians have terrible, stilted conversational English! They try too hard to sound "proper" and just sound weird overall!

Hmmm I had never thought about it like that R37 But what else can we do? The trolls can't be reasoned with. All we can hope is that they are blocked

[quote]When you ignore them and not challenge them and their trolling that's how they win.

Wrong. Hit FF and then block. Engage and they win.

r42, I believe the other poster is referring to penised persons changing in women's changing rooms and the resulting scenario of said children being exposed to this hypothetical penised person's dick.

The line that I think the transgenda blurs with children is: informed consent.

What a piece of work you are R47. Get meds

R48, what part of my post is wrong?

Julianna is indeed in jail for child porn. He was arrested for raping a FTT.

I believe the Russkies were also, in tandem with the Russiapublicans and FOX News, behind the Black Lives Matter movement, and all the 24/7 brouhaha over Treyvon and Michael Brown. It successfully scared the white hillbillies right to the polls to keep Hillary from packing her administration with blacks.

Young black men are still killed by cops, but you hardly hear about it anymore because a POTUS election isn't imminent.

I think “queer” is all apart of that.

Well, we do have the weirdo Ant-Tans Brigade here. I can’t figure out if their Russians, demented females, or just old school prisspot gays who hate women and see them as “icky” competition.

At any rate, no one seems to take them seriously, which is good.

ANTI-trans. Not Ant-Trans.

I don’t know if there are any trans ants.

[quote] It's similar to how Dvida used to start threads "by request" for people who couldn't/didn't pay to post, just to make it seem like she was being a helpful member of the community.

HA!

I was just thinking how the equation Poo Shoes:Trolls = Poo Shoes Accusers:Troll Accusers was quite accurate and there's R26 proving it out for me.

For r61

I would be fine with “trans” as a topic being censored from this site.

This is a site for people of minority sexual orientations, i.e. gays, lesbians and unicorns.

Trans is a body integrity identity disorder that presents as a psychological perception of a mismatch between socialized gender and biological sex.

The two things have absolutely nothing to do with one another. And the majority of transgender people identify as [bold]heterosexual[/bold]. Their collective objective is to credibly pass as conservative ideals of the opposite sex. Feminists, gays and lesbians (and unicorns) have died in the fight for freedom from rigid, regressive, religiously founded self-expressions of gender. Died. And are still dying. And are now being hormonally and sexually mutilated by an agenda that is diametrically opposed to everything gay people have accomplished and which threatens the future viability of GBLs everywhere.

Having trans under the same umbrella as gays is the equivalent lumping Black Lives Matter protesters in with the KKK because hey it’s all about racial politics, right? Same damn thing. Or making Code Pink share a banner with MRAs — again, it’s all just gender politics right? “Same fucking thing, of course the details are different, people are different!” Can’t pave that yellow brick road when the person “on your team” behind you is digging up every brick you lay.

Anyone with half a brain would realize that the overwhelming majority of posters on DL think trans people should of course be afforded the exact same rights and respect as anyone else but also that some trans activists, seemingly always male to female autogynephiles, are absolute unhinged lunatics and the polite left are afraid they’ll be called transphobic if they stand up to their nonsense.

Ergo, by OP’s logic, the majority of DL are Russian trolls that have been here for years just waiting for the opportunity to strike against America by pitting sane gay people vs an insane fringe. Sure, Jan. And clearly even the buttons like OP don’t think that’s the case as they constantly attempt to gaslight us that we are a fringe minority—projection at its finest! It’s sad.

And the truth is the whole “if you disagree with me you’re a Russian troll” tactic not only is lame, worn out, and retarded, it’s entirely ineffective. It accomplishes nothing. If a gay guy leans to the right on economic issues, calling him a Nazi, a fascist, a Rethug, a right winger or, yes, even a Russian troll, will not make him suddenly say, “you got me. Let’s do Alexandria Cortez’s stupid ideas instead.” Your numbers will only ever get smaller and smaller.

The bottom line is that gay people, just like all people, are complicated. We are not a monolith. Not all gay men love Golden Girls and Barbara. He’ll, some gay guys don’t even like anal! (What's that about??) If you think gays and lesbians are the equals of straight people, then they have the right to be wherever they want to be on the political spectrum, just like the heteros.

I understand some of you are in a bubble and think we are living under Hitler right now and you need to make sense of this crazy world, but you need to realize your grasping at straws is doing two things: shrinking your bubbles and cutting off your oxygen. And bubbles are transparent, to boot, so everyone is laughing at you.

All that said, Silicon Valley should really figure out a way to help us actually identify Russian trolls. I think though with VPNs and stuff it’s going to be up to us to figure it out. Don’t muddy the waters. Just like if everyone is Hitler, nobody is Hitler—if everyone is a Russian troll, nobody is a Russian troll.

(Why doesn’t the CIA have an agent infiltrate the supposed troll farms?)

Interesting, R67. But not every thread on DL is about gay stuff so even if the T wasn’t ever affixed to GLB, it would still come up. Banning any topic or word isn’t the answer. We should try our best not to give oxygen to the pro-trans trolls and anti-trans trolls both.

I agree R72. BLM is gone. How convienant.

What about the non-binary people? Russian?

I don’t even know what non-bianary means. And I have a Masters.

It’s a person that doesn’t identify as male or female. And, calls gays “queers” or says “queer and transgender rights”. Makes me angry when I hear and see that—the queer part. Gays and lesbians are completely omitted and I have always wondered why and what that was about.

You should care.

I thank everyone for this thread. I know, whatever the topic, I take the bait.

I think all of that is some sort of nefarious social engineering, R80. All of it was bizarre and head scratching. The non-binary, the fluid, the queer...all of it was wrong and homophobic and...I don’t know. Wrong. Now, I can see it’s probably Russian influence.

[quote]R77 It's mostly younger kids and college students playing around with labels. But, honestly, who cares?

Exactly. People can call themselves whatever they want...and do what they like.

If someone else wants to just be a bitter shrew on the sidelines and get all bent out of shape about some stranger’s path...we’ll, sounds like a crappy way to spend a life.

But when they're pushing for 'hate speech laws' and that 'misgendering is a hate crime'? Doesn't seem quite so harmless.

Well put R68.

Though seemingly wasted on its intended target as per your point about convincing people on the internet, lol.

But you've stated what many of us are thinking

Is that Mary Kate or Ashley, OP?

R84 is why Russia is so easily shifting “the identity of the “‘Left”. But, but.. It’s college kids!

Links to better websites were posted early on, r49. But you ignored that for a reason, didn't you?

Russian, R90.

Enough, R92.

It's true that most of the trolls we get onDL are probably not Russian at all, and many are probably not even paid. However, the way Russian trolls operate is incredibly similar to the way organized alt-right trolls work. That's why sometimes it's just easier to say "okay, thanks Boris," and move on with your life. It's funny and it irritates trolls. Why not say it?

After running into Chick-fil-A trolls on Twitter who were clearly just alt-ight and right wing cult members, basically, who thought that defending Chick-fil-A meant they were defending their own personal socio-political beliefs, I can definitely see that a lot of trolls we get are simply people who have just taken this crusade upon themselves. They don't necessarily have to be paid.

But it would be foolish to act like paid trolls don't participate in these kind of discussions.

Oh lord, the CFA trolls. Always with the "their restaurants are always so clean and their staff so well-mannered! I go there right after my weekend trip to Hobby Lobby! Suck it, libs!"

[quote]gay men themselves on the DL routinely call the Trans out on their insanity and have been almost since the beginning of the DL In the 90s.

Not true. There is a thread around here about being able to scroll all the way to the beginning of DL which has examples of articles that were posted here back about 22 years ago, before the place but came just forums and actually had LGBT news. One of the big contributors was a trans woman and/or drag queen person named Trudy, who talked a lot about gender issues, and it wasn't anti trans rhetoric.

Besides, I've been on here since about 2003 or 2004, and I really didn't see any of these crazy anti trans threads until about three four years ago, and at first they were relatively normal, everyday threads. Within a few months they were taken over by people posting fake links and made up medical reports, stuff like that.

LOL I meant just "drag queen," not "drag queen person."

[quote] Besides, I've been on here since about 2003 or 2004, and I really didn't see any of these crazy anti trans threads until about three four years ago, and at first they were relatively normal, everyday threads. Within a few months they were taken over by people posting fake links and made up medical reports, stuff like that.

Which coincides with the arrival of that donkey-toothed troll (whose name shan't be invoked) and his "interns".

Yes but the self indentify issue didn’t come up until very recently and the Trans bathroom issue wasn’t weaponized by republicans until what, 2016?

There has been a sudden increase in coverage of trans issues within the mainstream media from all sides in the past few years which would explain an increase in trans related posting here.

I sometimes miss the days of the domlijah

That's a lot of trolling right there. They can't help themselves.