Notices by Caroline Orr Bueno (rvawonk@newsie.social), page 2

Then Russian state media started amplifying the (now multiple) narratives. Russia is quite effective at identifying and exploiting existing tensions and divisions in the U.S. and other Western nations, as well as selling isolationism to democratic societies by laundering Russian propaganda through western voices.

That’s what RT did here — employing a blend of information- and belief-laundering, with Ron Paul serving as the mouthpiece for their own anti-Ukraine propaganda.

To figure out what was going on, I looked at a sample of 200 tweets using that phrase, and also purposively sampled the earliest tweets using that phrase to study its origins.

Immediately, the timing of the first 4 tweets using that phrase stood out to me. They were spaced out almost exactly an hour apart, nearly to the minute.

The jump from the 1st account, w/ 37 followers, to the 2nd account w/ 51,000+, to the 3rd — a GOP candidate for Atty General w/ 217,000+ followers — was eye-popping.

I first noted this campaign on Twitter a week ago, when I saw an unusual number of tweets not just expressing the same idea, but using the same specific phrase (“fund Hawaii not Ukraine”) to do so. So I decided to look into it.

While I was doing that, right-wing media picked up the narrative…. Then Russian state media started amplifying it… And then a few days later, Chinese state media joined in, too.

At that point, I knew I was looking at something interesting…

Here’s the story of how a 37-follower Twitter account seeded a propaganda narrative about Hawaii that made headlines around the world, thanks to a network of right-wing influencers — and amplification by both Russian and Chinese state media.

My latest — a very deep dive into a coordinated campaign:
#socialmedia #disinformation #propaganda
https://open.substack.com/pub/weaponizedspaces/p/russia-amplifies-right-wing-influence?r=1aupz&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

I wrote about how outrage culture is helping racists monetize your clicks. It’s a pretty deep dive that breaks down the social psychology of why rage farming works and how we can stop the cycle — if we want to. #socialmedia #psychology #disinformation
https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/the-anatomy-of-a-viral-tweet-rage

Hey so remember this? Well … it worked. Like, it really worked. And as a result, an aggressive stalker/harasser/abuser lost a platform. And I gained one.

I have adapted the scientific method per the latest developments in podcast science, as explicated in tweet format by Rogan, Musk, and Kennedy (2023). 
References:
Rogan, J., Musk, E., & Kennedy, R. (2023). “Debate Me Bro: Reconceptualizing science as an attention-seeking testosterone contest.” Journal of Doubt Profiteering, 1(1), 1-2.
#Science

Over on Fox News, Mark Levin declared, “This is war!” in response to the indictment.

Right-wing media figure Wayne Allen Root called the indictment a “Declaration of War.”

Stephen Miller said on Fox that Friday “was the day that we ceased to be a democratic republic.”

For the past 2 days, most Fox News hosts & guests have been frenzied as they told their audience that this would be the end of US democracy.

The mainstream rhetoric was striking:

One GOP congressman issued literal battlefield commands on Twitter.

Another GOP rep. tweeted, “We have now reached a war phase.”

Former AZ gov candidate Kari Lake invoked the NRA, saying Republicans have a lot of guns and would use them to defend Trump.

The “MAGA Inc. War Room” said in a statement that the DOJ must be “confronted & destroyed.”

Trump, meanwhile, used Truth Social to call on his supporters to show up when he’ll be at the Miami courthouse on Tuesday. He also targeted special counsel Jack Smith repeatedly, posting his picture calling him a “deranged … Trump Hater”, and suggesting he was bribed or pressured into charging him. Trump also reposted (“re-truthed”) conspiratorial content and election disinformation to further incite people.

Oh, and he’s using his indictment to fundraise for his campaign.

On The Donald, two separate posts called for the assassination of AG Merrick Garland. Both posts featured his picture with a caption saying ‘this is what the 2nd Amendment is for.’

One post called on people to “buy a gun or help organize your local militia.”

The other said “Get ready for war.”

To reiterate: They’re trying to get the US Attorney General assassinated.

A few more notable posts reacting to Trump’s indictment by referencing war, promoting guns, suggesting that US institutions need to be destroyed, etc. Again, these are not just from random accounts, but influential political & media figures. #stochasticterrorism #propaganda #extremism #trump

As I was analyzing Truth Social, the sponsored ad on Trump’s Truth Social page — placed immediately below a meme declaring “THIS IS NOT A GAME. THIS IS WAR.” — was an ad for a gun. The ad had pictures of hands holding a gun, and flashed through three words:

“Lock. Load. Fire.”

The calls for civil war were striking, and in many ways it really does seem like American right-wingers believe the war has begun. And maybe it has.

If/when civil war happens here — or maybe it’s already happening! — it won’t look like the types of war we have seen. It won’t be two sides fighting continuously in a delineated geographic area. It won’t even have a clear start or end. It’ll be a type of warfare that most Americans haven’t ever experienced — making it hard to recognize.

Civil war in America today would look like many different groups, with shifting alliances, carrying out “isolated” (but connected/coordinated) acts of violence like mass shootings & terrorist attacks targeting people, power stations, supply chains, government buildings, etc. It would combine cyber/infrastructure attacks with violent attacks on the population. There’d be few rules, and little/no distinction between civilians & combatants.

ie, it would be irregular warfare.

In the aftermath of Trump’s indictment, several good articles were written about right-wing calls for violence on fringe platforms. But in my latest piece, I focused on mainstream Republicans who are promoting violence, declaring war, and calling on people to take up arms & organize militias.

The findings were alarming — and left me w/ the impression that they believe the war has already begun.
https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/declaration-of-war-right-wing-calls?utm_source=twitter&sd=pf

Over in the bad place, Elon Musk this week re-platformed a Unite the Right nazi and a white supremacist who promotes accelerationism and says we should celebrate mass murderers like Dylann Roof and Brenton Tarrant. This comes amid an “unprecedented” rise in hate speech, and it’s creating a national security crisis that no one is prepared to address.

I wrote about this — and more: https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/elon-musk-allows-domestic-extremists

So in an effort to refute allegations of being pro-Putin, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party set up a parliamentary inquiry to investigate foreign interference in French politics.

Instead of refuting the allegations, the inquiry has found that LePen is a Kremlin mouthpiece.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20230603-le-pen-s-far-right-served-as-mouthpiece-for-the-kremlin-says-french-parliamentary-report

I wrote about why Twitter has become a national security threat, and how its owner keeps making decisions that help violent autocrats and harm democracies around the world. Currently, Musk is not only re-platforming Kremlin-linked accounts — he’s amplifying them, despite Russia’s continued involvement in war crimes and the distribution of terroristic content.
https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/kremlin-twitter-accounts-get-a-boost

This comes just after Twitter made part of its source code public, revealing that it has apparently been suppressing Ukrainian content.

So Twitter is boosting Kremlin content while suppressing pro-Ukraine content. #russia #ukraine #socialmedia #propaganda