The Russian government has a lot of influence in the media, including legitimate media like NYTimes . . .
No, this is the precise opposite of the truth . . .
Your reply itself is proof of just how effective the influence was. And now I sound like I'm a conspiracy theorist by saying that - which again is even more proof of the effectiveness of the gaslighting. It's honestly pretty brilliant. It's so effective I can't even articulate this point to one blade of the scissor without seeming like I'm begging the question and being illogical. Even in that very sentence. And now I probably just sound crazy. Which, again, I think is the goal in the first place. And there it is again!
Correct, Western raised Western educated Western progressive people write articles in Western owned Western read papers like the New York times about just how problematic people like us are, and then people like you try to gaslight us by attempting to deflect to the Russians instead by coming up with unfalsifiable galaxy-brained takes about spooky psyops.
Is there where you tell me how when Hillary called ~half of the States a basket of deplorables to the loud cheering of the other ~half it was because she was a Russian asset?
The best part is you're 100% right, if in a world where your premises are fully correct. That's what makes it all so juicy.
For the record, I largely agree with you about the media and the New York Times, and I also think they way overhype and exaggerate the Russia stuff, and spin lots of unsubstantiated association threads off of it. But I also think that's exactly partly what Russian intelligence expected and wanted. If these truly were unfalsifiable galaxy-brained spooky psyops, you'd have to admit they were pretty clever, no?
I think all of it's true. The mainstream media is awful and now mostly consists of writers with a progressive bias that seeps into everything they publish. They have a massive case of Trump Derangement Syndrome and are constantly crying wolf. They're laughably paranoid about Russia and peddled unfounded conspiracy theories about Trump and Russia. They call everything and everyone racist all the time without substance. Hillary was an awful candidate. But Trump supporters also have Media Derangement Syndrome. And Trump is an awful president and awful person who's unable to tell the truth about what he had for breakfast. And the Russian government actually did hack the DNC and John Podesta and leaked their emails by sending them to WikiLeaks, favored Trump over Hillary in the campaign, and continues to attempt to make the US political and civil situation more volatile. I see no reason why these things can't all be true.
Is there where you tell me how when Hillary called ~half of the States a basket of deplorables to the loud cheering of the other ~half it was because she was a Russian asset?
No, because there's no evidence Hillary is a Russian asset. I don't think Trump or anyone in his campaign is or ever was a Russian asset, either. You don't need any assets to spread propaganda and FUD. FUD about the potential for existence of assets is more than enough to get the job done.
I don't think Russian intelligence did anything particularly sophisticated. I think they sent some phishing emails that asked for people's email passwords, and agreed on a good online marketing and propaganda strategy to amplify the "two movies on one screen" effect in the US and Britain, and that's it. But I think it worked pretty well, and continues to pay dividends. And I'm sure CIA/NSA/etc. has done, is doing, and will do relatively similar things to Russia, though probably in a way that's less flashy. (Though there are reports of NSA hacking into IRA and fucking with their computers and shutting off the power to the whole building, and such, which I think is pretty funny.)
To me, this all just seems kind of obvious. Like if I worked in Russian intelligence, of course I'd be doing things like this. I wouldn't be doing my job very well if I weren't. Trump is obviously geopolitically much better for Russia than Hillary would've been. Putin has said this himself, publicly. It's not exactly a big secret or conspiracy theory, or surprising or weird in the least. Obviously if any of us were in Putin's shoes, we'd strongly prefer Trump over Hillary, for a variety of reasons.
And Russia is the underdog; of course if you want to throw a wrench into NATO, the EU, and the US, and you're an underdog, you'd do things like use the Internet to try to make politics in those countries more divisive and to increase the odds of getting elected officials who your government would prefer, especially if your country was famously innovative with its secret police's political subversion and propaganda tactics and was really good at things like that. Why wouldn't you? I'd be a lot more surprised if Russia sat on their ass and did nothing. They're all just doing their job. No one should have any ill will against them for just trying to achieve what's in their country's best geopolitical interests, just as the US tries to achieve what's best for its geopolitical interests all the time. Though, of course, they should now expect a little taste of their own medicine at some point (and they surely are anticipating it, if some of it isn't already happening; they aren't idiots).
That's not the only reason I think these things are true; I think it's true because I looked at all of the publicly released evidence involved. But purely from a motive and logic perspective, it seems obvious that these are things they have done before, would want to do, and are very capable of doing. Trump, or any president, being a puppet of Russia would be very shocking. But Russia trying to fuck with the US? It'd be shocking if they weren't.
And they probably will be 50 years from now, too. As long as no one's being physically harmed or killed, I think it's all fair game. The former NSA and CIA director agrees: Hayden: Russian email hack is 'honorable state espionage'. My favorite quote from it:
A foreign intelligence service getting the internal emails of a major political party in a major foreign adversary? Game on. I would not want to be in an American court of law and be forced to deny that I never did anything like that as director of the NSA.
Most powerful countries do shit like this all the time, and always have, and maybe always will. It's all in the game. You'd be handicapping yourself for no good reason if you weren't.