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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the stuffing-the-ballot-box dept.

You may be getting trolled right now without even knowing it.

Donald Trump supporters artificially manipulated the results of online polls to create a false narrative that the Republican nominee won the first presidential debate on Monday night.

The efforts originated from users of the pro-Trump Reddit community r/The_Donald and 4chan messaged boards, which bombarded around 70 polls, including those launched by Time, Fortune, and CNBC.

In this latest incarnation, multiple Reddit users enlisted the Trump-supporting masses on r/The_Donald, which has over 200,000 subscribers, by posting dozens of online polls that are vulnerable to vote brigading, bots, and other forms of manipulation that make these non-scientific surveys notoriously unreliable.

Polls that were not open to public voting consistently put Clinton ahead of Trump. In a flash poll by Public Policy Polling, Clinton led Trump 51 to 40. A CNN/ORC poll conducted immediately following the debate found significantly stronger support for Clinton, who topped Trump 62 to 27.

http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/trump-clinton-debate-online-polls-4chan-the-donald/


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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:19PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:19PM (#407363) Journal

    Sigh. Good Lord, what a day this is. Second time in a thread I'm stepping in to argue on jmorris's behalf (though this time more parallax than parallel).

    I believe you are correct in asserting that Trump is no Robin Hood or champion of justice and fairness. He isn't. His most ardent supporters are in for some mighty disappointment on that score. You begin to overstep the mark, though, when you dismiss their grievances as a mere "unwarranted persecution complex." The real incomes of Americans have been on an uninterrupted 40-year slide. NAFTA, championed by Hillary and her husband, gutted American manufacturing. The American middle class (a great deal of them in organized labor, BTW), suffered massive job losses and in incomes. The only ones who won from that deal were the 1%. None of that is imagined, and most of it has been thoroughly documented and argued by progressives, not just by Trump. It's also something that has affected Americans of all races, not just white men. Honestly, it's weird to hear anyone whose surname isn't Rockefeller argue otherwise. That's the vein Trump has tapped into, and it's real and fully, fully warranted.

    Second, you're calling Donald Trump a racist because you're drinking koolaid of a different flavor. It's the same koolaid that wants people to believe that people who oppose Hillary are doing so because they're misogynist. Trump has cynically played the race card with respect to Muslim immigrants in the exact same way Hillary played it when she voted to invade Iraq. "FEAR THE OTHER!" It works every time. But I still don't believe that either Trump or Hillary are really racist. The world they live in, the air they breathe, doesn't give a tinker's damn about race, religion, or nationality. They only care about ego. Ego is the only thing that matters. And while I can't personally attest to how true to Trump's public persona his actual character is, I can personally attest that is 100% true of the Clintons. They are purely mercenary, pure grifters, 100% corrupt, and evil to the core. They would order the deaths of a 1,000 babies if it meant they'd wind up $1 million richer, and there was little chance they'd get caught.

    If you want to vote for someone in the race who's worth voting for, vote for Jill Stein. She's the best person running. But don't carry water for Hillary. The world will be an exponentially better place the day the Clinton name is struck from the history books.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday September 28 2016, @02:25PM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @02:25PM (#407394) Journal

    The "unwarranted persecution complex" is nothing to do with manufacturing jobs or NAFTA. It's the anti-PC-anti-"SJW" kneejerk knobheads who have been convinced that to be a middle-class white guy in America is to be the downtrodden victim of a conspiracy to give his job to an underqualified minority via positive discrimination and then tax all his money into the pockets of illegal immigrants. This narrative fits very well with the 1% who would like very much to see all kinds of welfare (except corporate welfare, obviously) abolished.

    I agree with you in that the 1% in general are equal-opportunity oppressors, and are just as happy to rob and crush a white guy as a black one. I would even go so far as say that most of the partisan arguments and much of the racial tension around this election are simply the result of "divide and conquer" tactics from on high to keep the peons squabbling amongst themselves.

    To say that Trump is not a racist, that he might just be projecting some kind of bigoted persona... well I have to disagree. Many of his most telling statements and actions date back to well before this campaign. The guy clearly has some nasty preconceived ideas about people of certain colours and he acts on them. Even if that were the case though, I would argue that if someone in a position of power and influence puts on an unpleasant public persona and encourages others to take on those traits for themselves... then they are even more irresponsible than someone who actually believes all that foul shit. [1] If Trump's unapologetic bigotry in his campaigning isn't genuine, then he's even more of an dick for using such an evil tool so cynically.

    Trump also supported the Iraq war by the way [theguardian.com] (admittedly in a half-arsed sort of a way, but he wasn't a politician at the time so I guess that's not such a big deal). Hilary voted for the war (on the understanding that non-military options would be exhausted first) and later admitted that it had been the wrong vote. Trump simply denied that he never supported it and we have always been at war with Eurasia. I know which of those attitudes I respect more.

    Regarding Hilary: I have no strong opinion. She has probably broken some rules and made a lot of compromises to get where she is, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone at that level of politics who hasn't.[2] Whatever, she has certain basic qualifications necessary for office that Trump lacks: She is sharp-minded, experienced and professional and apparently capable of planning, articulating, negotiating and compromising to make things happen in the dual sharkpools of international and domestic politics. Even if she is the monster you claim[3], at least, if elected, she would be YOUR monster, working to further American interests as far as they align with her own. In contrast Trump is a shallow thinking, loud-mouthed buffoon with no subtlety, statesmanship, or deep understanding of anything[4]. However he is possessed of an unshakeable conviction in his own infallibility and supremacy that lays him wide open to manipulation and deception. If he got into power he (and by extension America) would be eaten alive by the likes of Putin who would flatter and manipulate him into giving the USA away because he can't even perceive that what he's doing doesn't serve his own interests.

    Finally I won't be voting for Trump, Clinton or your Jill Stein because mercifully, I don't live within a thousand miles of your fucked up country.

    [1] Case in point: Boris Johnson. As far as anyone can tell he almost certainly doesn't believe in Brexit, but he campaigned for it and won it anyway just to further his career. A hypocrite and a traitor.
    [2] You can't tell me Trump hasn't broken rules, he's as crooked as they come. but I might be persuaded to concede that he hasn't ever compromised on what passes for his "principles".
    [3] Your post seems somewhat hyperbolic. I don't doubt she's cynical, but not THAT cynical.
    [4] On the other hand, he does have an extraordinary talent for making expensive suits look cheap.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:53PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:53PM (#407507) Journal

      Hilary voted for the war (on the understanding that non-military options would be exhausted first) and later admitted that it had been the wrong vote. Trump simply denied that he never supported it and we have always been at war with Eurasia. I know which of those attitudes I respect more.

      Again, you're choosing to swallow her spin. I know what you're saying is not true because I was deeply engaged in politics at that time, too, and we New York progressives were directly connected with her office (she was our Senator at the time, remember), telling her in no uncertain terms that the pretext for invading Iraq was a complete fabrication. We demonstrated in the millions on the east side of Manhattan, filling every avenue for as far as the eye could see, and she still cast that vote cynically. She knew exactly what she was doing, and was taken in by no one.

      Whatever, she has certain basic qualifications necessary for office that Trump lacks: She is sharp-minded, experienced and professional and apparently capable of planning, articulating, negotiating and compromising to make things happen in the dual sharkpools of international and domestic politics.

      That would describe any other master criminal. It doesn't mean I want Lex Luthor sitting in the Oval Office.

      Even if she is the monster you claim[3], at least, if elected, she would be YOUR monster, working to further American interests as far as they align with her own.

      No, she wouldn't. Hillary doesn't give a damn about the American people. The only thing she cares about is figuring out new ways to sell the American people down the river and pocket the sum. She and her husband already sold advanced targeting technology to the Chinese. Who do you think they're going to target with that technology, East Timor?

      Your post seems somewhat hyperbolic. I don't doubt she's cynical, but not THAT cynical.

      Not, hyperbolic, but clear. I have seen the inside of their operations. I ran their operations. I have seen Chris Ruddy (CEO of Newsmax, and the guy who ran the Vince Foster conspiracy) sitting in meetings with the Clintons, divvying up the spoils. I have seen Rupert Murdoch do the same. I have been in the room when household names you would instantly know have schemed out ways to fleece the public. It's "just business" to them.

      The "unwarranted persecution complex" is nothing to do with manufacturing jobs or NAFTA. It's the anti-PC-anti-"SJW" kneejerk knobheads who have been convinced that to be a middle-class white guy in America is to be the downtrodden victim of a conspiracy to give his job to an underqualified minority via positive discrimination and then tax all his money into the pockets of illegal immigrants. This narrative fits very well with the 1% who would like very much to see all kinds of welfare (except corporate welfare, obviously) abolished.

      I agree the ranting about "SJWs" is tiresome. The white supremacists coming out of the woodwork are exceptionally distasteful. Unfortunately there has been a real conspiracy to grind Americans under the boot heel. It's not because the elites hate white people or Americans generally, but because they want to pocket even more billions. They have bought laws that make it legal to offshore operations and launder profits through shell corporations in the Caymans, so they use them.

      In fact, the elites don't care about race at all. They are as comfortable rubbing elbows with ultra-wealthy Chinese and Africans in the private clubs and resorts of the world as any other sort of people. Why wouldn't they be? They all went to Harvard and Oxford, too. They were school chums. When introduced, they don't ask where they're from, but who their people are (that is, are they Rockefellers, or Fords, etc). The only time they would mention place of national origin or any language of the kind would be when talking to the rabble, a thing they try very hard to avoid.

      It can be quite hard for people who have never encountered the elite to accept that they live in a completely different world than we do. But they do. And you are quite right that the anti-SJW vs. SJW stuff is all their creation, and very much their tactic to divide and distract us to keep us from ever getting wise to that fact.

  • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:20AM

    by Whoever (4524) on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:20AM (#407688) Journal

    Second, you're calling Donald Trump a racist because you're drinking koolaid of a different flavor.

    No, I call him a racist because, unlike you, I am not blind to history. [heavy.com]

    Don't forget, if you vote for Trump, you are voting to weaken the first amendment. He has made that very clear. You are voting for someone who misuses charitable donations. If you actively support him, then I ascribe those same value to you.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:43AM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:43AM (#407839) Journal

      Jesus. Are you 3? And should we blame you personally for Obama assassinating American citizens with drones and the NSA's completely blowing away the Constitution because you voted for him? (that's assuming, of course, that you were even old enough to vote at the time).

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.