All it took was a few insatiably greedy assholes and a few decades. Hopefully the next government can figure out how to contend with human greed.
"Russian interference" is not just a few hackers breaking into emails—it’s a well-documented, multi-decade strategy of disinformation designed to weaken democratic institutions. The Kremlin has spent years building an extensive network of fake social media accounts, bot farms, and propaganda outlets to spread divisive narratives.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, the FBI, and cybersecurity experts have all confirmed that Russia’s influence campaigns exploit social and political fractures, using platforms like Facebook and Twitter to push misleading or outright false information. Reports from organizations like the RAND Corporation and Stanford Internet Observatory show how these tactics are designed to erode trust in democracy itself, making people more susceptible to authoritarian and extremist messaging.
This isn’t just speculation—it’s the exact playbook used in Russia’s interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections, as confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies and the Mueller Report. The goal has always been to amplify distrust, push conspiracy theories, and create a populace that can no longer distinguish fact from fiction.
And now? We’re seeing the results. A country where misinformation spreads faster than the truth, where people take social media posts at face value instead of questioning their sources, and where a populist leader can ride that wave of disinformation straight into power.
Putin doesn’t need to fire a single shot—he’s watching Americans tear themselves apart over lies his operatives helped plant. And the worst part? Many people still refuse to acknowledge it's happening.
Putin has long stated that Russia is at war with the West—not through traditional military means, but through information warfare. Intelligence agencies, cybersecurity experts, and independent researchers have repeatedly warned that we are being targeted. Yet, many in the West refused to take it seriously.
Now, we’re losing the war—not on the battlefield, but in the minds of our own citizens, as propaganda and disinformation tear at the very fabric of democracy.
We need to be able to identify their tactics when we see them.
I've personally noticed that there's a certain kind of user who will always reply no matter what. I think it's part of their job to never concede so it looks like they've won when people on the other side move on with their lives.
Great to see liberals have fully embraced Qanon style conspiracy theory: just spewing out paragraphs of unsourced claims about a grand conspiracy.
And now? We’re seeing the results. A country where misinformation spreads faster than the truth
You heard it here folk! How could Americans possibly believe misinformation over truth! There's no president for it! It must be a foreign scheme! Fluoride in the water! Precious bodily fluids!
Because of one simple reason: "Don't care as long as I get mine's", personified in Trump, fueled by the increasing disdain those that have wealth and power have had for their neighbors such that the don't mind living surrounded by shit because they feel they already are.
The average American is really, really dumb
Yes and the propaganda helped too. The billionaires in the US figured out how to get control of most of the media. It's a master class for the billionaires of the rest of the world. I imagine it won't take long for everyone else to start seeing that kind of propaganda as well.
really, really dumb
Really, really, >really ~really DUMB.
Tbh it’s basically the movie 300 without king Leonidas.
Trump is 100% a Russian asset, wild to see that after it was blatantly obvious the first go around we were like "yeah let's out a Russian spy back in the white house."
The important point isn’t even whether or not he is a Russian asset. He undoubtedly is, but that doesn’t actually matter. All that matters is that he’s acting like a Russian asset. He’s doing all the things a Russian asset would do. Ultimately, whether the orders are actually coming from Putin is irrelevant, because the end result is still the same.
Judging how Russian elites started licking up to Trump, even blurring out the Soviet emblems in old movies recently in cinema (that's really unexpected), and that general "master is our friend, master will forgive us", it seems that Russia is Trump's asset.
You are forgetting how much power the US and every powerful person in it have. Russia is simply not on the same level, USSR might have been once.
Still, that they are in a relationship is obvious.
I'm not forgetting. It's just that Russia is clearly dictating some major USA foreign policy and was from 2016 to 2020 as well.
Obviously it's not black and white, the world is full of gray, but just looking at it through a realpolitik lens the USA is squandering our international goodwill. It may be at the negotiating table and the UN, ceding territorial control via soft power (ie: blowing up USAID which is an idea so retarded it's embarrassing) that gave us access to resources and good will for where we stick all our military bases, letting Russia dictate terms on the surrender of Ukraine, talking about pulling out of NATO (also insane) and at least working at odds with it... Etc.
Sorry for the run on sentence.
Anyways I'm just saying sure some Russian elites are also stroking off Trump at times but that's just window dressing. If anything they're doing it because Trump is so incredibly egotistical he can be easily manipulated by pretending to care more about him. That and they want to use him to help launder money and assets (see: cryptocurrency and real estate deals).
Half the country have always been aware of it, but are powerless to stop it, the other half either voted for him because of it- or are in complete denial that it’s happening- right before their eyes.
What you are saying is that the president of the most powerful country in the world, that spend 10 times more in war than russia, that run the biggest surveillance network ever seen in history, that has thousand of military infrastructures around the planet and that has the most technological advanced army in the world is 100% a russian asset...
This is obviously subjective and depends how you define "asset".
If you're asking whether Trump is a red sparrow recruited as a orphan and trained in espionage, ballet, and martial arts from the age of 4, that's obviously not the case.
If you're asking whether Trump is easily manipulated by his desire for validation from competitors, or his desire to exert power over others, then that's obviously true.
It wasn’t intentional. Trump followed Putin just as Vance followed Trump. He is just too stupid to have seen how this would play out.
Getting attacked by a foreign leader is such an effective way to rally your people behind you, that governments often fabricate external threats as a way to unify their nation. Putin knew the ways this could play out. The only more desirable result for Putin would’ve been Zelenskyy reluctantly accepting the agreement, but globally discrediting the US was a guarantee.
Putin was a KGB intelligence officer for 16 years before going to work for Yeltsin. The man outsmarts intelligence experts for fun. Trump’s ignorance and ego make him the perfect patsy, and the greedy Republicans in office have fully manifested into spineless yes men that are guaranteed to stay out of his way.
Putin is not some 4D Chess master. This should be blatantly obvious since 2022. But he does not need to be what you make him out, all he needs to be is a little bit smarter than the orange idiot.
I remember the first time I started to pay attention to geopolitics. It was when George W. Bush was elected president, and it made me freak out a bit. Why would a country like America elect such an obvious idiot to the highest office?
I also remember that Putin in comparison seemed like an intelligent, sensible person, even if tad intimidating.
I'm not sure what my point is except that George W. is a genius compared to Trump.
Of course. I wasn’t praising him, but comparing his experience in political manipulation to Trump’s. MAGA isn’t any better, taking Putin’s word that he’d “much rather have Biden or Harris in the White House” than Trump.
Another big winner here is China. I would love to know the contents of that meeting between putin and xi, I think back in 2022(?)
It was just this, from both of them:
You said it fellow human, lol.
The president grovels to putin: This is an unprecedented loss of u.s. soft power and the world is judging America for it's cowardice.
The president, congress and every major media organization grovels to netanyahu: ....
This does look bad on our part but the main thing making us look bad on the world stage is our support for Israel. If you ask the average person outside of the west what they find most offensive about this administration they'll probably say its genocidal policy in gaza, not it's shakedown of an ally.
That’s just not true
Countries threatened by China care a lot more about this than Gaza
Maybe, but that's a small amount of countries / people. Mostly Taiwan and to a far lesser extent south Korea and Japan. Most other countries aren't threatened by China, and the few that are aren't allied enough with the u.s. to plan there defense around u.s. support.
Meanwhile the Israeli genocide has brought together the large swaths of the Muslim world with progressive anti colonial movements in the global south against Israel and the u.s.
The world isn't just the u.s. and its allies. Most people live in countries outside that political sphere, though most within it tend to forget that.
It wasn't disinformation - it is a pedophile who had minors delivered into his bed and was filmed during the atrocities. The resulting child pornography is what makes orange guy the lap dog of a psychotic killer.
The rest was easy with an asset that high in the ranks.
Could be. It could also just be bribes.
The current situation is really nice for countries like Russia, Saudi-Arabia and China. They just need to pay a few billion to Trump and get stuff that cannot be bought and are easily worth hundreds of billions from the US empire.
Their new crypto grifts really take this to an extreme level. Hundreds of millions just directly given to Trump as bribes now, its actually insane.
It could be either of those things certainly, but I feel like no amount of money Russia could provide would be enough for Trump, he's in control of the United States Treasury and can direct money anywhere with impunity (see also: Starlink). If they came out with a video he'd just call it fake - particularly in this age of AI - and it would have zero effect.
Russians throw people out windows all the time though. I'd be willing to bet that the threat of physical harm is all that is necessary to control him.
Or quite possibly, all three things. Keep us happy and the money keeps flowing, the porn stays in the vault and you won't be unalived.
One thing is certain: it's not nothing.
It was mostly disinformation though, if you look at how most of the social media, and MSMs ran, it's mostly talking points from Russia in some form another
And at this point, who cares? Tell the CIA what blackmail Putin has on you. That's what they're there for.
Don't sell out your whole gd country and the world because you're just that desperate to hide your personal crimes.
What a moron.
Because once you give into blackmail, that just opens to door to further blackmail. And every single time you give in, it makes it worse and worse. At this point, yeah Trump could get his base to arm wave away him fucking minors. But then he'd have to explain away every thing he's done for them since then, which is just treasonous.
You know, I can easily imagine the first part opening a lot of peoples eyes about Trump if they saw it on it's own. Add the second part and they are likely to throw it into the flat-earth bucket of statements.
I really wonder how much of the current situation in the US is because people would rather be smug and gloat over people with different politics then actually try to convince them.
Don't normalize imperialistic ambitions as a way to appeal to fascists. Ukraine should be supported, but not because of the need to maintain the hegemony.
Down with American imperialism. Long live the imperialism of their successor!
So in response to my argument that you shouldn't directly encourage imperialism you're arguing "but my empire is better than their empire." How very... insightful. I understand that you believe imperialism is a fundamental reality of international politics, but it's only because of tact shit like this that defeats internationalism.
I feel a ton of sympathy for the besieged Ukrainians. But it does feel good to see the Russians give it to the US war machine after 17 months of the US funding, arming and enabling the most gruesome Israeli crimes against the occupied Pal's.
Man, I've seen some stupid shit in my time, but this has got to be top 20.
Villain-face Matthew Miller standing there with a smirk while defending and excusing Israel's atrocities was much dumber.
The people who will suffer from this are Ukrainians and Palestinians, the rich Americans who have spent decades benefiting from the US' hegemony will continue being rich without feeling the repercussions of the current administration's actions. The only Americans who will noticeably suffer from this are the ones who have already been suffering for a long time: Minorities, women, the poor, etc.
Trump’s destruction of diplomatic rules of the game is real, but the Democrats helped pave the way by funding, arming and defending Israel's atrocities in Gaza and beyond.
USA has hell to pay with nobody who will save them. They deserve 10 times what happend in gaza, iraq and afganistan
If you think the disinformation was directed at "them", think again
Indeed and the fucking MAGAts are sucking down the Kremlin stirred Orange Kool-Aid.
"No country in history" is a pretty bold claim. Surely Britain ceding India for example would be a counterexample, just off the top of my head.
But honestly, uh, good? I don't want the US acting as global hegemon. The power and influence wielded by the nation-state only goes to benefitting the rich and powerful. It doesn't benefit ordinary people in any way, whether domestically or abroad.
I don't know why it's assumed that heading a global empire is supposed to be a good thing, it certainly doesn't align with my values as a leftist.
Britain didn't give it up out of the random whims of its government. India functionally became ungovernable. This isn't anywhere near the same thing.
Oh, there's an idea. So it can't really be said to be "willfully given up" on a "random whim" if a military force is preventing you from exerting control over a given region.
In that case, I do have just a couple of notes for OP.
Did USA give up any power? I'm missing something or people are not paying attention at all?
Yes. We are losing soft power and allies all around the world thanks to the orange menace.
Our soft power has taken a greater hit from our unwavering support for Israel than this. How many countries outside of Europe have come out to condemn this? Meanwhile u.n. vote after u.n. vote everyone except for the u.s. and it's proxies vote to condemn this genocide and the u.s. sending weapons.
This definitely doesn't make us look good, but it's not the unprecedented foreign relations catastrophe people are making it out to be.
One of our greatest strengths is that we build coalitions. We just told the world that if you ally with us, you better be ready to grovel.
For example, places like Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan are capable of building nuclear weapons but they didn't bc they trusted us to protect them. Each of those countries are now imagining themselves sitting there in front of cameras being berated for ingratitude.
Without our allies we are much less powerful.
Losing Navy refueling points from allies could be considered loss of power. https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/norwegian-company-refuses-to-refuel-us-ships-1740880391.html
Yes but it's not happening...
