#election-2016

[thepersonalwords]

If you are stupid enough not to know the difference between the devil and the angel, you quickly find the devil! This is what happens to most people in democracies just after elections!

Mehmet Murat ildan

[skinnyscottishbloke]

Trump literally said this tonight. At this point I don’t give a flying fuck how you feel about VP Harris, we all need to get up off our asses and vote to stave off fascism cause it’s fucking here. HE DOESN’T WANT US TO VOTE ANYMORE. EVER.

PS this doesn’t mean we can’t have fun organizing and canvassing for her, I just want us to stay laser focused and determined and know what we’re up against. One of the Kamala Harris for the People campaign slogans in 2019 was #joyfulwarrior and I just feel like that sums up her and us so well. So let’s fucking go WIN this thing and send orange shitler into hiding once and for all.

[ms-demeanor]

making my own post because nobody needs my bullshit on their post:

OP:

Reblog 1:

Reblog 2:

My response:

The IRA blogs were here and they were active and they were quite popular; their posting patterns did not match normal tumblr users (i was followed by lagonegirl and followed back only to be put off by the account reblogging the same five or ten posts every hour for a day before selecting another five or ten posts to reblog hourly the next day - it was clear engagement bait).

Tumblr has never been as transparent about these accounts as both Twitter and Facebook were, but several of the accounts had shared names across platforms and you can find a significant amount of data that was released by both facebook (ex: ads purchased by the IRA accounts) and twitter (over three million tweets from IRA accounts). Academic researchers have published papers on the data released from facebook and twitter. Several papers. So many papers. Soooooo many papers. We have a LOT of direct evidence that you can explore for yourself that there were hundreds (possibly thousands) of IRA accounts that were created on Facebook and Twitter. Of those accounts, some shared usernames across platforms, and of those accounts, a few had tumblr accounts that posted the same content on twitter and tumblr.

To quote a buzzfeed news article from the time:

The Russian-run Tumblr accounts used the same, or very similar, usernames as the account names contained on a list of confirmed IRA accounts Twitter submitted to congressional investigators. In some cases, the Tumblr and Twitter account has the same profile image or linked to each other in their bios. Some IRA Tumblrs and Twitter accounts also cross-promoted content between platforms, further linking them together.

Current tumblr user @ alwaysbewoke (who I don't want to tag because I'm sure he's got better things to do) is interviewed in that article and talks about following one of the blogs identified by tumblr as an IRA blog that had a matching account on twitter identified as an IRA account but unfollowing when the left-leaning blog supposedly run by a black creator started rooting for trump in the election.

Dr. Jonathan Albright is heavily quoted in the article; the data review he collaborated on is one of the only reviews of this subject that includes data from Tumblr and Reddit.

One of the claims that I've seen is that tumblr just deleted funny black people, but these were blogs with thousands of followers on tumblr who never recreated, never popped up on another social media site, never started a reddit account after getting banned; nobody ever showed up saying "hey this is 4mysquad, I got banned on tumblr and twitter, follow me to pillowfort". These very popular blogs got deleted and, as far as I know, nobody ever popped up claiming to be a person who was deleted - and it's not like tumblr users haven't figured out how to evade bans.

What you are doing when you make posts saying that the IRA accounts on tumblr never existed is *absolving tumblr of guilt for their utter lack of transparency.*

Tumblr is not the only tech company that has tried to fly under the radar as its larger counterparts face regular scrutiny in Congress and in the press. Earlier this month, Reddit revealed it too had deleted hundreds of accounts with ties to the Internet Research Agency. A WIRED investigation found more than a thousand links to Russian propaganda websites are still live on Reddit, and unearthed two suspicious accounts that Reddit immediately shut down.

So should you believe what Tumblr says? No, because Tumblr has been functionally fucking silent on this issue and the information about this subject aside from the list of blogs has come from the hard work of data scientists, journalists, and researchers.

(For the record; some of those bot accounts that were recorded by Dr. Albright also had Google+ accounts in 2017 - there is every possibility that they had myspace accounts).

Now, the reason that I'm popping onto this post as an annoyed anarchist is that I was tracking a similar group of blogs for a while and was discussing them and I stopped precisely because of the galaxy-brained liberals who are now trying to dunk on communists for criticizing electoralism. One of the people who was following my project was one of the ones who started calling out the "joe biden kills dogs" posts as disinfo and I realized they were using some of the guidelines I'd written up to "identify" misinformation and that is very a rock fucking stupid approach to what was clearly a leftist making jokes and was horrified and realized there was no way that I could continue documenting what I was documenting without someone attempting to call actual leftists russian bots.

I've seen the post that OP is referencing [it's one where someone makes a very obvious joke about the democrat presidential ticket and people jump on to call them a bot and then someone tries to do the "AI tell me a story" thing and OP is just like "I don't want to :(", proving that they are in fact a person and not an AI] and have deeply enjoyed the humor of watching liberals a) not understand a very, VERY obvious joke and b) become the unwitting butt of a joke they were trying to make, but also I am so exhausted by watching normie dems call leftists AI bots after years of watching normie dems call real live actual leftists who hold actual political views that real people actually have, like prison abolition, russian bots.

But I am also so fucking tired of left conspiracism and how stupid it sounds when leftists dismiss a preponderance of evidence that is easily accessible and publicly available for analysis as "lol so you just trust everything tumblr tells you?"

No, dipshit, learn to click a fucking link or twelve.

[irenespring]

Really I think nothing shouts "my first Presidential election as a politically active person was 2016" more than the fact that when I feel hope and excitement for the future (possible President Harris) for more than five minutes I immediately get a crushing, all-consuming anxiety of "feeling this positive emotion now is going to make it so much worse when the worst thing possible happens" to the extent that I'll probably need my break-glass-in-case-of-emergency anxiety medication.

[fangirlinginleatherboots]

I feel like for a lot of people, this is going to sound pandering or pointless, but it's not for you.

US politics are not a reason to kill yourself. Just so you know. Especially young people!!!! You have been through so few elections you don't even know that it always feels like the world will end election year. Everyone is fighting. Everyone is afraid (often on all sides!!! Don't worry about their logic, they are still scared even if they are wrong to be). Your whole world feels like it is teetering on the brink and, especially when you are young, you may feel helpless.

It does pass. The world does change but it will keep going and you will get a chance to change it.

It is important to remain informed but it is also important to develop the self regulation to walk away from the fear mongering and doom spirals when you realize it is preventing you from functioning. It is okay to be afraid, but you should not let the fear make choices for you.

[batboyblog]

idk, feels like it should be slightly bigger news that a shady dictatorship with a crappy human rights record tried to illegally give Trump $10 million dollars to help win the 2016 election and then the Trump controlled Justice department stopped that from being fully investigated, that seems like a big fucking deal, but what do I know?

[genderqueerpositivity]

I know that 2016 wasn't yesterday, but even so it seems like our collective memory is shorter with each passing year. The 2016 election and the Internet Research Agency were news a long time ago in media years...and there are bad-faith actors and agents out there who are counting on us forgetting.

As we get closer to Election Day, I encourage everyone to be more cautious of the information that you come across online. Fact check info that you come across in random social media posts, use reputable and reliable sources, get your news from more than one TV channel or website.

Be wary of anyone or anything online designed to manipulate your actions or influence your emotions, whether it's tumblr posts or advertisements or tiktoks. Do not allow propaganda and/or misinformation to sway you into voting against your personal values, your best interests, your personal safety, or the well-being of your neighbors and community in November.

I've already seen things that are concerning online within the past few months, and I expect to see an increase in this the closer we get to November.

Think critically and pay attention.

[idekwtf-is-happening]

So long as the other option is a woman, America has no problem voting a felon into office

[mapsontheweb]

Which candidate performed better against Donald Trump in each state: Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris? (by margins of victory/defeat)

[holy-reference-in-a-username]

CAN WE SEE MORE OLD ART PRETTY PLEASE WITH CHERRIES ON TOP?

2012-2016, dont have a great idea of when these are from bc i only started signing my art with a date in 2018. HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU SIGN ART ALONG WITH THE DATE.

all of these are 2016. can you tell tom is my favorite.

had a bunch of reject/fusion ocs (also 2016)

got back into ew a bit back in 2020.

and then now!

[lithiumseven]

I think actually one of the wildest parts of November 5th 2020 (if any can be narrowed down) was when you would very occasionally see an entirely unrelated post. Like somehow there were some people blogging about just normal shit that night and it was like standing in a costumed rave that was on fire and then just seeing one person completely calm checking emails. And all you could think was How can you not be seeing this???

[tomorrowusa]

The Phantom Menace.

There should be pushback to anybody telling you that wasting a vote on Jill Stein is a good idea.

If people who foolishly voted for Jill Stein in three states in 2016 had instead voted for Hillary Clinton, Trump would never have been president and Roe v. Wade would still be the law of the land.

Jill Stein is a creature of Putin. She was a nobody in 2015 who somehow sat at Putin's table at anniversary celebrations for RT.

One thing worse than being a dupe is being the dupe of a dupe.

And voting for Jill Stein makes you a loser as well as a dupe. The last time a non-Democrat or non-Republican won the presidency was in 1848. Don't expect that streak to end this year.

The odds of winning the Jackpot prize in the Powerball lottery are 1 : 292,201,338. Those are excellent odds compared to the likelihood of a Jill Stein victory in 2024.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace gave us Jar Jar Binks. Vladimir Putin gave us Jill Jill Stinks and ultimately Dozy Donny.

The ONLY way to defeat Donald Trump is to vote for Kamala Harris. Voting for Jill Stein or not voting at all would be tantamount to support for Trump.

[azelmaandeponine]

You're all despicably selfish. Imagine choosing money over human lives.

[ihateadulthood]

[culthermag]

RIHANNA wearing a shirt of herself wearing a shirt of Hillary Clinton in 2016 is the most Rihanna thing ever. 😭 - [ xxx ]

[originalleftist]

The thing about "protest votes" that makes them, in this of all elections, so mind-bogglingly intellectually and morally bankrupt, is that the potential consequences now are NOT A HYPOTHETICAL.

We don't need to speculate on what could happen if a bunch of people decide to stay home or vote third party, because they did that in 2016 against THIS EXACT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, and we all enjoyed four years of hell culminating in an attempted coup as a consequence. And three years and counting of the aftermath since, including the destruction of abortion rights across much of the country. To say nothing of the ones who didn't make it through, like the migrants who died in detention, or the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of preventable Covid deaths.

And now fuckers are saying, "Well, we better do it again just to make sure we get every last bit of the world we haven't burned down yet".

How many real, actual, living people are you prepared to throw under the bus for your "protest vote"?