Some extracts, but it really is worth reading the article:
We are going to answer this question: what did the Russians intend with this?
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This propaganda — let us call it what it is — sought to build resentment towards other groups, divide the left along identity politics lines, create discourse that was toxic, incite violence and create a distrust of the state and its mechanisms, such as the police.
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‘Punch a Nazi’ glorified violent anti-fascists on the left and lionized them as fighting evil. Once such violent political action is legitimized, it is a short leap to treat other political opponents in the same way: such as the ‘Punch TERFs’ t-shirts that emerged over the course of the year at Pride Festivals and the violence directed at ‘TERFs’. ‘Die Cis Scum’ has gone from a meme to a threat. Legitimizing this political violence means there is ample justification for engaging with right-wing groups, who are also encouraged by the Kremlin and have had violence legitimized for them, too.
What stands out to me the most is that much of the content seems disturbing and designed to upset the viewer. This was from things as simple as discouraging the often college-bound or college-attending users of Tumblr by telling them that college was expensive, and they’d be saddled with a ‘shitty waitressing job’ anyway, to posting ‘avant-garde’, postmodernist style gifs asking the viewer to question reality. What is the purpose of this? Is it to make the viewer even more vulnerable to active measures? Is it to engender a sense of hopelessness in two extremely divided sides?
The purpose of all of this is to create chaos, to divide. Hence, we see the attempts to divide people by which particular groups they belong too.
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No worse was this attempt to divide than the attacks on Hillary Clinton. Many accounts built up a fandom supporting Bernie Sanders — and with him out of the race, many of those accounts tried encouraging people either to not vote, or to vote Trump, as Hillary Clinton was literally the devil.
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By dividing the left on this issue, and into various identity politics factions, Trump’s political path to the White House was made easier.
The other objective was to make the left distrust authority, the media, and especially the state and its mechanisms — such as the police.
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It’s time to come together, as one, and repudiate Russian attempts to divide the left. We are stronger together.
I do not wish to blame every ill of the Left on Russia. But perhaps the question we need to be asking is where our thoughts and ideas ultimately come from, and who they could possibly serve, rather than living in blissful ignorance of the attempts of a hostile foreign power to subvert the entire Western left and push it to a violent extreme.