Left/Right Divide- Commonalities in users posting links to "donaldtrumpus.com"

42 2017-08-02 by TheMadQuixotician

I will begin with a disclaimer that I rebuke the idea of a two-party system and believe that the divide between left and right is perpetuated to keep those at the bottom from diverting their gaze upwards. It is with this notion that I form this post:

So a few weeks ago I was browsing r/conspiracy and found an odd post. The link was to a story hosted on www.donaldtrumpus.com , a site that at first glance seems to have a pretty clear agenda, right?

I posit that this is not the case.

The site fashions itself like a poorly run blog, but there's still the sense that something is off. Even the most virulent "pro-right" sites at least attempt to put forth information in a way that's full of buzz words and invokes an emotional response from the reader. This site however seems to be a caricature of a "pro" or dare I say "alt" "right" periodical. The information is displayed in such an inflammatory was so as to ensure the ridiculousness of the site discredits itself.

This was a first impression.

I saw the OP had only posted in r/AskReddit and had a little over 100 karma.

Fast forward to today; I see another post linking to donaldtrumpus and lo and behold, the OP is a relatively newer account, a little over 100 karma and had only posted in r/AskReddit.

So now I became curious. "Who would believe this site?" I asked myself. So I decided to search r/conspiracy for some elucidation. I found that most of the accounts linking to this page were (as of today) 67-68 days old.

Accounts Posting donaldtrumpus.com link

u/mastork 67 days old u/brezok 68 days old u/Krlemp 68 days old u/oregol. 68 days old u/zubasas 68 days old u/mostersk 68 days old u/Karelonn 68 days old u/masterdis 68 days old u/meytoj u/pisterkk u/brakore u/sartod u/briznos

They're all created within days of each other and all link to donaldtrumpus.com

So what does it mean? Why make a post to draw attention to simple spammers?

I believe that this site is indicative of a campaign for pushing partisan divide. Posting a link to these stories is inflammatory. It prompts left sympathizers to come in and correct incorrect information, while simultaneously getting a few of the more emotionally inclined right sympathizers to fight back to defend their side before necessarily fact checking the information in the article.

The result is a widening of the partisan divide, increased argument, and most importantly, it draws attention away from potentially constructive discourse elsewhere.

Please be wary of Argument Phishing and good luck in your quest towards some form of greater understanding. Remember, where some will try to convince you to point the finger to the left or the right, we as should instead divert our gaze upwards.

The partisan divide is an effective tool used to manufacture distraction; let's sift through this shit together.

23 comments

9 groman32 2017-08-02

You've got rock solid evidence of shilling, I'd say, but the whole "designed to deepen the divide" part is speculation. More likely I think is just that it's pure propaganda, directed at Trump supporters only, without a thought as to how unbelievable non-supporters will find it.

4 TheMadQuixotician 2017-08-02

You're absolutely right, the idea that it is designed to deepen the partisan divide is where I make this theory my own. Either way, I respect your viewpoint as it's totally correct. I think it may go one step further however. Regardless, the site is bullshit and I wanted to draw attention to something happening right under our noses.

1 jacoblikesbutts 2017-08-02

U/Klemper seems to have deleted his account

U/zubasa 's first comment

https://haveibeenpwned.com/ checks if your email (and passwords) have been on any public data leaks.

Makes me think that it might have been a scam site to get emails/passwords.

Very weird stuff, but nonetheless a great find!

5 TheMadQuixotician 2017-08-02

Thank you to u/the_shadowmind for helping me compile a more full list!

Edit: Apparently I left two names off the list

u/Graspere u/Gozdob

4 ElCaminoSS396 2017-08-02

Seems like more of the posts are linking to a Facebook group "Trumpers 2017”.

3 TheMadQuixotician 2017-08-02

Yes, and that could be as simple as what it seems at face value, but I toy with the idea that it could be putting out deliberately weak information from a rightwards position so that it may be naturally discredited by a more left leaning voice, generating argument all the while. I don't subscribe to either camp, but either way we wind up with the same result from this site and its subsequent linking to this page.

0 ElCaminoSS396 2017-08-02

I think you did a good job identifying the accounts, but believe you're over/doublethinking the intention at play. It's more likely attempting to drive traffic and the obvious agenda. The stuff may seem stupid and easy to discredit, but it's not outside the realm of the crap that is typically posted on the same subs.

Edit to add: looking further, it seems all the posts on that Facebook group link to donaldtumpus.com which makes the motive to drive web traffic the most likely by far.

1 TheMadQuixotician 2017-08-02

Either way, it pushes that partisan divide and that's largely an illusion at this point. That's hilarious they made a loop of garbage redirected back at more garbage.

3 fionnstoned 2017-08-02

Nice work.

3 swampsparrow 2017-08-02

I just had figured that that site was written and run by someone who was 12

3 Rayfloyd 2017-08-02

Jeez, one could argue their names are even similar in the way they were generated

And I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of that site, I too had the same conclusion

2 the_shadowmind 2017-08-02

The account were probably purchased from the same company or person. Using askreddit as a karma farm then selling off the accounts is a well known practice, as the users of /r/TheseFuckingAccounts/ will tell you.

2 PM_your_rants 2017-08-02

You forgot u/Graspere and u/Gozdob

1 lopestatus 2017-08-02

100% Divide and Conquer.

1 AFuckYou 2017-08-02

Bam solid post. Nice attention to detail. Saved!

1 atlanticcity93 2017-08-02

Multiple of these same spam accts posted on this one askreddit post 2mos ago.... https://np.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/6ec7pr/what_is_the_most_tragic_movie_scene/

so there is a "proven" link between them

1 AutoModerator 2017-08-02

While not required, you are requested to use the NP (No Participation) domain of reddit when crossposting. This helps to protect both your account, and the accounts of other users, from administrative shadowbans. The NP domain can be accessed by replacing the "www" in your reddit link with "np".

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1 yellowsnow2 2017-08-02

They are probably just trying to get website clicks for ad revenue kinda like Washington Post and their buzz worthy unsourced stories. It's all about trying to get people to click on your shit.

1 ZweiHollowFangs 2017-08-02

I want a federal government whos only responsibility is border enforcement and defense.

Lefties want the government to take peoples wealth and redistribute it, in addition to controlling many minutia of peoples lives.

How do conceive a reconciliation of these two sides such that they are a false divide? Only the right could conceivably exist absent the divide due to the absence of government. The left could only exist absent the divide by capturing the state apparatus and liquidating non-believers.

0 Th3_Admiral 2017-08-02

I could definitely see this as another attempt to divide just as easily as I could see it as legitimate Trump spam. It's getting hard to tell the difference. But this reminds me of something else I ran into recently.

I had made the mistake of mentioning that I voted third party in an /r/Politics thread and I received a bunch of negative comments saying it was my fault Trump won. The one that really stood out to me though was one that vowed to torture me and actual Trump supporters "until our families regretted raising us". It was very graphic and specific. The mods removed the comment and the user quickly deleted it, but I still had his user name so I decided to do some snooping. The account was three years old and had no comment history before his death threat to me. However, every single comment after that was on T_D, EuropeanNationalism, and other "far right" subs.

So was this someone from the right trying to make the left look violent, or someone from the left trying to make the right look bad? Obviously it was an attempt to divide, but by who?

-1 Blend_Master 2017-08-02

Donaldtrumpus.com gets linked so that shills can say that this sub is T_D 2.0

Just more divide and conquer techniques, as you said.

Good work

1 SoCo_cpp 2017-08-02

Just like bipolarbear of rConspiritard getting caught going on campaigns of posting antisemitism here back in the day and turning around to accuse the sub of being antisemitic and racist.

0 PM_your_rants 2017-08-02

The downvotes lead me to believe you have a point

0 ElCaminoSS396 2017-08-02

I think you did a good job identifying the accounts, but believe you're over/doublethinking the intention at play. It's more likely attempting to drive traffic and the obvious agenda. The stuff may seem stupid and easy to discredit, but it's not outside the realm of the crap that is typically posted on the same subs.

Edit to add: looking further, it seems all the posts on that Facebook group link to donaldtumpus.com which makes the motive to drive web traffic the most likely by far.