All effective foreign interference takes popular sentiments and helps organize and focus it. You can't create movements without ground support.

But the thing is, there are a LOT of issues where the masses are generally grumpy but don't act on it. Civilization only really functions because people don't shut down the country over every populist urge. Effective agitprop amplifies this and makes it happen.

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ElProlactin 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> All effective foreign interference takes popular sentiments and helps organize and focus it.

And a lot of effective domestic interference takes fears about foreign threats and "helps organize and focus it."

China is a legitimate threat to US hegemony and this is clearly a new Red Scare. The irony is that it was largely the US who invited and welcomed China into the global economic order.

> Civilization only really functions because people don't shut down the country over every populist urge.

Civilization also doesn't really function because a handful of ridiculously wealthy lunatics and their sycophants know what's best for 8+ billion people.

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runsWphotons 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What is your point? You agree people have the right to act on their beliefs to effect democratic change, right? Surely that includes making up their own minds about information.

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bpodgursky 3 hours ago | parent [-]

We should and should cut out sources of foreign funding and support, and prosecute and publicize genuine foreign agents, while allowing people to exercise their political rights.

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otterley 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Why? Do you believe free speech is a right only Americans should have? Or do you believe that people shouldn’t be free to evaluate competing points of view and decide for themselves?

	▲	lazide 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This seems like a variant of anti-self defense logic. ‘The other guy has a right to beat you in the face with a bat, as much as you have a right to take it’. Hint: bussing in out of towners to astro-turf ‘town discussions’ is also seen as shitty. A quick way to test this kind of thing is, if the roles were reversed, would they still be okay with it? I guarantee you that China and Russia would absolutely not be okay with the US doing the same thing in their territory.
	▲	bpodgursky 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I believe I live in the real world, where we have to figure out how to integrate abstract principles in a manner that allows our survival as a civilization. Reciprocity is a pretty straightforward strategy — we can allow uninhibited competing points of view from countries that themselves allow unlimited speech internally.

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4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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