What does that have to do with the topic of this thread is: i.e. the paid Russian Internet Trolls and who they are, what motivates them, what their favorite toothpaste is?
This thread topic is ostensibly about "Professional Russian Trolls".
But when those you constantly label as trolls show up in the thread to discuss the topic, I don't see you making any comments on topic, just immediately ranting about trolling in a quite relentless manner. Does that not make this OP trolling, in that the thread itself is nothing more than an attempt to draw people into the thread simply to harangue them ?
I decided to look it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29
Excerpt from the article:
"In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[3]"
I'd recommend to lurkers that they read more at that link and those following.
You consistently accuse other FReepers of being Russian trolls. In my case and most others I've seen lumped into this category, it's not trolling but an expression of disagreement with some of our government's policies. While there may have been some comments posted that promoted the Russian government or Putin, I'd be hard pressed to find one. The dissenters here on FR simply don't express much of an opinion one way or the other on the Russian government or Putin himself. I do see some posts on FR where Putin is commented on favorably for some action or words of his regarding Islam and homosexuality, but I have not seen such a post by a dissenter on a thread which was about Ukraine. On the Ukraine threads, dissenters seem to just stick to the subject of Ukraine.
It was interesting that you brought up this idea of government-backed trolling, though, as it brings to mind the nasty spectre of government-backed social engineering. I find this an area of grave concern. Certainly all governments enage in public relations (PR) as well as the modern-day field of
Reputation Management, which is a subset of
Social Media. Of course what this thread is about, trolling, arguably is the ugly-stepsister of Reputation Management called
Astroturfing. The more covert manipulative strategies and tactics in modern
Public Relations are very troubling to most people, however, there are literally thousands of consulting firms and professionals on the web who sell social media PR services to businesses, governments, non-profit organizations, etc., and many of them specifically advertise that they can help with content creation and social media engagement for the purposes of reputation management. The links above describe a rather complex ethical situation in this world of public opinion and social media.
We all know how controlling the totalitarian governments we've seen in the East have been. An excerpt from wikipedia from the link
Social_engineering_(political_science):
"Extremely intensive social engineering campaigns occurred in countries with authoritarian governments. In the 1920s, the government of the Soviet Union embarked on a campaign to fundamentally alter the behavior and ideals of Soviet citizens, to replace the old social frameworks of Tsarist Russia with a new Soviet culture, to create the New Soviet man. The Soviets used newspapers, books, film, mass relocations, and even architectural design tactics to serve as "social condenser" and change personal values and private relationships. Similar examples are the Chinese "Great Leap Forward" and "Cultural Revolution" program and the Khmer Rouge's plan of deurbanization of Cambodia. In Singapore, the government's housing policies attempt to promote a mix of all races within each subsidized housing district in order to foster social cohesion and national loyalty while providing citizens with affordable housing.[citation needed] In Tanzania in the 1970s, the government pursued a policy of enforced villagisation under Operation Vijiji in order to promote collective farming.[4]"
Just out of curiosity, I did some searching to see if I could find any social engineering in the history of Western governments, and lo and behold, the 1960's came popping up.
I had become of aware a few years ago of the theory that the 1960's "counterculture' was a psyop, but I never really looked around for much detail, and pretty much tossed it aside when I found any.
Just for the lurkers, I found quite an interesting anomaly which sounds like a great starting point for further research: there are relationships between key figures in the 1960's music scene and the American military, intelligence and old establishment families. I found this simply fascinating and looked up a few in wikipedia just to verify parents. Wow - if this is what it looks like, our intelligence services certainly put to shame a little astroturfing in some puny little office building housing a few web trolls. Here's just the start:
U.S. Navy Admiral George Stephen Morrison - commander of US Naval forces in the Gulf of Tonkin - and father of Doors singer Jim Morrison.
Frank Zappa's father: chemical warfare specialist at Edgewood Arsenal, a facility frequently mentioned in MK-ULTRA material. Frank's wife Gail had ties to the Navy as did her family.
John Phillips of Mamas and Papas fame came from a military family and received an appointment to the Naval Academy but left before graduating.
David Crosby - son of Naval Academy graduate military intelligence officer.
The list goes on, the lurker should research for themselves, as this is just a tiny drop in the bucket and there is a lot more fascinating history to the life stories and backgrounds of many central figures of 1960's counter culture. Of course, we can't mention this subject without including Dennis Hopper, whose father was in the OSS in WWII; even though he was an actor (yet another who studied at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio), he was such a central figure in the 1960's. The scene of much of the history is Laurel Canyon, location of the Manson murders and the "Log Cabin" of Zappa.
Again, these few points prove nothing and are simply striking in their coincidental nature - there's certainly not enough space here to discuss, the reader will have to research on their own. All one has to do is search for the terms mentioned in this post.