Meme, Psyop & Subversion
“Don’t post anything pro-Trump — we are anti-Hillary and pro-Bernie. You can talk a bit about Trump in negative light, but your focus is on uncovering Hillary’s dirt for the Bernsters and the negros.”
This is blog # 3 in a series of blogs about 4chan trolling tactics during the 2016 election. View the entire series here.
The second pastebin posted on July 10, 2016 currently has 1,107 views and was posted anonymously. KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov’s techniques are introduced to “subvert the (((leftist))) system via social media.”
Bezmenov gave an interview to G. Edward Griffin in 1984 where he explained methods used by the KGB to brainwash America and subvert the political system of the United States.
Taking inspiration from KGB propaganda tactics, /pol/ infiltrated various social media platforms with fake profiles pretending to be white Bernie fans, Black Lives Matter activists, “SJW’s” (pejorative acronym used to describe “Social Justice Warriors”).
A sample “Narrative” about Hillary Clinton is next along with “Ammo” (memes). Specifically “normie tier memes that are good for subverting normies” that “could also be used by pro-Trump propagandistas.”
Their well oiled meme machine organized meme production in 2 folders: a blank folder that contained images and templates and a done folder for completed memes. The folders were hosted on MEGA, a New Zealand based cloud storage and file hosting service. Most file-sharing folders linked in the pastebin are no longer available online.
The last section of this second pastebin includes detailed instructions on how to “normify” accounts. They were trying to blend in and manipulate the left from within.
Look normal. Be subtle. Post food pics. Use emojis. Appeal to fear. “Emotion is the hook, facts are the side dish.”
Alt-right trolls on 4chan were purposely blending in with BLM and Bernie Sanders supporters to attack the Clinton campaign.
I found an example of one of these troll accounts pretending to be a Black Lives Matter activist called “Nubian Awakening.” The account hasn’t tweeted since 2016 but since it’s still online, Andy Patel from F-Secure was able to collect it’s tweets for me so I could graph it.
You can see graphs of that troll account here:
A multitude of articles appeared during the 2016 election cycle about abusive “Bernie Bros” attacking Clinton supporters on social media and these attacks have been attributed by some as Russian. I haven’t found a fake Bernie Bro 4chan troll yet but since I did find a fake BLM troll I assume they exist.
Leah McElrath published an article in April 2017 about pro-Bernie accounts that harassed her during the election and her description of the accounts she referred to sound like typical 4chan trolls.
Almost all of the accounts presented as men — mostly young and white — and used sexist and misogynistic tones and words. I was called “mom” and “grandma” as epithets by these “young men.”
Altogether it makes perfect sense that many of the abusive trolls, including the vilified “Bernie Bros,” that engaged Hillary Clinton supporters on social media during the election were from /pol/.
Next Up:
This is blog # 3 in a series of blogs about 4chan trolling tactics during the 2016 election. View the entire series here:
