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by ch4s3 1339 days ago
I mean Russia Gate in the conspiratorial Trump as Russian agent sense, which seems unsupported by evidence.

But yes it seems clear that he was Russia’s preferred candidate, though it’s unclear to me whether that made any measurable or meaningful difference. Failing to campaign in the upper Midwest or rust belt as a democrat seemed like an avoidable self-own.
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dd36 1338 days ago
The hacked and leaked DNC and Podesta emails and corresponding fever dreams of cheese pizza meaning child porn and all the other nonsense definitely affected some people. The DNC emails and conspiracies pushed on the left made a lot of Bernie voters sit out. It all adds up. Our national security infrastructure should actively combat that kind of foreign interference.
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ch4s3 1338 days ago
> It all adds up

Does it? The DNC definitely conspired against the Bernie campaign, that’s a fact and they got caught.

The pizza gate nonsense seems like a random chance event. How often do crazy conspiracies for 4chan actually go mainstream?

MSNBC was actively peddling their own nonsense at the time, like the pee tape conspiracy. It was a weird time in American politics.

Two horribly unlikeable and pathological liars were competing and one of them failed to campaign in Michigan.

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dd36 1338 days ago
It’s not random chance to be hacked then have your emails woven into malicious conspiracies. It’s a crime.

The DNC favored the Democrat over the independent. That’s to be expected. The voters picked Hillary. The conspiracy that it was stolen from Bernie was pushed by Russia. It’s literally public record in the Mueller report. I don’t recall if Russia started it but that’s irrelevant. A large organized foreign propaganda machine can seize on something like that and push it far. Russian agents still run many Bernie Reddit and Facebook groups. Just follow r/ActiveMeasures.

Increasing Hillary’s dislike and distrust was very clearly a goal of foreign operatives. It worked.

You cannot point to any one thing and know for sure it was the difference maker. Trump barely won. Any one of 6 things that served to suppress the vote may have made the difference.

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