Whether or not you consider it “disinfo,” doesn’t it smell rather like astroturf? Note that !europe@lemmy.dbzer0.com is one of the targeted communities.
Abridged from the original post.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39655060
What they seem to have in common is:
- Way more posts than comments.
- Almost exclusively posting news articles.
- The vast majority of the articles are critical of Russia or China.
- Virtually always posting to the same few communities. Often there’s overlap in the communities the accounts target.
- Consistent weekly output.
Username Start End tardigrada@beehaw.org May 2022 Dec. 2024 0x815@feddit.de Apr. 2023 Jun. 2024 thelucky8@beehaw.org Apr. 2024 Jan. 2025 0x815@feddit.org Jun. 2024 Dec. 2024 Anyone@slrpnk.net Jan. 2025 Apr. 2025 @randomname@scribe.disroot.org Jan. 2025 – @Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org Jan. 2025 – @Scotty@scribe.disroot.org Aug. 2025 – @Sepia@mander.xyz Nov. 2025 –
No more than criticism of Western countries posted is generally AstroTurf. I know at least one of the names on that list, and while they’re comment to post ratio is lopsided. I do see them commenting on articles they post regularly.
They all comment on their posts at least on occasion.
Well, if they do like the one I’m thinking of. Posting, replying, and commenting. Then it wouldn’t make them hardly any different from longtime regulars like return2ozma. Apart from the join date. Do I agree with everything Ozma posts? No. Quite a bit I don’t. But that doesn’t make them a bot because I don’t like all their posts.
No individual or group is above critique. Though it’s especially suspicious when all critique often gets dismissed as blueanon/deepstate or similar. Any state in the general sense. With highly concentrated power like the US, UK, Hungary, South Korea, Japan, or China is corrupt and abuses those in their power. But dios mio the ridiculous push back you get when mentioning that about a particular one of those. Sometimes individuals or groups you think you identity with turn out to be abusive assholes. I’ve seen it with politicians, bands, artists, etc. The concept of something and the reality are often very different. And no one likes to be gaslit about it.
You’re right, return2ozma is another example of similarity, except, like schizoidman, isn’t posting the same metanarrative almost exclusively.
Plenty of people post the same meta narrative constantly. Often in small niche communities, often devoted to things other than politics. But I have some bad news. This is what being a world power is like. You’re going to get criticized and called out constantly.
Maybe you should view this as a good thing. You’ve made it! Now you’re legitimately experiencing what many like yourself have subjected others to. Success right? The more power the CCP gets, the more they threaten their neighbors, the louder it’s going to get. And the more valid concerns get dismissed the less good will there will be.
Respectfully I already have very little. With all the disrespect and counter meta narrative surrounding this issue. Legitimately I can give actual names of victims of CCP threats and oppression. And have. Legitimately only yesterday, it was hand-waved away as fantasy and somehow an appeal to Western racism? Fuck if I know. The way terms like sinophobia get tossed about so much as a deflection and defense causing it to lose almost all its meaning. Like Zionists have done with anti-Semitism.
No group with as much control or power as the CCP can always be the victim or good guy. That’s not how it works. Whether or not a lot of the reporting surrounding China and the CCP is exaggerated or even maybe false. Part of that is the CCPs fault. With as flawed, lacking, and diminishing as press independence and freedom has been in Western spheres. It’s utter absence under the CCP, is damning. Any sane person would ridicule someone for accepting the word of a bully exonerating themselves. But with China in some spaces it’s demanded that we do so. Nope.