Free Republic Troll Watch

In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year I started tracking troll activity on Free Republic. This is because of so many accounts having a noticeably synchronized set of narratives, buzzwords, insults, and tactics. All of which I have detailed in previous pages of this blog.  And I started keeping a list of the accounts that 1) demonstrated the above characteristics and 2) did not give me any reason to exclude them from the list. It didn't mean they were a paid troll it just meant that I had no reason to remove them from my watchlist.  Case in point is AAABEST (Since Mar 21, 1998). He's an asshole. Yes, he's pro-Putin and pro-Russia but he's also such an asshole that while the Russians might be thieving, raping, murdering ghouls I still won't blame them for the sheer assholery this cretin publishes every day. I don't think he's a troll, he's just an asshole.  But back to my list. There's mostly accounts involved with Russi...

 Yesterday it would appear that JonPreston complained about my demand that Jon either produce proof of his lie that I have claimed "stolen valor" (a Federal crime) or that he apologize.  The Admin Moderator posted on the public forum for me to "Knock it off" and I obliged.  This morning I put up the following post of chatter I heard from a buddy in DC: In today’s Chatter and Unconfirmed Rumors: 1. Russian Army 20th Mechanized Division HQ (Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast) reported an explosion severe enough that communications to the HQ were impacted. There was an immediate downstream impact as communications to the 944th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, 358th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, 428th Separate Tank Battalion, and 487th Separate Anti-Tank Artillery Battalion were down for several hours. Indications are that the explosion was a deliberate act of sabotage. 2. Satellite pictures from earlier today show the Antonovsky Bridge is now useless for all but foot traf...

 Another FReeper sent me a string of outrageous messages that were sent to private mail by one of the typical pro-Putin trolls.  At that FReeper's request I am redacting the identities involved while still publishing the content as an example of the increasingly desperate behavior of the Putinistas as their favorite dicktator loses the war to conquer Ukraine.  This is the kind of charming, erudite, and lovely people who support Vladimir Putin: 1. videos From (REDACTED) | 08/01/2022 10:55:36 PM PDT read YOU DO REALIZE YOU STUPID CUNT I DONT WATCH YOUR DAMN VID=EOS NOR CLICK ON THE LINKS 2.FUCK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY From  (REDACTED)   | 08/01/2022 11:18:06 PM PDT replied I HOPE YOU GET RAPED BY RUSSIAN SOLDIERS 3. FUCK YOU From  (REDACTED)   | 08/01/2022 11:19:15 PM PDT read i hope you and your family die of monkeypox 4. FUCK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY From  (REDACTED)   | 08/01/2022 11:23:29 PM PDT read fuck you stupid cunt 5. fuck you ...

 The cadre of Putin fanbois on Free Republic has the peculiar commonality of making comments to and insults at other posters that all too frequently include homosexual imagery, homoerotica, and homoeroticisms.  The term globohomo appears several times per day in their discourse.  One poster E. Pluribus Unum was recently rebuked by the Administrators for posting comments at other users that were of a disturbingly detailed and graphic sexual nature. The disturbing comments were removed but not before Mr. Unum's rather informed homoeroticisms were read by myself and other users.  JonPreston seems to have been going in the same direction recently and a number of users took notice. To his credit, JonPreston did not post anything near as offensive and pornographic as what E. Pluribus Unum had posted. Still, the frequency in which JonPreston has been posting homoeroticisms was itself noteworthy.  The point being here that for a group that supposedly hates homosexual...

 I was wrong and you were right. Thank you for your contribution here. This is not about pushing an agenda but about getting to the facts.  Again, thank you. 

 Ever since the Russian War to conquer Ukraine started in February the trolls have employed a variety of tropes to forward their various narratives on Free Republic.  Neocon remains one of their favored tropes and they throw this one around like a crazed monkey throws shit at the zoo. Everyone is a neocon who doesn't support Russia's war of conquest in Ukraine.  What's truly entertaining is when they throw this at each other .  Nazi is still a popular trope although the impact of it has been lost since it's been so overused.  You should go fight for Ukraine is a recurring trope and I've found the best way to answer it is with Why don't you go fight for Russia? The pathetic little worms conspicuously run away and hide when confronted on this one.  What if Russia or China puts nukes into Canada or Mexico? is still showing up quite frequently. It's a pointless argument because neither Canada or Mexico is particularly in love with China or especially Russia...

 FBI profilers and behavioral analysts will often speak of what they call 'leakage'. This is when criminals or suspects voluntarily give up information that reveals their identities or their intentions.  In this case I'm looking at identities.  There's been a fairly frequent trend among some accounts to use conflicting pronouns and this behavior can sometimes be perceived to give away someone's actual identity.  For instance there are some folks who frequently use the pronouns We/Us/Ours and their common usage these days looks like this: We don't need to be part of NATO! What has NATO done for us?  Ukraine is not our problem! This usage intends to establish the perception that the person posting this comment is an American.  Yet quite frequently these same people will post conflicting statements that betray the person's perception that Americans are of another group than the person posting the comment.  The Americans should quit NATO and stop threateni...