
Russian Hackers Largely Skipped the Midterms, and No One Really Knows Why - venturis_voice
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-hackers-largely-skipped-the-midterms-and-no-one-really-knows-why-1542054493
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quantummkv
Let me put out a theory filled with tinfoil hats, based on what I read on
social media (Reddit/HN): (Disclaimer: I am not an American and I do not live
in the USA. I have no horse in this rat race)

Amount of Russian Hacking in US Elections is directly proportional to the
amount the elections go to the favor of the Republicans/Others.

Democrats won the house, so no Russian meddling happened. Had the republicans
somehow managed to win the house, the democrats would have declared war on
Russia by now.

It's both funny and sad to see USA behaving like the entire country is on LSD.

~~~
gronne
politely removes your tinfoil hat. sounds like something straight out of
infowars. (Disclaimer: not from the US so also completely unbiased)

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ng12
Does anyone have any real, solid proof that Russian hacking has had
significant impact in a US election?

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4A6F686E446F65
Doesn’t anyone remember a trove of John Podesta’s emails being dumped every
time some fresh scandal about Trump breaking?

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yeahigotgoats
you have this completely backwards, but i dont expect you to understand that

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segmondy
How about giving credit to tech companies, maybe they fixed whatever was
broken the last time and reduced the amount of misinformation and propaganda
that was being spread? I recall seeing something like Twitter banning 20k
accounts that were discouraging people from voting.

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nickelcitymario
So... HN's consensus is that The Media Lies and there was no Russian hacking
of the election last time?

Am I reading that right?

I mean, it's not an indefensible position. But it seems weird that we default
to this. There's an awful lot of smoke to just assume there's no fire.

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dragonwriter
> HN's consensus is [...]

> Am I reading that right?

No, you aren't reading anything right if you think there is an HN consensus on
this topic.

~~~
nickelcitymario
_nods_

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dragonwriter
Because the whole point of the 2016 operation (which involved support for lots
of different, often diametrically opposed, positions and candidates) was to
set up a situation where the US was even more politically divided against
itself, weakened and ineffectual in foreign affairs, and set on a course to
continue inflicting self-harm, and it obviously succeeded beyond Putin's
wildest dreams, and there was no apparent need to interfere to change course
evident in the run-up to the midterm. Plus, everyone was looking for it's so
better to keep powder dry this cycle and leave 2016 seen as either a one time
thing (or even, for the truly gullible, a thing that didn't happen) so next
time there is a need, there isn't as much guard.

~~~
he0001
My tinfoil theory is that they actually succeed. By letting the democrats win
the house the division is going to be even deeper, but them losing the senate
put the whole country in a spiral of division. Putting a log on the fire sort
of speak.

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pasbesoin
There was nothing to be gained, this time.

Interference would only reinforce and strengthen Trump's critics and doubt
about Trump. (And by naming "Trump", I include all in that camp, that is
promulgating policies/initiatives favorable to Russia -- in outcome, when not
in stated goal.)

As it is, Trump has been saying "no collusion", "no effect on the outcome",
etc. And now in his rhetoric he can point to the 2018 elections and say,
"See!"

I mean, this one isn't exactly rocket science, as they say.

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squozzer
Here are a couple of hypotheses -

1) Russian hackers, as an influencing factor in US elections, never existed;
2) Russian hackers grew disillusioned with Trump when he failed to go full
Quisling and surrender the USA to Putin.

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gibsons77
1) How do you explain the 12 Russian operatives from Mueller's indictment?

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yeahigotgoats
justification for a bs investigation

