John Hinderaker of the Power Line blog highlights one way in which the Russian government has attempted to hurt the American political process.
It is an article of faith among liberals that Russian “meddling” in the 2016 election–the word that is always used–was of world-historical significance. But what exactly the Russians did has been murky. Maybe they spearphished the DNC’s email account and tried unsuccessfully to spearphish the RNC’s account, although Julian Assange–who should know, but is an unreliable witness–apparently denies that claim.
Beyond that, the Russians are accused of publishing anti-Hillary stories on the RT.com web site and planting fake news on Facebook and Twitter. That part of the story is becoming a little clearer, as Facebook has now disclosed to Congress 470 accounts that have been traced back to Russian origins. It turns out that the Russians were trying to stir up race hatred by supporting Black Lives Matter through an account called Blacktivist.
Unlike most of what has been attributed to the Russians, Blacktivist was rather important: its Facebook account had 360,000 likes, compared with the verified Black Lives Matter account which currently has 301,000. Blacktivist peddled the same kind of race hatred as Black Lives Matter. …
… While it seems that the largest volume of Russian “meddling” was on behalf of Black Lives Matter and its philosophy, it is reasonable to assume that Putin’s minions wanted to stir up hatred and distrust among Americans generally, as opposed to favoring a particular candidate or party.
