• Novocirab@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    13 hours ago

    Has an implausibly high number of these comments perchance been posted at night hours? (I noticed that once with pro-AfD comments in Germany.)

    • tentaclenumber3 [she/they]@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 hour ago

      I can’t help noticing some pockets of the internet get a lot meaner come nightfall and I can’t help having conspiracies come up thinking that Doge has some members from Europe working overtime to try to wreck safe spaces online.

      But take this as a tinfoil hat theory. Maybe it’s not that unhinged and I’m just paranoid too. I have a mental disorder that runs in my family, so that doesn’t help things in these trying times.

  • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    edit-2
    11 hours ago

    Canadian expat living in the UK here. Do not be so quick to dismiss these as bots.

    I moved to London 6 months before the country shot itself in the ass with Brexit. Even days before the vote, literally everyone I spoke to in person and online agreed that Brexit was too stupid to happen, but my wife wasn’t convinced. She’d been spending time on right wing subreddits, reading the misinformation and vitriol. She was convinced that Leave would win.

    The day after the vote, two of my work colleagues proudly announced that they’d voted to leave.

    Our social spheres are small, and despite (or perhaps also because of) the internet, typically insulated from people with whom we disagree. There are very likely more Leavers out there than you might think.

    Alberta has had a deep “fuck Canada” streak for as long as I can remember. It’s entirely plausible that at least some of these comments are from real idiots with real power to vote Leave, and we dismiss them at our peril.

    • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      10 hours ago

      Also Canadian in the UK. Hello from The North™.
      I moved just as it was being implemented, and the people at my local who had voted leave, there weren’t many, that were shocked that they couldn’t go through the EU express lane at passport control…was frankly disturbing…

      Protestations of “this wasn’t the Brexit I voted for!” abounded… And like… motherfucker…this is exactly the Brexit you voted for dumbfuck!

  • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    10 hours ago

    Canada has a history of separatists, most notably Quebec who held two referendums on the issue.

    The first (in 1980) was rejected by 60% of Quebec voters. The second (in 1995) was extremely close – 50.6% to 49.4% against separation.

    After the last vote the Quebec separatist movement seemed to die down a bit.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_sovereignty_movement

    While we should pay attention to what some Albertans say on the issue I am hopeful that others will look to Brexit and Quebec for teachable moments.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    10 hours ago

    Danielle is greedy for Canada’s oil (not Alberta’s oil…Canada’s oil) and she is willing to use all kinds of chicanery while she gets more and more in cahoots with our southern neighbours.

  • Ledericas@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    16 hours ago

    russian bots wouldve done the same, if not at a better effect than US would.

  • Qwazpoi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    18 hours ago

    The backend on YouTube is pretty much designed to encourage skub (ragebait/“engagement”). Having comments that are incendiary is good for the video’s performance.

    Does that make it the perfect breeding ground for astroturfing and pushing misinformation? Probably. Bad actors can basically use it as a cheap form of advertising and pushing ideas that benefit them. Even the creator of the video if it was a video that has a completely opposite viewpoint of those comments still stands to benefit from having them because that increases engagement and their revenue.

    So I guess my point is is that YouTube has a lot of problems and there is a multitude of reasons why comments like that have a home there and motives for them.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      16 hours ago

      the shorts are good for that ragebaiting, but putting stuff out of context.

  • mosscap@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    edit-2
    20 hours ago

    Regardless of whether or not these particular comments are US intelligence, I am 100% convinced that Trump is going to try and make Alberta the Canadian Donbas.

    They’ll do their little Wexit vote thing and they’ll lose, but there will be a massive amount of disinfo in all of the places you’d expect saying it was rigged, and they’ll just escalate from there. Who knows when the guns break out, but I feel like there are people down south who are planning on this leading to a military “liberation”

  • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    147
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 day ago

    It’s likely not even a US op, and division like this benefits places like China and Russia even more.

  • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    ·
    23 hours ago

    Is that Youtube comments?

    Lol, if you are just realizing this, I think you are late to the party buddy.

    Youtube has been filled with extremist comments for a while, like at least a decade now.

  • CircaV@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    53
    ·
    edit-2
    20 hours ago

    Bot avalanche. I’m sitting here with in laws from AB, life long conservatives they think Marlaina is a big mouthed idiot, for the first time in their life they voted liberal because Polievre is not a compelling leader - and them and none of their conservative Christian friends or anyone they know anywhere in Alberta have any interest in separating. The internet doesn’t reflect the real world. There IS no critical mass of people in AB who want to separate. And oil & gas is not a culture, it’s an industry - not an identity.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      23 hours ago

      That’s what a French teacher in Alberta was saying today, being from Quebec they have an opinion on separatism may they want it or not.

      “Being allowed to pollute as much as you want isn’t a national project contrary to Quebec’s project when they had their referendums.”

  • kbal@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    74
    ·
    1 day ago

    If you’re suspecting the youtube comments of being manipulated in ways that are contrary to the interests of Canada, you’re not nearly paranoid enough. You should be suspecting the youtube video recommendations algorithm.

    • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      23 hours ago

      I was watching the election results on the YouTube of an independent left leaning news group. I never log in to YouTube and rarely use it - at least the top 5 suggested videos based on what I was watching were right leaning news outlets also covering the election. I had to scroll quite a bit to even find even major publications like CBC.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        16 hours ago

        thats the same, i was literally on reddit, on the youtube subreddit i was claiming how youtube pushes alot of far right wing news while not logged in. and the people on the sub threw a hissy fit, and say it doesnt happen and accused me of looking for far right content. bitch because im not addicted to reddit i dont log in like you fools, and you are WHINING about an influencers on youtube, on reddit. and then i said you are getting ragebaited by getting the influencers in your feed

  • Estradiol Enjoyer @lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    it is extremely likely that llm bot account Farms are behind this, inauthentic behavior networks are for sale and are routinely used to boost right wing bullshit like this these days. you are not paranoid if they are actually out to get you

    • StartWin@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      23 hours ago

      What’s hilarious about it, though, was something evident while watching the outcome of the elections here in Australia.

      The right wing funders pay for these bots. The tame billionaire press report on the groundswell of support… And then the right wing politicians and strategists believe the papers and TV pundits that they ‘trust’. Meaning that they have no actual fucking clue what the people’s mood truly is. And can’t react to it.

      So you get the absolute hilarity of watching right wing pollies have their worldview crushed live on air as election results come in. Our right wing guys believed the press and their own analysis that they were in with a shot at government - and were disavowed fast and thoroughly while the nation watched them get the worst trouncing in decades.

      The problem with disinformation programs is that you risk catching yourself in them.

  • x00z@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    23 hours ago

    This can be anybody really. Russia for example is known to just stir the pot as much as possible. Whatever argument will cause destabilization.

  • SirMaple__@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    As someone who lives in Southern Alberta. I can say that no one I’ve spoken to would support this nonsense. Mainly because they understand how levels of government work, how funding works, and how trade deals work. The basics lol.