Trump’s Most Influential White Nationalist Troll Is A Middlebury Grad Who Lives In Manhattan

Discussion in 'Elections & Campaigns' started by Durandal, Apr 5, 2018.

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  1. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    Interesting examination of some of what went down during the 2016 race and one of the many ways the Russians influenced American voters.

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...roll-ricky-vaughn_us_5ac53167e4b09ef3b2432627

    Twitter troll “Ricky Vaughn” had a bigger influence on the 2016 election than NBC News and the Drudge Report. Here’s who he really is.
    By Luke O’Brien

    Who is Ricky Vaughn? That was one of the big questions for anyone following far-right politics during the 2016 presidential election. The Twitter troll who took his name and avatar from Charlie Sheen’s character in “Major League” was everywhere on social media, an indefatigable circulator of edgy memes and rah-rah Donald Trump boosterism.

    And anti-Semitism and white nationalism:

    [​IMG]

    Lots of it:

    [​IMG]

    There was no mistaking Ricky Vaughn’s influence. He had tens of thousands of followers, and his talent for blending far-right propaganda with conservative messages on Twitter made him a key disseminator of extremist views to Republican voters and a central figure in the “alt-right” white supremacist movement that attached itself to Trump’s coattails. The MIT Media Lab named him to its list of top 150 influencers on the election, based on news appearances and social media impact. He finished ahead of NBC News, Drudge Report and Stephen Colbert. Mainstream conservatives didn’t know they were retweeting an avowed racist and anti-Semite, but they liked what Ricky Vaughn had to say.

    “He did this thing that people connected to organized white nationalism have not been able to do ― walk both sides of the extremist line in the sand,” said Keegan Hankes, a data intelligence expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

    Ricky Vaughn also played an important role in amplifying disinformation injected into American politics by the Russian government. HuffPost and a team of data scientists known as Susan Bourbaki Anthony that tracks online propaganda analyzed who was retweeting the now infamous Kremlin-controlled Twitter account @TEN_GOP, which consistently praised Trump, attacked Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and churned out a vile medley of racism, Islamophobia and “fake news.”

    In the data set of significant accounts we looked at, Ricky Vaughn retweeted @TEN_GOP the most, by far. Although Twitter shut down his @Ricky_Vaughn99 handle in October 2016, another handle he used, @RapinBill, took over and retweeted @TEN_GOP at least 162 times between early March and late August 2017. (@RapinBill also retweeted @Pamela_Moore13, another Kremlin-controlled account, at least 37 times during this period.)

    Plenty more here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...roll-ricky-vaughn_us_5ac53167e4b09ef3b2432627
     
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  2. webrockk

    webrockk Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    never heard of him
     
  3. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    Tens of thousands of twitter followers and ranked ahead of NBC, Drudge, and Stephen Colbert in terms of influence, based on news appearances and social media impact.

    If you were on twitter and heavily involved in Trump politics or followed the alt-right with any degree of closeness, then you probably have felt his influence even if you do not "recall."
     
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  4. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    This was a really interesting article and I was particularly interested in the intrigue that led to his ousting from within the alt-right movement. Apparently after the disasterous Charlotte rallies, the alt-right essentially splintered into two main groups between those who wished to make more a real world impact and appearance and those who wished to remain largely anonymous, but arguably more influential through social media. This guy fell into the later category and his group were largely deemed to be sell-outs by the former. And they are the ones who outed him as Douglas Mackey

    [​IMG]

    I hope that their infighting further splinters the group and pushes them back to the sewer of irrelevance where they belong.

    I know that Hilary Clinton got a lot of flack for referencing half of Trump supporters as deplorables, and that many Trump supporters carry it as a badge of honor, but I ask that you remember that this guy is a prime example of whom she was referencing.
     
  5. webrockk

    webrockk Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    never heard of him.
     
  6. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    In addition to your, "I do not recall," would you also like to plead the fifth?

    If you have not heard about him, then read the article and learn about him. Or at least make a relevant comment to the discussion of the topic. Or just move on.
     
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  7. Mac-7

    Mac-7 Banned

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    Neither have I

    But I dont do twitter

    The problem liberals have is that they live in a cocoon of liberalism where they have been fed lib nonsense all their lives

    and they dont know how to respond when the bubble is burst
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2018
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  8. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's one quick way to lose all credibility, using SPLC as a source.

    The SPLC is a extreme radical leftist hate group.
     
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  9. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Neither has 99.9% of those who voted for Making America Great Again.
     
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  10. Heartburn

    Heartburn Well-Known Member

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    What I don't understand is why we keep seeing the 'alt right ' tag used as if that were the only faction that can possibly support Trump. It is a fraction of the total conservative base, it takes part in but does not dictate conservative policies. You don't need to be a frothing at the mouth KKK member to be fed up with the policies that came to dominate American home and international policies.
     
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  11. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    I think that is accurate, but I think it is also true that the alt-right was the Trump base and largely the reason he survived the primary. There were no other candidates to which the alt-right felt an attachment and to whom they demonstrated a loyalty. But by the time the general election rolled around and it was time to vote, the rest of the conservative base and the rest of the Republicans "came home" so to speak because they viewed Trump as a lesser of two evils.
     
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  12. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    Tens of thousands of twitter followers and rated more influential, in terms of media appearances and social interactions, than CBS, Drudge Report, and Stephen Colbert.

    In other words, I do not believe you.
     
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  13. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    This guy was ousted by someone from within the alt-right movement. Not the SPLC.
     
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  14. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    Mr. Vaughn was listed 107th, behind Think Progress, HuffPost Politics, Slate, Mother Jones, and many other left and right wing outlets.

    https://medium.com/@socialmachines/who-s-influencing-election-2016-8bed68ddecc3

    The Left just thinks that the right having any influence at all on the election is unacceptable.
     
  15. Heartburn

    Heartburn Well-Known Member

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    I believe Trump was elected by less vocal conservatives that make up the bulk of his base. The most strident voices get heard but the fact that they support some policies the silent majority do doesn't mean that they actually speak for those people.
     
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  16. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

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    Because they are the only faction that STILL supports him. Many people who were shocked when he was elected were willing to give Trump a chance to "grow in office" Tom Hanks, certainly no supporter, said he hoped Trump would make him vote for him in 2020. I myself had never heard of the alt. right or even Steve Bannon until well after the election. I knew Trump was an ******* but had no real idea he was a ****** NAZI until Charlottesville..
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2018
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  17. Derideo_Te

    Derideo_Te Well-Known Member

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    :roflol:

    Ironic!
     
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  18. Derideo_Te

    Derideo_Te Well-Known Member

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    Wrong! The SPLC merely EXPOSES extreme radical rightwing hate groups.
     
  19. ocean515

    ocean515 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The "alt-right" was identified by various media sources as the White Nationalist/KKK types. Some credible sources suggested their numbers might be in the 10-15,000 range. Other credible sources have suggested it might be as many as 100,000 nationally.

    Care to explain how so few people were responsible for helping the President survive the primary?
     
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  20. Derideo_Te

    Derideo_Te Well-Known Member

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    The BLOTUS ended up with 14 million primary votes so there are probably at least that many who are either alt right or lean alt right. FTR that comes to less than 5% of the population as a whole so it sounds like it is in the ballpark.
     
  21. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    Never, ever heard of, or have seen this material. Translation. Zero effect on the election.
     
  22. Heartburn

    Heartburn Well-Known Member

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    No, they are not the only people who support him. And he is nothing like your hyperbolic accusation.
     
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  23. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    I think I would need to see the credible sources which counted the alt-right, but I imagine that it largely derives from a difference in the definition of the alt-right.

    I remember reading this article on a research that found "racial resentment" as being one of the strongest predictors for support of Donald Trump. That gets defined as “a moral feeling that blacks violate such traditional American values as individualism and self-reliance.” And I don't know if it is accurate to call those individuals who hold that belief system as synonymous with the alt-right, but it seems to be a fair assessment.
     
  24. MrTLegal

    MrTLegal Well-Known Member

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    ...because you claim to have never heard of his material? Yea, that's a weak argument.
     
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  25. Heartburn

    Heartburn Well-Known Member

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    Today politics seems to be all about labels. Truth is we all have some liberal feelings and we all have a conservative side. One of the biggest issues I see today is the wall. I hate the very idea of that wall, it is a total failure to work out a truly workable immigration policy and so it gets support from people who find it as hateful as I do. That doesn't make us racists. We don't communicate, don't talk to each other we talk at each other. That is the direct result of years of policies aimed at changing America and putting our working class on a par with the entire world. That means our level had to come down. Most voters don't know how to fix it but we do know it's broken and another 8 years of the status quo ain't gonna do it. Enter Donald Trump!
     
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