I think it’s interesting that when you actually read the studies they are quite…short and vague? It’s basically a lot of “since Americans use the internet openly and frequently maybe we could change their attitudes towards China through the internet” lol. Not exactly the “step-by-step playbook” of a mastermind. And yes, it’s all publicly available as published research like you pointed out. Seems like some sensationalist reporting was involved here.
These articles are the sources, the article shown in OP is the play-by-play. It really just discusses that they're approaching propaganda from a more egalitarian perspective from now on though.
So what is the play-by-play? How is China manipulating US political opinion?
What specific policies are the Chinese bots advocating for?
There is actually evidence of someone using ghost creators to harvest ad revenue from right-wing people. These videos had hundreds of thousands of views.
I came across Omar/Kareem Maize before. I tracked Omar's Talk Show YouTube channel. At first, I wanted to be happy for him. You have to be amoral to make money. He could have found an opportunity to use AI to profit from ingenious right-wing people. Good for him! Unfortunately, it seems he was just being paid around $30 a video to make videos for someone else.
Now, I want evidence that Chinese influence operations were of similar scope to the aforementioned network of ghost creators.
Left-wing influence operations are not effective. Left-wing AI content doesn't even spread that much. I think BreakThrough News (a real source) only gets tens of thousands of views at most.
That's only because there's just soo many other players with the same goal. We can't forget Heritage Foundation, AIPAC, or the Epstein or Bannon networks, the Murdoch empire, among many others.
Most of these exposés specifically highlight that they play both sides. Here you are causing divide. Very sus (fuck MAGA btw but the Chinese & Russian bots want divide at all costs and don't support one particular party)
I’m about as anti-MAGA as it gets, and I often find people who I politically align with trusting the first anti-MAGA thing they see on TikTok without checking to see if it’s true. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.
Like all the conspiracy theories about the Butler assassination attempt being faked. I'm staunchly anti-Trump as well, but I've had multiple people say I must be MAGA just because I've actually looked at the evidence and don't think there's anything that supports the idea that it was staged.
If you want to see the right-wing/pro-billionaire/pro-AIPAC/conservative/anti-people/anti-egalitarian propaganda there are many subreddits.
because it’s a collection of so many high IQ individuals
And no. Not really. While reddit can, at times, be more informed than other places (especially due to its forum-esque format), the IQ distribution I can't imagine isn't all that different from the general populous.
There was a literal DNC funded private discord of Kamala brigaders propagandizing this sub and many others last year that is openly reported, your just projecting your assumptions
We had a pinned post here not long ago warning people that the sub is historically astroturfed during mid terms so really just pay attention a bit, you would have to be in denial when all the evidence points specifically in any direction
It’s not hearsay, it’s directly linked tags and posts. This is why people don’t bother to provide a source because you didn’t really want one and just want to ignore observable actual facts lmao
Also I love how your reason on hating that source is that they reported on the reported numbers … that later on were supposedly a “clerical error”. How is that their fault lmao
Everything's a conspiracy to those who don't know how anything works like.
The left-right spectrum is about egalitarianism vs social hierarchy. Rhe original hierarchy in the French Revolution (where the terms came from) was about the elites above the poor; the right-wingers wanted to keep the rich above the poor.
So if it's fake, who is funding it? The billionaires don't want leftism as leftism wants socialism (which is antagonistic to social hierarchy of the elites). (The culture wars, you vilifying the immigrant or the trans person, provides a good distraction to their action.) Only the people like you and I, who want egalitarianism, want left-wing policy.
(Socialism and communism also had major philosophical development during the French Revolution. It's worth sitting down and learning that history.)
There was lots of proof that during the last US presidential election, Reddit was extremely astroturfed by Kamala Harris’s campaign.
Also the left in the United States is run by billionaires. Also it’s not real leftism or socialism at all. The democrats in America would definitely never do anything in favor that would hurt the billionaires or the real people in charge. They are just as corrupt.l when it comes to financial issues. They have no interest in making things actually better in America. They just have better stances on social issues like LGBT rights and woman’s right, etc. which makes them better candidates than republicans, but not by much.
Which is to say Reddit is filled with leftist propaganda
In regards to China tho, pretty sure it supports communists radical leftists/radical progressives and the likes, they like china and are more aligned with it
No, there’s a big difference between short-term public opinion and governments and long-term favourability
The traditional allies of America still absolutely favour it over China and want nato and US support to remain, do they dislike trump? Yes absolutely, but they still prefer the US over China, the straining of relations has only come from the US side
its realpolitiks they don’t have to be ideologically the exact same especially on a domestic issue like LGBTQ people, what matters is their alignment with China
Russia doesn’t support all of maga’s positions either but they still want trump because hes better for russia
Almost no alliance or alignment is truly ideologically the same
Its really not “a couple of random people out of 100s of millions”
There are absolutely more leftists supportive of China than a couple, its not a negligible number
So yeah thats why China supports and uplifts leftist movements and especially the violent radical ones
Random people supporting china is not evidence to "China supports and uplifts leftist movements". You can't just say or juxtapose things and expect them to be true.
THERE IS LITERALLY A RESEARCH ARTICLE ON THE TOP OF YOUR SCREEN THAT REPORTS THAT CHINA USES AI TO MANIPULATE PUBLIC OPINION USING SOCIAL MEDIA, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BY “you cant just say things” OR “you cant just base it off that” THERE ARE ARTICLES SUPPORTING IT, AND THERE ARE ALL THE REASONS AND PROOF THAT THEY SUPPORT LEFTIST MOVEMENTS,
USING FICTIONAL IMAGES ABOUT FICTIONAL ARGUMENTS WHERE ONE SIDE IS RIGHT DOESNT MAKE YOU RIGHT EITHER, do explain how the image fits the argument
You also said that Russia does the same thing *TOO,*so its not like you deny the practice is a thing
The practice of supporting movements that align with you even if they aren’t ideologically the same is not a secret either, I am literally just connecting the simple dots for you because you doubted it based on “why would China do that”
I think you are just a leftist and you don’t wanna concede China supports radical elements within the wider movements because that would be a bad look for leftists
The voters won but the people lost. It is entirely possible to convince someone to vote against their own interests; the best grifter is the one that makes you feel good that you willingly gave them your wallet.
Trump has been very helpful in reducing USA's hegemony, soft and hard. USAID, tariffs, threats of invasion, anti-NATO. Trump made USA unattractive as a global partner; no one wants to buy American anymore.
(We could have won the EV and solar panel wars, but MAGA/conservatives and oil love each other, so USA lost.)
Trump's dulling USA's blade battling Iran. Taiwan is starting to look like easy pickings (remember Hong Kong?). It's complicated though, because American AI also loves Trump and they want Taiwan to stay independent (because TSMC and the tech hub that Taiwan just is).
the reason hes saying that is because the article he linked is from Natalie WInters so he might be slightly biased
"Natalie Winters is an American right-wing political commentator known for co-hosting the War Room podcast with Steve Bannon. A self-described "populist nationalist" in the Republican Party, she frequently attacks the mainstream media. Although Winters's bid for the National Press Club was rejected, she has served as a White House correspondent since January 2025"
The US was not even close to winning the "EV Wars" no matter what. Focus on oil is actually very political valuable. Keeps Europe hooked to the US since they still can't buy Russian. And Taiwan is under like zero threat of invasion. Absolutely ludicrous
You're right we weren't close. We didn't even try.
Focus on oil is actually very political valuable. Keeps Europe hooked to the US since they still can't buy Russian.
You know that saying drug dealers say? Don't get hooked on your own dope? USA never quit drinking; we are still at the bottom of that bottle barrel.
The best way to make Europe not buy Russian oil is to make oil fundamentally unattractive an energy. We never weaned ourselves, so we never weaned Europe, we never bothered to stimulate solar and EV tech in the 00's, and now Chinese tech is mighty attractive.
(Even the Saudi's are divesting away from oil)
And Taiwan is under like zero threat of invasion. Absolutely ludicrous
Hong Kong was the canary in the coal mine; it fell. Never say never.
I just read a lengthy article about how reading has declined so much its basically lead to gen zs inability to think. Which helped lead to the right wing populism and short content has killed the attention span it has rendered reading comprehension, and thus the ability to think critically, basically impossible for a large part of gen z. It leads to emotionally driven decisions based on surface level simplistic thinking.
“our government” which was installed by China and Russia. Don’t forget that detail. Also simplifying “our government” and not mentioning political affiliations is harmful.
It's simple. When the US wants to gain popularity world wide they simply assert military dominance and overseas sovereignty (boots on the ground, planes, air superiority etc...) Or grow and invest directly for mutual prosperity. And with either one of the two they also bring the American culture. Yes the US does have a culture. And because it's made of thousands of cultures they slowly blended in to form something that naturally overlaps and people will naturally accept and be inclined towards.
Compare that to the Chinese strict rules and culture, hidden contract statements that are meant to enslave an entire population, and no direct measurement of wealth or investment returns. You can easily see how they rob everybody in broad daylight. And they can't even make good products in the first place. It's basically attrition behind the mask of power
Yeah you should look into the hundred or so times the US directly interfered with elections in other countries. We were ready to invade Italy if they voted the wrong way even. I can’t bother to get into all of it here but the us specifically pushes countries towards governments that allow foreign financial investment to buy up their capital property. That or just for military dictatorships that gives the US control of the region.
You're right.
However I say this a lot coming from a former US warzone.
We simply can't stop relying on the US for supplying anything even if it was crumbs. Because they create jobs here.
While the Chinese literally take over our lands, steal our jobs, get paid at leat 3-5 times a local engineer would. And still are not grateful.
Let alone the fact we can't make anything locally because of their massive cheap products industry which supply the entire world. The US just dump millions of dollars to extract our oil, we get jobs we make startups, the US invest further then we start manufacturing things locally at a lower price. The US is happy. We are happy. Everyone is happy. It's not perfect. It's not the best. It's just what suits the public the most currently.
As someone with a decent amount of experience in this field, I’m beginning to feel like you don’t know what IO/PSYOPs are. Your argument boils down to “soft power = all non-kinetic manipulation” - which is incredibly silly.
I will dumb this down as much as possible:
Conducting an operation with the express intent of manipulating an audience is an ATTACK on the information ecosystem of your target. This would never be considered “soft power” by literally any definition. And before you do it…do not conflate diplomacy with spreading disinformation on social media sites.
Now if you are naive enough to think China isn’t spreading disinformation, then that’s a separate argument entirely.
Anyone who grew up in the Western infosphere has been fed pro-American influence through all media channels since they were born. It's no secret that ever major country strives to have a better image globally. China is no different in that regard and it shouldn't be sensationalized, although the American Epstein class will do anything to convince you otherwise.
Official Chinese state-backed academic and strategic institutions published strategy blueprints specifically detailing how to use generative AI, algorithmic feeds, and platforms like Reddit to target overseas Gen Z.
Is this the best you've got? I would suspect that Chinese propaganda leverage real grievances of Gen-Z and Millennials such as the lack of job opportunities, low homeownership, and stagnant wages. Natalie cannot even cite a single policy that Chinese bots promoted.
Maybe if you cite those policies, you'll realize that Gen-Z really does have legitimate grievances towards the economy and foreign policy (such as supporting a genocide).
Here are a few headlines she promoted:
EXCLUSIVE: Taxpayers Funded an Influencer Campaign To Help Illegal Aliens Fight Deportation
EXCLUSIVE: NYC Built A Government-Backed Staffing Pipeline For CAIR’s New York Chapter
China is an Authoritarian state. Their core interests are complete CCP dominance of their society, conquering Taiwan, and complete regional hagemony. China sees itself as a benign dictatorship, as long as you do what the state says you're okay. How to oppose China:
Support a defensive Asian NATO as a counterbalance to Chinese power
Support an independent Taiwan
Support strategic decoupling and the establishment of Allied trade blocks
Support human rights, free speech. and free press globally (though as the article points out, these systems are under pressure)
Finally, at home in your own countries, do interesting things, solve problems, find new ways of doing things. Action and creativity are the great strength of free societies.
Literally every country has propaganda. I’d even argue the new spiderman movie is pro-mass surveillance propaganda . What make it different when a foreign country does so? Stop fear mongering because cHInA
The CCP LLM's on the Popular tab could not be more obvious. And Redditors just eat it up too. Were you wondering why US gen Z hates AI and Chinese gen Z loves it? See above.
You didn't really explain how they are a threat you just said their system sucks and is inefficient but also they'll bleed us dry which seems contradictory? Idk maybe I'm misunderstanding but what's the actual threat?
Lot of issues would be solved if people didn't scroll social media looking at LARPers and rich people living better lives than them. Ignorance is bliss.
There was some organization that existed solely to push a toxic leftist agenda during the elections and would cancel anyone who disagreed with their messaging. They even had a discord. Boi did those people piss me off. China could not be any worse than them.
•
u/AutoModerator 21d ago
Did you know we have a Discord server‽ You can join by clicking here!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.