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[KernelPanic]

The evil mastermind behind it all. Very scary reading.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage

With links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage, the rightwing US computer scientist is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network

If you follow US politics you may recognise the name. Robert Mercer is the money behind Donald Trump. But then, I will come to learn, Robert Mercer is the money behind an awful lot of things. He was Trump’s single biggest donor. Mercer started backing Ted Cruz, but when he fell out of the presidential race he threw his money – $13.5m of it – behind the Trump campaign.

Robert Mercer very rarely speaks in public and never to journalists, so to gauge his beliefs you have to look at where he channels his money: a series of yachts, all called Sea Owl; a $2.9m model train set; climate change denial (he funds a climate change denial thinktank, the Heartland Institute); and what is maybe the ultimate rich man’s plaything – the disruption of the mainstream media. In this he is helped by his close associate Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign manager and now chief strategist. The money he gives to the Media Research Center, with its mission of correcting “liberal bias” is just one of his media plays. There are other bigger, and even more deliberate strategies, and shining brightly, the star at the centre of the Mercer media galaxy, is Breitbart.

It was $10m of Mercer’s money that enabled Bannon to fund Breitbart – a rightwing news site, set up with the express intention of being a Huffington Post for the right. It has launched the careers of Milo Yiannopoulos and his like, regularly hosts antisemitic and Islamophobic views, and is currently being boycotted by more than 1,000 brands after an activist campaign. It has been phenomenally successful: the 29th most popular site in America with 2bn page views a year. It’s bigger than its inspiration, the Huffington Post, bigger, even, than PornHub. It’s the biggest political site on Facebook. The biggest on Twitter.

There's a lot more talks about Cambridge Analytica, UKIP etc.

It's all one giant well funded machine, designed to influence people and elections against the "liberal media bias". Trump, Bannon and co. are just parts of it.

 

[SlipperyFishes]

I thought George Soros was the evil mastermind bankrolling everyone /s

This guys a real shitstain.

 

[Bladenic]

Is this the right wing George Soros?

 

[Gurgelhals]

These reclusive, purportedly libertarian but actually crypto-fascist tech-billionaires are on an entirely different level of creepy. They're like real-life examples of your average cyberpunk megacorp CEO.

Really scary stuff.

 

[Concept17]

One of those people you expect only to be in a movie or show.

Politics continues proving that the only thing you need to get what you want in this world, is lots of money, no matter how repulsive that thing is, or how much backlash will be received.

 

[HerbertBirdsfoot]

He and his daughter have outrageously huge foreheads. It's like Leader from Hulk comics type villainy.

 

[Ushojax]

When did 24 become real life?

 

[Joni]

If only he used his money and knowledge for something better, like how much bigger his train set could be if he didn't fund Breitbart.

 

[this_guy]

So a real life James Bond villain?

 

[broncobuster]

Well those Breitbart statistics sure are horrible.

 

[Boke1879]

Bannon and Conway are Mercer people btw.

 

[Brinbe]

Not really some revelation. Just like all the other billionaires sinking money into the GOP/conservative movement.

Never realized Breitbart was that big now. The rise of the right-wing media over the past few decades have been an incredibly destructive force all over the globe.

 

[Ran rp]

 

[JimiNutz]

So basically we have half the media controlled by the Left, half by the Right and ultimately us morons are caught in the middle bickering between us while the real puppet masters laugh at us from above while pushing their own agendas at our expense?

At least the internet has made all of this shady shit somewhat transparent. The whole system (politics and media) is a corrupt mess and hopefully Trump will be the catalyst for major change.

 

[tuxfool]

So basically we have half the media controlled by the Left, half by the Right and ultimately us morons are caught in the middle bickering between us while the real puppet masters laugh at us from above while pushing their own agendas at our expense?

At least the internet has made all of this shady shit somewhat transparent. The whole system (politics and media) is a corrupt mess and hopefully Trump will be the catalyst for major change.

This isn't a both sides issue. One side is actively spewing propaganda that has no basis in reality. It is one thing to have a slant but quite another to fabricate a nonexistent reality and push it on the gullible.

 

[Faustek]

It has been phenomenally successful: the 29th most popular site in America with 2bn page views a year. It’s bigger than its inspiration, the Huffington Post, bigger, even, than PornHub. It’s the biggest political site on Facebook. The biggest on Twitter.

Seriously? Ok now I'm actually worried. Was pretty sure Breitbart was just another, relatively, small hate site online but that there. That worries me a lot.

 

[JimiNutz]

This isn't a both sides issue. One side is actively spewing propaganda that has no basis in reality. It is one thing to have a slant but quite another to fabricate a nonexistent reality and push it on the gullible.

So we are sure that only the right is doing this and that there aren't other extraordinary rich and powerful men/groups (with maybe different or competing agendas) pulling the same shit?

Seems unlikely to me.

 

[Mr. Mister]

So basically we have half the media controlled by the Left, half by the Right and ultimately us morons are caught in the middle bickering between us while the real puppet masters laugh at us from above while pushing their own agendas at our expense?

At least the internet has made all of this shady shit somewhat transparent. The whole system (politics and media) is a corrupt mess and hopefully Trump will be the catalyst for major change.

Did you even read the article? Your "both sides" post is exactly what it speaks against.

And Trump is / was the catalyst for major change. If you read the article you'll see they've been committing what amounts to psychological warfare on the electorate.

 

[SerTapTap]

These reclusive, purportedly libertarian but actually crypto-fascist tech-billionaires are on an entirely different level of creepy. They're like real-life examples of your average cyberpunk megacorp CEO.

Really scary stuff.

As an actual libertarian all these fucking shitstains pretending to be 'libertarian' disgusts me. Governments unfairly supporting businesses is not libertarian. Only protecting the rights of specific people is not libertarian. Expanding government powers is pretty much the opposite of libertarian at even a conceptual level.

And what's even worse is people buy these disgusting bastards shit. Fear sells. MAGA types talk about being tough but they're all scared little babies like Trump hoping he'll keep the "inner city hell" (blacks), "globalization" (jews), and "terrorists" (muslims) out of their backyard.

Seriously? Ok now I'm actually worried. Was pretty sure Breitbart was just another, relatively, small hate site online but that there. That worries me a lot.

It shows up incredibly high on Google now when searching for any kind of political news.

 

[Mr. Mister]

So we are sure that only the right is doing this and that there aren't other extraordinary rich and powerful men/groups (with maybe different or competing agendas) pulling the same shit?

Seems unlikely to me.

Cool. Then it should be easy for you to find well researched articles that back up your hunch. Please send links.

 

[Frozenprince]

Breitbart being the biggest sour e if political information in the western hemisphere terrifies me.

 

[E-phonk]

If even half of what this article suggests is true, it is something that needs both more exposure and investigation imo.

 

[JimiNutz]

Cool. Then it should be easy for you to find well researched articles that back up your hunch. Please send links.

Quick Google search found this:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.la...naissance-donors-20161006-snap-story,amp.html

Whether it's accurate or not I have no idea.

My point was that if there is one person/side doing this, then I wouldn't be surprised if there was another equally rich/powerful man or group doing something similar.

 

[Mr. Mister]

Quick Google search found this:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.la...naissance-donors-20161006-snap-story,amp.html

Whether it's accurate or not I have no idea.

My point was that if there is one person/side doing this, then I wouldn't be surprised if there was another equally rich/powerful man or group doing something similar.

Did you read the article you linked?

Maybe there is another rich and powerful man pulling the strings like Mercer but it isn't discussed in the article you linked.

 

[ClosingADoor]

So this guy is a hedgefund owner. All this stuff he is doing is pretty much so companies can continue making massive profits and his stocks go up?

I really don't get the motivation of these people. You are already rich as fuck. Either enjoy your money and leave everyone else alone or go do some good.

 

[kmax]

If Bannon is the brains, Mercer is the money.

Trump is the tool.

 

[tuxfool]

So this guy is a hedgefund owner. All this stuff he is doing is pretty much so companies can continue making massive profits and his stocks go up?

I really don't get the motivation of these people. You are already rich as fuck. Either enjoy your money and leave everyone else alone or go do some good.

No, this guy very much seems to be an ideologue.

 

[JimiNutz]

Did you read the article you linked?

Maybe there is another rich and powerful man pulling the strings like Mercer but it isn't discussed in the article you linked.

Two men investing billions (one to the Left and one to the Right) in an attempt to reshape the political landscape in divergent and opposing ways?

It's not exactly the same as the article linked in the OP but it paints a similar picture of extraordinarily rich and powerful men using their money and other resources to push their own political agendas and influence/brainwash the masses.

Eveb if, and it's a big IF, it is only Mercer doing the stuff outlined in the Guardian article at present, do we honestly believe that he will be the last and only person to do this?

 

[E-phonk]

Even if, and it's a big IF, it is only Mercer doing the stuff outlined in the Guardian article at present, do we honestly believe that he will be the last and only person to do this?

He is in quite a unique position to do so though, having both the background in IT/AI, the political vision that he wants to achieve and having the money to fund something like this.

A lot of powerful people use the system to generate more money for themselves, but few use it to shape society according to their own beliefs.

 

[nacimento]

Isn't the founder of this hedgefund, Simmons or similar, a big democrat donor? It's somehow funny to have two guys from the same fund going in different directions.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

More people need to read this, particularly the use of Facebook and the last segment of the article.

 

[hobozero]

I read that as Rick Mercer and became very confused for a good minute.

 

[squall23]

I've only heard the name before, I didn't really know much about the guy, but what did he make his money on? It just says he's a computer scientist.

 

[greycolumbus]

I've only heard the name before, I didn't really know much about the guy, but what did he make his money on? It just says he's a computer scientist.

hedge fund

I remember his name popping up in this article:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-medallion-fund-became-finance-s-blackest-box

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

I've only heard the name before, I didn't really know much about the guy, but what did he make his money on? It just says he's a computer scientist.

Early days (1980's) IBM and Microsoft basically made everyone who worked there and stuck with it a guaranteed millionaire in the 90's. Combined with natural language recognition and investing on the largest string of profits ever (1980-2000), it's basically a perfect wave for someone to make money.

edit: reading above Bloomberg article, the good news seems to be that their profits are steadily dropping, except their best year was 2008 (and 2007), so they're probably deep into shorting.

 

[sphagnum]

More popular than Pornhub?!

 

[SolarPowered]

Breitbart is bigger than pornhub? Just shut the internet down, go full scandinavian socialism and let's revamp media standards, so that the ultra rich can't make our fourth branch of the government their plaything.

Holy Ghost

 

[captainpat]

So weird, I've only heard about Breitbart a couple months ago.

 

[Blader]

So basically we have half the media controlled by the Left, half by the Right and ultimately us morons are caught in the middle bickering between us while the real puppet masters laugh at us from above while pushing their own agendas at our expense?

At least the internet has made all of this shady shit somewhat transparent. The whole system (politics and media) is a corrupt mess and hopefully Trump will be the catalyst for major change.

Yeah, no. Robert Mercer was one of the biggest and most influential donors to Trump's campaign.

 

[kess]

More popular than Pornhub?!

Who are the real cucks now?!?

 

[NobleXenon]

One Nazi I would pay to see punched; or do myself.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Does the left have organizations, companies, and people doing the same thing with informational psych profiling?

Edit: I don't mean programming left leaning voters in a similar manner, I'm talking about subverting and counter-programming those being targeted by Mercer.

 

[necrosis]

by what metric(s) is breichbart the "biggest" political site on the platforms mentioned? because it's certainly not by twitter followers (huffpost has nearly fifteen times the number of followers, for reference, and a better global alexa rank as well)

 

[woodchuck]

Scary stuff. Social media in its current form probably had had an overall negative effect on society

 

[John Rabbit]

Scary stuff. Social media in its current form probably had had an overall negative effect on society

.

 

[Kthulhu]

Last December, I wrote about Cambridge Analytica in a piece about how Google’s search results on certain subjects were being dominated by rightwing and extremist sites. Jonathan Albright, a professor of communications at Elon University, North Carolina, who had mapped the news ecosystem and found millions of links between rightwing sites “strangling” the mainstream media, told me that trackers from sites like Breitbart could also be used by companies like Cambridge Analytica to follow people around the web and then, via Facebook, target them with ads.

On its website, Cambridge Analytica makes the astonishing boast that it has psychological profiles based on 5,000 separate pieces of data on 220 million American voters – its USP is to use this data to understand people’s deepest emotions and then target them accordingly. The system, according to Albright, amounted to a “propaganda machine”.

Fucking hell.

The Patriot's filter is real and it's controlled by Nazis.

 

[Trojita]

a $2.9m model train set

Ummmmmmm

 

[Sadsic]

This isn't a both sides issue. One side is actively spewing propaganda that has no basis in reality. It is one thing to have a slant but quite another to fabricate a nonexistent reality and push it on the gullible.

The entirety of the history humanity exists in imagination and nowhere else. All countries, currencies, ideologies and religions are fictional concepts that cannot be found physically. This includes all political concepts, including the individualistic, egalitarian, multicultural society that western liberalism promotes. While you (and myself) may prefer this reality over the authoritarian, nationalistic society being promoted by Bannon and the like, both have no basis in reality.

What has really happened here is that a small collection of people (Putin/Pavlovsky/Sarkov, Bannon, Mercer, Farage, Le Pen etc) have learned how to game the system, and push upon a new reality to come into existence. In general I disagree with this reality ideologically, but we must as a society understand that all of civilization is imaginary by default, and we have a choice to make as to what values we may truly want to believe.

 

[Messofanego]

Thanks for bringing this up, propaganda machine stories are fascinating.

 

[Not]

The entirety of the history humanity exists in imagination and nowhere else. All countries, currencies, ideologies and religions are fictional concepts that cannot be found physically. This includes all political concepts, including the individualistic, egalitarian, multicultural society that western liberalism promotes. While you (and myself) may prefer this reality over the authoritarian, nationalistic society being promoted by Bannon and the like, both have no basis in reality.

What has really happened here is that a small collection of people (Putin/Pavlovsky/Sarkov, Bannon, Mercer, Farage, Le Pen etc) have learned how to game the system, and push upon a new reality to come into existence. In general I disagree with this reality ideologically, but we must as a society understand that all of civilization is imaginary by default, and we have a choice to make as to what values we may truly want to believe.

One "reality" isn't fucking based on nonsense. Even if we did have to "fabricate" reality intentionally, it still shouldn't be to make the powerful people more powerful and make suffering people suffer more.