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I legitimately believe Pokemon Sun and Moon was used to influence the U.S. Election.

Fat4all

Banned
I agree that that's a pretty good rule of thumb. I guess I'm more or less disturbed by how many people's knee-jerk reaction is to call OP a tinfoil hat wearing nutjob when day after day new stories are coming out about how specific and targeted Russia's efforts were. OP would have gotten the same reaction if he made a post about Russia using Pokemon GO to incite racial tensions in the US, and it turns out that's true.

Except all OP is doing by making a thread like this is muddying the water with unverifiable meanderings.
 
You're trying to turn the subject broad when we're specifically talking about the OP's premise which full of jumping to conclusions and speculation with no actual evidence to support his specific claims. The premise is bullshit. Stop trying to use smokescreens to hide the fact that you're empathizing with someone who is either mentally ill or an excellent troll.

Do you realize that you are projecting right now or nah? Yes it's speculation. And I think it is reasonable and interesting speculation, especially in light of today's Pokemon Go story on CNN.

You use the exact same talking points that my best friend does when I try to talk about this stuff, so I suspect you and him must frequent the same internet locales. I find it interesting.

I'm not a Republican/Democrat/Conservative/Liberal, I'm someone who seeks the truth, wherever it may lie.

I've been following all of this stuff extremely closely, because it's highly topical to me as someone who lives in Rust Belt America as a straight white man, who has friends on all spots of the political spectrum. But most people in my life fall into the white Evangelical Christian Conservative bracket, and it's been extremely extremely interesting me to watch them react to all of this and watch them squirm when pressed.

You are doing the exact same thing.

Turns out, one of the hardest questions you can ask a person is 'Why?'.
 
I agree that that's a pretty good rule of thumb. I guess I'm more or less disturbed by how many people's knee-jerk reaction is to call OP a tinfoil hat wearing nutjob when day after day new stories are coming out about how specific and targeted Russia's efforts were. OP would have gotten the same reaction if he made a post about Russia using Pokemon GO to incite racial tensions in the US, and it turns out that's true.



Except they fucking did use Pokemon, just not Sun and Moon.
better source than the OPs which was "his ass"
 

Fat4all

Banned
I'm not a Republican/Democrat/Conservative/Liberal, I'm someone who seeks the truth, wherever it may lie.

EnragedWigglyHydra.gif
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
Huh. Now I'm curious, what else do you legitimately believe?

Well, I think if you want to look through my history you'll be disappointed as you won't find that I'm huge into conspiracies or anything like that.

Honestly I'm a pretty normal guy who always thought this was kind of suspicious back in 2016 when it happened, but didn't pay much attention, and now saw a news article in which Russia used Pokemon Go in such an oddly specific way that I thought it was worth pointing out.

Didn't see any harm in posting it. Thought it was interesting and didn't seem to violate any rules.
 
Do you realize that you are projecting right now or nah? Yes it's speculation. And I think it is reasonable and interesting speculation, especially in light of today's Pokemon Go story on CNN.

You use the exact same talking points that my best friend does when I try to talk about this stuff, so I suspect you and him must frequent the same internet locales. I find it interesting.

I'm not a Republican/Democrat/Conservative/Liberal, I'm someone who seeks the truth, wherever it may lie.

I've been following all of this stuff extremely closely, because it's highly topical to me as someone who lives in Rust Belt America as a straight white man, who has friends on all spots of the political spectrum. But most people in my life fall into the white Evangelical Christian Conservative bracket, and it's been extremely extremely interesting me to watch them react to all of this and watch them squirm when pressed.

You are doing the exact same thing.

Turns out, one of the hardest questions you can ask a person is 'Why?'.

dude you may think you sound really cool typing this out

but you don't
 

Marcel

Member
Do you realize that you are projecting right now or nah? Yes it's speculation. And I think it is reasonable and interesting speculation, especially in light of today's Pokemon Go story on CNN.

You use the exact same talking points that my best friend does when I try to talk about this stuff, so I suspect you and him must frequent the same internet locales. I find it interesting.

I'm not a Republican/Democrat/Conservative/Liberal, I'm someone who seeks the truth, wherever it may lie.

I've been following all of this stuff extremely closely, because it's highly topical to me as someone who lives in Rust Belt America as a straight white man, who has friends on all spots of the political spectrum. But most people in my life fall into the white Evangelical Christian Conservative bracket, and it's been extremely extremely interesting me to watch them react to all of this and watch them squirm when pressed.

Stop fucking talking about yourself. You're not half as interesting as you think you are. You sound like an internet atheist from Reddit with this "I'm seeking the truth" fedora-tipping spew.
 
I don't follow. And I don't think Russia attempting to influence politics in America, especially the Presidential Election of 2016 is a conspiracy. It's real.

I'm just pointing out how hilarious people will scream 'McCarthyism' and say 'Red Scare 2.0' when this is the actual reality that's happening to the USA. My best friend does the same shit and it's annoying as fuck and I call him out every time. And he tries to use Whataboutisms, which is also hilarious, because that's a classic Soviet psychological table-turning maneuver.

The basis of the belief that Russia is influencing politics in the US is: something something “harmful information released about Clinton.”

I would really understand if all of this shit was about some series of lies, but it isn’t. Information came to light that showed Hillary Clinton as being, shocker, a by-the-numbers Democrat who cares about nobody but herself and people she can get something from.

She’s grimy and scummy and voters figured it out. How people figured that out (Russia, her and the party’s behavior during the primary) is worth talking about, but it’s really just nothing more than “she’s shit and people know it.”

Maybe Russia wouldn’t be able to topple American Democracy if we didn’t have only two shitty fucking parties which are like two heads on the same monster. About half of people can’t be bothered to vote, so each four years the approximate same remaining 50% battle it out with their shitty corporate pop-star celebrity politicians. In 2016, the story arc went such that the audience hated the Blue Candidate®. Well, not exactly since she won the popular vote, so I guess I should say the Blue Audience was disengaged with her character’s development.

If you’re really concerned about foreign governments penetrating our elections, then maybe fight and advocate more fiercely for candidates that are actual people and not suits stuffed with money. And let’s maybe stop splitting and only being able to think in two colors.

Anyways the point is that pointing to something new every day and saying “Russia!” is very much like what McCarthyists did. The extent of Russian influence in the election has been revealed, and further attempts to drive home the point that “Clinton was robbed, democracy is failing” come across with an air of the flavor of delusion that only Clinton and modern day Democrats can inspire in people.
 
they did influence the election, that is a given

whats not is russia influencing it by fucking pokemon jesus christ

It's not a given, but it's fair to speculate, especially knowing that Russia knows the power of memes, social networking, and psychology behind those things, and how they've actively used those tools to shape influence.

Dumping new Pokemon on 4chan is not outside the realm of possibility IMHO, and the reason I added the context to me being a college student who went to school for 'Games', is because I buy what the OP is saying. Why? Because I thought it was kind of weird, and strangely creepy that so many adults would be rabidly invested in Pokemon while I was in school. I think enjoying games is good, and I love games, fuck I went to school to more completely understand them, but the obsession and myopia, especially with Pokemon, was frankly bizarre to me. Literal arrested development IMO.

The 4chan angle is made especially interesting when you consider the usage and application of Pepe the Frog by the alt-right.

People outright bashing the OP without reading what he said, especially in context to every bit of factual evidence out there about what's happening both locally and abroad, are legitimately embarrassing to me.

I'm sure you feel the same about me and me being a 'crazed conspiracy theorist/Russianut'.
 

whyman

Member
The lengths people will go to, in trying to explain Trump winning, is insane. That being said I dont think the idea is crazy. I just dont think Pokemon is big enough. (I know its huge but a lot of the fans cant vote) It would have to be like a leaked trailer from the new Star Wars with Jar Jar in it. But that is for the dark timeline where Hillary won.
 

Ferrio

Banned
You guys are arguing a ludicrous claim with someone named "theAntagonist". I think people are being played here.
 
The basis of the belief that Russia is influencing politics in the US is: something something “harmful information released about Clinton.”

I would really understand if all of this shit was about some series of lies, but it isn’t. Information came to light that showed Hillary Clinton as being, shocker, a by-the-numbers Democrat who cares about nobody but herself and people she can get something from.

She’s grimy and scummy and voters figured it out. How people figured that out (Russia, her and the party’s behavior during the primary) is worth talking about, but it’s really just nothing more than “she’s shit and people know it.”

Maybe Russia wouldn’t be able to topple American Democracy if we didn’t have only two shitty fucking parties which are like two heads on the same monster. About half of people can’t be bothered to vote, so each four years the approximate same remaining 50% battle it out with their shitty corporate pop-star celebrity politicians. In 2016, the story arc went such that the audience hated the Blue Candidate®. Well, not exactly since she won the popular vote, so I guess I should say the Blue Audience was disengaged with her character’s development.

If you’re really concerned about foreign governments penetrating our elections, then maybe fight and advocate more fiercely for candidates that are actual people and not suits stuffed with money. And let’s maybe stop splitting and only being able to think in two colors.

IMO, this isn't about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. It's about sowing chaos within the United States first, and harming the U.S.'s image as global leader second.

If you think about things in that fashion, all of the things in the political sphere kind of come together.

I didn't vote fullstop, because I didn't care for either major Presidential candidate. I do feel a tinge of regret about that.
 

ggx2ac

Member
Well, I think if you want to look through my history you'll be disappointed as you won't find that I'm huge into conspiracies or anything like that.

Honestly I'm a pretty normal guy who always thought this was kind of suspicious back in 2016 when it happened, but didn't pay much attention, and now saw a news article in which Russia used Pokemon Go in such an oddly specific way that I thought it was worth pointing out.

Didn't see any harm in posting it. Thought it was interesting and didn't seem to violate any rules.

The Tumblr account used Pokémon Go for a contest, which could only be found by going to that Tumblr account and posting screenshots to the Tumblr account to enter the contest.

The only people that would've seen this is if they went to that Tumblr page, you can't broadcast this contest inside of the game.

And CNN even stated that they couldn't find evidence that anyone even entered the contest or even won anything because it sounds like the Tumblr never announced winners.

You are equating this event that possibly didn't result in anything because it is only being reported now to: The Russians got to Pokémon and influenced the election!

You are using the leak of Pokémon Sun and Moon as a cause and effect of distracting voters when you still can't even prove that. You are using two separate events as cause and effect when it's more of a coincidence... It was a coincidence that you were distracted from voting because of this 4chan leak that you decided to attribute it to the Russians having plotted this.

You can't even prove that due to your reliance on speculation that your only thing to cling on is a CNN article that is about something completely unrelated and that the Russians couldn't manipulate the masses with Pokémon Go because it could only affect people that visited a Tumblr page of which CNN couldn't find evidence of people participating in it.
 
The basis of the belief that Russia is influencing politics in the US is: something something “harmful information released about Clinton.”

I would really understand if all of this shit was about some series of lies, but it isn’t. Information came to light that showed Hillary Clinton as being, shocker, a by-the-numbers Democrat who cares about nobody but herself and people she can get something from.

She’s grimy and scummy and voters figured it out. How people figured that out (Russia, her and the party’s behavior during the primary) is worth talking about, but it’s really just nothing more than “she’s shit and people know it.”

Maybe Russia wouldn’t be able to topple American Democracy if we didn’t have only two shitty fucking parties which are like two heads on the same monster. About half of people can’t be bothered to vote, so each four years the approximate same remaining 50% battle it out with their shitty corporate pop-star celebrity politicians. In 2016, the story arc went such that the audience hated the Blue Candidate®. Well, not exactly since she won the popular vote, so I guess I should say the Blue Audience was disengaged with her character’s development.

If you’re really concerned about foreign governments penetrating our elections, then maybe fight and advocate more fiercely for candidates that are actual people and not suits stuffed with money. And let’s maybe stop splitting and only being able to think in two colors.

Anyways the point is that pointing to something new every day and saying “Russia!” is very much like what McCarthyists did. The extent of Russian influence in the election has been revealed, and further attempts to drive home the point that “Clinton was robbed, democracy is failing” come across with an air of the flavor of delusion that only Clinton and modern day Democrats can inspire in people.

I agree with you that attributing all blame on 'It must be the Russians!' IS quite dangerous. That is a very dangerous thing to do, no doubt. But at the same time, I think it is totally fair, rational, and valid to be critical of things, even when they seem innocuous.

I think that all of this is actually an extremely complex social and political situation that can't really be attributed to one single, defining factor. I believe that it's a culmination of a ton of sprawling, interconnected, complex problems that just happen to be ripe for exploitation.

You guys are arguing a ludicrous claim with someone named "theAntagonist". I think people are being played here.

I'm not a troll, and I'm not trying to flame-bait/troll/upset people. But I will call ignorance and blind dismissiveness/combativeness out.

I think having a conversation is a good thing. I don't think the OP is crazy, but I think a LOT of posters ITT clearly didn't read the OP and clearly haven't been keeping up with all of the slowly unfolding facts of what's happening.

And I totally understand why they would feel that way. If this were 2 years ago, I'd be totally apathetic and apolitical, totally detached from this kind of conversation.
 

Ferrio

Banned
I'm not a troll, and I'm not trying to flame-bait/troll/upset people. But I will call ignorance and blind dismissiveness/combativeness out.

You seem quite invested in this crazy theory but you weren't even invested enough to vote in the damn election. You're not worth talking to period.
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
the funniest thing about this is that you could still go to the voting booth and bring your 3DS with you to play on line

I don't think you're allowed to take electronics with you into polling places, right?

Also it wasn't the physical game being released. It was one guy who obtained it somehow and was leaking screenshots and people were waiting for him to dump the rom.

OP I will give you one task.

Find a single person whose vote was affected by Sun and Moon leaking.

I mean, from my own personal experience as a huge Pokemon fan I was glued to the screen that day.

Of course I made sure to take the time to get out and vote, but the fact that someone like me who---despite what people may think---life isn't ruled by a franchise that was a big part of my day and had I not had any plans I probably would've used most of the day to discuss and view the information being leaked. And there are probably folks who didn't have much of an urge to vote, and that was another reason to stay home.

I'm one of the few "kids" at my work (30 below is my definition here) who voted unfortunately.
 

Gin-Shiio

Member
I legitimately believe this thead is being used to influence The Evil Within 2 sales. Don't fall for it, sheeple. Buy the game.
 
Congratulations on not only rationalizing crazy but also being an absolutely useless non-voter.

Now you are definitively repeating the same talking points as my closest friend. He too thinks, ignorantly, that the only and most important part to democratic society is the action of voting.

I would argue that voting is actually probably on the lower end of importance for the citizen in a democratic society.

More important being discourse/conversation. I didn't vote because I knew it didn't matter. My state voted for DJT 95%.

Though I also recognize that, that apathy is also directly responsible for the things that are happening, and I won't make the same mistake again, believe me.

You seem quite invested in this crazy theory but you weren't even invested enough to vote in the damn election. You're not worth talking to period.

Am I not? Why? Dismissing is not the answer here. Yes I am guilty of being apolitical for too much of my life. I recognize that it was a privilege that I enjoyed, and still enjoy. But two things majorly factored into my decision not to vote, my state was going to overwhelmingly vote DJT, and that I genuinely believed that Clinton would win anyway. Not that I necessarily wanted HRC as President, another thing that factored into my decision to not vote.

That's why I feel that it's important to talk about these things now. And yes, I understand that superficially and at first blush the OP seems like a crazy person, but if you have been paying attention, it doesn't seem crazy. It seems possible.
 

CEJames

Member
I can't believe sweet beloved pokemon would be used for such eeeeeeeeeeeeviiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllllllll....

Shame. For shaaaaame.
 

Dice//

Banned
Well, I think if you want to look through my history you'll be disappointed as you won't find that I'm huge into conspiracies or anything like that.

Honestly I'm a pretty normal guy who always thought this was kind of suspicious back in 2016 when it happened, but didn't pay much attention, and now saw a news article in which Russia used Pokemon Go in such an oddly specific way that I thought it was worth pointing out.

Didn't see any harm in posting it. Thought it was interesting and didn't seem to violate any rules.

I'll say this nicely: You're connecting dots that aren't there and hardly have enough dots/evidence to back up what you're trying to say. A lot of people didn't vote and that's a HUGE problem in general, maybe Pokemon had some part in why people who didn't vote decided to continue to do fuck all and not vote, but I don't think all the reasons can be linked to a secret conspiracy to have Pokemon news secretly trickle out deliberately to keep people from voting.

The bigger problem is why so many people simply just don't vote.

My friend's birthday is one September 11th... I sure as shit hope it wasn't a conspiracy to get people not to go to her party.

I'll admit I barely understand the OP to begin with, largely because it reads like unsupported jibberish. Get some evidence and try again (if you dare?).
 

Durden77

Member
Man....I'm 20 minutes from getting off work. I just waana know about that spouse killin thread people were talkin about.
 
You seem quite invested in this crazy theory but you weren't even invested enough to vote in the damn election. You're not worth talking to period.

If the act of voting is so unimportant, then Republicans wouldn't be trying to take away that right from as many minorities as possible.

Yeah I get you, that's true. But I do believe that having reasonable conversations with people in a non-hostile environment is the most important thing. Gerrymandering is a huge issue, not to mention factoring in other subtle ways to gate voting. But that's a different topic.

All I'm saying is that people outright dismissing the OP aren't thinking broad enough, are outright hostile toward him, or are ignorant and don't want the veil of ignorance shattered.

And I feel that veils of ignorance need to be shattered.
 
I actually think the launch of the Switch is Russia's way to ensure Trump winning in 2020.

That damn *click* sound plays everytime you snap the Joycons in or watch a Switch commercial and it's even sprinkled throughout the Nintendo Directs. Hell, you probably heard the sound when you read this post.

And what else could it be, but long term conditioning? To make the populace vote for Trump again in 2020 against all odds and polls with a simple *click* sound?

It only makes sense.
 

SilentRob

Member
You think that's it? You think that's all there is to it=!

You ignorant fool. Look further. These are the games released on Novermber 6th, 2012. The day OBAMA GOT ELECTED THE SECOND TIME:

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection
Halo 4
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning
LittleBigPlanet Karting
Pro Evolution Soccer 2013
Rayman Origins

Yes. You read that right. ALL of those games released on the same day. Kinda weird, isn't it? Unless you actually think for yourself for just one second, you miserable sheep, and understand that Capcom, 343, Microsoft, Marvelous, Sony, Konami, Ubisoft...THEY ALL WANTED TO SABOTAGE ROMNEY. It was a liberal conspiracy to get a known communist into office for a second term!

WAKE UP
 

ggx2ac

Member
I'll say this nicely: You're connecting dots that aren't there and hardly have enough dots/evidence to back up what you're trying to say. A lot of people didn't vote and that's a HUGE problem in general, maybe Pokemon had some part in why people who didn't vote decided to continue to do fuck all and not vote, but I don't think all the reasons can be linked to a secret conspiracy to have Pokemon news secretly trickle out deliberately to keep people from voting.

The bigger problem is why so many people simply just don't vote.

My friend's birthday is one September 11th... I sure as shit hope it wasn't a conspiracy to get people not to go to her party.

Can you believe we wouldn't be having this thread if people went out and voted and didn't go, "Oh, I don't need to vote. We know Hilary Clinton is going to win." While Republican voters always fall in line to vote at every fucking election possible...
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
You think that's it? You think that's all there is to it=!

You ignorant fool. Look further. These are the games released on Novermber 6th, 2012. The day OBAMA GOT ELECTED THE SECOND TIME:

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection
Halo 4
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning
LittleBigPlanet Karting
Pro Evolution Soccer 2013
Rayman Origins

I know you're joking but...

But this was different from those examples, those are release dates decided months in advance and fall on Election Day simply because those companies do Tuesday releases.

This was a game illegally leaked out on the net and posted on 4chan, a site known for being filled to the brim with propagandists. That's a more specific and targeted avenue.
 

Rival

Gold Member
I must be going crazy. I swear I just read a thread on Neogaf about a Pokémon game influencing the Presidential Election.
 

Iorv3th

Member
I don't think you're allowed to take electronics with you into polling places, right?

Also it wasn't the physical game being released. It was one guy who obtained it somehow and was leaking screenshots and people were waiting for him to dump the rom.



I mean, from my own personal experience as a huge Pokemon fan I was glued to the screen that day.

Of course I made sure to take the time to get out and vote, but the fact that someone like me who---despite what people may think---life isn't ruled by a franchise that was a big part of my day and had I not had any plans I probably would've used most of the day to discuss and view the information being leaked. And there are probably folks who didn't have much of an urge to vote, and that was another reason to stay home.

I'm one of the few "kids" at my work (30 below is my definition here) who voted unfortunately.

What about all the people that didn't vote that don't give a shit about pokemon? The majority of non voters probably care very very little if any at all about pokemon leaks. Most people would probably want to avoid the leaks anyways. Your conspiracy theory doens't really hold any water.
 
dude you may think you sound really cool typing this out

but you don't

Stop fucking talking about yourself. You're not half as interesting as you think you are. You sound like an internet atheist from Reddit with this "I'm seeking the truth" fedora-tipping spew.

Of course I'm not that interesting, I'm just a guy on the fuckin internet, on a message board for VIDEO GAMES lol. And I don't think I sound cool typing that, I'm not trying to sound cool. Cool literally doesn't fucking matter, especially not on a message board, even doubly so when said message board doesn't have a 'cool points' system like other boards/places on the web.

And lol @Marcel, did I kill your dog or something? If anyone seems invested in this, I think its you.

Here's some more 'Fake news from the lame stream media' that just came out earlier:

Facebook removed thousands of posts shared during the 2016 election by accounts linked to Russia after a Columbia University social-media researcher, Jonathan Albright, used the company's data-analytics tool to examine the reach of the Russian accounts.

Albright, who discovered the content had reached a far broader audience than Facebook had initially acknowledged, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the data had allowed him "to at least reconstruct some of the pieces of the puzzle" of Russia's election interference.

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-russia-data-fake-accounts-2017-10

Ya'll don't care though, you've made that very clear.
 
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