It's Not Just Elections Any More

When they go after Star Wars, they've gone too far:

Just like the 2016 presidential election, 2017's release of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" was marred by a massive campaign designed to further undermine American society – a campaign that included Russian trolls, according to new research from the University of Southern California. The study shows that the majority of negative tweets sent to the film's director were "politically motivated," or "not even human" – in other words, Russian bots.

A research paper by Morten Bay, "Weaponizing the haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation," reveals the goal: "further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society," as The Hill reported.

Included in that goal was the support of "extreme right-wing causes and the discrimination of gender, race or sexuality."

I'd call this the shape of things to come, but it's already here. And as usual, the press didn't dig quite deep enough. In fact, I'd say the press is on board, if unwittingly: this is the sort of things that generates headlines and very serious discussions among TV pundits.

"The study finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments. The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation."

(Emphasis added.)

I wonder how the Russians have contributed to the Kavanaugh hearings.