re: #10 Dr Lizardo

Someone out there needs to a serious expos about Russian influence in Western media, and particularly, it’s online presence and influence.

I know that the Breitbrats got caught taking $$$ from Russia, so it’s probably not too great a stretch of the imagination to think that Russia’s influence on the debate - particularly on the fringe elements of both right and left (I’ve noticed there’s any number of Russian apologists on both Free Republic and Democratic Underground - wingnut and moonbat central, respectively) and that ultimately, that fringe debate gets picked up by everyone else and goes mainstream.

Plant the idea at the fringe and over time, it gravitates toward the center.

It isn’t just the media. A certain county libertarian chairman in Texas has repeated declared that Russia Today is the “only reliable and truthful media outlet in the world” (his words). This attitude is common among the glibertarians and among militia and tea party types as well. RT is quoted favorably on Free Republic every day.
They have also invaded academia, especially the lower tier diploma mills and half baked religious institutions. The faculty at a nearby Baptist college is crawling with Putin fanboys and conspiracy loons, including an honest-to-God 9-11 truther who serves as a professor of business.
Whatever else he has accomplished Putin has built up a massive and dangerous fifth column in this country, one the communists of old would have envied for its scope and magnitude.