emptywheel

I wouldn’t say a hoax, quite, in that I suspect that she is sincerely nuts. Tory, yes, obvs. But her fan club, I think, are anti-trumpets pure and simple. What I am trying to get at there is why there is an audience for her - including among people who are ordinarily quite sane.

Cernovich is funded by Bannon-tangential entities. Where and to what end did Louise arise from?

Cernovich also rose from Gamergate/MRA-arseholery before he attracted wider attention. My first instinct, perhaps wrong, is to see this as an ecosystem rather than a simple product of manipulation. Entirely apart from big funders, there are ecological niches for nutters/grifters

I don't think that's right. Louise was still sucking on Murdoch's teat for much of her fandom. So you've got two right wing funders of the hoaxsters.

The piece was in part motivated by annoyance at the willingness of people whose politics I mostly agree with to assume that Russia is ubiquitous and sinisterly effective in ways I don’t think it is. But I could quite happily envisage a sister-piece that talked to the other side…

I love the piece!! But it is possible 1) we're incredibly vulnerable bc of shit we -- especially the far right -- has done but 2) the RU attack is more complex than people make out.

For sure. I think that there are plenty of plausible counterarguments along the lines you suggest (although I also find the Gessen/Ioffe line fairly convincing on Russian perceptions/disorganization). And I could be wrong in specifics or big picture. But what I am trying to do is