These days, how does one distinguish between

[MineralMan]

Russian bots and right-wing trolls? They seem to be saying the same things.

[rzemanfl]

1. I just call them "he/she/it" and try to remember to be nice although it makes me gag. n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I think the Russians act basically as amplifiers.

They find some cockamamie conspiracy theory on somebody's obscure blog or Facebook page, stir in a few extra dollops of craziness, and spread it everywhere.

[kimbutgar]

3. The righties get their talking points from the bots.

I just don’t understand why twitter doesn’t block these eastern Europeon origin tweets.

[byronius]

4. That would spoil the game, apparently.

Therein lies the difficult question -- if we're at war (and clearly we are), why would a private company aid and abet the enemy? Perhaps for the same reason the GOP won't admit we're at war: money and power.

Prescott Bush armed the Nazis, made a mint before Pearl Harbor ruined it all. Never stopped claiming he was a patriot. Hmmm.

'Conservative' rhymes with 'traitor' all the way back to the veldt.

[hunter]

5. Right wing Russians have a lot in common with right wing U.S. Americans.

They're racist, misogynist, authoritarian, hate LGBT people...

It's birds of a feather and their bots.