On Tuesday, writer Caitlin Johnstone took to Twitter to reveal that she has been dubbed a Russian bot because she doesn't like Arizona Senator John McCain.
Johnstone was bequeathed the new label after she took to the social media site to offer a "friendly public service reminder" to promote her latest work on why she'll shed no tears when the ailing Republican dies, because at least that way he'll be "incapable of facilitating the merciless slaughter of any more human beings."
"Friendly public service reminder that John McCain has devoted his entire political career to slaughtering as many human beings as possible at every opportunity, and the world will be improved when he finally dies," she tweeted.
The 81-year-old politician, who is said to be knocking on death's door as a result of brain cancer, has long pushed for US military interventions in almost any (non-European) country you can stick a pin in, among those being Libya, Mali, Sudan, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
A day after Johnstone fired off her tweet, the Twitter account of the Washington Post-lauded PropOrNot ID Service claimed the writer was spreading lies, which meant she was a "Kremlin tool."
"This is the official Russian state propaganda line," PropOrNot wrote. "This is a completely ridiculous lie, which is to be expected from disgraced Kremlin tool Caitlin Johnstone, should go without saying."
PropOrNot is a website that reportedly exposes outlets the push what it deems Russian propaganda. In 2016, the Washington Post published a cover story on its website, hailing it as a watchdog without, apparently, having done much work to verify PropOrNot's claims. The organization listed many longstanding and well known independent media websites among the supposed Russian "propaganda" sites it had identified. The Post had to add a disclaimer to the original story, and PropOrNot's list was quietly updated, though it still lists several anti-war websites to be Kremlin shills.
But this isn't anything new, folks. For months now, branding dissenting voices — especially those from the left — as Russian bots has been the go-to tactic of many mainstream pundits.
Also over the last few days, controversy has been dogging Amy Siskind, president of the non-profit women's organization The New Agenda, after she was dragged online for suggesting that neo-Nazis had never rallied in the US prior to US President Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election.
"A reminder: we didn't have neo-Nazi rallies until Trump took office — let alone in the light of day in our nation's capital!" she tweeted last Friday, days ahead of the Unite the Rally 2 protest. "Their hate used to be unacceptable and hidden until Trump came along and legitimized them."
It should be noted that Nazi and neo-Nazi rallies certainly do predate Trump, as do home-grown hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and others..
Within moments of Siskind's tweet, netizens went after her, suggesting she open a history book or, better yet, enroll in a course.
— Mike #NeverSettle Letalien (@Coach_Crash) August 12, 2018