Kevin RothrockThe prime minister of Estonia has apparently released a video supporting NAFO, encouraging an online troll movement of mostly anonymous accounts that harasses anyone not in ideological lockstep. Yuck.
oh sweet — there is a whole NAFO mastodon instance that I can block all at once. i love you, Mastodon
Beeks@kevinrothrock
Dear fellow void travelers, if you are here and only see my toot and are confused, click the top toot and read through the many replies for proper context.
Tl:dr; it's apparently a Twitter troll group. Ywfms
AGTMADCAT 🇬🇧🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼🇵🇸@Beeks @kevinrothrock It's not a "troll group", it's a significant volunteer effort which provides extensive fundraising coordination for Ukrainian relief efforts, as well as countering the prolific disinformation on the Russian side. #NAFO has made a significant positive difference in this war, even if they don't look very "serious" in the old-fashioned sense.
Trolling vatniks is just a bonus.
Toni Scott@Beeks @kevinrothrock
You’re very late to the party! NAFO has been favourably featured in many serious newspapers, lauded by diplomats and at least one president, and is better styled as an ANTI-troll group. Resistance is futile.
You’re very late to the party! NAFO has been favourably featured in many serious newspapers, lauded by diplomats and at least one president, and is better styled as an ANTI-troll group. Resistance is futile.
Interesting, she seems to have deleted it: https://twitter.com/kajakallas/status/1677652215509524480
Kaja Kallas on Twitter
“Greetings to #NAFOfellas at the first-ever #NAFOSummit in Vilnius. #NAFO is a living example of how to disarm Russian disinformation with humour, intelligence and enthusiasm. Behind every Fella is a real person who believes in #Ukraine’s victory. Thank you for your service.”
meh, it’s back https://twitter.com/kajakallas/status/1677659297600217091
Kaja Kallas on Twitter
“Greetings to #NAFOfellas at the first-ever #NAFOSummit in Vilnius. #NAFO is a living example of how to disarm Russian disinformation with humour, intelligence and enthusiasm. Behind every Fella is a real person who believes in #Ukraine’s victory. Thank you for your service.”
Lennart Petersson@kevinrothrock what was it?
Giulia
violet
Aliide@kevinrothrock I missed something, when did NAFO get milkshake ducked?
Jack LeoneIt's a meme that developed from an old tweet.
"The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist"
excited for the mastodon rise@aliide @kevinrothrock they didn't, he's just salty 'cause they're not polite.
It's just respectability politics, and it's gross.
Schmaker@kevinrothrock It's same kind of "weapon" we were targetted with for years. Except that i don't think #NAFOfellas are being paid for 😀
Mark Hughes@kevinrothrock Is the F for fuckwit, I honestly can't remember?
@kevinrothrock I post that in hope because I get a kick out of blocking dicks 🤷♂️ but folk are too nice here.
MikLinSwe#NAFO and Kallas are infinitely better people than you, Softcock. Most are. Crawl back to your echochamber and start blocking everyone again.
✌🇺🇦 #SlavaUkraine
Mark Casey@kevinrothrock To be fair, they've also raised *VAST* sums of money to help Ukraine.
Am I going to add some silly dog to my profile? No.
But I will freely admit they've also done a lot of good with all that money raised.
@markcasey I don’t have any problem with their crowdfunding.
@kevinrothrock It's shades of gray, there are toxic people in any large enough groups.
Painting an entire group of people with the same brush because they have some silly dog in their profile is counter-productive.
@markcasey She thanked them for their “countering-disinformation” service, not their crowdfunding. This is NAFO’s defining quality, and it’s fundamentally stupid.
@kevinrothrock To quote you "encouraging an online troll movement of mostly anonymous accounts that harasses anyone not in ideological lockstep"
That is painting the entire group of people as entirely trolls. It is painting with such a wide brush that you could cover continents.
Do you really think that is fair?
@markcasey It’s not a fucking ethnicity, dude.
@kevinrothrock Did I say it was?
Or did I say you're painting an entire group of people with a wide brush as if it was a binary choice of good/bad?
@markcasey “An entire group.” Give me a break. These are trolls, not some immutable class of human beings. As I said, there’s nothing wrong or toxic about their fundraising, but their actions to police public discourse are just coordinated bullying. Now please buzz off.
@kevinrothrock It's a bunch of random people with a silly dog in their profile with varying outlooks on life. Some will be toxic, some will be stupid, some will be good.
At the end of the day, painting a vast number of people as singularly trolls because they have some silly profile image reflects more on you than it does them.
EyalL@kevinrothrock @markcasey they were actually countering Putin's troll farms and propaganda effectively
They are awesome
[zaphod@::1]#
@kevinrothrock are you accusing us of what Russia was doing since 2010 at least.
That's very russian.
That's very russian.
Sigmagirl@kevinrothrock mostly anonimus. Lol. And? Btw. Watch the live, in case you want to see faces..
MikeZilla Minus Oneestonia is like wisconsin
Luke Chadwick@kevinrothrock this is a very disappointing attitude. I see you've argued about it with people already so I won't rehash those with you.
I know quite a few NAFO people that really don't fall into that category. I do not hide my identity, or troll, I know many other #NAFO that don't either.
As I said yesterday when you replied to my toot, I value dissenting views. Unfortunately, you approached what I said with the assumption I was nothing more than a troll and that did you a disservice.
@vertis You associate yourself with trolls and take umbrage when it has consequences.
@kevinrothrock I didn't take offense at all. I replied in an intelligent and respectful manner.
I think you have the wrong end of the stick with regard to NAFO, but that's your right.
"Bonking” Russian trolls is an interesting way to combat disinformation (the jury is still out on effectiveness). Harassing people for not being “PRO” enough is wrong -- I haven't seen NAFO incidents (not saying they don't exist), I have seen non-NAFO examples though.
@kevinrothrock honestly, I'm trying to be as respectful an un-combative as possible, while still sharing my view.
I value your content and your perspective. Let's leave it there shall we.
@vertis @kevinrothrock I'll give you credit, you tried.
His behaviour was confrontational and you tried to get your point across. Unfortunately he has his mind made up and doesn't want to listen.
Spicewalla@markcasey @vertis @kevinrothrock
Yes, I learned about NAFO from IAmTheWarax on twitter, who was someone I followed for years because he wrote with intelligence, compassion, and humor about military issues based on his experience as a tank gunner in Afghanistan.
I don't know how Kevin came to his opinion about NAFO, but what he sees does not resemble what I've seen.
Even Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has acknowledged NAFO's value as anti-propagandists.
Defense of Ukraine on Twitter
“We usually express gratitude to our international partners for the security assistance. But today we want to give a shout-out to a unique entity - North Atlantic Fellas Organization #NAFO. Thanks for your fierce fight against kremlin’s propaganda &trolls. We salute you, fellas!”
@Spicewalla They're Internet bullies. If you don't see this, that's on you.
AciesPretty ironic that this is the sort of response you're getting from him when his whole complaint is that NAFO shuts down discussions.
@Acies @kevinrothrock no, that's not fair. There is a big difference between one’s own replies/thread and hopping into someone else’s and being disruptive (which NAFO does to trolls, at the very least).
Kevin is free to disengage from replies, and indeed one of the missing features in Mastodon at the moment is the ability to control who replies at all.
@vertis @Acies @[email protected] I think ultimately he has no capability to handle criticism at all.
I just had him move the goal posts of what he said and then try to strawman an argument into my mouth.
I think he's a pretty toxic person. He may post useful stuff occasionally but his behaviour as evident by all his responses prove he isn't worth the time.
@markcasey @Acies I think, having read the thread that you're referring two it’s a nuanced view. McCarthyism is an interesting comparison that bears further exploration (without necessarily agreeing).
Fwiw, I don't think it's a good behaviour to call people toxic. Especially ones that take the time to make reasoned arguments. Just agree to disagree and move on.
@markcasey @Acies I suggest you unfollow and move on then. I'd prefer not to have discussions about people in this manner.