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I legitimately believe Pokemon Sun and Moon was used to influence the U.S. Election.

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
This is honestly not a joke thread.
And I'm not saying Nintendo or Game Freak were involved.

Today, it's been discovered that Russian meddling extended to Pokemon Go among other social media platforms.

First, I have to show off my Pokemon knowledge and make the joke that Team Rocket are off-handedly said to have a branch in Russia in RBY/FRLG, located in either Tiksi or Podkamennaya Tunguska depending on which localization you're using.

But, my main point is that the release of Sun and Moon always irked me. Not the official release, that was the 18th of November, but the release a large amount of the Internet was waiting for was when the games would be leaked to the net and we'd be able to digest everything they had to offer. It happened with X&Y, and it was sure to happen to Sun and Moon...but when?

November 8th, 2016. The day of the election. Now I don't know if this was something that was planned longterm, but when it happened I found it rather funny. I went to the election booth myself and made sure to vote, but otherwise I was glued to my computer until I had to go to work as the information drifted out. I know we had quite a few people on GAF doing the same thing.

But the leak originated on the 4chan Pokemon Board, /vp/. Now we don't know anything about the person who was leaking it, other than they went by the tag "Lurantis" and had acquired the game through some illicit means. They were careful about what they posted to protect their identity, and generally secretive---now it most circumstances this isn't suspicious. I mean it is technically since what he's doing is illegal, but otherwise most people who leak games are secretive.

That being said, with the idea that Russia loved to meddle with the election the secretiveness takes on a whole different level---was this one of Russia's many Social Media strategists doing this specifically on Election Day? As to why they would do it, well, a lot of young folks probably weren't eager to get out and vote in the first place, and those who might have would've likely skipped out on it if something better came along---say, learning about all the cool new stuff in Sun and Moon? Sure, /vp/ may be seen as Trump voters and thus working against that, but I imagine /vp/ was the best way to get it to spread around the more liberal areas of the net and the net benefit of distracting young Hillary voters probably outweighed those who would've voted Trump.

So, that's my theory. Someone with ties to Russia, or sympathetic to Trump, obtained an early copy of Sun and Moon and leaked it to the Internet on Election Day to distract young liberals from going to the polls.
 

Marche90

Member
Uhm... I don't know what to say.

YAGpXPd.png
 
Seek help. It's kinda crazy that you think the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon is a distraction for youths that made them not vote.
 

Tagyhag

Member
I get what you're saying OP, and after the Pokemon GO incident, it could be true.

That said, if our voters are that goddamn flaky then we are fucked forever. Because next generation is going to be worse lol.

"I'd love to vote but Transformers 15 comes out today"
 

bigkrev

Member
Is there a "I'm the craziest" contest today? First the guy who wanted romance systems that let you steal married people if you killed the spouse, now this.

The Pokemon Go news today is a little disconcerting, but come on.
 
Probably, I seen that Russia has been making fake accounts acting like they are both black live matters accounts and neo nazi shit just to stir up some bullshit. I wouldnt be surprised
 

Squishy3

Member
if they wanted to influence the election with it they'd have done it on november 6th so everyone stayed up overnight analyzing everything and sleep in and miss the voting periods
 
If Nintendo/Game Freak/TPC knew about Russia, what would they do? Patch the system?

If Russia paid Nintendo/GF/TPC... ha, why pay if they can do it for free without letting Nintendo/GF/TPC know
 

jark

Neo Member
Please tell me this is some weird copypasta or something

Some real tinfoil hat stuff going on here. Also wasn't election day the 8th of November, not the 7th?
 

kiguel182

Member
I think you are overestimating how many “young liberals” would spend the day reading about Pokemon in such an attentive way that they couldn’t go vote.
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I mean I'm not kidding with this theory, nor am I making light of the Russian hacking.

It seems obvious to me that Russia went through pretty much any avenue available to them to sew distrust and divisiveness in the American population during election season. Facebook, YouTube, and now Pokemon Go.

I joked about this when it happened back in November, but I really think this is something that should be looked into because I truly think it was another example of how thorough they were when it came to meddling in our election.
 

RRockman

Banned
Ahh... ummm.... Bruh?



Maybe lay off the 1-UP shrooms for a bit?



Sorry, just had to make that joke. I dont think I've lost enough faith in humanity to belive that pokemon stopped people from deciding the fate of the US. But then again, Emails.....
 
I mean, yes, Russia did meddle with the election, hacked voter rolls, and possibly altered final totals. That much is known for sure, as such the election was fraudulent and illegitimate and Trump is not the 45th President but rather an "antipresident" (a la the antipopes).

But this seems like a stretch.
 
I think you are overestimating how many “young liberals” would spend the day reading about Pokemon in such an attentive way that they couldn’t go vote.

Nobody saying they did it and millions of people didnt vote. But they could be just thinking every little bit counts. Its kinda how somebody say, "well my vote aint going to count anyway."
 

Tagyhag

Member
Why is something like this absolutely crazy but the Pokemon GO incident isn't?

If it was an ineffective thing to do, it still happened.

Seek help. It's kinda crazy that you think the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon is a distraction for youths that made them not vote.

You didn't even read the OP.
 

DiscoJer

Member
The danger with theories like this is they tend to undercut the real Russian meddling. Once you start spouting wild stuff, that wild stuff makes people roll their eyes and they will take the more credible stuff less seriously. Because all they hear is ranting about Russians, Russians, Russians and the important stuff is lost in the noise.
 
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