instance-level signals

• brand new account with no post history outside political threads
• account from a known bad-faith/large general purpose instance (lemmy.world etc) that only ever shows up in communist/.ml communities

content signals

• "both sides" framing but applied asymmetrically, equating us imperialism with defensive responses from targeted states
• humanitarian interventionism: "but what about the people of x" used specifically to justify nato/us positions
• treats western ngos and media as neutral baseline, demands extraordinary evidence for any counter-narrative
• whataboutism that only ever runs one direction, deflects from western atrocities but never from the targets of western aggression
• "im a leftist but..." followed by a position you could copy paste from a state dept briefing
• disproportionate focus on us adversaries (china, russia, cuba, dprk, venezuela, iran) with zero comparable scrutiny of us allies
• concern trolling about "authoritarianism" that somehow only ever applies to socialist states

behavioral signals

• posts consistently during us business hours
• only shows up when a specific topic is active, disappears otherwise
• never updates their position no matter what evidence you put in front of them, the argument is purely performative
• high comment to post, or post to comment ratio, always replying never posting, reactive disruption pattern
• posts are concentrated in the same few communities, often with overlap between suspected accounts suggesting coordinated targeting