КАК СКАЗАТЬ «DOOFUS» ПО-РУССКИ?

DUBIOUS INTERNET COMMUNICATION IS OFTEN REVEALED BY misspellings and other grammatical errors: “This Nigerian prinse have mony for yu.” And, thus, today’s SimanaitisSays title translates to “How to Say “Doofus” in Russian?” I ask this question after reading the POLYGRAPH.INFO “Fact Check: Did Ukraine’s First Lady Purchase $4.8 Million Bugatti Supercar?” 

Image from POLYGRAPH.INFO.

As unlikely as this news item sounds, it comes from RIA Novosti, the Russian state-owned domestic news agency. That is, this is the ludicrous pap that Russian citizens receive every day. 

Previous RIA News. Indeed, Wikipedia observes, “On 26 February 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, RIA Novosti by mistake published an article titled ‘The arrival/attack of Russia and the new world’ (‘Наступление России и нового мира’), which was prepared ahead of the time anticipating the Russian victory. In particular, it announced that Russia had won the Russo-Ukrainian War and that ‘Ukraine has returned to Russia.’ ”

Oh, I see. The same way Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania haven’t.

The Bugatti Tourbillon. Not that the world particularly needs another multimillion hyperexotic (and, indeed, one produced by a name-filtching neo-Bugatti), but according to its spiffy website, “Pour l’Éternité Conceived from a blank canvas, the TOURBILLON converges the immediate torque and flexibility of electric motors with the spine-tingling emotion of a naturally aspirated V16 engine.”

That is, it’s a hybrid.

The Bugatti Tourbillon, replacement for the Chiron. Image from Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. via The Robb Report.

And its floridly articulate copywriter could well find a home at Vérité Cachée (Hidden Truth), the French-language website from which RIA Novosti learned on July 1 that “Olena Zelenska became the first owner of Bugatti’s concept supercar ‘Turbillon.’ ” 

Yes, Vérité Cachée misspelled the name, but its proofreader was probably busy with all those bold-face és ). I’ve been tempted to type “Tourbillion.”

Other A.I. Deep-fake BS. POLYGRAPH notes, “Vérité Cachée’s report said Ukraine’s presidential couple attended a private presentation at the Bugatti salon in Paris. The piece provided ‘evidence’ of a purchase: Video footage of ‘Bugatti employee Jacques Bertin’ and a copy of the invoice for a 4.5 million euros purchase in Zelenska’s name.” 

Hmm… Can you say A.I. Deep-fake?

 Bugatti View. POLYGRAPH continues, “While the company ‘does not normally disclose’ information about its clients, ‘In this case, BUGATTI Automobiles S.A.S. makes an exception because it is a false report and does not correspond to the truth. According to an internal check, Mrs. Zelenska is not a BUGATTI customer,’ Nicole Auger, head of Marketing and Communications at Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S., wrote in an email to polygraph.info.”

What’s more, it continues, “Multiple fact-checkers and deep-fake investigators, including Kyle Glen, from the Center for Information Resilience, a London-based NGO countering disinformation, reported that the footage of ‘Jacques Bertin,’ a supposed Bugatti employee, was AI-generated deep-fake.” 

The BS Thickens. POLYGRAPH notes, “Community posts on X [you know the one, “formerly…”] identified the alleged Bugatti invoice as fake, noting it lacks legal details such as currency, company VAT number, trading register number, and the shop’s original investment value. Additionally, there’s a typo in the city name, which should be Neuilly, not Neuily.”

An Ex-cop Linked. Also, “The BBC investigation linked the fake news to a fugitive ex-U.S. cop John Marc Dougan, who runs the Kremlin’s disinformation network from Moscow. Polygraph.info reported in June about Dougan’s role in creating and spreading of deep-fake footage involving Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesperson.”

Timing. POLYGRAPH notes, “Vérité Cachée website was created on June 22, 2024, nine days before publishing the Zelenska-Bugatti fake.” And “On July 2, RIA Novosti deleted its article about Olena Zelenska’s alleged purchase of the Bugatti supercar, with a comment on the page: “The news has been cancelled.”

Aннулирована? It should have read, “Черт, нас поймали!” “Damn, we got caught!” ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com. 2024