Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to U.S. President Donald Trump at the beginning of a one-on-one-meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

This topic popping up is good timing for me, as I finally sat down with my family yesterday and watched ‘The Last Jedi’ on Netflix.

Oddly enough, I didn’t think it was that bad. I think Rey fills her role decently, but the Finn-Rose storyline was just dumb along with several of the action sequences. It’s an average movie, but not terrible in my view.

Alas, this isn’t a movie review and the general consensus does seem to be that it’s a bad movie. Given that, who’s really to blame for all the bad press the 8th episode of Star Wars garnered?

If you guessed “muh Russia,” congrats.

50% of the hate The Last Jedi got online was a troll operation – some coming from troll farms Russia. That’s insane. pic.twitter.com/tNws011Le5

— Eric Koch (@EricDKoch) December 26, 2019

The problem? It’s a completely false, stupid claim.

NYT piece claims "over 50% of the venom directed on Twitter at Rian Johnson, director of 'The Last Jedi,' came from the same sources as Russian election meddling." That's not really what the study or its author says.https://t.co/0HlhHWCcFshttps://t.co/HMcHKdWtJ9

— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 26, 2019

The author of the misrepresented study on The Last Jedi and Russian trolls is now having to correct people's misimpressions of it thanks to the NYT's poor reporting of his findings. They really ought to amend the article. https://t.co/eGNkMiUyhH

— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 26, 2019

The issue with making a single entity the bogeyman for all the ills of the world is that you inevitably diminish your case by crying wolf so much. The media have been screaming about the Russians from the moment Trump garnered the nomination back in 2016. After spending decades fluffing the Soviets and Putin, the left needed a scape goat and figured they’d flip the script. Now, everything that happens that can be perceived as negative must be “THE RUSSIANS.” It’s the disposition of a ten year old.

In the case of ‘The Last Jedi,’ Russian troll farms did share some criticism of the film, but they did so because they will share anything they think can breed arguments and chaos within the United States. That’s the goal, not to bolster any one side or present a specific ideology.

The study’s author had to correct multiple misrepresentations of his findings because the media were so jazzed to run and blame the Russians for all those “sexist, bigoted” complaints about ‘The Last Jedi.’ They then attempted to tie this to Republicans.

Ironically, because of so many false claims involving Russia, the media have actually strengthened Putin’s hand. He doesn’t even have to do anything to cause division at this point. The left are more than happy to do it for him.