this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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Kamala Harris running a damn near flawless campaign, with just a month 1/2 of campaigning. She’s been holding rallies nonstop with Tim Walz & not making her talking points about her race or gender like Hillary. She’s offering expanded healthcare, reinvestments back into public housing, wants to take on corporate greed, protect reproductive rights and chose a pro labor, pro education running mate.

Yet, she’s either barely leading or ties in most polls with a guy that:


Is a convicted felon.

Liable Sexual Predator.

Gets sentenced in November.

Has several more pending cases.

Increased Drone Strikes by 300%. (Joe Biden dosent use drones anymore).

Illegally killed an Iranian General unprovoked with a missle strike.

Increased tensions in Israel/Palestine with the Abraham Accords.

Wants war with Mexico (his words).

Tried to coup Venezuela.

Will bend the knee for Netanyahu’s potential war with Iran.

Lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% (lowest in history).

Obvious tax cuts for the rich.

Told people to drink bleach during the pandemic.

Is the main driving force for America’s current division.

Constantly attacks marginalized groups.

Tried to steal the 2020 election (Find Me 11,000 votes in GA).

Did Fake Elector Slates to pressure Mike Pence to not certify the 2020 election.

Caused a riot on the capitol that lead to his OWN supporters dying.

Just got washed by Harris in the last debate, was completely unprepared on anything but immigration (“I have concepts of a plan”).

And so much more. So seriously what is it? Is it just the attraction to bigotry/racism? Is it to end “wokeness”. Is it because Kamala is a woman of color? You can’t use the both sides argument like Hilary or Biden, Kamala is the obvious better choice. Could you imagine if Kamala had as much baggage as Trump? The media would lose their minds.

Seriously, how the f*** is this guy still in the race?

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[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 27 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's propaganda.

Everything you listed is a "Democrat lie" if you were to ask a Magoo. Fox news, Newsmax, and the like spend an enormous amount of effort in creating a reality where Republicans are always the victim, and they point to the population to say "you're next!"

Anything they can't say is specifically a lie, they'll say "well you did it too so it's not bad." Anything else just isn't a concern to them since people like Hannity tell them what to think.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's propaganda. But, it's not just propaganda, it's effective propaganda.

The fact that it's so effective is somewhat new and very concerning. We have to understand why it's effective if there's any hope of eventually stopping it. And, it's effective not just because the propaganda is well crafted, it's effective because there's a whole system that immerses the audience in it and never lets them see an alternative point of view.

In North Korea the only information you get is information specifically selected by the state. The US free market and first amendment was supposed to be a shield against that sort of propaganda. Unfortunately, while people have the right to find other forms of media, a lot of people want the comfort of living inside their own media bubble. Then the propaganda channel tells them that every other source of media is full of lies, and controlled by the jews, and who knows what else, and those people get even more locked in to their propaganda source. Then they're told that scientists are getting rich (ha!) by selling out, so you can't trust scientific papers. So, you can't trust the government, the media, scientists, doctors, schools... you can only trust them.

Then they're told that if they ever do try to do their own research, they're not going to get results because of censorship. Some censorship exists. Sometimes it's formal, sometimes it's informal, like YouTube taking down videos that hurt their bottom line, or cause them headaches. But, the convenient thing about claiming that information is being censored is that it's unprovable or "unfalsifiable". You can't prove that something that doesn't exist was censored because you can't prove it ever existed in the first place. And, of course, when an idiot is told that information on "turbo cancer" is being censored, they search for it and get no results, that just reinforces their belief that the news is being censored.

Add to that that the same group that wants to lock people into a pipeline of disinformation also wants to defund schools and universities. You can't hope that someone can learn the truth from a teacher or a professor if the school no longer exists. You can't hope that the next generation learns critical thinking in high school if the high school is defunded and shut down.

Big tech companies making their platforms extremely engaging is yet another element in this shitty soup. Most of these companies actually employ mostly liberal people, and the culture is at least somewhat left of center. But, they get their money by keeping people engaged, which means feeding them things that are shocking, angering, etc. That keeps people in their bubbles, and keeps them from engaging their critical thinking abilities.

The end result is you get people living in bubbles, listening to, watching and reading news that makes them feel good because it reinforces their existing biases. They cut off people in their lives who have dissenting views because either they're angry about that person's views, or it's just too much of a headache to constantly fight with them. Social media keeps them in a bubble that keeps them engaged, and keeps them seeing the same point of view over and over. And so-on.

Because the whole situation is so complicated, it's not going to be easy to reverse. It's not just a matter of shutting down Fox News, or Newsmax or MSNBC or any other propaganda fountain. It's also going to have to involve breaking up tech monopolies, or at least removing their Section 230 protection for their editorial decisions. It's also going to require major educational system reforms, ensuring that all kids go to schools that teach critical thinking skills, and because this is the US that will involve major fights over property taxes and religious freedom. I honestly don't know if it's going to be possible.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 2 points 2 months ago

Very very well put!

I think if you made a word bubble of all the comments I've made the largest bubble by far would be "I fucking hate propagandists!!"

[–] KammicRelief@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Yep. My parents are in their own echo chamber of Fox news and other 80-year-old racist fucks, and anything you try to say bounces off them with the basic formula you outlined. Actual external logic doesn't matter. The wild thing is how big that echo chamber has gotten.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com -4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

they’ll say “well you did it too so it’s not bad.”

And they'll be right apart from it being not bad.