@Angry_Staffer "dumber" is not the word to use here. neither is "incompetent" or "naive" or "inexperienced"
America is in extreme shenambles (shambles due to massive shenanigans) right now
@SSN674Trepang@micah_erfan "It's not a pure democracy; it's a representative democracy. That's not a democracy at all"
-- Terry Dickson, representative idiot (but also not an idiot at all... because he knows better, and is repeating lies on purpose to hopefully trick others who are ignorant of civics)
@AmericaRus2024@micah_erfan THEY VOTED FOR A DICTATOR!!
(but lied the whole time with "he was only joking about that. also... the guardrails will hold, so stop panicking over democracy fools")
@beinlibertarian@cenkuygur More like top vs bottom
But it's bad. "Elites" had all the blame & criticism shoved onto them by the SUPER-ELITES... who used massive propaganda campaigns to quickly position themselves to hijack power, dodge all accountability, and write themselves a *much* darker meal ticket
@atrupar And yet crickets from the D leaders
It took intense public pressure to get them to break norms enough to even speak on democratic danger. They finally listen, put it on blast for 2 years.. And this?
Either some huge contingency will be dropped by J20, or 🇺🇸 went GG a while ago
@theright_answer@AutismCapital Yeah ok. Just like the media started reporting huge amounts of fake news right after the biggest liar in the world jumped into politics
Racists had a new reason to shine. OF COURSE "woke" people fought it
I mean, were you also handsome af until your house had mirrors installed?
@JPScmeckles @arachno_commie I hope you realize EVERY abhorrent thing Trump said or did has been weaseled out of in this manner
We're constantly told how he speaks so directly, cutting out PC or politispeak... but -- for some weird ass reason -- we need his worst shit explained to us through a sanity filter
@nielloeb@EricLisann@HC_Richardson This is exactly why they scream about inflation & prices (but ignore corp gouging, or that it's a global issue)
This is also why they bang the "ELECTION STOLEN" drum, while *actively trying to steal it themselves*
It's proactive cover now so NOBODY will take Ds seriously later
@DecodingFoxNews@cwebbonline Double standards should once again be a red line for all future discourse, rather than a jump-off point
Bad faith has been normalized
Instead of seeing mountains ignored to attack molehills, we need an accepted rule stopping convos dead if an attacker's fine with worse behavior
@TheOneFortyPlus@WelchRobII Yeah, until anything remotely culture war-ish comes up as part of that typical socializing
Then we need to walk on eggshells to avoid "being combative" against some unreasonable, irrational culty take
@timjacobwise@FPWellman OPs pushing disinfo solidified Rs more than ever, while D voters were carved into factions on strongly emotional issues
The push was obvious, resulting in 3P votes, apathy/suppression, split tickets, etc
"Biden-Kamala bad" 20 ways on 20 issues
"Trump bad" just merely baked in
@elwood@evil_dallas@Tennesseine What I'd like to think is irrelevant, only what really is
Then the next step is ensuring the public gets an accurate view
EVERYONE CLAIMS they want fairness, legit media, lies & corruption mitigated
But if they really mean it, this is all *crucial* going forward in a tech era
@elwood@evil_dallas@Tennesseine Nah, it's people who think in black & white terms
Who lies *more*? Who's *more* corrupt?
Those are the real types of questions being asked
@Kasparov63@ellim992 Has anyone compiled a list of, or info on, (social) media networks that have been bought out, taken over, consolidated, etc by right wing oligarchs since Trump's 2016 win?
I mean, I'm familiar with a bunch post-pandemic (2021-2023), but it would be nice to see some data/studies
@Canaansdad1987 The thing that makes no sense to me is Trump *wouldn't* cheat (or at least try)
He was indicted for fraud during the 2016, executed HUGE fraud/schemes/etc for 2020 while WILDLY accusing the other side for mass cover, learned how to game the voting & legal system... then STOPPED?
@jimstewartson@sandibachom So get some hand counts of ballots done. Shouldn't be unreasonable or hard to do
Choose a few counties that seem "off" the most -- preferably ones with effective bomb threats -- and go to work QUICKLY
@HadleyGenevieve @carolecadwalla That's a nice tirade, but the premise is off. Censoring isn't the only counter, yet we regularly see "arbiter of truth" etc as if it is
What's wrong with education? Bring civics back. Teach logical fallacies or how to spot tactics. I'm down for fighting it on ALL sides. Are you?