"When the dust settles, I expect the people who assess elections will tell us disinformation was key in 2024.

William Lindsey :toad:

"Choosing to write stories that 'blame elitist Democrats' ignores the real story of what happened on Tuesday. That distraction normalizes the grotesque, existential threat of Trump's electoral victory. Trump could not buy more favorable and helpful coverage if he paid for those stories with Elon Musk’s billions."

~ Hubbell, ibid.

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/7

Philip Cardella

@wdlindsy I have very liberal friends this is like crack to. They love this theory.

William Lindsey :toad:

As Don Moynihan notes, while the media and their fellow travelers pile on in a big gloat fest accusing Democrats of losing support because they're too "woke" and promote identity politics,

"You will never guess who did run on trans issues: Donald Trump."

As the Harris campaign bent over backwards to de-emphasize identity politics….

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/8

https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/who-is-allowed-to-practice-identity

vruz

@wdlindsy

Not at all. The latter is a consequence of the former.

The existential threat is possible and has happened because of the elitist Democrats, not despite of them.

William Lindsey :toad:

@philip_cardella Of course. Many of us are so privileged that we think we can afford to pretend that when things begin getting very bad very quickly for targeted minority groups, they won't also get very bad for us. So we love playing the elitist game of pretending that the Democrats are the problem even as outright fascism looms in front of us very soon.

William Lindsey :toad:

"This is a lazy pre-existing [corporate media] narrative to be sold, not because of any actual analysis of the electorate. These are writers who for various reasons have committed to an anti-woke narrative. And once you have committed to that narrative, you are determined to force it into every story, no matter how misleading."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/9

William Lindsey :toad:

"What is true: Trump, and the right, are very good at taking basic respect and empathy for other humans, and portraying that as dangerous: social justice, wokeness, diversity, equity and inclusion have all been converted into terms of mockery. Trump did not win because someone you were on a zoom call with used pronouns, or Latinx, or some college grad corrected you for using the word homeless."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/10

William Lindsey :toad:

@vruz Sorry, as one of those targeted by Trump and the Republicans, I don't have the luxury of pretending that the Democrats or the problem, or of wasting time and energy playing games. I intend to stay focused on the real threat to all of us. Others who have more privilege may choose to do otherwise. Not I.

William Lindsey :toad:

"As Hitler, so Trump; as Nazi, so MAGA. …

Dorothy Thompson made the same mistake many of us, myself very much included, made in her assessment of the resident strongman: she believed the German people would be sophisticated enough to see through Hitler’s grotesque lies, just like we all believed the American people would be sophisticated enough to see through Trump’s."

~ Greg Olear

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/11

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/sunday-pages-who-goes-nazi

William Lindsey :toad:

Josh Marshall agrees with a TPM reader who says that "digesting the mechanics of campaigns were sort of beside the point now." As he notes, "The problems and the roots of Democrats’ defeat ran far deeper." And "the recriminations conversation" is a colossal waste of time.

He writes,

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/12

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-follow-up-about-harris

William Lindsey :toad:

"Joe Biden owned the hardships of the post-pandemic — principally but not only economic — and the public simply rejected his presidency because of that. That’s very similar to what has happened when almost every other incumbent party in the West came up for reelection in the post-pandemic era. ...

Harris and Harris’ campaign are a distraction from this necessary conversation, a form of denial."

Of course, always easier to blame women, no?

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/13

William Lindsey :toad:

"What is going on?

I am starting to see editorials and analyses that are blaming the second coming of the convicted felon on Joseph Robinette Biden. It seems like there is a determined campaign to trash his legacy. ...

We haven’t reached the point yet, like that seen under Stalin, where history would be rewritten and photos edited to remove unpersons who had fallen out of favor and been purged.

Not yet."

~ xaxnar

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/14

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/9/2284913/-What-is-with-all-the-Biden-hate

William Lindsey :toad:

"Never mind that his administration has been largely scandal free. Never mind that he surrounded himself with some really competent people. Never mind that he took an economy in shambles and turned it around. Never mind that he restored international relations that had been crippled and turned them around, including NATO expansion. Never mind that the infrastructure bill was an incredible accomplishment given the Congress he had to work with."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/15

William Lindsey :toad:

"Never mind that he was the most pro-union president we’ve ever had. Never mind he is a fundamentally decent man; his character is not in question.

It wasn’t enough apparently. …

Biden didn’t fail America — America failed him."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/16

William Lindsey :toad:

"From now on, there are no more excuses, no apologies, nothing. A good half of American voters did it again, fully aware, enlightened and well-informed: They re-elected Donald J. Trump as president of their country, knowing everything they needed to know about this man.

~ Thomas Assheuer

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/17

https://worldcrunch.com/eyes-on-the-us/nationalism-democracy-germany-trump

William Lindsey :toad:

"They knew he was a convicted criminal, a nefarious liar, a miserable rabble-rouser and a vindictive demagogue, as well as an advocate for the rich and powerful. The land of the free has elected an enemy of freedom; a putschist who cheered the storming of the Capitol and kneels before despots.

Yes, the truth is brutal. Trump was not an industrial accident, not an episode in the history of the United States. He came to stay."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/18

William Lindsey :toad:

Speaking as a woman, that is to say, someone who will be right in the sights of the Trump regime when it takes office, Jess Piper writes,

"I have been listening to what the opposition has in store for us in the next few years. I don’t need to make up scenarios. I have read Project 2025. I am not wearing a tin-foil hat or espousing conspiracy theories. I am reading and listening."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/19

https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/barbie-and-the-beast

William Lindsey :toad:

"This must be a difficult time for the historians.

You’re not crazy. Neither am I.

Kamala. Kamala. Kamala.

What did she do wrong? What did the Democrats do wrong? Why is this her fault and how can we prove it is her fault rather than seeing the angry and often ignorant electorate that is staring us back in the face.

I’m tired of it. I don’t want to hear one more person talk about what she could have done."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/20

William Lindsey :toad:

Some of us have the luxury to play those armchair political games. Some of us may even pretend that when the crackdown begins after he takes office, it won't affect us.

Some of us have no choice except to face what's coming, and for us, the armchair game-playing is a huge distraction from reality. It demands privilege and insulation we can only dream of having.

Some of us are ALREADY being taunted with chants of "Your body, my choice."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/21

William Lindsey :toad:

Some of us are ALREADY receiving text messages instructing us to return to slavery.

Yet the Democrats are the problem?

What if the problem is your lack of solidarity — your insulation by privilege that is so thick you think you have the luxury to play ugly rhetorical games — while others of us are being targeted, and you could use that wasted energy to stand with us against the real enemy and not the pretend one?

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/22