"When the dust settles, I expect the people who assess elections will tell us disinformation was key in 2024.
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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.
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Philip Cardella last edited by
@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.
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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."
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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."
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@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.
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
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
A Follow Up About Harris
In response to today’s Backchannel, longtime TPM Reader LS wrote in to say that while she generally agreed with my evaluation of Kamala Harris’ campaign…
TPM – Talking Points Memo (talkingpointsmemo.com)
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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?
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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
What is with all the Biden hate?
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. I could believe the idea is to not...
Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com)
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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."
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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."
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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."
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
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
Barbie and the Beast
“In 48 hours, we will have a government of the Ken, by the Ken, and for the Ken.”
(jesspiper.substack.com)
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"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."
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
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."
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
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?
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"Democrats are already at each others’ throat over whether politics could have worked better — who is to blame. Some idiots are arguing that Democrats lost because they’re too 'woke,' as if they don’t know that 'wokeness' was a propaganda creation the entire time, propaganda created by men waging cultural war on behalf of aggrieved men."
~ Marcy Wheeler
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/23
Two Elections: "The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check" - emptywheel
There were two elections last week. A traditional political one, in which Democrats had some down ballot successes. And a far bigger propaganda one, in which Trump -- but not always the rest of his party -- had tremendous success.
emptywheel (www.emptywheel.net)
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"Given the larger dynamic of the race — that politics worked where it was done, but propaganda worked far better — Democrats would be far better to use the two months they’ve got to inventory their tools (one of which is that down ballot resilience), breathe, and think about how to counter the propaganda, because Trump will be in a position to keep doing what he just did unless Democrats find a way to counter the propaganda."
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
"It’s not just the election. It’s broader than that. It’s that a permanent propaganda campaign has been supercharged in the last two years, in ways that weren’t even true when Fox News relentlessly tried to take down Hillary and her spouse in the 1990s. And that propaganda campaign has played a key role in leading people to distrust and eschew 'reality,' including the reality that Joe Biden was better for the economy and Trump is unashamedly corrupt."
