"Trump owes his victory in great part to low-propensity voters of all races, including young men, and those voters don’t necessarily form their views based on mainstream media reporting.

[jik@federate.social]

@wdlindsy
A movement untethered from reality always has more populist appeal exactly because it is free to say whatever will be most convincing, regardless of whether it's true.
The Democrats are handicapped by the fact that they're at least trying to be honest.
People have always been stupid and lacked critical thinking skills, but the addictiveness and persuasiveness of big tech has worsened the problem.
Reality will eventually catch up with the liars, but not before immense harm is done.

[moiraeve@mastodon.world]

@wdlindsy Yes, this is a more cynical, more sardonic-tone loving, more pessimistic crowd and that’s the way trump appealed to them.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@MoiraEve So it seems to me, too.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@jik Yes, good commentary. I agree.

[moiraeve@mastodon.world]

@wdlindsy I hope we don’t have to adopt that tone to appeal more to them. I think it’s unhealthy. I don’t know the solution to this. I’m looking to experts in this area such as Dan Pfeiffer.

[the_blackwell_ninja@mastodon.online]

@wdlindsy tbh that's been the case for at least a decade now, and it frustrates me to no end.

[bronakins@mastodon.world]

@wdlindsy

Sadly the storyline that was set in concrete by the media (reinforced by trump’s claim the following day) is that 2024 was a LANDSLIDE for Trump.

Harris’ early concession maybe helped cement the case, but that’s the Democratic way, so I can’t fault them. (IMO we don’t owe good sportsmanship to maga bad sports. I say concede but only after all the votes are counted.)

There’s only 45 million registered as Democrats so Dems need alot of votes from others to win.

[godfrey642@aus.social]

@wdlindsy
It is a sad and deeply unpalatable truth that a sizable number of Trump-adoring Americans are gullible, unkind, lacking in compassion, unempathetic, amoral, judgemental, delusional, belligerent in word and deed and just don't give a damn about their compatriots.

Where does that leave the citizens of the rest of the world?

[godfrey642@aus.social]

@wdlindsy
Thank you William.
As always your threads and commentary are well stated, impressive and thought provoking.
I just wish we weren't in such a dark place that we need them.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

Jason Linkins responds to the truly astonishing — the very definition of blind hubris — belief of Washington Post's editorial team that they can lecture Democratic voters about "elitism" following this election. About Bezos, he says,

"The only successful way for a plutocrat to own a newspaper is for the Richie Rich in question to follow my two-step plan: Shut your mouth, and write those checks."

#Trump #fascism #disinformation #media
/12

The Washington Post Is Taking a Dive

A weekly accounting of the...

(newsletter.tnr.com)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

It's elitist, you see, in the eyes of the lofty people occupying bully pulpits at Washington Post to think there's something shockingly inhumane about a plan to round of untold numbers of people, put them in camps, and ship them out of the country — just because. Because we want to pretend they're the problem.

Elitist to care about the human lives of those people and the barbarism of any nation cooking up such a scheme….

#Trump #fascism #disinformation #media
/13

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

And while I'm talking about my contempt for Bezos, let me say a word about Los Angeles Times' Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has shown himself to be beyond contemptible. He thinks he can simultaneously virtue-signal about his refusal to endorse Kamala Harris by saying this was about her Gaza stance, and at the same time say his paper needs more right-wing journalists to "balance" its "liberal" views.

#Trump #fascism #disinformation #media
/14

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/13/media/la-times-harris-endorsement-gaza-war-editorial-board/index.html

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

Does he think we're too stupid to see that the second assertion cancels out the first one, and that the obviously sincere assertion of the two is that he intends to "balance" his paper? Does he think we don't know he's a friend of Elon Musk?

Does Soon-Shiong have no shame at all?

#Trump #fascism #disinformation #media
/15

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"In many ways, what Trump has done is expose the rot that has always plagued this country beneath the veneer of liberal democracy. When one looks at our plight in these terms, it becomes clearer what the Harris campaign was up against—and why the struggle for the future is all the more essential.

This is generational, not just of-the-moment."

~ Elliot Kirschner

#Trump #fascism #disinformation #democracy
/16

https://elliotkirschner.substack.com/p/are-we-pointing-fingers

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Godfrey642 Thank you so much for the encouragement. I'll admit to feeling bleak and depleted of energy these days — but I intend to keep trying, since so much is at stake. I think when they take total control of the federal government, we're going to see a total blackout of news coverage, insofar as they can accomplish this — e.g., people rounded up in large numbers, incarcerated, shipped out of the country, with no one able to follow and monitor this so we can see what's happening.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Godfrey642 A very good question. An elderly friend in Germany contacted us before he was elected and asked, "Have large numbers of Americans just lost their minds?"

[moiraeve@mastodon.world]

@wdlindsy Very, very true! The rot has always been with us.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@bronakins Yes, you're right. And before the final (though the vote-counting isn't complete even now) numbers began to come in, I myself swallowed that landslide meme.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@the_blackwell_ninja Same here — same frustration.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@MoiraEve I think that Keith Owens' commentary on that point (see /11 above) is really good. He says that Democrats have to learn to be loud in pushing back against MAGA loudness. And, of course, he doesn't mean actually shouting loudness, but speaking as forcefully and convincingly back to MAGA as MAGA speaks to all of us.