Three upvotes, final offer
Stephen Miller is clearly Himmler. They even have a certain physical weirdness in common. The Goebbels part of the operation has seen some substantial improvement; I think they have learned that it works better if you don't have one visible person who's in charge of the propaganda, but just a shadowy network that's smuggling various things that are "what everyone believes" into the discourse. I don't think there is really an equivalent of Goebbels in the modern setup.
I think it's bad that my first thought was to check the year, to find out what stage of the progression we're at, and how much time we still have...
Turns out we're at the beginning of the camps opening. Sounds pretty accurate. Basically no time left.
Totally, totally. So when did he vote to send weapons to Israel?
- Which one was your favorite time he voted to send weapons to Israel? I keep asking
- You're talking nonsense since Bernie Sanders has been extremely vigorous about opposing Israel (pretty obviously more so than Eurovision is) in a bunch of specific and material ways, here are some examples
Does that way of explaining it make sense?
Don't go
I'll give you two upvotes, see if you can find the surprise in the YouTube videos, I am waiting
Don't give up now
Which one was your favorite? Which time that Bernie Sanders voted to send weapons to Israel? I can't wait to hear! Don't leave me hanging! I really wanted to hear.
I mean you're right to call me out on that other thing. I definitely remember the time when someone at Eurovision got up and did this, it was right between Spain and Portugal. I do agree, it would be wonderful if someone would do something like that in the US Senate, not just at Eurovision. It's honestly shameful that Bernie Sanders never did anything like that when Eurovision has been running commercials like this. Honestly, you're right, and I feel bad for ever doubting your insight here.
Yeah, absolutely.
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/21079358
This fuckin' dingbat I can't even
Edit: So maybe I'm fooling myself, but I do feel like I've gotten a little bit capable with spotting which ones of them are the deliberate disruptors as opposed to people who got fooled by them and are echoing. The major tells of the totally fake accounts are:
- Low effort. They don't try very hard to convince you. It doesn't have to make sense, they don't really read what people are saying, they just blandly repeat the same kinds of stuff. Most people who sincerely believe that Bernie betrayed the Palestinian people and all our hopes that he would finally say something against Israel (for example) will at least seem like they believe it themselves, they'll get upset about something specific that happened, or they'll misunderstand various facts but sincerely talk about them, or similar. The people who are deliberately lying will just kind of fart out their little shtick and then move on to the next comment. Some of the sloppier ones, if you check the profile, don't really bother to engage with anything that isn't their designated political talking points. They'll just kind of spray one-liner "I sure do love Helldivers mm boy" comments in other communities but the only thing they ever put any effort into is particular repetitive political points.
- A lot of times their reactions don't really need to match what you're saying. They have a tendency for example to tell you what you believe ("I get you’re trying to run interference over criticism of Bernie"), instead of responding to what you said, and then start arguing with the strawman. Of course real people do that too, but most real people at least have some interest in reading and responding to what the message they're responding to actually says. A lot of the shill messages could literally apply to any message. Try mentally shuffling them around, so that what they said is a response to some totally different comment, and then if it still fits 100% equally as well, then that's a warning sign.
- A lot of times they have the same handful of arguments that go on repeat. It's like 5-10 little nuggets (AOC voted to send weapons to Israel! Bernie doesn't call it a genocide!) and they tend to fall back on them and totally ignore anything else. Also, crucially, they tend to introduce unrelated ones randomly even when the topic is some totally different thing. For example look at how many people in these comments are bringing up AOC.
- Often if you check in their profile you'll see a lot of overlap between multiple talking points. Some of the comments are just low-effort spray of random comments, but a lot of their political or meaningful engagement will be the exact same variety of various points. Historically, some of the sloppier ones would tend to overlap ones that really didn't fit (Ukraine is escalating the war and it's really dangerous, NATO needs to stop! I sure do wish Kamala Harris wasn't so pro-genocide, I'm definitely not voting for her!) all from the same account.
That is my short maybe-totally-wrong field guide to identifying the bad accounts on Lemmy. Not 100%, your mileage may vary, I have no real idea but this is what I've observed and guessed at.
I get you’re trying to run interference over criticism of Bernie, a sitting U.S. senator, but Eurovision hasn’t been voting to send weapons to Israel.
Yes! I can't tell you how many times he has voted to send weapons to Israel. Literally every single time. It is known!
Which one was your favorite? Which time did he vote for weapons to Israel that wasn't some wild mischaracterization like "his vigorous attempt to stop sending weapons to Israel doesn't count because actually it means he was in favor of all the other times we sent weapons to Israel (which he also vigorously opposed)"? Which bill and what did he vote for that was sending weapons to Israel? This definitely isn't a bunch of nonsense so I'd love to hear more.
(YouTube videos "people were hoping for him to make a stand" get the fuck out of here lol)
I am not saying that there is a lot of actual fighting.
Yes, glad we agree. There is not "fighting" between Israeli airstrikes, tanks, and coordinated infantry, and Palestinian families and occasional small arms by any Hamas people or irregulars still left alive. There is however quite a lot of dying. That was my point.
Yeah. I don't disagree. It's so fucking upsetting.
You cannot run a country when the people who run all the country machine day to day don't give a shit about education, aren't invested in maintaining what sustains them, don't really look out for each other, and don't work that hard. You just can't do it. I don't care what politics you put on top of it, what system you want to make that's going to reform Washington in whatever way. It just doesn't work, it's like building a house out of mud. The horrors we're starting to experience the early stages of right now are just the inevitable product of leaving the most powerful organized government on the planet in the hands of a citizenry that can't be bothered to make sure it all stays on the rails.
The US is a big place, and a hell of a lot more diverse than my depressing little summary up there, and it has literally millions of people who are fighting hard to keep the ship off the rocks right now. I don't feel like the early days of the Gestapo had gangs of civilians keeping tabs on where they were going and showing up and yelling at them sometimes until they left. I feel proud as hell of the people who are trying to stop it all, and that's very much a part of the American character, somehow, even after all these years of rot. Tolkien talked about it in the English people, soft like butter sometimes but then tough as old tree-roots when they're tested. America has heart in a way that a lot of countries don't seem to have. But it just feels like the ground is melting under us. I don't understand how we can survive.
I'm not talking about "this" being Trump, although yes absolutely that too. I'm just talking about... everything. Every empire dies, and more or less always in the same way. Success and good living, then softness, then rot, and it crumbles. The US is unique because it was able to constantly absorb in all this new blood from outside to wash off the stagnation, keep things solid and strong, but now that's cut off. I'm just really scared for my country. I fucking love this place, it's my home. Every day now I think about leaving. I want to be here but I can't see how it will survive.
Maybe it will heal stronger after the break. It's a unique type of country, it doesn't have to follow that same decline and fall. Maybe this is what we need to break us out of half a century of lazy stagnation entitlement. I don't know. All I know is, I'm looking around and I can't see what's going to bust us out and up. I don't feel like I know my country, I don't know any other home but I don't feel like it is my people anymore.