It has been said a gazillion times over the last few months, but is it getting through to those who need to hear it?

  • OBJECTION!
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    Oh, so now it’s that you’re surrounded by secret agents from foreign countries, and that’s the only reason people disagree with you. I’m assuming that there’s no possible evidence that would falsify this conspiracy theory, right?

    • davidagain@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Superb straw man there.

      1. Some people are spouting these right wing talking points about voting because they’re left wing and have been duped.

      2. Some people are spouting these right wing talking points about voting because they’re right wing and doing the duping.

      3. Some people who are spouting these right wing talking points about voting are Americans.

      4. Some people who are spouting these right wing talking points about voting are not Americans.

      5. Some people who are spouting these right wing talking points about voting are not very clever.

      6. Some people who are spouting these right wing talking points about voting are clever.

      You claim that half of these couldn’t possibly exist, because for some reason you think that only Americans approve of Trump, you believe that only Americans want to influence the American election and you characterise all Trump supporters as dumb rednecks or something more offensive, then I point out the even ones exist and you claim I’m a conspiracy theorist. Wow.

      • OBJECTION!
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        You claim that half of these couldn’t possibly exist

        Nowhere did I claim this. Kind of funny that you strawman me right after accusing me of strawmanning you.

        A conspiracy theory is not something that is impossible to be true, it’s just implausible. It could be that the checkout clerk at my local grocery is an undercover FBI agent, why couldn’t it? It’s just that there’s no evidence for it and it would be pretty unreasonable to assert that, especially if there was no possible way to falsify it.

        I could just as easily claim that you’re working for US intelligence, I’d have just as much basis. But I’m not a paranoid conspiracy theorist, so I don’t. By Occam’s razor and the principle of charity, I assume that you simply believe other things than me. That concept of people having different beliefs and values seems to be something that liberals simply cannot grasp - as if there’s one obviously correct position and everyone else is either stupid or being deceived by bad actors. It’s quite silly.

        I don’t espouse any “right wing” positions, and I don’t generally see other people on here doing the same. My criticism of liberals is from a leftist perspective, grounded in leftist values and theory, and drawing from leftist intellectual traditions. It’s just that liberals want to lump anyone who disagrees with them on anything for any reason as right wing in order to discredit and dismiss them.

        • davidagain@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Kind of funny that you strawman me right after accusing me of strawmanning you.

          Er…

          Like I said, and you seem to have missed it, not everyone supporting Trump is American, and not everyone supporting Trump is stupid.

          Oh, so now it’s that you’re surrounded by secret agents from foreign countries, and that’s the only reason people disagree with you. I’m assuming that there’s no possible evidence that would falsify this conspiracy theory, right?

          This you?

          • OBJECTION!
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 months ago

            Sorry, maybe I misunderstood. Are you accusing me of being a foreign secret agent or are you not?

            • davidagain@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              2 months ago

              I think you misunderstood. I have no idea what your nationality is and I don’t think you’re a secret agent.

              • OBJECTION!
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                2 months ago

                Ok, then I don’t understand what you’re accusing me of.

                • davidagain@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  Parrotting right wing talking points to an extent that I doubt your motives.

                  I can’t tell the difference between sincere leftist people who have been duped into advocating right wing talking points loudly and long on lemmy and right wingers pretending to be left wing doing exactly the same thing.

                  It’s very plausible to me that you’re genuinely intelligent, but I find the blindness to a difference in outcome between the Democrats and the Republican doesn’t square with your assertion that you’re left wing. It just doesn’t add up.

                  Did you read any summaries of Kamala’s policy proposals and of project 25? It doesn’t square with the well-read about politics bit and the intelligence bit at all.

                  • OBJECTION!
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    2 months ago

                    What “right-wing talking points” exactly have I parroted? Opposition to genocide? That’s a left-wing talking point that the right sometimes parrots.

                    I’m not blind to the difference between Democrats and Republicans. However, I don’t believe in unconditional support for the Democrats, regardless of how bad the Republicans are. To offer unconditional support is to sacrifice every ounce of bargaining power I might have otherwise wielded. The worst possible thing you can do in a negotiation is to walk up to the table and say, “I’ll agree no matter what.” I do not subscribe to the ideology of lesser-evilism, which is a bad strategy from a game theory perspective. Moreover, genocide is a hard red line for me.