The U.S. will mark the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection on Saturday, a milestone that will confer upon the reality-dwelling citizenry a grim reminder of the potency of propaganda and how quickly it can warp perception when introduced into the public square.

Just three years ago, most of the country watched with dismay and horror as a violent MAGA mob beat back authorities and stormed the country’s citadel of democracy. The Donald Trump-incited crush of disillusioned rioters, fueled by a stream of fantastical lies, believed that the 2020 election had been stolen by sinister forces working to undermine the democratic election.

Of course, not only was their belief flatly incorrect, but evidence later emerged indicating that it was Trump who, in fact, had tried to subvert democracy.

Facts, however, have little bearing on the sentiment inside the Republican Party, which has been fed a steady diet of lies and half-truths by Fox News and the rest of the sprawling right-wing media machine. To wit, the false notion that Joe Biden nefariously stole the 2020 election is now widely shared inside the GOP. A CNN poll conducted over the summer found that nearly 70% of Republicans believe Biden’s win was not legitimate, a number that has continued to tick up.

    • queermunist she/her
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      1 year ago

      America is taking everyone with them anyway! See the latest climate summit for an example.

    • Diva (she/her)
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      1 year ago

      America is the only country in the world with a nuclear first strike policy, and to have used nuclear weapons on civilians. The best thing that can happen for the rest of the world is for it to fall to internal power struggles.

        • Diva (she/her)
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          1 year ago

          I have, and I would say that the circumstances/implications are very different. One was the unforseen negative health impacts of a nuclear test site the other was the use of nuclear weapons on two population centers.

          Also that’s whataboutism I think lol. We’re talkin about US crimes

            • Diva (she/her)
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              1 year ago

              Which is pivoting to USSR bad propaganda in a thread about how the real issue in everyones minds should be the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine?

              Yeah I’m calling that whataboutism lmao

              • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                You can call it whatever you want to.

                You said something wrong I called you out.

                No need to get all pissy about it, it wasn’t anything personal.

                • Diva (she/her)
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                  1 year ago

                  You said something wrong I called you out.

                  No, I said that America is the only country to use nuclear weapons on a civilian population. You gave me some bullshit about a side effects from a test site ‘counting’ as if that carries the same weight as literally evaporating hundreds of thousands of people in an instant.

                  • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    I gave you an example of another country using nuclear weapons against civilians and you are taking it much too hard.

                    Learn from it and take the L. Its not like you lost credibility at your super cool club because you were wrong once.