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.

  • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    If it is not incredibly obvious that Trump would do far worse than token support of Israel, then you are either not paying attention to the things he says and does, or you seek to intentionally downplay the things he says and does.

    He would, first of all, continue to arm Israel. He would also move onto University campuses with feds to arrest people protesting the war. And he would use this as a premise to escalate tensions with Iran. He has stated all of these things many times. Passive support for Trump objectively and unambiguously accomplishes none of the things you profess to value.

    If you want to repeat the mistakes of 2016 in letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, then I assume you either so privileged that you don’t believe you will be affected by American fascism, or you are a troll. However, I apologize if you are just naive.

    • Diva (she/her)
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      6 months ago

      “passive support for trump” lmao

      If you seriously think that the democrats are capable of standing between where we are now and fascism, one that’s pretty naive too. I am telling you that we’re already there- we’re supporting the ethnostate ethnically cleansing. You’re arguing that it could hypothetically be worse, I’m telling you it doesn’t fucking matter at this point, I’m disgusted.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Right, so because of this attitude, people in Texas actually can’t use period tracking apps, and people in Ohio are being arrested for having miscarriages. This is not a hypothetical. Doctors in Seattle are being subpoenaed by the Texas AG for providing gender affirming care. This didn’t come out of nowhere. We have been yelling about these real, non hypothetical risks constantly. And now, if Trump wins, we know he will use the feds to extradite doctors across state lines. They have openly stated that they will use the executive branch to enforce this Christian nationalism. This is not a hypothetical.

        If you are fine with that moral liability, then carry on.

        As for me? I am a leftist who actually cares about protecting the vulnerable.

        • Diva (she/her)
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          6 months ago

          Maybe the democrats should stop doing evil shit if they want people to support them. It rules having libs (good cops) roll up to show me all the evil shit their friends (the bad cops) are going to do to us if we don’t support them while they unalive every last brown person standing in the way of the settlers.

          Also so much of this shit is happening under democrat governments anyways because they’re fucking useless at getting anything done or protecting vulnerable people. They’re literally cutting a deal on border security to get more weapons to a genocide

          • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Right, it’s very clear that you don’t take the actual threat of this project 2025 shit seriously, because you are so incredibly privileged that you will allow your ideological purity blind you to the real world. And at the end of the day, you won’t actually prevent any brown people from dying, and will likely make the situation far worse.

            But that’s fine because what you actually want to do is whine, not govern. Because whining is easy.

            • Diva (she/her)
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              6 months ago

              Maybe the Democrats should stop doing unpopular things like giving unlimited unconditional material and military support to a genocide.

              Sounds like they’re the ones not taking this threat seriously. The only plan seems to be to scold people who are disgusted by your actions.

              • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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                6 months ago

                Friend, if supporting Trump liberates Gaza I’ll sell everything I own and dedicate my life to rebuilding the region with my own frail hands, and I will die happy for being wrong.

                If it doesn’t, I hope you will dedicate your life to seeking forgiveness at trans funerals for ignoring these alarms.

                If we have a deal, perhaps we can agree to disagree and leave it at that.

                • Diva (she/her)
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                  6 months ago

                  I’m literally fucking trans, you have some supreme fucking nerve trying to guilt trip me when the primary fucking killer of Palestinian gay and trans people is the ongoing indiscriminate murder from occupation forces.

                  Democrats are the worst “allies” in human history.

                  • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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                    6 months ago

                    And that won’t stop if Trump is elected. The only difference will be that you and I will be up against the wall as well.

                    Also, Hamas definitely does not tolerate any LGBT lifestyles. So again, maybe rethink the idea of supporting a fundamentalist group which would torture you to death.