“Nothing is wrong with me. My eyes are open! You need to do your own research and learn the truth. Not from any mainstream sources though, nor anyone who knows anything. Just listen to trump and he’ll set you straight. Then you’ll know the truth!”
Comment on Why do Republicans bring up Kamala's "lies"/shortcomings as a way to claim Trump is better?
paddirn@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s what they’ve done for like 8 years now, it’s the foundation of Whataboutism. No matter what you pin on Trump, they’ll jump on some other real or imagined wrong, no matter what it has to do with the conversation, and use that as justification for anything that Trump has done or will do. It’s just a way to sidestep or confuse the issue.
“Trump is literally talking about becoming a fascist dictator.” “Yeah, but in the 12th century, Genghis Khan killed like 20–40 million people, that’s what we’re facing from Chi-na, they’re going to slaughter everyone if we don’t do anything about them and their takeover of China-store Kamala, she’s bought and paid for!” “WTF is wrong with you?”
Anticorp@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
winterayars@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The strategy is “Never Play Defense”.
GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s so widespread though which is what baffles me. Even political commentators i used to follow when i was still a young conservative make arguments like this. Surely they can’t all be this dumb.
riskable@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
After a few decades following American politics you’ll realize that yes, yes they can all be that dumb.
Just have a general conversation with your most conservative neighbors about basically anything and you’ll quickly learn that there’s nothing they don’t have an opinion on and their level of ignorance is… Impressive.
Like, dude, you’re 60+ years old and you think hurricanes are a conspiracy‽ The point where they lost their mind was long ago.
Sooner or later you can’t help but wonder if they ever had sanity or they just faked it long enough to have a career/survive until retirement.
SeikoAlpinist@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Yeah, I remember almost 20 years ago, an older dude telling me that jet fuel can’t melt steel beams, and giving me a copy of a movie called Zeitgeist on CD-R. That dude would be in his 60’s or late 50’s now.
Before that, people like Art Bell made a living on AM radio late at night with things like the Taos Hum and UFO’s and paranormal stuff.
Like, a lot of early US settlers got sent there because they were batshit crazy and a danger to society. The Puritans were kicked out of England, and then they were kicked out of the Netherlands of all places, how does that even happen, before they ran off to America and did a bunch of crazy shit. We think of the “Salem Witch Trials” with horror and then sing “Land of the Pilgrims’ Pride” without batting an eye, who do you even think the Pilgrims were?
So a bunch of criminals and wackos settled the United States, and when they got too crazy for their village, they just moved west, killed the native men, fucked a bunch of children, and made another crazy village. Pocahantas was like 12. And then if someone got kicked out of that village for being crazy, rinse and repeat until you get shit like Mormonism in Utah and Branch Davidians in Waco Texas and bombing the Olympics.
America is a land of crazy people who have been rewarded for generations for being batshit crazy, and have an ability to not see things clearly in front of their face. This is really nothing new.
lovely_reader@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The things you’re saying aren’t necessarily untrue, but through a lot of the 20th century, immigrants and their children accounted for more than half of America’s population growth. A lot of us aren’t descended from the batshit OGs but from people who made perilous journeys in search of a better life, so goes the lore (and of course the people who were kidnapped and brought here in bondage). Your point stands, but there’s a whole lot of different crazy here besides just settler crazy.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The repeal of fairness doctrine played a huge role in terms of how we got here
Anticorp@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Which was the goal.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Oh, most definitely.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They are that dumb.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
–George Carlin