I look at it the other way: right-wing conspiracy theories pander to textbook mental illness. They’re more susceptible to such bullshit and thus it’s like a magnet that attracts these deranged individuals.
One way or another I am personally convinced a large chunk of dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporters are not of mentally sound mind.
Drugs, head injuries, lead exposure, etc. You look at the average attendee of a Trump rally and they do not look physically healthy from the outset.
Like most tyrants, they purge critical minds and leave yes men. It increasingly skews their perception of reality and leaves them to think they’re far smarter than they really are. Putin is so fucked lol.
Ah so put the people who routinely cause regional instability from Syria to Ukraine and deny climate change back… Surely this will help with immigration! lol.
Back in the day there existed Current TV and before Vice documentaries were a thing there was Vanguard — out of which came some awesome investigative journalists. One of the pieces they did was From Russia, With Hate which documented the rising neo-nazi anti-immigrant sentiment in Russia. In essence we knew Russia was a shit-hole then, and it’s of course an earlier stepping-stone to compare to in terms our own nation’s direction.
Yes and no. They’ve since lost global support for their actions; in an unprecedented move they are now being closely investigated for war crimes in a state of the world where such courts want to maintain impartiality to sustain their verdicts against Russia in Ukraine. To me it seems pretty clear that the Biden administration wants nothing to do with Israel but is only willing to follow the polls of public sentiment as opposed to take an aggressive stance ahead of where the public is at.
In this respect, Hamas succeeded. Israel over-stepped and committed the equivalent of 30, 40, perhaps 50+ October 7ths. The widespread recognition that Israel is a far-right nationalist government and Bibi is trying to desperately cling to power and avoid conviction in ongoing criminal trials domestically will, hopefully, have serious repercussions in the long-term. Domestically, Israelis may also slowly be coming to the realization that their Democracy isn’t so Democratic.
Both Netanyahu and Putin are closely watching, and actively trying to influence, these US elections.
In case anyone wasn’t aware, no this didn’t go directly into the Biden campaign’s funds; it went into a SuperPAC hiding the source(s) behind serveral shell companies. SuperPACs, unlike PACs or individual donations have no contribution limit, and usually require no disclosure of source. Their only requirement is they act independently from the candidate they endorse, and so cannot directly coordinate. This of course is pretty much irrelevant as call-and-response akin to the whole, “Russia, if you’re listening…” can work just fine. Some may remember Colbert Report mocking this concept on a weekly basis.
This mostly a result of Citizens United v FEC and Speech Now v FEC, and traces back to Buckley v. Valeo.
Perhaps the single-most damaging action to our Democracy in decades. Thank conservatives.
Democrats must now play by the game in order to ever have a chance to win and change the rules.
Let’s not forget that a massive segment of the voting electorate still supports Israel, which is the needle to thread.
If you care so much about this, what you can do is go on social media as well as speak to your friends and family about what Israel is doing to influence the polls directly. Reduce the national poll numbers and you’ll see a reflection in policy. The slow shift in policy towards Israel has obviously been proportional to the degrading national and international support.
What polling are you referring to, because the March polling from PEW who I’d trust the most in this situation still has 36% supporting Gaza action and another 9% having no opinion.
The question none of this polling dares to ask and probably should is, “will this issue prevent you from voting for a candidate in the general election?”
I think that’s a fair question, but at the end of the day, the vast majority of people also do not place the Israeli-Palestinian war remotely at the top of their top list of concerns. So framing another way is: What % of the electorate in key states actually considers Biden’s actions as unacceptable, versus the % of the electorate who still continues to support Israel and would consider it unacceptable if he withdrew further support? Moreover in terms of damage-control what would happen to Biden if he withdrew all aid to Israel and they just so happened to incur another terrorist attack? Whether we like it or not, this election is inevitable and Biden is certainly the better option not only for the people of Gaza but also the people of Ukraine and the wider planet for that matter. Certainly wouldn’t be that difficult for a right-wing nationalist government to stage a false-flag akin to Russia’s apartment bombings. So I think the proportional wind-down as polls continue to turn against Israel is the smart move. If I was in the Oval Office (and of course, none of us here are), that’s what I would be advising. Meanwhile the second I win election, I’d be cutting Israel off entirely.
Russian bots with a Kremlin disinformation network published 120,000 fake anti-Ukraine quotes falsely attributed to celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, in one day, the independent Russian media outlet Agentsvo reported June 15....
I’m just a shitty software engineer but I’ve always dreamed up a social media network — perhaps opensource/non-profit — that promoted in good faith the best of humanity… I think there are methods that this could be achieved and I wish someone like Wikipedia or Mozilla would pursue in earnest. I’ve been part of the Jimmy Wales Wiki Social discord but I’m not yet sure if they’re on the right track.
At this point, it’s fairly common for significant rainfall events to have attribution studies showing that they’re a result of the higher temperatures that fossil fuel burning has given us. Whether or not we end up with one for this particular event, it’s something that we know will be more common if we keep on extracting...
Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E. coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday....
My wife is pretty well-traveled and said she’d never go back to Paris, for it was one of the dirtiest cities she visited. Combine this with the bedbug pandemic they’re going through now and you literally couldn’t pay me to go.
Whew, thank supply-side Jesus. I was really wondering how I’d defend my family from tyrannical apache helicopters or my home from intruders without a bumpstock…
On a side note I listened to some of the arguments of this case in front of the court and holy shit these Justices are both dumb and arrogant.
I genuinely fucking love Merrick Garland and it confounds me that people have an issue with him. There may be some hindsight 20/20 wishful thinking about making things magically happen faster, but the guy is genuinely trying and did everything by the book; and in doing so, he ensures his own actions don’t jeopardize the trial outcomes.
Most of the criticism comes from people who know not a fucking thing about the legal system.
I think people forget Garland was denied an appointment to the SCOTUS by the GOP as a nominee by Obama.
The United States will send Ukraine another Patriot missile system, two U.S. officials said Tuesday, answering Kyiv’s desperate calls for more air defenses as it battles an intense Russian assault on the northeastern Kharkiv region....
Trump Demands Biden Remove Ad of Him Calling Dead Soldiers ‘Suckers’ and ‘Losers’ - The former president said only a “psycho” or a “very stupid person” would’ve made such statements.
Ukraine on Sunday said its forces hit an ultra-modern Russian warplane stationed on an air base nearly 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the front lines, after its Western allies allowed Kyiv to use their weapons for limited strikes inside Russia....
Because I believe the strict legal definition of a convicted felon requires sentencing.
You are not convicted until the judge enters that judgment of guilt. Now, in New York, it’s very likely that Judge Merchan will enter that judgment of guilt against Trump on the same day that he issues sentencing. That’d be July 11th.
It’s just the power of muddying the waters. Very effective when you largely control the narrative in your massive echo-chamber created by a right-wing media ecosystem. Any boomer/Gen x fox news viewer will now just think Donald did it and look no further.
There is evidence there is a generational shift that occurred with millennials that sets them apart from GenX and Boomers; the trend of millennials getting more conservative as they age is significantly reduced compared to Boomers and GenX of the same age. This according to PEW.
That said I’ll say I didn’t realize how many millennials make up Fox News (though I wonder how much that has to do sports or happenstance with their employment showing it in the break room).
Computer literacy alone makes younger generations more resistant to bullshit. Clickbait, viruses, ad clicks… If you’ve ever worked in tech you see it. Older folks are just going to believe bullshit as fact without a second thought while the vast majority of my peers would roll their eyes. If course Gen Alpha who is onlu 14 tops might still be at the early stage of the learning curve but will rapidly catch up.
I think the trend of decreasing religion might be a good sign, too, but I’m not sure yet. Let’s talk after this year’s election to see which way the ship is turning, I guess.
Likability has to be the most important characteristic to electability. JFK, Reagan, “I’d have a beer with Bush Jr.,” Obama, etc… It’s pretty much the “trump card” if you have it to any election; and Unlikability guarantees you’re doomed.
If we had someone half-ways likeable; half-ways young… Well, that would basically be a trump card, dare I say. Harris isn’t it.
FDR was generally charismatic and a great speaker — albeit not as much so as Teddy — and if anything his being wheel-chair bound worked in his favor by the end as a sob-story.
Israel already had one or the two piece puzzle to stopping Hamas from being a threat; they had a strong air-defense system, and could’ve used their military reserves to actually properly defend their border. A disgrace that motorcycles and gliders could just waltz on over, especially in lieu of known intelligence of an impending attack.
Leveling Gaza only exacerbates radicalization for decades to come without actually addressing the root causes for said radicalization.
For the longest time I thought this was solely a matter of education; but these days, I’m beginning to think such right-wing extremism is also a matter of mental illness.
Things like poor parenting, brain injuries from football, lead exposure from guns and motorsports, substance abuse, shitty diets, etc. – all culminate in a banner of people who are… Not of sound mind.
Saying this as a former rural Appalachian Republican from decades ago.
You’re likely right that education is still the prevailing issue, but I think we need to get more specific on what kind of education people receive in terms of safeguarding against false rhetoric. Drilling in the logical fallacies, teaching ethics, and even teaching common propaganda techniques so you can identify them. We need to step back and ask ourselves how we managed to escape the rabbit hole when others could not.
The echo-chambers have become so ironclad that it’s so difficult to pierce through and drag someone out.
Russia has accused Nato and the US of “provoking a new level of tension” after the US and Germany became the latest allies to let Ukraine’s military to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia....
Remind a Maga that native-born citizens commit more crime on average than undocumented immigrants. Deport the maga. Keep the mother, father, and children seeking a better life.
As part of an analysis of how U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, reports from her courtroom show a judge who is both “prickly” and" insecure" and often has trouble understanding what lawyers from both sides try to explain to her....
Yes, you are correct — their rhetoric is more further-reaching, no doubt. They control the narratives, absolutely. But this isn’t because they’re being rhetoricians, it’s because:
They lack the morality to care.
They have the vast majority of the money and with it a greater loudspeaker.
Selling fear and rageporn and lies and half-truths will always be easier than conveying the complexity and nuance of truth and reality.
The notion of “choice,” and “free will” has largely been called into doubt by scientists.
Second, when (as the above-user mentioned) a corporate conglomerate has millions if not billions of dollars to spend on marketing teams, behavioral scientists, psychologists, etc., that tends to overwhelm our finite willpower and short-circuits our primal neural motivators.
Ultra-Processed Foods have tastes and caloric densities in abundance that simply is not found in the wild so easily except for honey guarded by angry bees and salt licks… What do you think that does to the brain whose evolutionary past is still firmly rooted in hunting-and-gathering?
Did you guys see Chris Sununu fully bend over backwards, collapsing his face fully into Trump’s ass cheeks to defend his endorsement despite going full 180 from his words not 2 years ago? That man should join the circus with flexibility like that.
Trump Tells Faith Conference If He Took Off Shirt They’d See ‘a Beautiful Person’ With ‘Wounds All Over’ From Defending Religion (www.mediaite.com)
Man with carload of weapons and ‘hit list’ that included Biden, Obama and Clinton gets years in prison (lawandcrime.com)
Putin warns South Korea: Sending killer weapons to Ukraine would be a ‘big mistake’ (www.politico.eu)
Russian president delivered the warning after Seoul announced it would consider arming Kyiv....
French women voters swing sharply to far right (www.politico.eu)
France’s National Rally has sought to style itself a defender of women’s rights — partly by attacking its traditional bogeyman: immigration....
Ukraine just held its first Pride event in years despite Russia's continued invasion (www.lgbtqnation.com)
Prominent Palestinian doctor, Iyad Rantisi, dies during interrogation in Israel (www.palestinechronicle.com)
The $64 million mystery: How a wave of anonymous donations is fueling the 2024 presidential campaign (www.cbsnews.com)
Jordanian reporter gets one year in prison under draconian new cybercrime law (rsf.org)
Biden’s $30m weekend fundraising blitz breaks Democratic Party records. (www.motherjones.com)
Donald Trump gets to sidestep the consequences of his conviction. Most people with criminal records don’t (www.independent.co.uk)
Kremlin bots spam internet with fake celebrity quotes against Ukraine (kyivindependent.com)
Russian bots with a Kremlin disinformation network published 120,000 fake anti-Ukraine quotes falsely attributed to celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, in one day, the independent Russian media outlet Agentsvo reported June 15....
Florida Governor DeSantis rejects climate change rationale for record-breaking rain (wapo.st)
At this point, it’s fairly common for significant rainfall events to have attribution studies showing that they’re a result of the higher temperatures that fossil fuel burning has given us. Whether or not we end up with one for this particular event, it’s something that we know will be more common if we keep on extracting...
Unsafe levels of E. coli found in Paris' Seine River under 2 months before Olympics (www.cbc.ca)
Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E. coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday....
Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on bump stocks, gun accessories used in 2017 massacre (apnews.com)
The Stanford Internet Observatory is being dismantled | House Republicans attacked the lab’s reports on misinformation and election integrity — and now Stanford is pulling the plug (www.platformer.news)
House Republicans prepare to hold Attorney General Garland in contempt : NPR (www.npr.org)
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress.
US will send Ukraine another Patriot missile system after Kyiv's desperate calls for air defenses (apnews.com)
The United States will send Ukraine another Patriot missile system, two U.S. officials said Tuesday, answering Kyiv’s desperate calls for more air defenses as it battles an intense Russian assault on the northeastern Kharkiv region....
Linguist and activist Noam Chomsky hospitalized in his wife's native country of Brazil after stroke (apnews.com)
Trump Demands Biden Remove Ad of Him Insulting Dead Troops (www.thedailybeast.com)
Trump Demands Biden Remove Ad of Him Calling Dead Soldiers ‘Suckers’ and ‘Losers’ - The former president said only a “psycho” or a “very stupid person” would’ve made such statements.
'He’s truly lost his mind': Lindsey Graham ripped after calling D-Day a 'failure' on CBS (www.rawstory.com)
Ukraine says it struck one of Russia's most advanced warplanes (apnews.com)
Ukraine on Sunday said its forces hit an ultra-modern Russian warplane stationed on an air base nearly 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the front lines, after its Western allies allowed Kyiv to use their weapons for limited strikes inside Russia....
DNC billboard knocks Trump as ‘convicted white-collar crook’ ahead of campaign rally (www.politico.com)
Gay adult content creator USSRboy has been arrested in Russia (www.advocate.com)
Four Israeli hostages rescued alive; at least 210 people killed in Gaza, officials say (www.washingtonpost.com)
Trump claims credit for Biden’s insulin price cap (www.cnbc.com)
'Old and decrepit' Trump rant exposed him as 'a shadow of what he was four years ago' (www.rawstory.com)
Hamas no longer poses major threat to Israel, Biden says (www.politico.com)
'Dox the Jurors': Trump fans on a mission to make those who convicted him 'miserable' (www.rawstory.com)
Moscow warns West of escalation after Ukraine told it can hit Russia (www.bbc.com)
Russia has accused Nato and the US of “provoking a new level of tension” after the US and Germany became the latest allies to let Ukraine’s military to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia....
Trump supporters call for riots and violent retribution after verdict (www.reuters.com)
Meltdown
Debunking the Myth of the ‘Migrant Crime Wave’ (www.brennancenter.org)
Archived at web.archive.org/…/debunking-myth-migrant-crime-wa…
'Confused' Judge Cannon needed concept explained 'slowly' to her in court by lawyers: NYT (www.rawstory.com)
As part of an analysis of how U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, reports from her courtroom show a judge who is both “prickly” and" insecure" and often has trouble understanding what lawyers from both sides try to explain to her....
'You have to shed the tears': Justice shares that she cries after some Supreme Court cases (www.usatoday.com)
Netanyahu admits ‘tragic mistake’ after Israeli strike on Rafah camp kills dozens (www.smh.com.au)
“Deny, denounce, delay”: The battle over the risk of ultra-processed foods (arstechnica.com)
Hacked data reveals which US gun sellers are behind Mexican cartel violence (www.usatoday.com)
Marco Rubio says he would not accept 2024 election results ‘if it’s unfair’ (www.theguardian.com)
Republican senator’s comments come as he is considered among Trump’s top candidates for vice-president...
North Carolina's protest crackdown now includes a ban on N95s (www.motherjones.com)