- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
Just because Republicans choose unreality doesn’t mean the media should ignore the facts of January 6.
On January 6, 2021, I watched CNN as thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. As someone well-versed in watching tragedy on television, I was struck by just how indisputable the facts were at the time: violent, red-hat-clad MAGA rioters, followed by Republicans in Congress, tried to stop democracy in its tracks. Trump had told his followers that the protest in Washington, DC, “will be wild,” and in the assault that followed his speech, some rioters smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol. Hundreds of them have since been convicted on charges ranging from assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy. These are stubborn facts, the kind that do not care about your feelings. These facts include the inalienable truth that Trump is the first president in American history to reject the peaceful transfer of power.
It never occurred to me that these facts could somehow be perverted by partisanship. But three years later, we are seeing just that, as Republicans cling to the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Joe Biden and are poised to make Trump their 2024 nominee. And perhaps even more dangerous than the GOP ditching reality is the news media’s inability to cover Trumpism as the threat to democracy that it very much is.
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But the problem is, when all you have is conventional political framing, everything looks like politics as usual. One candidate makes a claim; the other disputes it. Two sides are divided, etc. This framing only works if both parties operate within the frameworks of a shared reality. But Trumpism doesn’t allow for the reality the rest of us inhabit. Trump’s supporters believe their leader’s reality and not, say, the reality the rest of us see with our eyes. As Trump once told a crowd: “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
Journalists may be well-intentioned in trying to be “objective,” or they’re simply afraid of being labeled partisan. Either way, coverage of January 6 that gives equal weight to both sides—one based in reality, one not—is helping pave the road for authoritarianism.
Ok, let me preface this by OF COURSE Biden is by far the lesser evil compared to Trump, OF COURSE single issue voting is some Republican style bullshit and OF COURSE Trump would be even more supportive of a fascist government committing genocide, being a fascist war crime fanboy himself.
That being said, people who are outraged by Biden’s continued support of and thus enabling of genocide DO have a point. He’s supposed to represent the interests of every American who’s not a fascist, not those of a fascist apartheid regime currently committing the worst genocide since the Balkan wars in the 90s.
Just because the other guy is a much greater evil doesn’t mean that you can’t hold your own guy accountable for supporting evil. With Trump the only alternative, voting for him is a given, but giving him a free pass shouldn’t be.
Uh, what we are talking about is people who are already saying they won’t vote for Biden. I run into this a lot. It’s terrifying to know a significant part of the electorate are so myopic they would install Trump forever to “make a point”.
It truly doesn’t matter if they have a point, if the only end result is not voting or throwing their vote away on a third party. If Trump wins, they will be a big part of how.
“voting is the only way to create change” is the mentality that got us here.
You know why George Floyd’s murderer was the only one who got the sentence he deserved? Because the people demanded it by threatening capital.
So what are you suggesting?
You know exactly what he’s suggesting and he’s probably right to do so.
Stop playing stupid and stop trying to shut down people who say such things. It’s not gonna work, you’re not gonna convince anyone to not fight for what they believe in, hit the road if you don’t like it.
These guys all want violent revolution, right up until it’s their time to pick up a rifle.
I think what the morons want is trump. I’m really worried about how common this braindead opinion is. They’re actually going to vote against Biden because of Israel. We’re fucked.
If you’re that worried that reaction to our government enabling a genocide is risking the election or whatever, maybe blame the people doing the enabling rather than the people disgusted by them.
Found one of them
Everyone knows your only feeling can be whatever a stranger makes up
What do you mean by that?
“These guys” could just be foreign conflict bots, trying to promote mayhem.
“Everyone who is less than ecstatic about the genocide I love can’t possibly be genuine. It must be an international conspiracy because no one could possibly oppose genocide.”
Where’s that quote from? Is it made up?
Generally speaking, you’d have to be very naive to assume that foreign nationals would not want to affect the population of potential enemies, and try to manipulate them with specific narratives. The interconnection of the species, communication wise, has good points and bad points.
It’s certainly a convenient way to dismiss people who disagree with centrists’ support for genocide.
That people need to start by stopping this “only voting matters” narrative that so many push. I know people try to counter that by saying that people are overworked and don’t have time for protests or any other direct action, but the Labor Movement was done by people working 70ish hour weeks.
More people need to be willing to protest. Until they are, things aren’t going to meaningfully get better.
Right now, the message I get from a lot of these conversations here is that the President is allowed to have a little genocide as a treat because otherwise there could be more genocide. It’s completely insane.
No you don’t
Anyone insisting that the only way to move forward is to vote for someone who is promoting genocide is effectively saying that, yes.
What the fuck is wrong with you people. You’re going to reelect trump and finish this country off because you’re too god-damned stupid to understand reality
We’re you fucking asleep from 2015 until now? Seriously what is wrong in your brain?
WE DON’T WANT GENOCIDE.
If that is what is wrong with us, than what the fuck is wrong with you?
If Trump is an existential threat (Not disagreeing that he is, bear with me.) then why isn’t the Democratic party acting like he is?
The only time they do is when they want to shame people into voting for majority unpopular things, LIKE FUCKING GENOCIDE.
What the fuck is wrong with your brain?
We’re saying the only way to avoid a trump wanna be dictatorship, and even longer term fucking of the US, which is allowing Biden to lose.
We need a general strike and to eat the rich if that doesn’t work, but we also need a president that won’t call out the troops (real ones or bullshit fanbois) when we protest.
Biden could stop supporting genocide if he doesn’t want to lose votes of people for whom genocide is a dealbreaker.
I’m voting for biden, but I expect you will ignore this sentence.
I wouldn’t say it’s completely insane.
It’s a modification of the trolley problem. The “do nothing” path goes downhill and has a hell of a lot more bodies. The switched path still has bodies but at least it’s uphill and you’ll have a chance to slow it down or stop it.
Who said to do nothing? I’m saying this path is also terrible.
We as a people, and specifically the commenters who insist these are the only options, are consciously choosing between the two paths that lead to genocide. We are specifically saying we are too comfortable and indifferent to demand the changes to prevent it.
That’s insane.
People don’t like being manipulated to vote a certain way, they get angry when that is done to them. They realize that other citizens had died for their right to vote, and they hold it sacred.
And when you’re angry, you tend to make dumb mistakes.
How many of us know the stance of the people they’re going to vote for, when it comes to ranked choice voting?
As long as we are drawing the line in the sand as “reality” the truth is much more stark. We already live in a nation controlled by oligarchs and the vote has already been robbed of what little power it ever had. In a sense accelerationism isn’t so much accelerating the decline of US democracy but accelerating its suspended funeral.
It’s not just ‘throwing the baby away with the bath water ‘, it’s burning down the whole fucking country just because mommy didn’t give you candy.
Where “mommy didn’t give you candy” in this case is “the guy you’re being screamed at to vote for is supporting genocide.”
Just because you don’t think genocide is a big deal, that doesn’t mean you don’t need the votes of those that do.
I’m voting for Biden, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize that some people won’t, and that his support for genocide is the reason.
Criticizing Biden’s handling of the war is not just allowed, but encouraged. His handling of it is dog shit.
What’s naive and stupid to do is refuse to vote for him because of it, when the threat is a person who bragged about becoming a dictator and retaliating against anyone he dislikes.
It’s neat how you completely ignored the entire first paragraph of the comment.
How? The DNC doesn’t listen to us, writing our reps is basically a waste of time and paper unless you like collecting robosigned form letter replies from political offices.
Fuck trump in every way and if there is any justice left in this world cheetolini will rot in a cell for the rest of his life, to be clear.
That said, we have 40 years of congressional voting patterns that PROVE they only listen to ‘the people’ about 20% of the time.
So how? How do we hold him accountable? By making meme posts and tiktoks?
Yes I am MUCH happier that Biden won and I will be voting for him again, but let’s not pretend we aren’t in an oligarchy controlled by wealthy families.
Yes the Dems do a bit better of a job helping the citizens, but not nearly enough and not in the ways needed most.
We NEED to get rid of first past the post voting, we NEED to get money out of politics.
Until that happens, we will ALWAYS be stuck choosing the lesser evil and our wealth will continue to be shuffled up to the already disgustingly rich.
I don’t know how the US could change it’s voting system. It’s so carved into the national identity with the constitution. It’s a big change. I see us in the UK more likely to change our voting system before the US.
Maine is already switched to Ranked Choice voting. I agree its a big change, but if you had told me 20 years ago that I could legally buy weed in a boutique store in New York City someday, I’d have told you basically the same thing.
It’s actually not, they track it. It’s important to know voter sentiment so the competent members of Congress actually keep track of the issues people write about and their positions on them. In terns of response, I’m not sure if you know how many people an average Congressmember has and how much mail they get, but if everyone including the Congressmember spent all day individually responding to every letter they got (most of which are form complaints), they would get even less done. The form response is (again, if the member is at all competent) usually slightly modified from a form response because, frankly, why would you have a different response to the same question every time? The response reads all political because it has to, they’re writing for a broad audience and they don’t know you.
They probably are listening to the people who write them, who tend to skew older and have more time on their hands to do so, so are likely more conservative or status quo. There are issues the Dems will shift on if they see that’s where the wind is blowing. Also, if you have a specific local issue, don’t write to DC, write to the local office. They actually have people dedicated to helping with state and local concerns.
All well and good, but these idiot kids are actually refusing to vote for him over this single issue. I agree that It’s fine to be bothered how he’s handling things- even if they’re a bit misunderstood on how things actually work- I mean, sure…it’s bothering.
But this is the biggest “I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face” America will EVER see.
I strongly suspect that these one issue kids have no idea of what is going on in the Mideast
Israel was attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah. The over the top response by Netanyahu is much like you would get from the orange wanna-be dictator. Israel is under threat by Iran too. The arms sent were a show of force least any other hostile countries decide to pile on. Biden has been forceful with Israel behind the scenes, placing conditions on the use of the arms and pushing Israel to back off. He can’t do so publicly because it would let the hostile countries sense a weakness. Kids are triggered by emotions and fail to dig for news contrary to their biases because it doesn’t reinforce their need for an anger dopamine rush - much like MAGAs.
It is so much easier to sit on ones ass rather than to do the hard work of being intelligently informed and to create change
“I look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief they have known something of what has been passing in the world around them” - Harry Truman
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Exactly. Their “genocide” is a knee-jerk sensationalist reaction to the typical extremist news they’re used to reading. It’s almost always a lot more nuanced than it appears.
As I like to say, life exists within the grey area that lies between the boundaries of black-and-white ideologies.
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Actually, its part if a Palestinian campaign to destroy Israel. Israel did offer a two state solution multiple times. Its the Palestinians that reject the right of Israel to exist, not the other way around.
Sacrificing their own population to gain support doesn’t make them right.
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1947 called, it says you’re misinformed, or worse.
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If we want to win, we need to appeal to people who disagree with your support for genocide, no matter how much you hate them.
So your solution is to make it easier for Trump to win? You know that would make things even worse?
If only there was a democratic process to choose the Democratic nomination for president… Man, that would be such a great idea. I wonder why no one thought of it?
THE SOLUTION WOULD BE TO HAVE A FUCKING PRIMARY, and not, you know un-democratically ban other candidates for the nomination in 10% of the states, so far.
You’re the ones with a genocidal candidate you want everyone else to vote for. It’s your job to find a solution to get people to vote for him, if you don’t want to have a contest to decide who people would vote for as the democratic nomination.
Nobody hates you, we’re just sick of idealists in a time when we need pragmatists.
Those pesky idealists… being opposed to checks notes literal fucking genocide.
I’m voting for Biden and you don’t care. You just want unquestioning support for the genocide you support.
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If you hadn’t prefixed your comment with this, centrists who can’t defend their enthusiastic support for genocide for its own sake would be calling you a trumpist.
Yeah, I know from vast experience 😮💨
You’ll notice that you have to disclaim for a whole paragraph about how Biden is better than Trump, which of course he is, but no centrist has to similarly disclaim that they even dislike genocide at all.
Because none of them do.
Nothing about understanding the danger Trump poses makes you a “centrist” or “enthusiastic support” for genocide. Please grow up.
Nothing about questioning Biden’s support for genocide means I want Trump to win. But you’ll ignore that I’m voting for Biden as long as you never have to examine your love for genocide for its own sake.
Well put. But right now, folks who agree are missing the nuance and going to stay home. So not the time for intellectualizing to the choir. Let’s just stop saying the quiet part aloud already. We all fucking know what the DNC is. Enough is enough. Can we have a fucking conversation about Trump and autocracy and Nazis without a fucking comment about Biden? You’re just regurgitating the both sides bullshit with an asterisk that you’ll vote, but the people reading are just doubling down not voting. Stop giving this oxygen. It’s enough.
This is correct. I despise Trump. When I voted for Biden, I understood I was voting for a 1 term president to allow Democrats 4 years to get their house in order. They haven’t and they don’t intend to.
The truth is that a vote for shit or slightly less shit is still shit. We’ve allowed two mega corporations in the DNC and RNC to monopolize our politics.
The only solution is a 3rd party. Voting for Biden or Trump just keeps the shit rolling. Sucks that Democrats might have a Ross Perot moment with Trump on the ballot, but they had time to bring up anyone else to fill the role, and they didn’t. I have the luxury of living in Tennessee, so my vote doesn’t matter, something else they promised to fix and didn’t. But anyone who wants to call me an idealist or pearl clutcher needs to wake up.
Oh look, the same tired old “both sides” bullshit.