Some of us are. @Ann_Hedonia definitely is, infiltrating Righty sites and throwing truth bombs with aplomb. I, too, am a member of The Dope State in my conversations on Twitter, FB, and, of course, Toastmasters.
To be a member of The Dope State you must take your knowledge and debate craft learned at the SDMB outside of the Dope, using this to communicate to the American Right. Your granddad. Your Facebook page. Twitter. At church. Wherever.
Doesn’t matter if overt or covert, we all have our different styles, lol.
If you can speak to specific instances, that’s great.
All right, Dope Staters… it’s time to speak up. Who are we???
I used to be. But then Trump happened and it wasn’t fun anymore. I used to actually have a back and forth on the sites I would debate people. But now they just spew ugliness or hit my posts with a laugh emoji.
Sometimes, on Facebook, but it’s not directed at the right (I don’t follow anyone on Facebook who is on the right) but at re-postings of the kinds of dreck you get from Occupy Democrats (and others) which are basically mis-leading and/or inaccurate headlines. So I try to inject a little reality into the discussion, like “this is what really happened” or “this is what they really said.” I never get any response.
In any case, Facebook is a rotten place to do that sort of thing, so I don’t do it as much as I used to. There’s an endless sewer of bad information being passed around, and I get too discouraged.
Not sites, but a man I know personally, mr. Maganut. When I saw him last year he was wearing satanic garb and had a large plastic syringe. He said the local Latinos loved the costume. He doesnt realize they were laughing at him.
I occasionally point out the wrongness of right leaning opinions on Facebook, but have cut back after being banned at a couple of pages by admins who really can’t take the heat.
Unfortunately, I’m not nearly as skilled as @JohnT or @Ann_Hedonia, so I will just take the opportunities when they come.
Why? There is a partisan divide on nuclear power, but it’s not that big. There’s a significant base of support for expanding nuclear power in both parties.
Republicans and GOP-leaning independents are 10 percentage points more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners (42% vs. 32%) to say the federal government should encourage the production of nuclear power.
I wasn’t aware that this message board had an official political position, people on all sides of the political spectrum have the ability to be wrong and to be ignorant.
I don’t think your narrow, personal, parochial politicisation of the site’s purpose is helpful if fighting ignorance is what you are concerned with.
Given that “The Deep State” is a term used by the Right to destroy the public’s faith in American institutions, this thread is focused on efforts to counter this.
I mean, I got two threats of physical harm yesterday on Twitter and repeated accusations of being a pedophile… and these weren’t coming from the Left.
So, I don’t know. I can understand the overall sentiment of wishing for political impartiality in normal times, and if it were, say, 2007 or 1994 or 1973, I would apologize for my poor word choice, ask for a mod to change the OP, and move on.
But I’m getting death threats, my friend, millions of us are… and the time for benign equivalency is probably behind us.
I’m up for efforts to counter stupidity’s massive effort to destroy faith in science and American institutions, but there’s a limit to how much time I’m willing to invest correcting people who are wrong on the Internet.
Book reviews are still a fun way to accomplish this.
I’ve had debates with a couple MAGA types in real life, but not online, and not very often IRL. What is the point, really? Is it for your own satisfaction and enjoyment? If so, fine I guess, but it’s been shown time and time again that if you disagree with a wingnut by dropping ‘truth bombs’ on a wingnut discussion board, even if (especially if) you supply evidence that you’re correct and they’re not, it just causes them to shut down and double down on their beliefs.
I know ‘don’t even bother’ is not the greatest, most inspiring way to deal with wingnuts, but I don’t really have a better solution. I’ve heard there is a way to ‘deprogram’ wingnuts, but it’s a delicate, involved and far from guaranteed process involving one-on-one interaction, finding some sort of common ground, and using that to build a civil discussion in which you can question their beliefs without them getting defensive and shutting down.
sure, but neither death threats nor unfounded accusations are the preserve of the far right either, not even in the USA and not in the world in general.
If you want to gather people together to fight for cause that you personally see as an issue then go for it, but that’s what I meant by “narrow, personal and parochial” so to badge such a partisan desire that with the name of the Dope (for the sake of a pun it seems) seems to be a mis-step. I’d think the Dope should stick to its brief of fighting ignorance regardless of where it arises.
You say this after Buffalo. After El Paso. After Orlando. After San Antonio.
Yes, statistically, the Right isn’t responsible for 100% of the targeted mass shootings. But they egg them on, both in their refusal to even address the question and in their daily affirmation briefings on Tucker Carlson about pedophile Democrats who are looking to steal and rape your children.
Which prominent Lefty is saying the same? Who is shooting up nightclubs in the name of Medicare for All? The closest I can find is in my own back yard, where the Southerland Springs mass murder was performed by a guy mad at God.
Lastly, I am not gathering people to fight. That would be against the rules. I’m asking what we are currently (or in the past) doing, outside of the Dope, to combat this.
