How the fuck do you make fake wrestling fair?
Make one of the participants dress like a panda?
(I have only this week learned of the existence of Tokyo Joshi. It is a wonderful thing.)
Wasn’t there a time when Republicans complained when sports stars and entertainers made political statements? “Shut up and dribble”? And of course, pointing out their hypocrisy means nothing because it has no effect. But it’s fun.
Confirmed once again: there is no limit to the crazy–
The MAGA-inspired disinformation keeps coming, with crazy people now threatening meteorologists to try to get them to “tell the truth” about how the US government, or maybe (((An Even More Powerful Conspiracy))) is controlling the weather, according to reporting from Rolling Stone. What’s more, a radio talk show host took a call from a person who said that his father, a Trump supporter in western North Carolina, has refused to ask for any disaster assistance from FEMA because the father fears the government would then seize what’s left of his home and property, just like the lies spread all over Twitter say. Thanks a lot for amplifying the crazy, Elon Musk!
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Here’s the poop, also from MSNBC’s website:
A man identifying himself only as Anthony called into Sirius XM’s “Dan Abrams Show” this week to share the story of his father-in-law, whose property near Ashville, North Carolina, was badly damaged by Helene. Despite the destruction, Anthony said his father-in-law is unwilling to accept assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“He has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hardcore Trumper,” Anthony told Abrams. “He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house.”
Also from the Wonkette article:
Rolling Stone reported Thursday that as Hurricane Milton approached Florida, several meteorologists had told its reporters that they not only had to take time out of their on-air forecasts to debunk disinformation about Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but that some of them have chosen to continue working even as they’ve received threats from conspiracy believers who are just sure the storms are part of a sinister plot to steal the coming election.
You’re honestly telling us you’re surprised they can’t tell fantasy from reality? You need more coffee or something.
Is death-threat a verb now?
Wonkette sometimes plays with language. Just go with it. Nitpicking neither required nor helpful.
However [this is supposed to be a gift link]:
I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is - The Atlantic
What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis.
…
Even in a decade marred by online grifters, shameless politicians, and an alternative right-wing-media complex pushing anti-science fringe theories, the events of the past few weeks stand out for their depravity and nihilism. As two catastrophic storms upended American cities, a patchwork network of influencers and fake-news peddlers have done their best to sow distrust, stoke resentment, and interfere with relief efforts. But this is more than just a misinformation crisis. To watch as real information is overwhelmed by crank theories and public servants battle death threats is to confront two alarming facts: first, that a durable ecosystem exists to ensconce citizens in an alternate reality, and second, that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes but willing participants.…
It is difficult to capture the nihilism of the current moment. The pandemic saw Americans, distrustful of authority, trying to discredit effective vaccines, spreading conspiracy theories, and attacking public-health officials. But what feels novel in the aftermath of this month’s hurricanes is how the people doing the lying aren’t even trying to hide the provenance of their bullshit. Similarly, those sharing the lies are happy to admit that they do not care whether what they’re pushing is real or not.
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Well, on the good side, there being more people like him helps to close the FEMA funding gap.
I guess what I don’t understand about the right wing attacks on FEMA is what exactly are they trying to achieve? If you tell someone who is facing an oncoming hurricane that FEMA is going to steal their property if they evacuate, and then they stay put and get killed, what have you gained?
Distrust in the government in general, and the Biden/Harris administration in particular.
If people get killed, all the better – more fuel to flame the fire. “They’d still be alive if Trump were president!”
No wonder the Republicans are afraid of fact-checking if all of their lies and grifts are this obvious. At least we know Melania has learned something from her beloved hubby. “Uproar” is an exaggeration, though.
Over the past several decades, the Republican strategy as an opposition party has shifted
Phase 1 Reasonable Disagreement (pre 1994): We will support your policies that we agree are best for the country but oppose those that we think will make the country worse.
Phase 2 Obstruction (Started 1994 went into overdrive starting 2008): We will oppose anything you do whether or not we think its good for the country.
Phase 3 Sabotage (current state): We will actively try to make the country worse so that you will be blamed.
Yeah but, it seems like they’re also likely to kill off some their base. That’s the part I don’t get. The outrage and distrust makes sense but it seems like there are better ways to accomplish that. I guess that’s why the thread is Stupid Republican ideas.
It’s the (alleged) PT Barnum strategy - there’s one born every minute.
Their shenanigans don’t kill off the base to any appreciable degree (if anything, they saw the vote count significantly increase from 2016 to 2020) so they can easily afford to lose a few. At least for now.
They might change their tune if the demographics significantly shift, but why bother with that now when there’s absolutely no sign that will be a problem for the foreseeable future? If anything, a few sacrificial lambs give them more ammunition for their endless blitz of bullshit.
Well, for every one person who dies because of something stupid, there’s probably more than one person who both knows them, and is politically neutral. Such a pointless death can motivate those people to engage with politics, and if they believe the lies as well, they’ll turn out for the MAGA wing of the party. So long as the average number of such people is slightly greater than one, they come out ahead.
But that works both ways. If I have MAGA relatives in the area, I’d be angry if they were killed because their MAGA leaders told them to ride out the hurricane. It might make me, a hypothetical undecided voter or apolitical person that doesn’t vote, to vote against MAGA.
The only motivation I can come up with for what they’re doing is that, since the hurricanes and the evacuation order weren’t their idea, they’re against it. Just standard, off the shelf, ‘dems like it so we’re against it’ stuff. No different than vaccines or masks or whatever.
I think this is right. The right has discovered how passionately some people are motivated by Resentment of Elites. Countering what Elites–such as meteorologists–say is a way of building solidarity among those who hate anyone who knows something about anything. Them pointy-headed intullechuls cain’t tell YOU nothing!!!1!!!
The top 1% are using this along with that old standby, racial grievance (and also gender and orientation and religious and ethnic grievance). The masses are so easy to hoodwink this way. They will vote against their own interests EVERY time if you promise them that you will honor their resentments.
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If some of the right-wing base die, that’s trivial in the larger scheme of things, because the far right has a lot of confidence, now, that the end of voting is very, very near.
If they can install Donald via court challenges and refusals to certify and so on, then this November 5 will have been the last time votes were needed in any sense. They’d be fine with Donald actually getting more votes. That would make things easier.
But if he doesn’t, it won’t matter. More dead Republicans won’t matter that much for much longer.
And you can’t forget that they really don’t give a shit about their supporters and what they need. Especially since they can just take credit for the things that the Democrats do to help people and their supporters believe them. Win/win!
So basically, “Elites” are anyone who tells you to do something you don’t want to do? Evacuate? Screw you I’m staying put!
I forget where I read it but someone made a crack about how the “Do your own research!” people are really bad at doing their own research. 