politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
Meh. Dumb voters will just flock to the next trigger topic.
Listen. It's not just dumb voters. It's a conservative propaganda vessel that funds any right-leaning talking points. It's madness being poured into any willing ear, all it takes is a little fear to let them in. I want to believe that individual volition trumps this by-the-numbers propaganda, but the proof is in the pudding. Make people scared and isolated and you can make them believe whatever shit you want (at least, on a macro scale)
Totally. I know plenty of people who would be considered smart by any standard, but when you're mainlining propaganda every hour, of every day, for multiple decades... it'll twist a person.
And it’s everywhere!
Don’t trust the mainstream media they say, but these days Facebook, YouTube, instagram, etc have billions of users worldwide. Those are mainstream media.
So in a way they’re right, but they seem to think Facebook and YouTube are some hot new thing and they can be trusted because they’re not part of “the establishment” or whatever. Those of us who were around since the beginning saw the decline from cat-video-sharing-platform to propaganda outlet. Hopefully more people start realizing it.
100%.
When I think about it for a while, my thoughts always come back to "What is truth? What is a fact? Why do I think my news consumption is more factual than this person's news consumption?"
I'm not a philosopher, and I think it's a tricky question to answer. I've found myself on the Stanford Philosophy Wiki. There's a ton of good stuff in there.
Of course, on a practical level, you're rarely going to be debating "what is a fact?" when you're arguing with your MAGA relations. My "normal" answer is that I try to get my news from sources that have reputations for fact-checking / rigor (AP / Reuters etc etc).
However, if you've spent all your time consuming Fox / Newsmax / AM Radio in the late 90s / aughts, your mental model of AP / Reuters is not my mental model. Anything outside of your right-wing bubble is to be shinned. To you, AP and Reuters do not have a reputation for rigor. They're part of a liberal conspiracy funded by the government and George Soros to demonize conservatives / brainwash the libs.
It's a tricky problem. I feel like we're in an era where the Dawn of the Internet / Social media is analogous to the advent of the printing press. We just don't know how to handle the firehose of information.
There's a huge part of me that thinks that recommendation algorithms need to be regulated.
Honestly, where it really breaks down for me is how they constantly portray other people as villains and tell you what their beliefs are.
There is no problem with gay rapists, immigrant murderers, trans baby-eaters, etc etc. No more than any other segment of society anyway.
I was taught not to always believe what others say about… others. If you want to know where someone stands, talk to them, don’t take a 3rd party’s word for it.
Although that doesn’t apply to people who confirmed super-liars.
You make a really excellent point.
Something similar is playing out with DOGE finding "waste" and "fraud." Very little in the say if of evidence, much in the way of waving around papers at a press conference / shitposting on Twitter and screeching "Woke DEI spending has been slashed."
Tbh, I get it. I understand why it works. Most people aren't political junkies. Most people don't really follow the news. They're busy just trying to get through their day.
That said, I read a good comment once- "You might not care about politics, but politics cares about you." I only wish more people understood that. Unfortunately, our economic system works against it.
Random aside, I wish we had strong labor unions in the US. They'd be very beneficial at this time.
It's not only true for the right. The left has its own problems with propaganda, dogmatism, and fake news. Some of it resulting directly from trying to counter the effectiveness of the right wing. Extreme polarization is the outcome and discourse becomes impossible.
Change conservative to liberal, right leaning to Democrat and you've just described MeidasTouch. They're nothing but mouthpieces for the DNC. The way that people like Rogan were mouthpieces for the RNC.