this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025

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Fediverse vs Disinformation

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389

As Constitutional Crises Mount, US Press Sleepwalks Into Autocracy (fair.org)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

As Musk and Trump continue to behave like kings, it’s incumbent upon news media to not just report on their actions, but put them in the proper context for the public to understand the threat level they represent; otherwise, we can’t respond appropriately.

That kind of reporting takes real bravery in the kind of moment we are in: Musk has already (falsely) called it a crime to reveal the names of those working for him at the agencies DOGE is targeting, which Wired and others have done. The Trump-installed DC attorney general has obsequiously promised Musk to go after those who identify his underlings—and to prosecute “anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people”.

While that might sound laughable, media outlets have already paid Trump handsome settlements to settle lawsuits that should have been seen as similarly laughable. When prominent news outlets won’t summon the courage to vigorously oppose this descent into autocracy, they are accessories to the coup. We must demand better from them, and support the outlets and journalists doing the critical work we as citizens require to defend our democracy.

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[–] brucethemoose 59 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

No, you need to fuck them over.

Fuck Comcast, Fox, Viacom and Disney.

Screw Google, Meta, Tiktok.

Don't demand anything. Adblock. Federate. Stop using their services, tell all your friends, shout it out, and then tell them. The only thing these entities understand is profit through engagement, and why it might be falling. They would run the country into the ground if it increases the quarter's profits by 3% and gives all the C-Suites golden parachutes.

...And that's what bothers me about so many charitable/advocacy organizations. They don't seem to understand how exclusively profit-driven so much news is now.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Sleep walks into autocracy? .... you mean marching lockstep alongside the fascist brigades (and frowning because they don't fully support it, but they'll still march in the parade anyway)

[–] finitebanjo 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I keep seeing so many posts and headlines begging Democrats to do something to stop this, do people not fucking notice Republicans took majority in both chambers and even the SCOTUS?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The time for democrats to do something was during the last 4 years of biden's admin, they decided bombing gaza was the priority. ooops.

[–] finitebanjo -1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The DNC did a lot for the USA and they even did some good for Palestine as well by limiting Israel's access to large bombs and actively negotiating between Israel, who are not controlled by the USA, and Hamas, who were armed and funded by Iran, for a ceasefire and hostage exchange. All of that good is undone now that Netanyahu's favored candidate won the USA election and is pushing for all of Gaza to be cleansed of Palestinians.

Good job, you really saved Palestine by telling Biden off. /s

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Someone is clueless. My point wasnt about bidens actions in the middle east. It was about the Democrats lack literally everywhere else while simultaneously deciding that murdering Palestinians was the hill to die on. Enjoy your fascism.

For everyone else: The democrats have spent decades not passing legislation that would fix shit so they could campaign on those problems while maintaining the status quo for oligarchs.

This includes:

not passing legislation for abortion protections
not passing legislation for minimum wage increases. Harris literally used a non-elected official's opinion as an excuse for her killing this legislation last time.
not passing legislation for single payer (or any substantial healthcare reform really)
not passing legislation for workers like paternity leave, vacation minimum, banning noncompetes.
not passing legislation that would hold employers accountable for abusing immigrants.

The reasons Democrats are not doing anything atm is because they're fine with whats currently happening.

To recap: if the Democrats wanted to stop this the time to do so was over the last four years. Instead they wasted their time w/ corporate give aways to tech companies, breaking strikes, slow rolling Ukraine support, and then speed running gazian genocide.

But yes its my fault no one likes the Democrats and support finally collapsed after literally decades of this nonsense.

[–] finitebanjo 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Right yes clearly both sides are bad and the side actually illegally freezing funds to the VA, Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, and tens of other government programs isn't actually clearly the much fucking worse evil. Thank goodness you didn't support for those dastardly dems. /sarcasm

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

just because soandso does Y does not absolve suchandsuch for doing X. sooner you and your candidates realize this the sooner you'll start winning elections again.

its very simple: if you want people to vote for your candidates it means your candidates need to do the things that get those people to vote. I'm sorry your upset your candidates lost but that's hardly the fault of the voters. I'm not going to roll out of bed for candidates like biden/harris/pelosi when they never pass legislation that I want to see. Which is a shame since I vote in every election and my vote is literally there for them to get. remember democrats lost because the people they've been refusing to support finally decided to stop wasting their breath. we warned in 2016, we warned you in 2020, we followed through in 2024.

until then enjoy your fascism. you've earned it.

[–] finitebanjo 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

We're talking about a first past the post two party system of soandso and suchandsuch, and by abstaining to promote and vote for suchandsuch who does X you get soandso who does X, Y, Z, and even Q for some fucking reason.

And then you have the gall to go online and act justified for openly acting against all of our own interests.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Do you know what the definition of insanity is? Its doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results. That's you and the democratic party.

Let me make it simple for you: the mathematical analysis all you dweebs cite about FPTP is overly simplistic. people don't behave the way you think they do. They don't bother associating with groups that actively antagonism them. You can scream and moan as much as you about your interests but its not going to change the dynamics of human behavior.

If you want people to show up for you, have a platform that gives them what they want. Harris literally sat there for months shitting on palestinian groups for wanting the murder of their friends and family to stop without saying a peep or supporting them in any real manner.

Then her great divergence from democratic norms was campaigning with fucking cheney. a figure the democratic base absolutely fucking hates. more than they hate people like pelosi.

Then she decided her big campaign promise was going to be legalizing weed. Bitch, we've already legalized that shit in the states we live in.

The policies on her campaign website? they maybe would have impacted 100k in the entire country of 300 million. bitch people are struggling for afford food never mind fucking housing.

No one is going to promote a candidate that literally does jack shit for them while simultaneously demonstrating she'll shit all over their group at the drop of the hat when they become inconvenient for her oligarch masters for months.

So yes, people like myself won't support a your party when you don't do shit for us while demonstrating you'll toss us under the boss at a moments notice. You've had decades to solve this problem and you've been hemorrhaging support the entire time.

Enjoy your fascism. next time maybe once you hold your critters accountable things will change. but that's unlikely given you still think you're owed peoples votes just because you're not trump.

get bent sincerely,
everyone who stayed home rather than waste their time on you.

[–] finitebanjo 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

We haven't tried shit, the Dems got a 60 senate supermajority and only by including caucusing Independents over a decade ago, it was the most productive congress since the 89th congress, and it came up 1 vote short of passing Singlepayer because every single republican and 1 of the caucusing Ind voted against it.

Then, we never gave them more than that since.

We actively have not been trying, because people like you and people like Maga are actively sabotaging things.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

We actively have not been trying, because people like you and people like Maga are actively sabotaging things.

lol.

I didnt force biden and democrats to break a strike over sick leave.
I didnt force biden to slow roll the war in ukraine.
I didnt force biden to not wield an ounce of executive power effectively.
I didnt force harris to shit on muslim americans.
I didnt force harris to completely ignore working class americans.
I didnt force harris to allow a beaucrat to kill a minimum wage increase.
I didnt force the DNC to rig their processes against bernie.
I didnt force the DNC to pump MAGA republicans.
I didnt force the DNC to support arresting student protestors.
I didnt force the DNC to shit on trans people immediately following their loss.
I didnt force the DNC to not codified abortion rights for literally 47 years.
I didnt force the DNC to not put forward any transformative legislation for workers in 16 years.
I didnt force the democrats to not pass reform for congress investing.
I didnt force the democrats to maintain the filibuster.

I dont need to sabotage the democrats. they're doing a wonderful job of that themselves by lacking any evidence of actually helping american workers.

you're not a victim here, you're just unpopular. figure your shit out. I dont owe you or the democrats shit.

The hilarious thing is that 60 seat super majority was granted on the back of health care reform. the democrats havent put forth shit since then and they watered down that bill. Let me know when they put forward a plan worth spending my effort stumping for them. The list is long they have plenty of options.

edit reminder: the fillibuster is convention, not law. the democrats have had multiple opportunities to pass legislation effectively. They've declined every opportunity.

[–] finitebanjo 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They voted on that health care reform and every single DNC voted to pass it, but it came up 1 vote short to get through the filibuster because they only had 60 as a result of caucusing Ind.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

literally almost 2 decades ago and outside of the fact most of the leaders in the DNC are the same its fairly immaterial to the current issues.

[–] finitebanjo 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

When we gave them 58 we got results

If we give them 60 we get all of the results

So I say, support them 100%

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

you do you. I have better things to do with my time than support a group that has literally gone out of its way to not pass legislation that supports working americans.

reminder: fillibusters are a convention not a law. they've always had the ability to pass legislation with simple majorities. They've chosen not to.

if they start proposing and passing effective worker friendly legislation i'll reconsider.

[–] LotrOrc 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Limiting bombs? Yeah I'm sure the hundreds and thousands of 2000 pound bombs the US dropped on Gaza really made them thankful that they stopped them from using what, a nuke?

More tons of explosives were used in Gaza than in Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined.

Are you really blaming people who did not want to march over the bodies of 100s of their family to vote for a guy funding the genocide? Are you really sorry morally broken that you think voting for a geriatric genocidal monster was an acceptable solution rather than voting for a third party or refusing to vote?

Just so you could point a year later and say "see trump doesn't care" while ignoring the fact that not one person in the democratic establishment gave a fuck while 800,000 people were murdered?

Youre an embarrassment. And voting for the dems lockstep for the last 12 years when they ran Hilary, then Biden, then Biden again while ignoring people like Bernie is exactly what got us into this position.

You should be ashamed that you only cared when it started to effect you

[–] finitebanjo 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's funny you chose 2000 lbs bombs as an example because the Biden admin literally did pause those specifically after Israel paid for them, and then Trump continued those exact shipments and bragged about it.

[–] LotrOrc 0 points 4 days ago

After giving them a ton of them already??

And it took like 8 months of genocide for them to stop doing it?

[–] shalafi 11 points 4 days ago

an X account which suggested the six young men...should be “paid a visit” by FBI agents.

“You have committed a crime,” Musk fired back at a comment from the account Monday..."

That would have been laughable a few months ago, now it's horrifying.

[–] Professorozone 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yup, the country is falling rapidly into fascism and all I here about is a week old airplane crash.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

the plane crash is related to the fascism

[–] Professorozone 2 points 4 days ago

I know right!!!

[–] alexc 18 points 6 days ago

It’s because they’re all part of the same system - Bezos owns WaPo FFS, and that’s assuming people read newspapers in the first place.

It’s not sleepwalking if they’re actively enabling and always have been.

[–] SoftestSapphic 6 points 4 days ago

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[–] Sanctus 15 points 6 days ago

Its not a sleepwalk, the destination is intentional.

[–] demonmittenhands 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's wild to have this relative silence from the media on all this. Especially considering how things tend to go for the media in fascism.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

It goes great for media that's a propaganda arm of the government!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

This is an excellent piece of media reporting. Thank you for sharing it.

[–] Sam_Bass 1 points 4 days ago

Money buys a buttload of cooperation

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Thanks for sharing this, @[email protected].

[–] [email protected] -4 points 6 days ago

Weak sauce. The US press do not call out the US government. They keep you afraid of the boogie man, and use your personal values to divide you. You are not fixing this now.