this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
160 points (87.0% liked)

politics

19149 readers
4270 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SinningStromgald 129 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Authorizing sending arms/aid to Ukraine is not the same as voting for war in Ukraine. No one wanted Russia to invade Ukraine either time but it did. Russia chose to start a war Ukraine decided to defend itself.

It's hard to believe so many peoples heads can fit up Putin's asshole while simultaneously sucking him off.

[–] FlyingSquid 66 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The thing is, Greenwald must know that. He's not an idiot. He can follow an order of events. So this is all just a big game to him.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

My favorite part of the Dominion lawsuit was all of the internal messages showing Fox News hosts willfully lying to their viewers. Nearly all of the conservative ragebait is people being facetious with reality for political purposes.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That was my "favorite" part as well, it shows that it's all propaganda and they're knowingly lying to people. They're misleading the American public, fomenting dissonance and fueling conspiracies for a paycheck.

The J6 insurrection wouldn't have happened if not for these people. A million dead from a respiratory virus thanks in-part to their anti-mask, anti-science rhetoric wouldn't have happened if not for these people. They're propagandists, grifters and confidence artists, nothing more; they're bad people who are a net-negative to society. Frankly they're dangerous and there should be consequences for knowingly lying and pretending to be a news source.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Also the messages that have come out from Trump staffers showing they knew the 'stolen election' thing was total BS... but many went on to publicly support the idea.

[–] assassin_aragorn 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He vehemently claimed Russia wasn't going to invade Ukraine when US intelligence came out and said it in advance. And then when Russia invaded, he shifted to all new bullshit, instead of having any self reflection.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

All of it is a joke to all of them until there's repercussions for any of them

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] kescusay 75 points 1 year ago (5 children)

What actually happened to Greenwald? I mean, he's obviously lost his mind, and he's been going down the right-wing conspiracy rabbit hole for years, but how did he get there? What bizarre side-tunnel on the left took him to the right?

[–] JustZ 36 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's very simple. Catering to the right wing nut jobs brings a lot of attention, which for someone like Greenwald, means money. Especially for a former "lefty". It's a naked grift.

It's an easy, successful grift. Look at someone similar like Dave "why I left the left" Rubin. He's not half as smart nor is he half as talented as Greenwald, and yet even he can pull it off. It does have pitfalls, though. Rubin has been struggling since he and his husband had those two children via surrogacy.

[–] whenigrowup356 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I mostly just feel sad watching Dave Rubin talk to people who clearly afford him 0 actual respect.

The look on his face when he just has to casually pretend that it's just a "difference of opinion" when people treat him like garbage to his face is hard to stomach.

He's getting paid and serving their purposes. He's actively harming his own community, so I know I shouldn't afford him much sympathy. Still feels bad to watch though.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I get why it's hard not to empathize with him, but you shouldn't. He's making serious bank doing awful things. If you haven't, you should take a look at his house sometime.

https://media.zenfs.com/en/variety.com/00ca8607c51fc1917e84c77d01dd6c38

[–] millifoo 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Many reasons, including deciding that Trans folks are delusional and fake and taking up more than their fair share of attention. But at the core of it I suspect that it's a desire to stay relevant and make money in the media world, and the easiest way to do that is to buddy up to the far right assholes of the world. Just a guess though.

Good article on it here:

https://www.salon.com/2022/08/08/what-happened-to-glenn-greenwald-the-former-trans-ally-now-sides-with-right-wing-transphobia/

[–] GoofSchmoofer 3 points 1 year ago

Anger, fear and rage == $$$

It's kinda straight forward. Want to know why someone has made a big change to what you thought were their core values? the answer is probably going to be money.

[–] CharlesDarwin 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I remember reading True Believer by Eric Hoffer ages ago and for some reason that book comes to mind when I think of people that were seemingly on the left, but somewhere, they took a dark turn and/or they become unwitting (or witting?) agents of outfits like Russia. Let's see:

Greenwald, Sinema, Stein, Tulsi Gabbard, Taibbi, RFK jr, Marianne Williamson, Naomi Wolf....

[–] kescusay 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Wow, I just realized that each of those people give me the same impression: They all remind me of the various types of Russian trolls one might meet online.

  • You've got the "Fox News favorites," the Democrats who constantly appear on right-wing media to denigrate other Democrats and reassure their viewers that everything Fox says is true.
  • Then there's the "Pac-Man right-wingers," the ones who present themselves as so far to the left that they've done the Pac-Man thing and looped from the left side of the screen to the right.
  • And finally there's the "Look at me, I'm crazy" types, the ones who pretend to be absurd caricatures of the left, expressing exaggerated, straw-man versions Democratic positions as if they're the real thing.

Most Russian trolls online are designed to convince conservatives in America of various insane "facts" about Democrats, and they use various tactics to do it. The majority of the troll accounts pretend to be American conservatives and spread intentional disinformation and misinformation, but some try to play the role of people on the left, to convince conservatives that the left is insane.

And every name on your list reminds me of those trolls.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

David Rubin and Candace Owens used to be on the left until they realized how lucrative it was being on the right too.

[–] IchNichtenLichten 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have no idea but Matt Taibbi seems to be on a similar path.

[–] CharlesDarwin 3 points 1 year ago

Yup. Though Taibbi is even far more tragic, IMHO, as I found his insights and writing style far more interesting than Greenwald ever was.

Maybe someone got their hooks into Taibbi during all that time he spent in Russia. He always gets salty when anyone suggests this, but....

[–] thisisawayoflife 67 points 1 year ago

Once again, Glenn Greenwald is rimming his Russian handlers in print form.

[–] Anamnesis 62 points 1 year ago

What a tragic fall from grace Glenn Greenwald has had.

[–] peopleproblems 44 points 1 year ago

I mean, even if they did, would anyone blame them?

Russia is literally committing genocide, and I personally defend the right of any country to defend itself.

(obviously that will attract the whataboutism of US in the middle east, but those people were wrong and our country paid dearly for it)

[–] CharlesDarwin 35 points 1 year ago

What a douchenozzle Glenn has turned into...

[–] phoneymouse 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used to like this guy, but he’s crazy. Where does he stand politically? He’s so far left he’s a right winger as far as I can tell.

[–] zeppo 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like some leftists on Lemmy, he doesn’t hold typical conservative views but criticizes and hates American liberals and the Democratic Party more than he does US conservatives.

[–] FlyingSquid 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He is certainly friendly with conservative beliefs...

From his Wikipedia page:

In his 2006 book How Would a Patriot Act?, Greenwald wrote that he was politically apathetic at the time of the Iraq War and accepted the Bush administration's judgement that "American security really would be enhanced by the invasion of this sovereign country."

Greenwald said that Bolsonaro could be a "good partner" for President Trump "If you think that the U.S. should go back to kind of the Monroe Doctrine as [National Security Adviser] John Bolton talked openly about, and ruling Latin America, and U.S. interests"

In an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Greenwald expressed support for the Ukraine biolabs conspiracy theory.

And some quotes:

"If you think the real power centers in the US are the Proud Boys, 4chan, & Boogaloos rather than the CIA, FBI, NSA, Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and spend most of your time battling the former while serving the latter as stenographers, your journalism is definitionally shit."

"The cultural left (meaning the part of the left focused on cultural issues rather than imperialism or corporatism) ... has become increasingly censorious, moralising, controlling, repressive, petulant, joyless, self-victimising, trivial and status-quo-perpetuating."

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (20 children)

“The cultural ~~left~~ right (meaning the part of the ~~left~~ right focused on cultural issues rather than imperialism or corporatism or fascism) … has become increasingly censorious, moralising, controlling, repressive, petulant, joyless, self-victimising, trivial and status-quo-perpetuating.”

It always amuses me when right wing grifters describe the right, but attribute it to the left

[–] cheese_greater 6 points 1 year ago

Its always a confession, not an accusation

load more comments (19 replies)
[–] zeppo 8 points 1 year ago

That’s essentially in line with what I’m saying. He considers Liberal ID politics and government agencies to be more of a problem than right-wing fascism.

[–] FuglyDuck 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You know…. I’m usually all for legalization of drugs…

…. And I don’t know what greenwald is smoking here… but I think maybe I’d be okay with banning that one. It seems to have made him stupid. And not like temporarily.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Right wing media: not even once

[–] jerome 21 points 1 year ago

obvious lying without any repercussions.

[–] CharlesDarwin 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I still listen to Matt Taibbi's old podcast (that he's no longer on) but IIRC, they still carry a torch for Greenwald, maybe even had him on in recent years. I definitely heard him on some podcast that seemed overly friendly to him.

What's amusing to me is when Taibbi, Greenwald, etc., pretend to be somehow so very principled and above the fray and so on...it is rather amusing to watch.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I claim that Greenwald licks Vlad's taint and thanks him for the privilege.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hate both of them with the burning passion of a thousand suns, FOX NEWS and that Nazi Laura Ingram cunt can get fucked too, it's a quadrangle of useless garbage

[–] FrankTheHealer 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Having read a bit about Greenwald, it seems he was always a bit of a contrarian, kind of "both sides are equally bad" sort of mindset. But since his partner passed away, hes gone right down the rabbit hole.

[–] CharlesDarwin 10 points 1 year ago

Didn't his partner just pass away this year? He's been a jagoff for a while longer than that.

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

It's so weird to see how far we've fallen in this country. Whether good or bad, we used to proudly stand with nations fighting for their right to independence and democracy. We used to be proud fighters of freedom. Now the party that's all about freedoms and war, want to hide like the cowards they really are. I guess it just hits different when it's your Nazi buddies trying to invade a country....

load more comments
view more: next ›