11/08/2022, The Midterms, aka build on 2020 aka The Election Thread

[theimage13]

They exist?

I would say people (or, GOP office holders) who haven't made up their minds about whether to treat him as a political ally or political foe still exist, regardless of their personal feelings. But otherwise, I can't imagine there's anyone who doesn't know whether they like him, hate him, or are just too apathetic to give a fuck about him.

[Jinsai]

They exist?

They claim to... I'm dubious.

[Wretchedest]

There's a kind of person out there that aspires to ambivalence. I've known a few people who get really stuck up about not picking sides in a debate

[Jon]

I would say people (or, GOP office holders) who haven't made up their minds about whether to treat him as a political ally or political foe still exist, regardless of their personal feelings. But otherwise, I can't imagine there's anyone who doesn't know whether they like him, hate him, or are just too apathetic to give a fuck about him.

The bolded part is the majority of people I know and associate with. "I'm tired of hearing about Trump. I don't care." is something I hear more often than not.

[Demogorgon]

Biden proceeds to dig himself a deeper hole by joking about his tendency towards "affection": https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...D=ansmsnnews11

[Jinsai]

The bolded part is the majority of people I know and associate with. "I'm tired of hearing about Trump. I don't care." is something I hear more often than not.

Well hopefully their general ambivalence will translate to a desire to just make all that Trump talk stop in the voting booth, or their mild irritation might be enough to make them actually mail in a ballot.

[ltrandazzo]

I appreciate the irony of sharing this article through a tweet, so I'll do both! - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...sam&stream=top

Myself: I've had eye-opening experiences by attending Shelby County Dem and Indivisible meetings in person as opposed to following the narrative on Twitter and Facebook. There are still good things to be gleaned from political activists on both platforms, but relying on the words of random Twitter accounts or blue-checkmarked accounts who got that status by being a professional opinion-haver (so, the same thing) is the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gunfight. This is an important article and I would encourage everyone to read it before we talk about what's lighting up Twitter in regards to these candidates.

[allegro]

@ltrandazzo , GREAT article. Social media is an echo chamber of a lot of emotional hype, a circle jerk of likes and retweets (and ratings and hits and marketing pushed by MSM).

It’s become a combo of dizzying and nauseating; it got WAY worse after the Mueller investigation ended. It appears that a lot of these people on social media don’t do anything else; it is now a career, AND it has consumed them. And there’s hate all over. I’m now only following foster kitties on Instagram.

It’s totally true about the demographic. We go in days-long news cycles, now. Today’s HUGE “controversy” will be totally forgotten next week. Gov. Northam just rode out the blackface yearbook thing. Moved on, don’t care.

Today’s Democratic Party is increasingly perceived as dominated by its “woke” left wing. But the views of Democrats on social media often bear little resemblance to those of the wider Democratic electorate.

The outspoken group of Democratic-leaning voters on social media is outnumbered, roughly 2 to 1, by the more moderate, more diverse and less educated group of Democrats who typically don’t post political content online, according to data from the Hidden Tribes Project. This latter group has the numbers to decide the Democratic presidential nomination in favor of a relatively moderate establishment favorite, as it has often done in the past.

[...]

The relative moderation of Democrats who are not sharing their political thoughts on social media, and therefore of Democrats as a whole, makes it less surprising that Virginia Democrats tolerated Mr. Northam’s yearbook page. It makes it easier to imagine how Joe Biden might not merely survive questions about whether he touched women in ways that made them feel uncomfortable, but might even emerge essentially unscathed.

It also helps explain why recent polls show that a majority of Democrats would rather see the party become more moderate than move leftward, even as progressives clamor for a Green New Deal or Medicare for all.

[Jinsai]

and bottom line, the ability to manipulate the perception of public opinion on these social platforms is incredibly malleable. People don't have opinions anymore, they share memes.

[Demogorgon]

That goes for both parties too. There are a ton of conservative voters who, either through age or lack of interest, simply don't use social media to the extent that the loud, extremely vocal "MAGA, lock her up, build the wall!" crowd do. Here in Ohio, there are Trump signs everywhere. These people make their statement in their local communities and don't care at all about Twitter, or even how it works. Trump is everywhere putting on rallies and i think the Democrats need to not underestimate the effect that has, especially in the midwest. Whoever gets the Democrat nomination is going to have to hit the road and hit it hard.

[Jinsai]

That goes for both parties too. There are a ton of conservative voters who, either through age or lack of interest, simply don't use social media to the extent that the loud, extremely vocal "MAGA, lock her up, build the wall!" crowd do. Here in Ohio, there are Trump signs everywhere. These people make their statement in their local communities and don't care at all about Twitter, or even how it works. Trump is everywhere putting on rallies and i think the Democrats need to not underestimate the effect that has, especially in the midwest. Whoever gets the Democrat nomination is going to have to hit the road and hit it hard.

Yes, it goes to both sides...

But, I'd say one side is memier than the other in a general way
On either side though, yes, of course, memes are not an acceptable way to offer a real opinion, outside of anything but mockery or sarcasm for the most part. "clever use" is a crazy rare thing.

[allegro]

That goes for both parties too. There are a ton of conservative voters who, either through age or lack of interest, simply don't use social media to the extent that the loud, extremely vocal "MAGA, lock her up, build the wall!" crowd do. Here in Ohio, there are Trump signs everywhere. These people make their statement in their local communities and don't care at all about Twitter, or even how it works. Trump is everywhere putting on rallies and i think the Democrats need to not underestimate the effect that has, especially in the midwest. Whoever gets the Democrat nomination is going to have to hit the road and hit it hard.

Trump also has Fox News working as his own television network. I'm reading Omarosa's book, and she says Fox News was working with Trump's campaign during all of 2017. Both ways; Fox was informing the campaign, and the campaign was getting free coverage, 24/7. And Fox News is hooked into a TON of rabid Republican voters; I mean, like via an IV. My brother in Detroit says he works with people who DON'T WATCH ANYTHING EXCEPT FOX NEWS. EVER. Trump is still running his campaign via Fox plus he does on-the-ground rallies CONSTANTLY.

The Democrats don't really have an equivalent of that. And what Dems DO have - MSNBC and CNN - seems to be totally avoiding the women candidates; they're giving more coverage to the gay candidate right now (hey, don’t get me wrong, I like the gay candidate, but he also happens to be a dude to the MSM). Their message is: "This country ain't ever gonna vote for a woman, we found that out with Hillary, twice, and we aren't gonna make THAT mistake, again."* The liberal MSM is deciding the candidate, vs. providing equal information. All of MSM hung on DJT’s dick so much, that influence via free advertising is a lot of how DJT got elected. The MSM claims to base their coverage on polls. But the TOTAL UNRELIABILITY of polls was clearly demonstrated in the last Presidential election.

*edit: Even though HRC won the popular vote in the 2008 primary and the popular vote in the 2016 general election.

[bobbie solo]

[Jinsai]

The Democrats don't really have an equivalent of that. And what Dems DO have - MSNBC and CNN - seems to be totally avoiding the women candidates; they're giving more coverage to the gay candidate right now. Their message is: "This country ain't ever gonna vote for a woman, we found that out with Hillary, twice, and we aren't gonna make THAT mistake, again." The liberal MSM is deciding the candidate, vs. providing information about what voters might want.

The democrats have a spread out equivalent, and there's people out there who ONLY subject themselves to HuffPost etc.

The "gay candidate" right now is getting due attention; he's breaking ground and making sense, and nobody's really heard of him a few weeks ago really. Kamala Harris has been given a lot of attention, Warren has been given a lot of attention... we're not even to the point yet where we're really being realistic about these things, but I think it's a little premature to say that there won't be a strong female front runner for the primary nominee.

And now I'll piss everyone off and say that I think it's going to be Sanders, and I'm ok with that.

[allegro]

The "gay candidate" right now is getting due attention; he's breaking ground and making sense, and nobody's really heard of him a few weeks ago really.

Mayor Pete isn’t even an OFFICIAL candidate, yet.

He was on The View on January 31st. He was on again on March 22nd. He was on Chris Wallace’s show on Fox 3 weeks ago. He was on Meet the Press last Sunday. He’s also been on “The Week” and “Breitbart News.”

MSM has absolutely heard of him. I donated money to him almost a month ago.

Anyway, we have A YEAR until the first primaries.

[Jinsai]

Anyway, we have A YEAR until the first primaries.

yes, exactly... But regardless of his past visibility to you, he’s newly becoming a difficult-to-pronounce household name.

Im biting my tongue here. I don’t believe the America that just elected Trump is ready for a married gay man to be president , and I’ll admit it; my priority is just “no more Trump”

and i’d Love to see him beat Trump, but if he were to lose... my mind sorta breaks at the thought. That is a HUGE prospective gamble.

But yeah, that POTENTIAL potus bid is why he’s making waves along with that elephant in the room

[bobbie solo]

And now I'll piss everyone off and say that I think it's going to be Sanders, and I'm ok with that.

From your lips! Bernie would be a transformative president. He scares everyone that are comfortable with how this country is currently set up, or the right wing b/c they want to dial the clock back to 1958.

[r_z]

It's probably no coincidence that all that stuff about Biden is coming out now that a few candidates compete for the presidency, right? Biden's also clearly unterrating the lack of a sense in humor on the left side when discussing this. Which is too bad, because it were mostly moderate democratic candidates (like him) who got seats from the Republicans last November.

Also: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...real-life.html

[Jinsai]

And now Barr is suggesting that Trump’s campaign was spied on... apparently Devin Nunes is AG. Release the fucking Mueller report.

I know it’s crazy talk, but what if he IS playing defense for Trump. It’s obvious Don likes sycophants

[M1ke]

And now Barr is suggesting that Trump’s campaign was spied on... apparently Devin Nunes is AG. Release the fucking Mueller report.

I know it’s crazy talk, but what if he IS playing defense for Trump. It’s obvious Don likes sycophants

We all had to know that the guy who wrote that that he believed the probe was illegal before he even got the job was going to determine that the president shouldn't be charged. We all had to see that coming, right? And I mean, we kind of had to know that we wouldn't really know what the actual report said until it was delivered to congress. Right?

I'm not saying that Barr's characterization of the report is inaccurate, but I think that it was pretty clear we wouldn't know what Mueller actually found until the report was handed off to congress. The fact that he's taking his time with this is not surprising either, this is a political game he's playing, and as long as the contents of the report aren't known to anyone but him, he's got the upper hand. Once he hands it off to congress it's over.

As long as he keep saying there's nothing criminal in it without anyone else being able to review it, the longer he can keep this to be the central issue that everyone's talking about without having the full picture. And Trump currently has deniability. His AG says that there's nothing criminal in the report. Nobody else has seen the report to dispute that, so he can just keep saying it over and over again. And Barr is going to do everything he can to delay the release of the full report. The longer he can delay this, the firmer it will cement the idea of a liberal conspiracy.

If he redacts anything incriminating against the president, and then ties the process of challenging up in court cases for the next 18 months, this could be the main issue in the 2020 campaign. And Trump's played that game before and won.

But the fact that he's launching a probe into one of Trump's delusional conspiracy theories is taking this to a whole new level. I think the only chance that anyone has at this point is the 2020 election. If he gets re-elected in 2020, I don't think he's leaving office until he's dead, and when he does leave I'd imagine one of his children taking over before a new election is held.

This shit is whack yo.

[Haysey_Draws]

But the fact that he's launching a probe into one of Trump's delusional conspiracy theories is taking this to a whole new level. I think the only chance that anyone has at this point is the 2020 election. If he gets re-elected in 2020, I don't think he's leaving office until he's dead, and when he does leave I'd imagine one of his children taking over before a new election is held.

This shit is whack yo.

But that can't happen...right? Please tell me that CAN'T happen!

[theimage13]

It can't. None of them are anywhere near the line of succession as laid out by the constitution, and none of them have the branding to get people to vote for them like their daddy.

[allegro]

FWIW My front runners right now are Warren and Buttigieg. They’re both SUPER smart with really good plans.

But, as said, the first primaries are a year away, more people could throw their hats into the ring. Too early to really decide.

[Demogorgon]

This story going around makes me wonder how much of Bernie's popularity was "organic" and how much was manufactured. https://thehill.com/policy/national-...-to-help-elect

[Jinsai]

This story going around makes me wonder how much of Bernie's popularity was "organic" and how much was manufactured. https://thehill.com/policy/national-...-to-help-elect

I thought we already knew this though? And isn’t it an obvious move to target people newly disaffected? A clever computer algorithm can target people vulnerable to spam...

I would like to say its efficacy could be measured by the size of the “Bernie or Bust” crowd, but that’s not true. Now, because of the overstated size of Bernie/Bust people, now a bunch of people are reacting with anger to Bernie Sanders, and hating/blaming him for Clinton’s 2016 loss...

of course, a lot of the people angrily voicing that opinion online right now are Russian bots too...

This is only working at this point because it’s a “total witch hunt fake news.”

I guess it’s not technically “collusion” if the president just happens to approve of the message behind Russia’s propaganda campaign.

“Russia, if you’re listening...”

[Wretchedest]

We already knew that, but if ever a group of people liked to stick their fingers in their ears it's the fucking Bernie crowd

[Jinsai]

We already knew that, but if ever a group of people liked to stick their fingers in their ears it's the fucking Bernie crowd

because a lot of them are young, naive, and this is their first rodeo... and young people like memes, idealistic pandering, and being assured that they’re daring and special. I could program “the Bernie -turner” bot. This is a simple trick

Bernie Sanders is great though

[allegro]

[allegro]

My current fave “activism” is reporting crazy rampant racist Trump assholes and bots to Twitter and getting their accounts suspended. I’m currently at Pro level. I highly recommend it.

[theimage13]

My current fave “activism” is reporting crazy rampant racist Trump assholes and bots to Twitter and getting their accounts suspended. I’m currently at Pro level. I highly recommend it.

My s/o has a Twitter account for two reasons: the occasional academic networking RT, and trying to get banned from Chester Cheetah.