This thread is so overwrought with hand wringing now. I read this, and I just can’t help myself because I’m weak, I admit it.
You’re “scared” by all this nonsense, but you’re fine with “peaceful protests”, and also living in a part of the country where criminal activity is described by a $500 “limit”?
If you hadn’t identified yourself as an intelligent, highly educated individual, gainfully employed, I would’ve thought this is how people living in mom’s basement scrolling through social media “discuss” things.
I’m done. In my defense, this thread keeps popping up like a red flag, even though all rational people know the election is over, and done.
I do find utter and total delusion of reality and utter and total devotion to an unhinged politician to be scarier than protests and riots. I certainly don’t condone violence or destruction of property.
Interpreting your scare quotes to really mean rioting and violence against person and property - I hereby challenge you to name one person in this thread who has been fine with it.
(I’m setting aside your tired whataboutism for the moment.)
The point is this - we have a sizeable portion of the country who believe in unreality, made-up facts that aren’t true and conspiracies by the truckload without an ounce of critical thinking. That is a scary thought.
So, at no surprise at all, you moved the goal post - you said people were fine with it, and that was horseshit, because no one has been fine with it. So, you changes it to “um, where’s the condemnation?”.
That said, I saw tons of condemnation - I condemned it and every regular contributor here did.
We’re talking about millions upon millions of people who (among other insane things) believe in conspiracy theories about communists who electronically switched votes. You think that’s ok, do you?
But back to reality - despite your nonsense claim, no, there aren’t legions of people ok with rioting and violence, and so, no, that myth isn’t scary, but yes, there are legions of people who believe in an alternative set of facts based on unreality propagated by right-wing propagandists, and yes, that is very scary for the future of our country.
Did you really just say “brainwashed”? Irony gold.
I think the point punnyguy is trying to make is that those people are not as numerous as the media would have you believe. I know several people, they are friends, who voted for Trump and though they are disappointed, they do not believe the election was stolen and even voiced their concerns about him probably losing before the election.
Let’s say that poll is bullshit and off by 50%. That’s still 18million voting GOP who believe that. Along with the top GOP leaders stoking that fire and saying it as well.
That’s the sad part. I think most of the high ranking GOP people know it’s all a bunch of bullshit. But they have been terrified for four years of getting on Trump’s bad side. So they are just riding it out still spineless still unable to condemn attacks on democracy like this. Yet they have no problem signing off on everything with the election except for the President losing part.
I’m not sure what that was lol. Reminder to self to stop posting?
I agree with this. And it’s gotten worse in 3 distinct phases:
1st the internet era, which allows one to go to any sources they want and thus causes both more competition in “one-stop shop” sources for viewers and more niche proliferation for new markets. And social media, obviously.
2nd, the smartphone era. Until the iPhone, you had to literally sit in front of a computer to get your info. Yeah you could use a laptop, but it still generally meant some dedicated place (office, coffee shop, library, den) and you stationary not doing ANYTHING ELSE. Then the smartphone came along and you could get your info “on demand” wherever you were, and didn’t have to stop what you were doing. Although your friends might get annoyed with your face buried in the phone.
3rd, the precision tracking and Big Data AI phase. Up until recently, cookies were relatively stone age, unrefined tools. And you had to keep them on your computer. Now you have a computer with you at all times in the form of a smartphone as well as a much much more refined data set that includes your GPS and a whole host of other things. This allows anyone with the data to feed you anything, and companies to tailor your feeds in the form of sources you read and topics.