- cross-posted to:
- nyt_gift_articles@sopuli.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- nyt_gift_articles@sopuli.xyz
Yet such fantasies are now the common currency of politics on the American right. Remember the days when pundits solemnly declared that Trumpism was caused by economic anxiety? Well, despite a booming economy, there’s still plenty of justified anxiety out there, reflecting many people’s real struggles: America is still a nation riddled with inequality, insecurity and injustice. But the anxiety driving MAGA isn’t driven by reality. It is, instead, driven by dystopian visions unrelated to real experience.
That is, at this point, Republican political strategy depends largely on frightening voters who are personally doing relatively well not just according to official statistics but also by their own accounts, by telling them that terrible things are happening to other people.
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So are all the other political parties in representative democracy. Vote for me or the other guy will win. Can you even imagine for people to just vote directly for laws instead of having to chose for lesser of two evils?
No. Fear mongering is not the same as pointing out legitimate scary realities.
Yes it is, if done in a manipulative manner as all political parties do. There is a legitimate scary reality that you could be eaten by a shark, but blowing it out of proportion or telling people that they have to give up all their freedom and power so that you can protect them from sharks, that is fear mongering and manipulation.
Took you this long to notice, did it NYT?
Kinda been a theme for Krugman for a while.
Ugh, it’s a Paul Krugman piece? He’s such a pro-corporate establishment hack 🤢
Nobody should ever look to him for anything, much less timely analysis of what’s going on in the real world.
They had another article today that effectively said “yes, the insurrection is made of insurrection.”
Is it possible they fell into some kind of time warp, and are perceiving the universe at a slower rate than the rest of us?
It’s more that the NYT is studiously centrist and is getting to the point where it is OK for their left-of-center opinion writers to say this kind of thing
the NYT is studiously centrist
More center-right to right wing. Just like the DNC leadership and strategists with which they’re joined at the hip.
it’s BS for polite white NY society and it’s garbage. give my grimy seattle anarchist zines, pls. oh wait, that got taken over by the trans movement focused on gender terms or some BS that has nothing to do with victory.
i remember when i believed in ppl.
It’s not like trans people matter and they are being seriously oppressed right now or anything, am I right?
Man… first it was the blacks, then it was the gays, now it’s the trans? Who are we supposed to care about next? Poor people? This is BS that has nothing to do with victory!
ride that bandwagon to nowhere!
What ‘bandwagon’ would that be, the human rights bandwagon?
i remember when i believed in ppl.
Same homie, same
Is there anybody left in the entire country who does not understand the fundamental reality that conservatives in general are people who like to be lied to?
The thing is, they don’t know their being lied to. I think the big issue with many conservatives is that they are conditioned, basically from birth, to believe fantastical things as truth, without evidence. I.e. Bible stories as fact. Yes, Gabriel was swallowed by a whale. Of course Noah had all of the animals in the world on his boat. They learn to accept things at face value as long as it sounds good to them. This requires no critical thinking.
This is how you get otherwise intelligent people who believe right wing myths like high school kids identifying as cats and requiring litter boxes. They will believe anything as long as it confirms their biases. Belief = truth. I believe it, therefore it is true. It’s this simple to them. You can present all the evidence in the world to counter any one of their ridiculous conspiracy theories, but they will never change. Because, to them, belief = truth.
I’ve seen that with a very conservative former friend. They would send me reel after reel on Instagram of right wing talking heads discussing the “proof” they had that the coivd vaccine was deadly, “proof” that the human soul is placed in the egg at conception, and the LGBTQ+ people were really pedophiles.
There seemed to be no sense that a 30 second, highly edited reel on instagram could be false. It was telling them what they wanted to hear. The part that annoyed me was that they thought they were debating there position in good faith with these reels. That if they sent enough of them to me I would just say “Wow! you’re right, that reel from Andrew Tate really opened my eyes!”
We don’t talk any more and I hate that because we were really good friends until about 9 months ago.
i was shocked when i found out that everyone was bitching about immigrants collecting all the welfare, even though they are prohibited from working for 9 months after entering germany.
also many of them have no choice, who’s gonna employ someone who barely speaks english and not a lick of german? but no, mandatory education courses would cost money, we can’t do that.
conservatives are lying rats who just feed off of the hate they’re spreading.
OPEN YOUR EYES SHEEPLE!!!
Says the sheep with their eyes closed
that seems to be the operating principle of right wing politicians in general. bitch and moan about whatever gets the most attention, get elected, fuck over the voter and take people’s rights away. rinse and repeat.
For a group that talks shit about “snowflakes” always crying about everything, they sure like to cry about everything
Correct. Doesn’t matter what side your on, everybody bitches about everything. It’s the same shit forever. Vote for literally anyone you want because it literally doesn’t matter.
because it literally doesn’t matter
Spoken like someone who isn’t being demonized daily by a certain party and having your basic rights legally stripped away.
You know nothing about me. But if you want to play that game, what rights are being stripped away? Unless something new happened, no one is trying to rewrite the constitution. So unless you’re trying to be a perpetual victim, yes it literally doesn’t matter. The last few decades show that.
The last few decades show that.
They literally show the opposite. But since you clearly have never had to debate your right to exist, then you get to think it doesn’t matter. Your indifference is a luxury not everyone gets, but I understand your blind spot. No matter what, YOUR rights won’t change.
But one party, explicitly wants to ban my ability to seek health care, so my and many other peoples access to medicine WOULD change with a vote. Being indifferent to this simply isn’t an option.
Look at you talking at me like you think you know everything about me. Clearly you’re delusional, and a condescending asshole to go along with it.
Well you literally asked for examples. But if all you got is insults then whatever, I’m done here. You have a good day.
Removed, rule 3:
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (perjorative, perjorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (perjorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect!
Behaving like and being something are the same thing. One just makes you, specifically feel better. The outcome is still the same. The person is behaving like an asshole. The person is an asshole. To anyone interacting with that person, there is no difference. Stop bullshit policing of language. So, I have good faith that you’re an idiot.
Maybe you’ll understand in a few years when you’re old enough to vote.
I’ve voted for multiple presidents. It’s kind of speaking from experience when you look at the results from past decades. What the fuck are you on about?
Water is wet
Can we stop commenting this on every single political post? It just implies that the behavior in the article should be treated as normal by now. It’s not normal, no matter how common the media makes it seem.
In other surprising news, water is wet.
If you don’t say “water-wise”, how can I know what you are referring to?
Whaaaaat
Said the New York Times in 2024.
This article could have been written in 2017 and everybody would have gone “no shit Sherlock”
True but it doesn’t start nor end with maga. Republicans have been using fear mongering for a very long time
Democrats do as well. Vote for me or republics will.
Go back to Russia
These kind of comments, are very dangerous in politics. They are means of social control, where you can not express your opinions without being targeted as an enemy, even when you have best intentions in mind. These kind of comments are right-wing comments, exercising dominance over others (which is by definition a right-wing point of view). They are disguised as left-wing comments, fighting for social equality, but are actual means of silencing and discrediting others, simply for not agreeing with you or not allowing you to rule over them.
It is common for fake leftists to show their true right-wing believes, as soon as you disagree with them and are a threat to their power.
Classic government brainwashing. What do you think they say people in Russia when they critisize Putin? Exactly the same type of thing, “you are CIA agent, go back to USA”. This kinda of duality is exactly what dicatroship love. You are either pro hamas or pro Israel. Pro trump or pro Biden. Pro US or pro Russia. They make choices for you and if you cririsize one they tell you that you must support the other.
What happened to support the people? Not the political rulers.
You seem to be doing the same duality thing: “If you are against Trump, you must be pro Biden and that is just as bad!”
Dude that’s the third time you’ve made this same comment on this thread. We get it, you think both sides are the same, relax.
It is the third comment that says the same type of thing so I was worried some of those users will not see it. Btw, I never said they are the same, I just said that giving one absoulte power because you are afraid of another one is foolish and exactly the tactic of all people in power all around the World.
Fear and anger with absolutely no critical thought put into the issues. The two most primal feelings somebody can have.
Um, this is the GOP as a whole, not just maga.
Isn’t the core personality trait for conservatives fear? Like it all basically stems from that justified or not.
So are all the other political parties in representative democracy
Others: |
| GOP. : |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Just because “everybody does it” doesn’t mean they are equivalent. It’s like saying we both break laws when I’m speeding and you’re robbing banks.
This sounds woefully inadequate in it’s understanding of this new incarnation of fascism. It works by fostering inequality based on a myth of an “essentialized identity”. Us vs them. So fear is just one of the tools.
And a massive driver for this is the increasing wealth inequality and sinking quality of life and prospects of prosperity. Because the old systems of propaganda do not work anymore (which the journalist is a representative of) the system “responds” by using fascism because that still works. For many decades they lie and cheat and this creates the fertile ground.
You can’t have working democracy without prosperity, security (!= constant wars) and education (!= decades of propaganda in consolidated mainstream media)
I had to stop reading at “despite a booming economy.” It may be booming for Paul Krugman and the wealthy, but for the rest of us it sucks. No amount of gaslighting will convince the 750k unhoused, the 65% living paycheck to paycheck, the 50% of renters that cant afford rent (soon to possibly be homeless,) the skyrocketing auto repos and credit card usage for necessities that the economy is doing well.
He may as well include BlueMAGA in that statement of ‘based on fear,’ thats how the DNC holds onto power, by selling fear. Fear of what that other guy might do, while we do the same thing.
I cannot in good conscience upvote the OP, bc of exactly that sentence. However, their (NYT) gaslighting I think is of a different kind. For one, there are THREE entities involved here - which they hoped you would not notice: there are MAGA Republicans, there are the Dems, and then there are the billionaires who control both regardless of who wins (guess who owns the NYT btw:-P). The billionaire class would like it very much - please!? - if you would pretend that they did not exist, and were not the cause of there being no money available for common folks to eat/breathe/everything else, as they send rockets into space, self-admittedly bc they have literally no idea how to spend all that amount of money…
But as for BlueMAGA, there I disagree with you, bc the two sides are nowhere close to being equal. You might have no idea how close this country came to an actual coup - and I don’t even mean merely January 6. The Republicans winning is worth being afraid of, and I mean literal and actual fear not figuratively by any means. As in by-by democracy as Trump declares himself dictator for life, and then we have a literal civil war over it. It’s no joking matter, in that direction. While if Democrats win, school shootings won’t diminish in any way, so… also not great, but again nowhere close to being equal.
The BlueMAGA cult is as deranged in their loyalty to anything with a D in their name as a mainstream MAGA.
Nearly 100% of the stuff claims he will do cant happen. If the President had that type of unilateral power to change stuff without Congress why hasnt Biden exercised it? He couldn’t even repeal the ACA with a Republican Congress.
There was no coup or coup attempt, there was a bunch of hillbillies that stormed the Capital building. And the same gaslighting media like the NYT, among others, see dollar signs from liberals and call it coup. In the end we will see the entire Jan 6 dog and pony show was just a distraction to keep the rabid dogs at attention and barking.
The Democrats are not bluemaga, they operate and reason out policies completely differently, and don’t pretend that you not reading makes you an authority on the matter.
Many Dems are very much BlieMAGA, Some are a blueANON combo.
Please provide evidence, especially relative to the number of maga and the real world consequences of maga that have occurred?
It sure wasn’t Blue maga, a made up group, that violently stormed the capital trying to overturn an election, or blue maga, a made-up group, that mailed forged election certificates to the national archives and the vice president.
It’s no one’s job to prove to you that you belong to a cult.
Did someone tell you it was?
Or are you just frustrated by your inability to answer questions that refute your absurd accusations?
