USA Politics

[Mosh]

To be clear, my strong belief on this is that it simply comes down to Trump wanting a loyalist who would also be eager to go after political opponents. I don't think this was a litmus test or anything more than that, and the trap of the Trump 2.0 era is going to be overanalyzing everything he does.

What I will say though is that, whether there was a grand plan or not (I think not), Trump has an advantage here where his next pick for AG is almost by default going to be less controversial even if that person would be just as dangerous in the role as Gaetz.

 

[Azas]

Dear Americans, is such approach normal/acceptable to you? To me it's definitely not. That's one of the reasons why average voters turning to the right. To humanize murderer is very wrong (not the right time, nor the right place). He crossed the line of no return. Period. The victim here is only one. Laken Riley.

Oh, and I checked MSNBC political leaning.

 

[Vaenyr]

Dear Americans, is such approach normal/acceptable to you? To me it's definitely not. That's one of the reasons why average voters turning to the right. To humanize murderer is very wrong (not the right time, nor the right place). He crossed the line of no return. Period. The victim here is only one. Laken Riley.
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Oh, and I checked MSNBC political leaning.
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Did you even read the article? Here:

Opinion | Why Laken Riley's killer was always going to be found guilty

For all the political controversy surrounding Jose Ibarra, the outcome of this trial was never in doubt.

www.msnbc.com

It doesn't "humanize murder". It's mostly from the POV of a defense attorney having to take on an unwinnable case. Maybe spend at least a few minutes actually reading up on stuff before being outraged

 

[Azas]

Did you even read the article? Here:

Opinion | Why Laken Riley's killer was always going to be found guilty

For all the political controversy surrounding Jose Ibarra, the outcome of this trial was never in doubt.

www.msnbc.com

It doesn't "humanize murder". It's mostly from the POV of a defense attorney having to take on an unwinnable case. Maybe spend at least a few minutes actually reading up on stuff before being outraged

Oh, I fuked up. Sorry.

 

[Spaldy]

Decarbonization is a step in the right direction

It's not just a step in the right direction, it should be international law.

but the goals and timelines are too ambitious and unrealistic,

According to literally every climate scientist, they're not nearly ambitious enough.

it ends up being too ideological -pc for the sake of it-

Yeah, stupid planet earth being all woke.

which destroy the economy and ends up messing up the life of working people, already in recession.

Climate change will be much worse for the economy long term.

All in all I’m delighted with the logic behind this nomination.

At this stage I'm convinced that Trump could shit on your head and you'd praise him for it.

 

[Spaldy]

Required watching for the hyper-progressives in our midst, with some interesting polling results:

I'm sorry but Bill Maher is a twat and always has been.

 

[srfc]

To be clear, my strong belief on this is that it simply comes down to Trump wanting a loyalist who would also be eager to go after political opponents.

There's a bit of that, and also he appoints real shitheads to positions as a way to test the loyalty of others. how low will other people be willing to go by debasing themselves and backing people they know are scum/shit.

 

[Meliegree]

I have studied propaganda and disinformation for years, both professionally and at work. In my opinion, nothing has done as much to divide society and bend democracy in the last 10 years as Google, Facebook and YouTube.

 

[TheMercenary]

 

[Flaming Blimp Crash]

I have studied propaganda and disinformation for years, both professionally and at work. In my opinion, nothing has done as much to divide society and bend democracy in the last 10 years as Google, Facebook and YouTube.

I'd already been downsizing my social media intake even prior to election season. Somehow, people think being on the internet (even if you personally know who you're talking to) gives you the license to just be shitty to others just because they're not in the same room as you. It amplifies divide.

 

[Jer]

I'm sorry but Bill Maher is a twat and always has been.

What an insightful critique of the actual content of his commentary!

Whatever your overall impression of a person might be, they may occasionally surprise you. I even got a useful nugget out of Ted Cruz once, and he’s the twat to end all twats.

 

[Meliegree]

I'd already been downsizing my social media intake even prior to election season. Somehow, people think being on the internet (even if you personally know who you're talking to) gives you the license to just be shitty to others just because they're not in the same room as you. It amplifies divide.

Social media also has a number of built-in mechanisms that fuel hatred. The basic one is the like mechanism, which works like a Skinner box. Every time we do something, we get (or not) a return in the form of likes, which act like a shot of dopamine. After a while, we become programmed to gain them at all costs, even more extreme opinions (stronger opinion - stronger feedback). At the same time, algorithms are focused on generating engagement counted as time spent on discussions and the number of engagement events (e.g. reactions) - the most effective generator is arguments. It has been proven in studies many times that YouTube pushes users towards increasingly extreme channels to drive time spent on the portal. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of how systems of this type work.

This is the greatest threat to democracy that I know of - especially when combined with a media that is dependent on a) advertising revenue and b) social media engagement.

 

[Brigantium]

Social media also has a number of built-in mechanisms that fuel hatred. The basic one is the like mechanism, which works like a Skinner box. Every time we do something, we get (or not) a return in the form of likes, which act like a shot of dopamine. After a while, we become programmed to gain them at all costs, even more extreme opinions (stronger opinion - stronger feedback). At the same time, algorithms are focused on generating engagement counted as time spent on discussions and the number of engagement events (e.g. reactions) - the most effective generator is arguments. It has been proven in studies many times that YouTube pushes users towards increasingly extreme channels to drive time spent on the portal. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of how systems of this type work.

This is the greatest threat to democracy that I know of - especially when combined with a media that is dependent on a) advertising revenue and b) social media engagement.

Hello nail, meet head