The U.S. will mark the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection on Saturday, a milestone that will confer upon the reality-dwelling citizenry a grim reminder of the potency of propaganda and how quickly it can warp perception when introduced into the public square.
The U.S. will mark the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection on Saturday, a milestone that will confer upon the reality-dwelling citizenry a grim reminder of the potency of propaganda and how quickly it can warp perception when introduced into the public square.
Just three years ago, most of the country watched with dismay and horror as a violent MAGA mob beat back authorities and stormed the country’s citadel of democracy. The Donald Trump-incited crush of disillusioned rioters, fueled by a stream of fantastical lies, believed that the 2020 election had been stolen by sinister forces working to undermine the democratic election.
Of course, not only was their belief flatly incorrect, but evidence later emerged indicating that it was Trump who, in fact, had tried to subvert democracy.
Facts, however, have little bearing on the sentiment inside the Republican Party, which has been fed a steady diet of lies and half-truths by Fox News and the rest of the sprawling right-wing media machine. To wit, the false notion that Joe Biden nefariously stole the 2020 election is now widely shared inside the GOP. A CNN poll conducted over the summer found that nearly 70% of Republicans believe Biden’s win was not legitimate, a number that has continued to tick up.
IMO, this event was worse for America and the world than 9/11. What goodwill and credibility can America exercise on the world stage when Trump can incite a violent attack on the US Congress, and he is still the front runner?
If he had convinced the Capital Police to get rid of the metal detectors, as he tried to do, America would be under a Trump dictatorship right now.
As if his capitulation to Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, or North Korea shouldn't immediately disqualify him, or the millions of dollars he personally received from foreign governments during his presidency.
It's a matter of degrees .... American establishment wants fascism, they are just taking their time getting there.
The problem isn't Trump, Trump is an idiot and dime a dozen, once he dies, there will be another idiot just like him that the establishment will court and push into our faces every day.
The problem are the millionaires and billionaires of America that are funding all this crap and keep maintaining it all. If all this relied on Trump's charisma, it would have died out a long time ago ... it's just a huge marketing machine that keeps it afloat.
As long as we keep seeing these headlines, no matter if it's Trump or someone else ... it's just a sign that the wealthy want fascism to keep growing because they know it will mean a win fall for them at the cost of all of us.
As an American. You are 100% spot on. Had Republicans not enabled and helped trump at every step. He would have gotten nothing accomplished. They were there every hour of every day ready to lick his greasy taint in an effort to please their voters. It could be any idiot. It just happened to be Trump
With many other countries I could agree. But America is the global reserve currency and basically the world’s police. For the theocrats pushing a takeover it wouldn’t end well. F35s and other highly technical defense system would crumble. Our soft power would evaporate overnight. Many Billionaires would wake up only to find their billions are worth a fraction. Sounds Improbable.
What confuses me is that they seem to miss that historically fascists or authoritarians more generally don't actually pander to the wealthy once they have power, and many wealthy suddenly end up dead or missing. Look at Xi and Putin for instance. Or history.
They finally found their useful idiot who was capable of energizing a portion of the population who previously didn't believe voting was important.
The majority of the GOP in office will continue to bend the knee to anyone they view to have the same power. And I fear eventually we will see the same action taken on the left.
People don't realize they tried this 100 years ago, with Smedley Butler. It was called "The Business Plot." But Butler was honorable, and snitched. Absolutely nothing was done, and most people don't know who Butler is. He was at the time THE most decorated Marine in history. But he fucked with the money, and they buried him and his legacy. I tweeted Oliver Stone 10 years ago that he should make a biopic about Butler.
It's so stupid though. The German conservative aristocracy wanted fascism (mainly because they were incredibly unsettled by the post WWI shake ups and terrified of bolshevism) and thought they could control the Nazis to their own ends. That pretty much immediately backfired on them. These people have to see that...
99% of our voting population is going to vote team color no matter what. They don't care that Biden hasn't done anything meaningful to put a stop to this, and they'll argue with me tooth and nail that electing him is a moral imperative anyway.
Man, I had forgotten about that car thing. I don't know. They wouldn't have harmed him. They would have delayed him enough that he couldn't certify the vote. Then Trump had plans to use the military to seize voting machines (after which he would have obviously lied about whatever his goons found).
The Joint Chiefs memo was very comforting regarding the transition but it came on January 12th and cited the Congressional certification in saying "we will evict him with force on January 21." If the certification didn't happen, the transition and the election would have remained uncertain.
I think there is very little appetite in Washington for such uncertainty, but one side of the aisle is treasonous and would gladly acquiesce.
The ONE, and ONLY thing that stopped the coup was Pence growing a backbone at the exact time it mattered. It wasn't out of honor or duty, it was out of narcissism. He didn't want to be known forever as the man who facilitated The Corporate Theocracy of America.
America is geopolitically isolated on its support for Israel, to the point where it's rapidly accelerating the collapse of its hegemony. We might lose Turkey in NATO, we might lose Egypt's cooperation on migration, dedollarization is accelerating, normalization between Israel and the surrounding neighbors is dead, international law is a joke, and this is happening at the same time that French imperialism in Africa is also collapsing with coups and revolts.
It's Joever
EDIT Downvoting me won't bring back American prestige you fuckin libs. What is Biden going to do when South Africa's suit against Israel finds them guilty of the crime of genocide? When America is compelled by international law to take available actions to stop genocide?
I'll tell you what he'll do! Nothing. When he does, the rest of the world is going to continue leaving America behind. Good riddance. 😜
They're not down voting you because they're liberals. They're down vote you because you're likely an accelerationis hypocrite. With shitty unconstructive hot takes and zero actual solutions.
You're telling the truth. The only thing Israel is to the US is a another military staging area if shit kicks off in The Middle East. That's it. That said, Biden is not the entire admisistration. No President is. It takes Congress to change this shit, and way too many defense contrators and their shareholders are making way too much money for this to change.
And also, I can't remember the exact quote, and I'm paraphrasing, is "People tell you they want to hear the truth, but they'll hate you for saying it."
As an outsider, I find American obsession over Jan 6th to be absolutely bizarre. At worst it was a riot. How exactly is a riot at the capital going to cause a coup? I'm guessing you too probably have overblown Jan 6th concerns but peoples response to your comment only confirms my thoughts. People are so entrenched in maintaining the "most dangerous thing since the civil war" that they are willing to consume their own over the smallest disagreements.
Also, these people claiming Trump would be worse in Gaza, but it's not clear the US would be worse in Gaza if Trump won, the US has put up zero road blocks currently and with Trump in the Whitehouse the democrats would actually push back against the genocide because Trump is now president. Plus more negative press from the corporate media, again, because Trump is in charge. Not saying it's the most likely case, but it can be argued.
Three years later, the ring leader and main benefactor is still free and openly lying.
This country is a joke. Literally incapable of defending itself from the inside. The US is beyond pathetic and will go down in history as such. We are so capable yet choose corruption.
My guy, a country founded on the backs of a native American genocide and then 300 years of slavery, that decrees freedom above all else? You've never not been a joke.
My guy, the goodness or badness of the country says NOTHING to refute my point that it is presently utterly and completely failing to defend itself from the inside.
And of course you get put on every watchlist in the country if you say people should just handle the Donald Trump problem directly and Shinzo Abe him. We do the most to protect that man from lynch mobs even though he was more than willing to use them. And for the record, I'm neither going to murder the man nor incite anyone else to do so, it's impossible to get away with and I don't have the balls even if I wasn't scared of prison, but I guarantee there would be very few tears shed if it did happen and nobody of worth would lose any sleep.
Political assassination gets rid of a figurehead but revitalizes the entire movement. It’s not a smart thing to do if you want to actually fix problems.
Their continued refusal to acknowledge that it was a crime, and the normalization of criminal conspiracy and use of political violence to chill efforts to hold people accountable... all amounts to organized crime masquerading as legitimate politics
I'm still shocked to this day that police weren't mowing people down as they tried to force their way in. By not doing so, they basically said, "this is fine" IMO.
It's clear some people haven't seen the videos that have come out: quite a few people were let in by police. There is also some number of "arrested" people who turned out to be police and there is some evidence of them agitating the crowd.
I've got to admit, having seen similar tactics at the G20 protests in Toronto that resulted in total authoritarian overreaction, I'm now reading this telling of Jan 6 as an insurrection with skepticism.
This. When I first heard I imagined they'd set up a few MG nests and show they weren't fucking around. I was quite surprised by how little a reaction, especially from the most gun happy country
Even the Republicans who admit Trump was at fault for the events of 1/6 still say they'll vote for him.
It isn't about right and wrong to them, its about getting a fascist in the White House to reorder society into their prescribed hierarchy. Different factions have their grudges: trans people & other sexual minorities, POCs, foreigners, religious minorities, and leftists.
The hatred is what unites them, but they're too goddamn stupid to see that fascism always eats itself in the end because it constantly needs a new target upon which they can focus their blinding rage.
It's extremely blatant at this point and they aren't trying to hide it. Support for Republicans is support for American fascism and Christian nationalism at this point. We really need to start acting like it. You wouldn't hire a Nazi. You wouldn't go on a date with one, or allow one in your bar or invite them to thanksgiving. America could defeat Nazis again without lifting a finger, but everyone is too fucking afraid that uncle Marty might get upset to take direct action in their own lives. So we'll end up back to fighting them in the streets one day.
“When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labelled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism’.”
My MAGA dad keeps telling me it was an inside job by the Democrats. He's saying everything was filmed way in advance by actors and everything was peaceful because of this mystical "new evidence" coming out; all the cops were a-part of the FBI, CIA, ect.
My sister was a medical lab tech for over 40 years, in a hospital, and she's a vaccine denier. I can't understand that. It's all Fauci's fault. But she fills her head with fear and hate from Fox every night.
The article correctly identifies Fox News and right-wing media as spreading propaganda about Jan. 6th. However, we've known Fox News is not a legitimate news source since at least 2000 or earlier. For every article like this, I am internally screaming: ok, but how do we do to fix this?
The biggest problems seem to be:
Fox News and related right-wing media inoculates viewers against non-extremist sources. They explicitly and implicitly, constantly, tell viewers that other news sources are lying to them and cannot be trusted. When the audience is exposed to actual facts by actual objective reporting, the inoculation kicks in and they immediately reject those facts as liberal lies and conspiracy. Right-wing media frequently also accuses democrats of doing what the GOP is in fact doing in bad faith. Even without evidence, that further undermines legitimate complaints about the GOP's tactics.
Politicians exploit the audience this propaganda has created, to scapegoat and harden voting habits. The same propaganda outlets constantly find liberal boogeymen - immigrant criminals, "woke" nonsense stories, minor issues with liberal programs in America that they amplify and distort, international stories of left-wing failures of governance. A combination of 1984-style 2-minutes-of-hate, and "but for the grace of God and the GOP go we" fear-mongering.
The GOP has successfully tied itself to religion for a huge voting population, and religion for most people is non-negotiable. "Gods, guns and Trump" signs are not just an anecdotal type of supporter - that marriage is the core of the GOP. Religion awards value based on faith, and that actually means the less these voters question Trump and accept him as part of their faith, the better they feel about him. That's a huge problem.
There is no required critical thinking training or teaching in schools to help kids understand how to form their own opinions in the midst of essentially information warfare. Schools can't appear partisan, but to call a spade a spade: Kids are growing up bombarded by propaganda, and by the time they have the facilities to decide for themselves what they think, that environment usually has decided for them.
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My best thoughts for fixing:
For #s 1-2, voters need to keep the senate and presidency and take the house this year (no big deal!), and implement a "news" media fact-checking law. Defamation/libel laws are not enough to stop this type of propaganda. It would be difficult within the First Amendment, but I think a law formalizing what is considered "news" that sets a cap on opinion pieces, unsupported speculation, and reporting of non-verifiable facts would be a start and not unconstitutional. No speech would be prevented, but Fox News' brand of trash couldn't be called "news" any longer. The challenge is creating a legal tool that can't easily be misused to enforce the very authoritarian propaganda it's trying to prevent.
For #s 1-2 and 4, state governments could introduce a comprehensive critical thinking curriculum for kids. It's objectively non-partisan to help kids critically assess information in the internet/social media age, so this seems sellable as long as it isn't politicized.
For #3, I don't know the best way. I think at least introducing cognitive dissonance showing how different religion tells us to act versus how Trump and company act would be a start, but it's probably impossible to untangle politics and religion to most on the right.
In fact the whole "parents choice" movement is very openly and explicitly about making sure that children are not taught critical thinking or exposed to ideological diversity in school.
To continue upon others threads. In theory, on paper. You are correct. In practice, that was left behind decades ago. Back in the 1940s the Christian Right began to coalesce. In the 70s it became a prominent voting bloc. Cut to present day and you have preachers telling their congregation who to vote for because they have a wink and a smile contract. Hurt the people we hate and we will give you power.
Unfortunately, "separation of church and state" is a nice goal but leaves a lot to be desired.
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from establishing a particular religion ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"). However, even that relatively narrow prohibition has been interpreted even more narrowly by conservative Supreme Court justices who only thinly veil, if at all, their favoritism to their particular religion.
Additionally, non-profit orgs are technically prohibited from endorsing candidates and campaigning. However, conservative churches and their pastors frequently give (again) thinly-veiled instructions to vote for Trump or the GOP, without repercussions.
There is, but that only prevents the government from acting as a religious organization. It doesn't prevent a group of private citizens from deciding to vote only for religious extremists, thereby filling all the lower offices with theocrats who slowly work their way up the chain until until they control the federal government. All the way they pay lip service to religious freedom until they have the numbers and authority to do away with it.
For point 1, that's absolutely not getting past the 1st amendment, and it really doesn't matter that it's called news. People treat their crazy uncle's conspiracy Facebook posts as "news" and labeling doesn't really do much if anything to discourage this behavior.
For the idea of critical thinking and education, this is something that democrats should be campaigning on and promising, although obliquely. It should probably come in the form of increasing funding for schools (MASSIVELY) and then add in media literacy courses and such to the curriculum. Although, that said, there are already schools that do this in some form or fashion, but the problem is that far too many school boards are overrun with nuts, and this ties into point 3...
Religion being tied to governance is a real, real problem. Teaching kids critical thinking is going to teach a lot of them, especially Republicans and Evangelicals, that they are being fed a steady stream of bullshit. We still have enough religious association that even getting this across to Democrats and left leaning in a major way is going to be tricky.
On a hopeful note, the most zealous of this population is dying out. Levels of religion have been steadily dropping for a while now. I think as more of this magical thinking dies out, we're more likely to see positive improvement. Of course, we have to not become a fascist state in the meantime.
You’d be surprised. I know personally people who traditionally support the GOP but despise Trump who believe a bunch of the bullshit around January 6 because they hear it from their circles. Like how Antifa was involved.
I'm not a conservative republican, but I do agree not all right wingers are bad, we have a representative democracy because what works for me in my medium sized city dosent work for Matt in New York, or Jerry in BFE Montana. It's the division that the partisan politics thats truly hurting us all.
The narrative around this event has been downplayed so much that it feels like a non factor for Trump. If it was anyone else in trouble for this there wouldn't be so much debate.
I think people are too literal when trying to understand each other. If someone says they believe in god, it means they identify as someone who believes in god. If someone says they think the election was stolen, it means they identify as someone who thinks the election was stolen. You don't defeat this with direct education / facts, you give these people an out. They need identities that are constructive and based in reality. Friends, family, culture... it all needs to be rewritten. Then they'll "believe" in reality.
So why don't they adopt an identity based in reality like the rest of us?
Is it because they want to hate demographics and the one media that supports that pushes irrational thought because their core components are irrational and it's easier to control them like that? I'm actually asking, because that's my best guess.
Unfortunately, yes. Main Street never came back with Wall Street and Hillary never set foot in the rust belt. They're hurt and afraid. I'm compassion fatigued to give a pass on Nazism but this is their explanation.
Or maybe it was just another glaring reminder that the public are that fucking braindead. Enough to truly buy into said propaganda. I guess it's just boredom anymore.
It isn't. Jist the dumb cunts that think trumps so pure. It was aired live on national TV if facts and literal live evidence doesn't sway them nothing will. Not even Trump fucking Ivanka on live TV would.
It does seem like it hovers around 50 percent but there are other factors. Some of that 50 percent knows how to manipulate the brain challenged for their own personal or political benefit. Others might have the capacity to use logic and reason but were raised not to. Or are so stubborn and righteous that they seek only validation to confirmation bias.
Why isn’t the news covering the prosecutions of those involved in thr coup the way it covered the coup itself? If you want to convince Americans this was bad, show them the people being sent to jail over and over again.
You know, the First Amendment was created to make sure the average citizen would have protection against speaking out against the government with reasonable confidence they couldn't be persectued. Like when kings or The Church could have you imprisoned or executed on a whim, not long before The Founders drafted The Constituiton. But now, bad actors acting in bad faith use it as a weapon to spread fear and hate propaganda.
I think a new Amendment is needed to stop blatant and obvious seditiuous and hateful speech. But they'll figure out a way to pervert that too, and corrupt the officials who enforce such laws.
People acted stupid and violently. But I think the "insurrection" language isn't helpful when people on the right are fed stats about it that make that seem like propaganda, especially considering the violent riots in Seattle and other places not that long before. Like only three civilians were found with guns. And there is video of people being peaceably let into buildings.
I'm not saying people shouldn't be prosecuted. They fucked around and found out. Good. But a real right wing insurrection would have more than three guns. I'm expecting this will be removed though, have to control the dialog and making it an insurrection is crucial to the reelection plan! Fuck Republicans but fuck Biden too.
Trump supporters stormed the building in an attempt to obstruct Congress voting and forcibly have them change what they are doing (certify Trump instead of Biden).
It isn't an insurrection because it was violent enough or because they were unruly enough (a bloodless coup is still a coup). It's an insurrection because its aim was to seize power, unlawfully, in this case for the guy who lost the election. Whatever riots happened with no political goal or agenda to overthrow the government are irrelevant. However violent or unpleasant they were, they are not described as an insurrection because they aren't and insurrection
Just wait; if a Republican wins the next election, the democrats will be crying about voter fraud and a stolen election. It is the great circle jerk of American Politics.
It's quite a speculation. Democrats haven't lost (or won) any 2024 election yet.
That said, let's try to think how elections are "stolen". First of all, i define stolen as irregularities in counting votes. People voting twice or on behalf of someone else is unheard in the...human history (why? Because it's hard, a villain needs to find, one by one, millions of votes for making any meaningful impact on elections)
For counting irregularities it takes two things (1) that the primary system for counting is corrupted and (2) control mechanisms are corrupted and/or ineffective.
Only incumbent can influence (1) because only incumbent has power at the time of election while (2) is even more complex and, by design, neither incumbent (nor opposition parties) have full control of control mechanisms.
So, realistically, only incumbent may have a chance to corrupt the system.
In 2020, indeed, incumbent (Trump) tried to influence the counting system and failed because of the control mechanisms (e.g. state officials, even republican state officials, refused to comply because they knew their internal control mechanisms would not have allowed them).
Now in 2024 the incumbent is democrats so, if anything, only republicans may speculate irregularities.
But anyone can say anything. I may say that i am billionaire but not for this reason the bank must give me 1B$ cash. I have to demonstrate to be billionaire.
So, to recap, in 2024 onoy republican can reasonably accuse of irregularities and, in that case, they must demonstrate that there were these irregularities.
Just 3 years after the January 6 attack, the "harm reduction" candidate is aiding (rushing weapons to, no less) an active genocide, using multiple aircraft carrier groups to fend off the second-poorest country in the middle east, because they are attempting ( and succeeding at) a blockade on the genociders, demanding a ceasefire.
Yeah I'd say there's a lot of propaganda about January 6 if that's where your attention is.
Today on, actual leftist, or right wing Poe's law troll: will voting for Trump end Israeli occupation of Gaza? Call 1800-OBV-IOUS to share your thoughts
Just imagine that the republican agenda will keep the things as they are regardless of whoever is in power.
I don't view the democrats as credible actors for improving things. Joe Biden still owes me $600 ffs.
Everything shitty that got started under Trump, finished under Biden. They're literally cutting a deal with republicans over the border to get weapons to a genocide faster.
Oh the poor Houthi rebels doing Iran’s bidding and attacking international commerce, they’re such victims. Poor guys are going to be red mist soon. Total bummer, said literally no one except shills.
Heroic Yemeni military acting on the Responsibility to Protect, doing whatever is in its power to stop the ongoing genocide. Every country should be doing what Yemen is doing and demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
US global legitimacy is going down the fucking toilet and you have nobody but yourselves to thank for it.
You stupid bitch, you remember how many us citizens died under trumps watch when covid first hit because he was negligent? I sure as hell do. Fuck you an every son of a bitch like you. What's sad is I don't like Joe. But he's no where near as incompetent as Trump. And all you can do is spout bullshit you know isn't true because your bitch daddy didn't get reelected and cried like a fuckin toddler cause he didn't get a candy bar at Walmart. I'm sick of little bitches like you.