The “gotcha” footage posted online by Vance may not be the slam dunk he apparently hoped it would be
Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill.
“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance posted Saturday on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”
Vance has claimed, falsely, in recent days that Haitians — who are not Africans — living in Springfield — a town of 58,000 which is not Dayton — were stealing, killing, and consuming their neighbors’ pets.
Stochastic terrorism is political violence that has been instigated by hostile public rhetoric which is directed at a group or an individual. Unlike incitement to terrorism, stochastic terrorism is accomplished by using indirect, vague, or coded language that allows the instigator to plausibly disclaim responsibility for the resulting violence.[1] A key element is the use of social media and other distributed forms of communications where the person who carries out the violence has no direct connection to the users of violent rhetoric.[2]
They're also purposefully leaning into this to keep the conversation about immigration, because it's pretty much the only issue they have had an advantage on. Without Trump talking about eating pets, we'd all be talking about his abortion stance right now, which is deeply unpopular.
Offering a $5000 bounty for video proof is the same as paying $5000 for someone to manufacture the proof. This is like a Cobra bounty in India only results in Cobra farms.
People, remember how Trump presidency went! Bad news for Trump? Float a batshiit crazy thing to get the media to play with that shiny ball instead. This is a fucking distraction, Trump lost the debate, he is courting fascists, he is old and weird and people leave his rallys bored, he had to throw a stink bomb
You're probably right. And if they're going to keep swimming towards the bottom of the pool, I really want journalists to start asking them why Haitians are eating pets. Because that's the part that they haven't actually made clear.
Haitians don't eat dogs and cats in Haiti. The Haitians in Springfield aren't starving, most of them have jobs. So why are they eating them, JD?
They are too used to the typical news cycle where they bombard the public with lies to the point where everyone starts believing those are real. They've grown complacent.
I don't know about JD, but RFK, Jr. once literally got accused of eating a dog, so you think he at least would be out there calling them on this bullshit.
JDV is like a toddler trying to trick you by hiding behind the curtains, but you can still see his Scooby Doo Velcro shoes and he’s back there giggling.
“Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”
This is the most infuriating thing they do. They assume that any developing story is actually the most extreme version that favors their side. Then they ignore all evidence to the contrary and fish for any evidence that they can claim as confirmation, even if it doesn't pass the laugh test. But they assert "It was confirmed!" with such confidence and shamelessness that it becomes easier for people to believe them, and eventually the media stops trying to debunk them.
Definitely not the first time this happened. If you wanna find other examples, look at anything where experts on the topic believe one thing but a majority of the American people believe the other. It's pretty much guaranteed that the thing the American people believe originated as GOP propaganda.
I wish I had told myself that from 25 years ago before I went online and was exposed to these people with all the naivety of the socially underdeveloped autistic 17 year old that I was at the time. I often have to learn things in the hardest way imaginable.
Nobody is talking about anything right now except the memes around cats and dogs. You and I, we agree it's racist, but independents may buy this hook without thinking it's racist. We agree that everything coming out of his mouth is lies and garbage, but independents are much more neutral and are willing to give him, the former president, the benefit of the doubt. They probably are thinking, wow, things have gotten bad in Springfield, instead of haha what a crazy old man who lost the debate. They aren't thinking about swift because this cat thing has completely flooded the zone. This is what Trump did all for years
That, at least, had a vague air of plausibility. People do come to the U.S. illegally and people do have faked identification documents. It also only attacked one person. This is attacking a whole group of people with a ludicrous (and very obviously racist) charge. I realize there are a lot of idiots in this country, but I have a feeling this is going beyond the pale for some people who were going to vote for Trump. I don't know that they'll vote for Harris, but they might sit this one out.
it would be so much work to stalk, kill, prep and eat someone's dog or cat. people don't even keep their pets outside much anymore. If people had pigs or some larger, meatier pets kept outside all hours at least it'd be a more realistic lie but like c'mon... who's out there with fuggen ninja cat hunting skills? What are they using to quietly and efficiently kill these pets? Who even got that kinda time?
If this dumb cluck had any sense he'd say they were buying pups from PetSmart or breeding them themselves to eat or something. That lie would at least be in the realm of possibility! Nobody's pets would have to disappear before an idiot believed it!
Eating a dog or cat you have bred yourself would make PETA angry. Eating a beloved family pet of a true blooded hard working American would make a lot more people angry.
They don't CARE about the facts or how absurd their claims are. Also pet eating is something that, in times past, was a racist slur foisted onto Asians, like Chinese restaurants who cooked cat instead of beef or chicken, and more specifically Koreans, who did consume dog meat sparingly, but that was something that happened historically it was never common and dog meat consumption is actually illegal now in South Korea, and eating dog meat has been in rapid decline for decades anyway.
Seeing Haitians get called pet eaters is actually a very new thing.
Uhm, a raccoon trap is also a cat trap. Easy enough to setup. Hell even the wile-e-coyote style trap with a stick and a rope will work if you use proper bait.
Edit: Haitians don't eat pets people! I was just responding to the guy with his cat hunt.
Grilling chicken in Ohio, eh? Hmm, I hear there's a huge orange chicken who is scared to have a second debate because he got so badly humiliated in the first one. He might want to stay away from Ohio since they are grilling his kind.
US politics is hilarious. Why do you even waste time on those dumbasses? Go and do productive things. You have lots of time while this crazy trumpy shit is going on.
Lots of people were 100% convinced in 2016 that there was no way Trump could win. I know because, TBH, I was one of them. So I don't think it's anywhere near out of the question that Trump might win this year; I do not know it, neither do you, neither does anyone else.
Because ignoring them will only allow them to grow larger and stronger unchecked. It's like talking about ignoring an obvious stalker who is clearly building a plan on your daily movements and knows exactly where you live and when you leave/return home. They can be a remarkably stupid person but they will eventually find the perfect opportunity to strike and you will never be able to get any justice for it.
That is literally something that happened to me. More than once.
We are a handful of days away from some right wing weirdo showing a video of a non-white person sneezing and captioning it with "wtf they firing guns in the street". And that will become a popular talking point, and people will demand the death penalty.
You know what would be great, would be to hold these weirdos liable for the time and expense that public agencies have incurred to deal with the bomb threats and idiots they've directly incited.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.
I don't know if your unnecessary backhanded attacks help your argument, or just make you sound really cool. Can't make up my mind on that one! Why don't you tell me what you googled and maybe throw in a few quips about how unreasonable and nonsensical my responses are and then I'm sure the discussion will resolve itself in a constructive way.
I view it as a great insult for them. Conservatives want nothing more than to be "normal." They rely so much on the feeling of safety they get by being part of the "normal" crowd. If you called me weird I would embrace that label. I am weird! I'm not like everyone else and I like that about myself! For them that is not at all the case. The more we can make them think that what they are doing is NOT accepted by society and that we all think they are weird the more likely they are to stop doing it.
In their ideology, if you're not "normal", you're in one of the othered groups and your face becomes a fair target for their favorite face-eating leopards.
Also, as a huge weirdo myself, I had kind of thought that most people stopped caring how weird I am after high school, and I thought that was pretty neat. Now that it has become a favorite insult to use against fascists, I get the feeling that people only refrain from remarking on it because they're being polite to me, but they definitely still care and would wield it as a weapon given half a reason to.