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She hoped Trump would revive her farm. Now she worries his policies could bankrupt it.
(www.nbcnews.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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Man, where I lived, the most basic television package had multiple non-conservative news channels, and people always tuned into Fox anyway. They didn't turn on the radio and tune into nerd shit which was available like NPR, they tuned into Rush Limbaugh screaming about how Muslims were treated with kid gloves in this country (in the mid-2000s, no fucking less).
At some point, you have to accept that these people are not choosing conservative news sources because they don't have alternatives; they're choosing conservative news sources because they like what they're listening to, and because they dislike hearing the opposite.
What ridicule? Fuck, man, conservatives have been given nothing in this country but asspats and 'agree to disagree' for as long as I've been alive. "T-the mean liberals made fun of people like me on a liberal show..." as all the liberal talking-heads and community members gather 'round and tell them how fucking valid and wholesome they are doesn't mean jack fucking shit.
Humiliation and isolation is the only weapon that works against fascists, other than violence. We learned that in the 60s and 70s, and then got told otherwise by Very Important People in the 80s, looking for reconciliation with fascist cunts in order to share in the power during a brief revival of right-wing power - which then turned that brief revival into an enduring trend.
The Nazis in Germany weren't suppressed because the post-war order joined hands with them and told them that they were good boys and girls who just made some mistakes. The Nazis in Germany became verboten when the generation of the 1960s looked at the former generation and said, "My God, you were monsters."
Right there. There's your problem. For most of these people there's only one TV package and that's ABC, CbS, NBC, and whatever couple of quirky local UHF stations they still get. And when two if not three out of those three major network stations are owned by Sinclair. Then they get no alternatives. Plenty of places don't get cable and tv packages. Plenty of places can only get satellite and it's spotty at best. Even then if that is also an extreme luxury.
Satellite was always the expensive option where I lived, in one of the poorest regions of the country. Satellite, furthermore, covers less than 10% of households, and that includes people opting for satellite as the more expensive option in cable-accessible areas.
Nowadays, ~95% of the country has internet access - in actuality, not 'could get it if they wanted'.
At some point you have to accept that people are choosing the information sources they want to listen to, not simply restricted by the machinations of others.
You're still arguing past the point though. What does the internet do for most of these people that local radio and TV technically hasn't or couldn't?
Also possibility of access is drastically different from actually having access. Having access is also drastically different from actually using. I have friends and acquaintances that 100% unironically use their phone for phone calls only. Outside of using it as a camera some. I guarantee that their service plans all have data included.
Further, people can and often do still live without owning a computer or accessing the internet. I don't know how. I can't. They'll continue to do so until all traditional broadcasting is ended. Yes the internet can replace all of that. But it hasn't. Even then it's a wickedly double edged sword which has led even more into even more extreme indoctrination. So it's hardly a panacea.
Right now many of these people are struggling with the biggest case of cognitive dissonance they've ever had. It's the perfect time to strike. And plant the concept that they're being lied to, by all their local broadcasters. The evidence is there, they're seeing it. We could talk to them about it like adults. Or we could accuse them of things they aren't doing. Gloat and ridicule them for internet points. Causing them to retreat and double down, being just as bad as they are. Letting the oligarchs continue to divide us and win.
Nothing. That's my point. They have access to other news sources. They choose the ones that they like to hear.
Some 5% in this country. I somehow doubt they're the majority of conservatives in this country. I, in fact, would go so far as to doubt that they're significant politically at all.
That's the line that I've been hearing for at least 20 fucking years now. It didn't work when Iraq was proven to be based on lies, it didn't work when Obamacare fearmongering was proven to be based on lies, it didn't work when Trump's entire first administration was proven to be built on lies. It didn't work with COVID - it didn't work with antivaxxing, it hasn't worked with jack fucking shit.
We've tried talking to them like adults. Again and again and again. "One more time" is the motto of the fucking Dem Party on this issue, and that's been failing for 30 years.
Maybe "We just need to sit down and have a talk with literal Nazis" isn't the winning strategy it sounds like.
Bruh, every accusation I've leveled thus far is absolutely things they are doing.
Maybe validating the ones simping for the oligarchs isn't actually fighting "The oligarchs continue to divide us and win", but actually strengthening their hand? Just a thought.
Then share your citation. That's a broad specious claim. There absolutely are some like that yes. But I have yet to see any studies showing anything remotely similar.
Again, citation for this?
Which is why, if you'll note. I never suggested that.
I never claimed otherwise. Just that those sorts are not as representative as they're being portrayed.
I know for a fact that ridiculing those acknowledging the cognitive dissonance. Will 100% divide us and push them back into the arms of the propagandists.
No one is suggesting we do this to any conservative / Republican Congressman or elected official. Fuck each and every one of them completely. They 100% know what they're doing. Or any conservative personality for broadcaster. They're even worse generally. Or any gleeful little cult member. But only to those average people who acknowledge a Divergence in what they were told and reality. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And while this leopards/faces thing is silly and cathartic. It absolutely will not reach any of the reasonable still reachable ones. Of which there are plenty. Just making enemies of them all the more sure
My citation for... the fact that people with the entire internet at their fingertips must, necessarily, choose right-wing sources in order to receive right-wing sources, and are not constrained by the availability of other sources, since the internet has a vast selection of sources to choose from, and right-wing media constraints a la cable or satellite don't play into it?
... are you being serious right now?
90% by broadband subscription in 2021, 96% by usage in 2024
Oh, cool, so what will asspatting those experiencing cognitive dissonance do?
Oh, it reminds them that there are no consequences for believing things that make them feel good? And it signals to others that there are no consequences to believing in things which make them feel good, no matter how terrible those things are?
You seem to think that, after a decade of open fascism, there are reachable ones left.
The fucking Cheneys are out of the cult. The Cheneys. The. Fucking. Cheneys. Romney and McCain (Rest in Peace/Piss) are RINOs to most in the party. There are literal golden idols set up to Trump.
The number of 'reachable' ones left are very small, and live in a fucking hole in the ground. And attempting to reach them by normalizing the vast majority of conservatives with polite discourse about how it's okay that they were wrong and they can still change will create more unreachable converts with normalization of fascism, far more than any number of the 5%> that you find who were really just ignorant, and not feigning ignorance to fit their ideological urges.