The left wing of the right wing. Sounds right.
Seriously, has anyone heard of (for example) Alan Turing? That's a famous case of how the West treats queer people, and that's the snowflake on top of the tip of the iceberg.
And of course the image they use is Joseph Smith 🤣
His best known role is as a living weapon of religious zealots intended to take out a brutal dictator. This was shown as having no real effect because the material conditions weren't really changed so the people kept having to fight, sacrifice, and die.
His second most famous role was as a dangerously unhinged sadistic nihilist that canonically enjoyed the back and forth with his opponent.
His third most famous role was as the same kind of dictator that his first role would oppose. One that showed no qualms over killing anyone (kin included) in pursuit of power.
Just sayin': Not only should we attribute the features of characters to their actors, but even if that were wise, I don't think he's the guy.
I love how the author starts making this about China and then drops this:
It is the Enlightenment against 21st century feudalism.
Then, after gingerly defending American exceptionalism, says this:
We must always try to align our values with our policy, and that’s not always easy.
Align values to policy. Not align policy to values.
They do get what's happening but are still in America, Fuck Yeah! mode.
Yup. Casually pivot right while winding up with something like "That's an interesting question! There are many factors to consider and I need to understand the nuance and meaning of the question to be able to answer properly. First, most people don't even know what Hamas is, so we need to clarify that. Next..." And let the flow of conversation process from there.
🎼I'm not partial to the martial
Or the plutocrats, in their beaver hats
And the fascists have the outfits
But I don't care for the outfits
What I care about is music
And the communists have the music 🎶
I was inspired to create a version of this as a series of field reports. Here's a link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MpvOlC7rOBCSNjAH9tMKW6y3eCgyPfvhvoE6P8dPraM/edit?usp=drivesdk
Five gets you ten that Reddit will purge the moderators, get lackeys into the mod positions, do a content prune to get rid of NSFW-ish posts and comments, then try to bring it back as "business as usual".
Reddit has already demonstrated that they have no problem breaking their own rules.
That's... that's kind of the point.
What's happening is that the Reddit CEO is cannibalizing the community aspect of the site in pursuit of profit, and he keeps doubling down.
Various subreddits opted to go dark.
Reddit said to the moderators of those subreddits "open back up or we'll replace you with someone who will"
Cue mods reopening with new rules. In the overwhelming majority of the wakes I've seen, these rules changes were ratified by community vote.
The whole thing reminds me of the end of Little House on the Prairie. A robber Baron decided that the entire town belongs to him as he technically held the deed for the land. Rather then accept his draconian rule, the people of the town jointly and severally blew up every building in the town and went elsewhere.
The robber Baron was pissed, but couldn't do anything about it: the land may have been his, but the town they had built was theirs.
Edit: in regards to the John Oliver pictures: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/35819
Every accusation a confession. That's IMAX level projection you're seeing there.