• millie@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    3 months ago

    It’s unfortunate that we have to take the time these days to consider whether the constant drum of gloom and doom is actually genuine concern or straight up astroturfing. It certainly does seem like the people who constantly spout this stuff and ignore all evidence that they’re completely off base are being a bit disingenuous for some reason, though.

    • FIash Mob #5678@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Sure, man.

      When your 80 year-old parents have to borrow your car to drive for DoorDash because if they don’t they’ll starve, then maybe you’ll understand why some of us, despite the fact that we’re progressives (NOT neoliberals) might actually like for Dems to use their power for good someday.

      Instead of making and breaking promises and then shoveling money into war and child genocide.

    • LukeZaz@beehaw.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      Worth remembering that many responses in politics are made impulsively due to frustration, and angry, impulsive arguments tend not to be well-researched. We’re all tense, here — it’s hard not to be, these days.

      • millie@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        3 months ago

        Yeah, that could be. But it’s also worth remembering that disingenuousness is literally the conservative playbook right now. Sometimes a duck is actually Ed Gale in a costume being voiced by Chip Zien, but other times it’s just a duck.

    • derbis@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Who is going to bother astroturfing beehaw, right before we switch platforms of all things

      • millie@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        If I were strategizing for the Trump campaign I would absolutely be trying to target smaller leftist-specific spaces to pull them away from the Democrats and inject talking points of benefit to the campaign. Beehaw has small numbers, but it has a very leftist and pretty vocal user-base. It’s a small pool that it wouldn’t be hard to change the narrative in by injecting the same opinions over and over again. Which is what we see.

        It makes way more sense to focus on small communities like Beehaw where a small number of messages can have a larger impact on the thinking of people who use it regularly, than exclusively on huge social media spaces like Facebook and Twitter where they’re shouting into the void.

        Get some talking points stuck in the minds of a small pool of people, get them to normalize it, and they’ll spread it for you.