[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

Has anyone one else seen a picture of the stage? What are the odds this is just a coincidence?

IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/5t2nGBnc/3-D17-B1-A3-CD85-4024-B07-A-55-FF16-ADA99-A.jpg)

Ha! Good lord.

It’s just different enough to give them plausible deniability.

I gotta say though, I am not very comfortable with conspiratorial thinking when plenty of designers make far more obvious and foolish blunders on the regular. Let’s just let Q have all the conspiracies, OK?

I had never heard of this rune before today, but then I’m not in the habit of making myself familiar with fascist ideograms.

Thanks to Ruhk, I found a more authoritative source for the Odal rune (and some others that were appropriated by Nazis) in the Norwegian Wikipedia.

IMAGE(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Cf33137_960_Ja-vi-elsker-frihet_MINUS-FEM_Utstillingsfil_symboler_%28Lill-Ann_Chepstow-Lusty%2C_Kulturhistorisk_museum_2014%2C_UiO_-_CC_BY-SA_4.0%29.jpg)

And thanks to Google lens I was able to translate a couple of those:

The swastika has been used since prehistoric times as an ornament and religious symbol. It is a simple decorative element that has emerged independently in different cultures around the world and has been given different meanings. In India, there is a symbol of happiness, called "swastika" from Sanskrit su asti, "it is good".
ODAL O is the last rune in the older rune series. The name of the O - rune was "odel". The word odel means "the best part of something". The right of inheritance refers to the best lands on a farm. Odel was a scheme to keep arable land together, and to ensure the repurchase of land that had been divided by inheritance. The right of nobility was neither created nor used to breed "raging people, as the Nazis imagined

The actual rune doesn’t have the little “feet” on the bottom, it just looks like an upright icthos, the one in the pictures was created by the nazis and is explicitly used by white supremacists and modern volkish.

I doubt the symbolism was a conscious decision by the organization as a whole, though I wouldn’t be surprised if an individual floated the design and it got missed by everyone up the chain. I just think it’s funny and appropriate.

You know who does think it’s intentional, though? Actual neo-nazis. I first saw the image on Telegram in one of the fash channels I lurk in and they were definitely viewing it as the “mainstream” trying to lure them back. Most of them though it was pathetic pandering, but they definitely saw it as intentional signaling.

More than a dozen Republicans tell House they can't attend votes due to 'public health emergency.' They're slated to be at CPAC.

If the "public health emergency" is: going to an indoor venue, where people refuse to wear masks, won't be able to do social distancing, are screaming and yelling, and most likely multiple people there are going to have Covid already... then I guess they aren't lying....

(CNN)More than a dozen of former President Donald Trump's closest Republican allies in the House have skipped Friday's votes and enlisted their colleagues to vote on their behalf, signing letters saying they can't attend "due to the ongoing public health emergency."

But those members are actually expected to be in Orlando and listed as speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual meeting aimed at energizing conservative activists and boosting their own profiles.

Is it more than 4 months since Trump had COVID 19?

I think they mean that they will be part of an upcoming public health emergency.

quote is not edit.

Just a quick reminder of who exactly we are talking about

https://twitter.com/lionel_trolling/...

Wellll... not to come to the defense of that human garbage, but that image is a little misleading.

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

What are we trying to do here?? Act like this party and their supporters are all about equality?

I think the obvious-to-us Nazi imagery is largely a coincidental side effect of weak designers having limited choices to create things that exude strength and power. Plenty of room to disagree on the topic and I’m obviously at odds with many people whom I admire, but I also think it’s important to juxtapose CPAC’s refraction of Nazi imagery with CPAC’s sincerely held beliefs that German Nazis were left wing.

My dad, who said for the last four years that he was not a Trump supporter, just told me that the election was stolen and he is scared for his country, and his two kids.

Sure Dad, you weren't a Trump supporter.

I also told him if he ever brings up conspiracies again I will block his phone number. I 100% mean it.

(I never believed him to begin with, but it's sad that he thought he could convince me that he didn't like Trump. My father says he lives for my sister and I, and we are the only thing that has kept him alive through dark times. Sure sounds like attempts at manipulation and control to me. )

BadKen wrote:

Wellll... not to come to the defense of that human garbage, but that image is a little misleading.

It's not. I've seen the video a bunch of times. She gives the salute, then changes it to a wave when she realizes she f*cked up.

Checking in from the Empire State, and man, I'm shocked at how fast sh*t's gone downhill for Andy Cuomo.

But the big difference is that the Dems aren't circling the wagons around him. I'm happy that the WH is saying that there should be an investigation.

Seth wrote:

I think the obvious-to-us Nazi imagery is largely a coincidental side effect of weak designers having limited choices to create things that exude strength and power. Plenty of room to disagree on the topic and I’m obviously at odds with many people whom I admire, but I also think it’s important to juxtapose CPAC’s refraction of Nazi imagery with CPAC’s sincerely held beliefs that German Nazis were left wing.

That's not a sincerely held belief, that's an intentional bit of mud to change the topic of conversation whenever someone points out the similarities between American Fascism and German Fascism.

The Nazis were right-wing, especially if you want to tie the religious nature of our conservative party to the Nazis. Hitler said he was doing God's work. The Roman Catholic church celebrated Hitler's birthday up until his death. The belt buckles the German soldiers wore said "God is with us."

I could keep going on, but the point still stands - there are large comparisons to be made between our right-wing party and the fascists. Saying that the Nazis were left-wing because of the word "socialist" is like saying that the DPRK is a democracy because the words "people's republic" are included.

EDIT: Fixing some bad grammar in the last sentence. Never write about the Nazis before your second cup of the morning.

The only accurate word in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the last.

Nazis are bad guys, so it's important for conservatives to call them left-wing. They use them as an example of what progressives want to do to America.

It's another form of Goebbel's Big Lie, of course.

Malor wrote:

Nazis are bad guys, so it's important for conservatives to call them left-wing. They use them as an example of what progressives want to do to America.

It's another form of Goebbel's Big Lie, of course.

Yep. And just like they literally believe Biden stole the election, they also believe this. We aren’t fighting liars, here. We’re fighting zealots.

Seth wrote:
Malor wrote:

Nazis are bad guys, so it's important for conservatives to call them left-wing. They use them as an example of what progressives want to do to America.

It's another form of Goebbel's Big Lie, of course.

Yep. And just like they literally believe Biden stole the election, they also believe this. We aren’t fighting liars, here. We’re fighting zealots.

i think thats a misunderstanding. SOme, maybe even most, of the followers may be zealots, but the people we are fighting, the people leading the movement and graping for the levers of power are not. they are liars and manipulators. we cannot properly counter them if we think they believe what they say and that they aren't just saying whatever is expedient.

Seth wrote:

Yep. And just like they literally believe Biden stole the election, they also believe this. We aren’t fighting liars, here. We’re fighting zealots.

You say that like they can't be both.

hbi2k wrote:
Seth wrote:

Yep. And just like they literally believe Biden stole the election, they also believe this. We aren’t fighting liars, here. We’re fighting zealots.

You say that like they can't be both.

There's lots of room for healthy debate here and I used to think that the rank and file were trolls, liars, scam artists, snake oil pushers, and historically competent dog whistling white supremacists. But I can't really believe that anymore. After QAnon, it's starting to dawn on me that the theory that this is an entire 74 million deep troll/lie/grift/marketing ploy/secret coded racism is a lot less believable than a bunch of dumb f*cking idiots who honestly believe democrats are nazis because they won't let them say the n word.

Gina Carano is the norm, not the exception....(from my perspective).

I'll say this until the day I die - the GOP is who they are showing themselves as. They have ALWAYS been like this... it's just that Trump gave them the cover to act more boldly about their selfish and vulgar beliefs. It has never been simply about lower taxes and more freedom. It's been about holding close to their chests their ways of life and finding ways to undermine the people that don't act, think, and look like them.

There are so many people in my family that have shown their true colors since 2015 and it really really saddens me. I don't even have a big family to begin with; it's only about ten if you count my in-laws. However, there's less coded messaging now that I cannot simply ignore it by thinking they just chose a poor sentence. It's out in the open now.

It's better to cut these people out of your daily life than try to convince yourself that the QAnon dipsh*ts are a minority. A majority of conservative voters want Trump back in office, even as he still spews hatred about lie about the election.

Seth wrote:

After QAnon, it's starting to dawn on me that the theory that this is an entire 74 million deep troll/lie/grift/marketing ploy/secret coded racism is a lot less believable than a bunch of dumb f*cking idiots who honestly believe democrats are nazis because they won't let them say the n word.

I have some sympathy for some of that 74 million who have been relentlessly lied to for decades. It's no small task to dig yourself out of that pit of bullsh*t.

edit to remove quote because I was lazy making a point that was general to the discussion as a whole

Maybe the explanation that ties a lot of this together is the thing I've struggled to get used to over the years: realizing people don't stop to make any sense of their beliefs.

people are entirely capable of denouncing their opponents as being like Nazis one minute while admiring literal Nazis the next.

Jonman wrote:

I have some sympathy for some of that 74 million who have been relentlessly lied to for decades. It's no small task to dig yourself out of that pit of bullsh*t.

People don't watch Fox News or listen to conservative talk radio because they have a gun pointed at their head. They willingly consume media like that because they like what it's saying. They like having their sh*tty, racist worldview continually validated.

I mean it's why Breitbart used to have an entire "Black Crime" section. It wasn't because there was a lot of Black crime happening, but rather it was because Breitbart's visitors believed there there was a lot of Black crime happening and would eagerly read stories that reinforced their existing beliefs.

OG_slinger wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I have some sympathy for some of that 74 million who have been relentlessly lied to for decades. It's no small task to dig yourself out of that pit of bullsh*t.

People don't watch Fox News or listen to conservative talk radio because they have a gun pointed at their head. They willingly consume media like that because they like what it's saying. They like having their sh*tty, racist worldview continually validated.

I mean it's why Breitbart used to have an entire "Black Crime" section. It wasn't because there was a lot of Black crime happening, but rather it was because Breitbart's visitors believed there there was a lot of Black crime happening and would eagerly read stories that reinforced their existing beliefs.

I agree with Jonman. It's a self-reinforcing echo chamber. When everyone they know and trust consumes the propaganda it's human nature to join the crowd. Following is easy. Self-reflection and challenging the beliefs you were raised with is a harder path many never take.

OG_slinger wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I have some sympathy for some of that 74 million who have been relentlessly lied to for decades. It's no small task to dig yourself out of that pit of bullsh*t.

People don't watch Fox News or listen to conservative talk radio because they have a gun pointed at their head. They willingly consume media like that because they like what it's saying. They like having their sh*tty, racist worldview continually validated.

Liking your worldview validated isn't a phenomenon unique to the right, and it does us all a disservice to pretend that undoing decades of propaganda is a personal choice you can instantaneously make, turning on a dime by simply changing the TV channel.

It involves disentangling and estranging yourself from communities, friends and family, from habits and patterns of behavior that are long-ingrained.

Don't pretend like there isn't stupendous inertia in doing that.

I'll grant that plenty of the right are unmitigated assholes who revel in the suffering of folk not like them, but plenty more of them are victims that haven't been able to extricate themselves from deeply entrenched situations.