How to respond to disinformation attacks on our republic

you think roger stone is chimping out over his gag order? just wait for Insanity Hannity's turn https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/01/hannity-cohen-stormy-daniels-honig-sot-nr-vpx.cnn
simboona has joined (uid201163@id-201163.hathersage.irccloud.com)
tsenroh has changed mode: +v simboona
Popper
I haven't been watching the news lately, it seems liberals are getting more and more out there lately
starbomba
Yeah you haven't been watching or reading the news. Probably fox only
Popper
the media doesn't seem to be even trying to hide its bias
Popper
amazingly enough, it seems fox has become the "moderate" side of the media
Popper
I remember back when fox was the crazy one
starbomba
https://qz.com/1435885/data-shows-more-us-terror-attacks-by-right-wing-and-religious-extremists/
aegis has changed mode: +v simboona
arleigh has changed mode: +v simboona
Monfd quietly puts Popper in the basement
starbomba
LOL fox "moderate" LOOOOL
Monfd
starbomba: He's spreading disinformation.
starbomba
love the "alternative facts" from the MAGAcult
Monfd
He's attacking the republic, in his small way, in this channel.
Monfd
Perceive him as your enemy on the battlefield.
starbomba
He is a bug to be squashed by the flyswatter of truth
starbomba
A MAGA dezinformatsiya agent
starbomba
all fake news all the time
zorg has joined (~zorg2@c-24-5-234-83.hsd1.ca.comcast.net)
tsenroh has changed mode: +v zorg
starbomba
And fox is ignoring literally everything detrimental to Trump
starbomba
Like when they lied and said Trump ended the summit in Hanoi LOL
starbomba
fox "news" giggle
starbomba
Fox fantasy for MAGAtards, more like
starbomba
I prefer objective truth to Fox's "alternative facts" tbqh
aegis has changed mode: +v zorg
arleigh has changed mode: +v zorg
starbomba
You must be a millennial suffering from the after effects of the 40+ year neocon war on eductand critical thinking skills, pooper
starbomba
My condolences to you and your meager future
starbomba
Don't worry, the adults are back on charge now and will fix all of Trump's screwups
starbomba
*in
starbomba
You seem incapable of straying outside approved MAGA talking points
starbomba
Typical
starbomba
Dezinformatsiya
starbomba
Lack of self- awareness is a well known MAGA trait
starbomba
No surprise that you exhibit it
starbomba
Please, return to breathlessly defending fox "news"
starbomba
Show us how much of a partisan jack you really are
starbomba
*hack
starbomba
Yawn. Low-effort troll 2/10
starbomba
Living up to the nick pooper in spades
starbomba
Oh you're plenty agitated, hence the rote repetition of MAGA talking points :D
Monfd
Popper is worse than I remember him a few years ago.
starbomba
We've seen this movie before
Monfd
I used to perceive him as a right-wing person, with an agenda, who showed signs of tribalism and a willingness to bend the truth for his clan.
starbomba
He seems to have gone "full MAGA" now
Monfd
Now, he's a full conspiracy theorist, disinformation theorist -- which mirrors the level of propaganda in the culture on the right in 2019 v. 2013.
starbomba
Never go full MAGA :D
Monfd
One of the ways that I find emotional strength to absolutely never engage falsehoods to make myself feel good is by valuing my self-worth. Let me explain.
starbomba
I wonder how much Qanon memorabilia he has on his mother's basement
Monfd
I have a friend who was telling me that Trump is doing a good job in North Korea because he's "shaking things up".
Monfd
I told him that "shaking things up" isn't an analysis. It's some post-hoc language designed to carry hopeful emotions to morons.
Monfd
For example, in what *way* is he shaking things up? Why is it *good* to shake things up with North Korea, etc.
Monfd
He just grinned like a moron and repeated his thesis.
Monfd
How does this relate to self-worth?
jmanfatty has joined (~THEjman@ns539271.ip-144-217-177.net)
Monfd
When you act like a moron in the presence of the Trump cult, you're telling yourself and the world that you would have acted like a moron in the presence of many other historical cults, for example Nazism.
starbomba
Trump had been objectively snowballed by kim, a man 40 years Trump's junior, twice already out of two opportunities
starbomba
Ragequit coming
Monfd
You'd have said, in 1936, while grinning, that Adolf Hitler has really been shaking up the socioeconomic fabric of German life.
Monfd
I don't want to be a moron that gets seduced by Nazism, as the truth wasn't on the side of Nazism, and they created a lot of unnecessary suffering.
starbomba
Definitely a candidate for volkisch movement true believer
Monfd
I want to be able to accurately and pridefully say, I have the internal strength and intelligence to stand up alone, if necessary, against Nazism -- like Sophie Scholl.
Monfd
This is one tool I use to resist the moron's seduction of the Trump cult.
aegis has changed mode: +v jmanfatty
arleigh has changed mode: +v jmanfatty
Monfd
I'd like to give myself a compliment.
Monfd
When Popper began his disinformation campaign a little while ago, I felt an impulse to start refuting his lies designed to destroy the American republic.
Monfd
I started typing some post using long-established principles of truth, debate, and evidentiary procedures to show that Popper's position was very weak.
Monfd
However, I was able to successfully resist that reminding myself that Popper is an enemy of the truth, and lives in an alternate reality to me in which Donald Trump the grifter is actually a charismatic leader.
Monfd
I don't want to self-delude with the idea that facts matter to people with the intense mental illness of the Trump cult.
Monfd
I guess there are four main solutions to people like Popper that we can observe from history:
Monfd
1. You can kill them
Monfd
2. You can kill, imprison, or convert their leaders, leading to a collapse of the movement. Followers like Popper will tell themselves they were part of a glorious Lost Cause that they'll work to one day re-ignite, but they lose all meaningful power in the meantime.
Monfd
3. You can allow them to do all of their work to destroy the republic, essentially quarantining and containing them like cancer, hoping it doesn't break out of the the box.
Monfd
4. You can re-educate them with some very low success rate
Monfd
The current strategy in the United States is a mixture of 2 and 3.
Monfd
I think the best solution is 2.
Monfd
How can we accomplish 2 in the United States?
Monfd
1. Initiate a RICO against the GOP, leading to a collapse of their immediate political power
Monfd
2. Get money out of politics so that new billionaires cannot easily wrest control of our institutions
Monfd
3. Modify federal law or the US Constitution to disallow the propaganda we see from 'Fox News' and the rest of the right-wing media ecosystem. One possibility is to modify the 1st Amendment to disallow lying in some form or some context, e.g. in media and by politicians or people in the public trust. In my view, lying and deviations from the truth are the ultimate source of all of these problems
Monfd
4. Secure our elections with a significant federal program to disallow foreign entities, e.g. Russia, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to help pick our leaders, leading to an erosion in US democracy
Monfd
5. Reduce the cognitive pressures that cause people to be more susceptible to propaganda and tribalism. One such approach are massive investments in the people of the republic, e.g. with the ideas of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Research in political theory and cognitive science indicate that when people are stressed, they're much more susceptible to fascism and other undesirable political
Monfd
movements.
Monfd
(5 is an indirect way of accomplishing 4 in the previous list)