• TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Straight from the horse’s mouth: https://www.military.com/feature/2025/11/16/long-arc-of-influence-how-modern-governments-build-and-weaponize-propaganda.html

    How naive can you be? Like literally, after things like Cambridge Analytica, technobro billionaire oligarchs openly buying up social networks and openly admitting that without them, their candidates would have lost elections, like after a gazillion stories about troll factories, bots, users being sold on the market because of their relevance in the platform due to reputation gaming, literally f-ing Project 2025 and the rise of technocracy zealots in power, wealth, and influence, how utterly naive is it openly acceptable to consider someone as being while believing they are a participating in good faith?

    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      I never said you can’t influence anyone through propaganda. But I do not believe Americans were “brainwashed” to do anything. I think they wanted to do it.

      I don’t think they’re brainwashed, I think they’re genuinely that dumb and uneducated.

      In any other civilised country, if the government started a war without congressional approval. They would riot in the streets of the capitol and stay there until they get what they want.

      • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        In any other civilised country, if the government started a war without congressional approval. They would riot in the streets of the capitol

        No, they wouldn’t and they haven’t. In Europe, this is what’s fueling the rise of the far-right. The difference is largely that their forms of government are more resilient. You could not be any more mistaken. There are riots in Europe, just like there are in the US, but MAGA is perfectly able to organize riots and protests as well, and so are their fair-right counterparts in the EU, and theirs has much more money behind them and is much more cultified.

        • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          Oh, which European country exactly launched a full scale war against another country without congressional approval?

          I would love to know just how mistaken I am.

          • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca
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            3 days ago

            You are so mistaken you have to resort to false equivalence and ignore the explicit evidence given to you while you regurgitate a position whose only foundation is based on pure vibes and stereotypes - basically the same thing that fuels MAGA. You will only ever help extend the the distance towards any real solution because rather than address the psychology and the factors pushing for the division, you are yourself contributing to it.

            • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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              3 days ago

              That is a wonderful word-salad. Incoherent and meaningless.

              If you think your article from “military.com” is explicit evidence, there’s nothing more to be said. That’s just sad.

              I said if any other civilised country would riot, you claim they would not and have not, and when pressed on that claim, your response is not to back up your claim, but to accuse me of resorting to false equivalence. Sounds like something a certain orange man would do…

              Going to war with forgein nations is what’s fueling the right in Europe? You need to put the booze down. First of all, even the far right in most of Europe is still more left leaning than the US left. To compare right wing policies in Europe and US is actually a false equivalence. They’re not even close to equal. Some views are shared yes. But that doesn’t not equate an entire political standing.

              What is fueling the right in europe, is having to clean up the humanitarian crisis the US have been leaving behind in the middle East for over 20 years.

              The US bomb their homes, demolish their schools, fuels their insurgency, which leads to even more civilian displacement. And where can they go? To the US? Fat chance. There’s no way to reach US shores and the US refuses to grant asylum to the millions of people they have displaced through their actions. The only realistic recourse they have is to smuggle themselves into Europe and hope for the best.

              And now… the US is doing it AGAIN. Will they do anything to clean up the mess they’re leaving behind? No. Their politicians supporting the ongoing war is adamant that they have no responsibility as to what comes after. They just wanna go in, bomb the shit out of them, and leave. And what does the US people do? Nothing. Too worried about affording the food they need to survive. And god forbid they ever get sick or end up in a medical emergency.

              So sincerely. Fuck off with your bullshit. Americans voted for that idiot twice. They saw first hand what happened the first time, and gladly went in for dessert.

              This is as true in Russia as it is in the US. Propaganda doesn’t make people stupid. It’s made for stupid people. It’s hardly surprising that the divide between Democrats and republicans can be measured by their education. Or lack there of.

                  • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca
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                    3 days ago

                    There was literally no “point” that did not have your opinion as its masterwankory source, or that managed to pertain to the original topic.

                    The attack left an emotional impact that could be manipulated to brainwash support. Today’s brainwashing techniques require a lot less, are more effective, and attack people’s egos directly through group psychology and cults-on-demands of the engagement algorithm.

                    Your comment was, and I quote, “a wonderful word-salad. Incoherent and meaningless.” No, I cannot address a single “point”, because if I treated any part of that word spew as a point, then it becomes garbage in, garbage out. But then again, I suspect you are fully aware you are acting like a troll. As I said,

                    how utterly naive is it openly acceptable to consider someone as being while believing they are a participating in good faith?