this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can we not inflate his bullshit on this new site though? Like... This is just him saying whatever random stuff to stay in people's minds. There's no meaning behind it and there's no action either. It's just actual clogging up of more important politics and news.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, the guy is the leading contender for the Republican nomination for President. It's important that people (especially independent voters) know about this crap before they consider voting for him.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, that isn't really true. He needs to be isolated like the mental plague that he is. He is memetic poison. "Let people decide" basically lets them get infected.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Anybody who doesn’t have a pretty good idea exactly who he is and what he stands for after all this time is probably never going to.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That is why we have a down vote option which I highly recommend using for items such as this. The community controls what it wants to see.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It isn't exactly a matter of wanting or not wanting to see it. You know the addage "any news is good news?" By posting content that keeps a person and their commentary in the forefront of people's minds, that person gains an audience. That audience will contain people who can be swayed by the snake oil, but who would otherwise be reasonable. Or in short, posting their content facilitates radicalization.

That said, while content from harmful influential people needs to be approached with caution, I don't see this as promoting Trump's action/behaviors. To me it reads more like a "not the onion" headline. I'd be disappointed if anyone felt that the death penalty was warranted for late tax filing, but I suppose it's possible.

Does Lemmy have a way to filter keywords? It would be helpful for people to be able to blacklist keywords so a user could choose to avoid seeing, for example, news about Trump or content with sensitive topics.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We need that slashdot system of vote + mark "insightful", "flamebait", "funny", etc etc. add more categories as necessary so posts can be scored on multiple axes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Sounds good to me, as long as there's a way for instances/users to disable those filters. Since they're more in-depth/granular, I suspect engagement with them would be lower, so there's a higher risk of a smaller minority using it to dictate the conversation. But I'd definitely be interested in seeing that in action. It could be really helpful for giving people tools to shape their feed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you really think if a Lemmy instance or vanity fair banned anything about Trump it'd make him less influential? Maybe if there was a media wide blackout, but so long as Fox News exists and asshole oligarchs can buy all sorts of giant megaphones to push their messages, I think the rest of us only have a choice in whether we offer dissenting opinions or stay silent

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I generally agree with you. I don't know that it matters so much whether articles are posted, it matters more that people continue to speak against the ideology and don't allow fascists to take the stage. Seeing others' support a cause lends it credence. Seeing that a cause exists lends some, but not as much as active support would. Seeing people voice disapproval helps to take away that credibility.

That said, the principle generally makes sense that spreading an ideology's message helps that ideology spread. The impact of posting an article on Lemmy is likely to be small, but non-zero. It's a matter of providing access to a fresh audience. Fox's viewers are thoroughly saturated with hateful rhetoric already, so there aren't many left to radicalize who can be reached by that message. Exposing a fresh audience to the content expands its reach and potentially radicalizes new people. Plus, exposure to new hateful messages can deepen the entrenchment of those who are already caught in the web.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Upvoted for a thoughtful reply, and I think your point about "providing access to a fresh audience" is a good one in theory, but I don't know if this article is really spreading the ideology's message. It's reminding us that one prominent proponent of that ideology is still out there and saying stuff, but the framing of it is pretty explicitly "hey, look how hypocritical the fascist tax cheat presidential candidate is being again".

Honestly, I'm not sure if I would've written it because anybody who would be convinced by this should already know all this stuff, but I think this author was at least trying to do the right thing here, and I don't think this is anywhere near as harmful as, for example, bending over backwards to make Trump seem like a normal politician and rephrasing his quotes so they sound less insane like I've seen a lot of outlets that desperately want to be considered politically neutral do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Dude, you posted it. If you recommend downvoting the post, delete it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This isn't reddit where they inflated the upvotes. You all control if something gets pushed through to the lemmy servers homepage or not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

reddit doesn't inflate the upvotes lol. they, for years, deflated the votes to make smaller communities appear bigger compared to the main subs.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Reddit created popular to boost posts for sure.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's not the same as inflating scores, and that's what the feature is designed to do, make smaller communities more visible. The didn't remove hot or rising to make it either. This is a wild conspiracy you've manufactured here, considering they explained why they made these changes when they made them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He is recommending if you dont like the post downvote it. Also if you dont like it... dont open it.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

do you even realize why people don't want to spread this kind of content?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I understand I just think your argument is weak for it. You are telling someone to self censor news they post and you could just as easily self censor news you read.

If it's such a trigger topic for you that you lash out on someone posting news about it then maybe you need to self evaluate and make better choices about what news you take in.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are telling someone to self censor news they post and you could just as easily self censor news you read.

the problem isn't the news i as an individual am reading. you do not understand the problem.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I understand, I just dont think it is the "problem" you seem to think it is.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

so you're just oblivious to the last 8 years of US politics. okay.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been around the past 8 years. I'm just not trying to bury my head like an ostrich because I cant control what I read.

I get the argument that we shouldnt be revering these people by continually discussing them. But my beliefs are more along the lines that history should be discussed and the action of these people should be discussed so it stays in the forefront and people know.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

history proves that acknowledging this kind of threat legitimizes its power.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only if you cherry pick your history examples.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, legitimizing a minority resistance by giving it attention is an anomaly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Acknowledging something happened and discussing it is not the same as legitimizing something.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you've learned nothing over the last 8 years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actions like yours are what allowed the last 8 years to happen.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Explain how trump got elected.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This argument can be summarized as such:

You: We should ignore these people. Talking about them gives them power. Ignoring them makes them go away.

Me: Ignoring them allows them to do bad shit. Talking about the bad things they do allows everyone to understand they are bad people and should not be allowed power.

Rinse and repeat. You're obviously not going to convince me that burying my head in sand will make trump magically not a huge political threat and I'm not going to convince you that the best way to prevent people like trump is to make sure we loudly proclaim all the bad shit they do.

So if you just have to have the final word feel free to respond but as I've stated a few times. I think your political philosophy is not only idiotic but is what caused us to be in the situation we are in today. But I'm not going to respond to you about this topic any more.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

Enjoy trump for 4 more years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

and a very handy "block" button too!