Their strategy is to overwhelm the news cycle with distractions. Stay focused.
All, please read this article (NYT gift link) - this IS and has been the strategy. Blitzkrieg policy while distracting the “stupid” media with outrageous, ultimately meaningless distractions.
From the ever flatulent Steve Bannon: “All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done.”
Steve Bannon said six years ago on Bill Maher: “You seperate the signal from the noise. Watch the signal. There’s a flashbang grenade every day as far as noise goes. Watch the signal.”
On what? It’s all crazy. “We’re going to invade Gaza” is just as insane as “we’re going to put 18 year olds in charge of the Treasury”, “eliminate the department of education” or “win the war on diversity”.
Yeah people keep saying “this is just a distraction” to, like, very single story. So what are they distracting from? Please tell us, because all of it is fucking awful.
Distracting us from their actions to enact Project 2025 plans, mostly. The degradation of human rights (starting with immigrants and trans people, for example). It seems like they’re gonna keep threatening to invade countries and they’re gonna keep playing tariff chicken, but pay attention to what they’re doing within the US.
The distraction is currently no doubt from the takeing over of certain essential government agencies, hollowing them out, getting rid of anyone critical of the new regime.
Maybe them draining the Calofornia reservoirs used to irrigate crops during the summer to cause widespread crop failures and drive up food prices massively in a few months.
They’re actively trying to cripple the country to please Putin.
Honestly I think some of this bullshit could be considered semi serious. This is Donnie’s crap. Leon has his own agenda.
Exactly what that they are doing is not a distraction? Because every single time they say or do anything, someone on Lemmy says it’s a distraction.
Now even announcing they will invade Gaza is a distraction?
Literally what is not a distraction?
Direct actions taken to degrade civil rights and human rights within the US in pursuit of their Project 2025 plans
So… like taking over Gaza?
That’s just a sound bite. Trump just said it, nothing is being done to bring it about.
What is being done is systematically gutting and disabling key government departments and seizing control over the treasury and hiring process, without any legal basis.What makes you think nothing is being done to bring it about? How could you possibly know?
Just curious what happens when they neuro-starlink beginning with prisoners. Johny Mnemonic?
Focused on what? There’s virtually zero resistance from the democrats to every new thing that emerges.
Yeah the shooting in Sweden is getting buried by news like this. Not that the situation in Gaza isn’t terrible or that the US isn’t a terrible country to be in, but stil
I mean, a huge number of his own supporters are questioning this. I wouldn’t call this a viable strategy.
Just a not even remotely friendly reminder that if you are American, eligible to vote and didn’t vote for Kamala then you actively voted for this. Actively voted for genocide. If you didn’t vote you’re even fucking worse because at least the Republicans were willing to openly say what horrible people they are. You just don’t care.
The United States is a failed country, a terrorist state and should be wrenched away from its people. You do not deserve to have a country that large with that much power when you are incapable of agreeing on a singular fucking thing. The United States should be forcibly broken up into at least 2, if not more, countries that can make up a trade bloc. This bullshit of getting everyone killed from coast to coast because of your pathetic patriotic ego of “wahhhhhhh but my countryyyyyyyyyy”
Fuck the United States.
I want to say I’m amazed at the shit fucking takes to justify awful choices that directly lead to a fascist overthrow in response to your comment. But these types love to justify their choices even though they directly lead to an open fascist takeover of our country because BoTh SiDeS bAd because they couldn’t be bothered to engage in harm reduction and are ok with Gaza getting glassed and a probable trans genocide at home.
Fuck anyone who uses genocide to justify the situation where we now get more genocide, they never actually cared about it in the first place aside from talking points. Either that, or talk is more important than action. Either way, their opinions are meaningless to me as I help my trans homies survive.
Yup. It is incredible at how deeply they’ve fallen for propaganda. Like Joe Biden being the one to send bombs like he personally wrapped the package. No one is blaming Congress, the people who actually approved the transfer of weapons. Nah. They wanna blame the President for not illegally stopping a transfer and opening himself up for impeachment like Trump did.
These people have no understanding of the US political system. They just scream and cry because they saw a few Youtube Shorts or TikToks and think they’re suddenly educated. That they can blame the figurehead for everything.
It is insane. Biden was the most progressive President the United States has had in decades and every single fuckwit bought the propaganda that the Right Wing was pushing. Was he perfect? God no. But he was miles better than Obama was but nah. Lets just scream about how awful he is because his hands were tied on Israel/Palestine, a problem that has absolutely no answer that doesn’t rip the fabric of someones world.
Children.
What’s the point of saying that here? If you’re an American who could vote and you’re on Lemmy there’s a 99.9% chance you voted blue. But even if that weren’t the case, all of this transpired while we had a Democrat in office, so it’s just a horrible continuation of an already existing trend
They don’t care. The blue conservatives wanted the electoral hostage situation inherrent with First-past-the-post voting.
Now they want to pin the fallout of this policy of keeping 3rd parties out of the electoral process on people not represented in government.
Blue MAGA
The US shouldn’t be considered a single country. The EU has way more in common between it’s members and acts more like one country than the US.
Breaking it up in 50 different states is probably gonna cause a war I see that.
Slowly the US (which has been a terrible country for a lot of people) is dying and pulling others down. The US has pushed it’s bullshit into way to many countries it is not even funny.
I mostly agree.
Also, I live in the US.
The contradiction between blaming voting blocs and then blaming rampant patriotism is not even remotely unironic.
The patriotism is what put them in this mess but the voting blocs are what is killing them. The United States had no business being the country that it is. It overextended its reach to an absurd extent. It tried to captiulate to too many people who all wanted to share in the nationlistic nonsense that America pumps out daily. Now the country is fragmented to hell. Too many people feel like that the country doesn’t represent them in anyway while also insisting that the United States should be another way. So they rally around two voting blocs that diverge and don’t represent really anyone because they’re either like the Democrats and spreading themselves too thin while making no one happy or the Republicans who actively ignore what their voters want the second they have power.
The country is schizophrenic.
I understand the emotional appeal to blaming individuals for their action/inaction, but the fault lies with the system of governance. You can try to herd cats until the cows come home, but it only leaves you frustrated and drained. We can only educate ourselves, and try to educate others.
I understand the emotional appeal to blaming individuals for their action/inaction, but the fault lies with the system of governance.
And how do you fix that?
VOTE.
My blame is accurately placed.
I’ve been voting for 40 years, and look where we are. I understand the desire for change, but have to remind myself not to fall victim to electoral fetishism. Real, lasting change, can only come from social movements by the people.
Yes. This is true. Do you know how you effect those social movements in the government?
By voting.
You cannot argue that you are trying to participate in a social change of government by not engaging in that system of government. It is what is there. If you want to change it, you either need a full on revolution or active social change effected through voting in of various representatives that actually represent you and are willing to change those laws. True, you cannot fall to electoral fetishism, but that doesn’t mean to just ignore it entirely.
So. Once again, I am blaming the voters which is an accurate blame to place. Why? Because they are uneducated, hostile, or hateful. They do not engage in the voting system, they engage in spectacle. Whether that be by posting random comments like this Index person who is blatantly a Russian or by throwing a hissy fit but not doing anything.
The reason this cycle keeps continuing is because voters do not educate themselves and vote for their best interests. It is just as simple as that. Straight up. It isn’t complex. There isn’t some massive conspiracy. People just do not bother.
I believe you mentioned that propaganda influences people. The same system that educates us, propagandizes us. Why blame those who are miseducated and manipulated? That’s barking up the wrong tree. I get it, I’ve been where you are. It’s frustrating. And it’s difficult to stay focused on the root cause (because of propaganda). Fighting with friends and family, even though you may be right, is fruitless. It’s much better, and more productive, to listen, try to understand where they are misinformed, and try to find common ground. I have influenced many in my life through connecting on an emotional level, and then steering them to constructive conversations of understanding. They want us at each other’s throats.
Just a not even remotely friendly reminder that if you are American, eligible to vote and didn’t vote for Kamala then you actively voted for this.
Don’t try to spin logic. The red and blue party were both and has always been unified in supporting the fascist israel government in getting rid of gaza. People who chose not to play the rigged show the US government put up with elections is doing way less harm to humanity than the ones actively voting and supporting murderers.
Underrated comment here.
The Dems knew people were pissed with their support of the genocide in Israel, because several states had large percentages of people who voted ‘undecided’ in the Democratic primaries with the stated purpose of communicating that they wanted the US to stop sending WMD’s to Israel.
And, like usual, the Dems just ignored it, and opted instead to literally help Genocide Joe stack bodies until his final day in office. Kamala, when asked what she’d do differently, replied: “Nothing comes to mind.” Indulging she and Joe’s arrogance was given more consideration than child genocide. Think about that.
As much as people hate hearing ‘both sides’, this is very much a both sides issue.
Genocide Joe
And you have dismissed yourself from the conversation of adults. Thanks for that.
Y’all keep screaming about how he’s Genocide Joe for sending bombs to Israel. It just demonstrates how much Propaganda you’ve eaten for breakfast. Biden had no choice. Congress approved the weapons transfer. When Trump tried to stop military support to Ukraine, he was impeached. Apparently you didn’t bother to pick that up on your quest for screaming into the void.
Try actually educating yourself on how politics works instead of focusing on politically charged TikToks that are just angry about the situation. You haven’t learned anything. You’ve just absorbed propaganda.
Congratulations. You’re a useful idiot.
Biden had as much choice as Trump does now - that is to say, if he or any other Democrat actually didn’t want the genocide to continue they could have taken a page from the Republican handbook and bent the government to their purpose. There is, and never was, any will to do that. There is ALWAYS a choice - people like you who keep whining “Oh noooo the Dems had no chooiiiice, they have no blame in thiiiiis ;__;” are a huge part of the reason why things have gotten as bad as they have. Fuck you. (and, before you accuse me of ~nOt DoInG mY pArT~ by voting Blue, I damn well did vote for Harris)
Biden had as much choice as Trump does now - that is to say, if he or any other Democrat actually didn’t want the genocide to continue they could have taken a page from the Republican handbook and bent the government to their purpose
They didn’t have to bend anything. We have laws on the books about sending arms and bombs to states intending to use them for targeting civilians. Just enforce the law
I wasn’t going to accuse you of not doing your part. I was going to accuse you of being uneducated, like everyone else. You are basically saying to beat fascism you need to use fascism and like… nah. Let’s not go about that, thanks.
Hah, that’s fair enough. I guess I’m just so frustrated at seeing Republicans repeatedly get their way by acting outside of the law that I want people who actually care about human rights and justice to do the same thing :(
I will say that the Democratic Party is not doing enough. They’re fucking confirming positions and going with the flow. The leadership is failing and needs to wake up but there is a lot they can do within the legal system. The Nazis, when they took over, did everything legally at first. People need to push back but there’s just… no pushback. AOC is screaming and actually getting stuff done to an extent but so few other people are. The leader of the Dems in the house tweeted basically “Jesus take the wheel” which isn’t a GREAT stance.
Don’t try to spin logic.
Some very strong pot kettle black energy here.
Removed by mod
If this isn’t bad, what is, douche?
He’s never going to love you no matter how hard you simp for him.
I don’t simp for him, fuck that scumbag.
But I think issues are more complicated than that, because for example Democrats actively supported the genocide too, so it’s not just 1 bad guy.I don’t know, definitely feels like the democrats passively supported, while Trump seems to want to participate.
Can’t say the democrats were making the right choice, but Trumps stance is objectively worse.
If you call a cease fire, hostage release, and two state solution as “supported the genocide” then… I guess?
I wouldn’t call it that though. You do you I guess.
Ah yes the black and white both sides bad argument. You do know it’s possible for one side to be worse right? So much worse.
List the ways in which Democrats actively supported genocide. Go ahead.
Correct
If you didn’t vote then you voted. Got it.
Correct. If you didn’t vote then you are spineless, a coward and lack any morals. You saw fascism coming and ignored what everyone said and then decided that it wasn’t worth the bare minimum effort of voting.
If you did not cast a ballot and you were eligible to do so then the things I want to say to you would get me banned from lemmy and probably arrested.
I mean my vote hasn’t mattered in the last 2 elections. My state hasnt flipped blue since Obama. There’s a lot of situations where voting is a waste of time. Making that not be true is what’s going to increase voter turnout, not trying to shame them for something they’re not responsible for
And if everyone in your state who thought that actually decided to vote then it might have actually made an impact.
See previous message.
K. That doesn’t explain your nonsense about “If you didn’t vote then you voted”.
It literally does. Your reading comprehension skills are not my problem.
It’s not my reading comprehension that’s at issue here, it’s your abilities with basic logic.
Ratio says otherwise. You are getting hammered with downvotes because you can’t grasp the simple concept that I put forward.
Ooh, “I’m popular so I’m right”. Yep, you have a major problem with logic.
Correct. If you didn’t vote then you are spineless, a coward and lack any morals.
Not correct, if you didn’t vote you didn’t vote period.
People saying and persuading others to vote for murderers with blood on their hands are much bigger spineless coward with no morals.
That’s still a choice though.
Inaction is still a choice, so not voting means you’re ok with this. Voting or not voting, you still made your choice in November and here we are.
People saying and persuading others to vote for murderers with blood on their hands are much bigger spineless coward with no morals.
That’s the most bullshit argument to justify your shitty choices and is textbook DARVO. Not voting for the lesser murderer means we get an even bigger one who will actively increase the suffering, and it’s hilarious to me how you’re trying to pretend that voting to prevent more genocide is cowardly. But cowards love to pretend they’re not cowards and blame others when they don’t have the stones to make hard decisions. And lol, using morality to justify letting trump genocide people home and abroad shows you have none.
Inaction is still a choice, so not voting means you’re ok with this. Voting or not voting, you still made your choice in November and here we are.
The choice not to support a rigged as fuck system that needs to go for the sake of humanity. You are not supposed to vote for any murderer of any scale under any circumstances. When the choice is between two murderers it’s time for plan B
Was plan B sitting on your hands?
Plan B is not support the government
You sound like one of the idiots my grandfather tried to warn in Germany in the 1920s before he got the fuck out and came to America on forged papers on a Japanese fishing boat
And you sound like an idiot using a poor comparison to defend scum as bad as the nazis.
So lemme get this straight. The Democrats are the Nazis here, not the people literally throwing up a seig heil?
You really have no say in this conversation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Globke
Most governments around the world are ruled by villains consumed by greed and lust of power. If you support and fuel a genocide you are bad on pairs as nazi regardless of your country or political agenda. The government of israel by definition can’t be nazi but they are committing crimes as the nazi were.
Nope. It is dead correct. If you were eligible to vote and you did not vote then you should feel horrible. You should feel attacked. You should feel like everyone hates you. They do. You decided that fascism wasn’t important enough to vote against. You decided to go “Well both sides suck” when one side was actively planning genocide and destruction of the United States.
You do not get to have a say. Why? Because you didn’t vote. You decided not to use your voice so guess what? You don’t get to have one here.
You can try to blame people who didn’t vote the red and blue party as much as you want but they are not going to feel horrible because they didn’t support any murderer. You seem to be projecting a lot of resentment perhaps deep down you don’t feel happy about your choice?
See previous comment.
You don’t vote? You don’t get to have a say in the conversation. You have willingly silenced yourself for the next 4 years. So sad for you.
Not engaging is also a choice, a very shit one in this case. You either contributed -1, 0, or +1 to a fascist takeover, sure 0 might be better than +1 but taking a neutral stance against such a dogshit prospect really puts the chair in armchair revolutionary, and doesn’t make you much better than the cheeto worshippers.
Not voting at minimum makes you more dumb than MAGA… At least they understand voting can bring changes.
True, and that’s despite most of them believing it’s rigged anyway lmao
OP is saying +1 = 0.
Both sides were pro-genocide, you need a multi-party system
We do. But until then, everything they said stands.
We need systems where we vote for policies rather than parties.
Absolutely nothing will be fixed until we do.
Imagine saying that with a straight face with one side has just declared they want to very actively partake in the genocide and just do the job themselves.
This is like saying giving a murderer a knife is the same as going in with a machine gun yourself.
This is like saying giving a murderer a knife is the same as going in with a machine gun yourself.
I know you’re trying to be profound here, but in this case, it is exactly the same. Genocide Joe very reliably delivered WMD’s to Israel during his term in full knowledge that it was a vastly unpopular decision, up until his last day. The news reported something like 80 people killed in the days between the signing of the ceasefire and Biden leaving office.
Whether it’s the US or Israel doing the
squatting“settling” in Gaza, the results are the same. Biden and Trump diverge in minor ways, but unfortunately Israel doesn’t appear to be one of them.Minor ways? Are you fucking serious?
I am.
Biden’s presidency was so similar to the prior one that millions of workers who’d voted previously didn’t even see the point in going to the polls.
Thank you for conclusively proving you have literally no idea what you’re talking about. You are what is wrong with America. You are not educated.
“Genocide Joe” wasn’t able to stop sending bombs. When Trump stopped sending military aid to Ukraine he was impeached. Why? Because it is illegal to impede a congressional approval. It was congress that approved the weapons to Israel. Biden had literally no choice. The most he could do, which he did, was stop the bombs from being sent for longer and longer periods. Put them in areas where they had to be inspected because it was the only thing he could do. Slow it down.
And here you are screaming that he should have stopped sending anything, concretely proving that you have fallen for every scrap of propaganda.
Congratulations. You’re a useful idiot.
Silence is consent when it comes to politics. Always has been; always will be.
Is consent the same as voting for something?
You’re complicit in the result, correct.
That’s not what OP said. He said not voting is voting.
Did you do anything to stop the violent ego maniac in the White House? No? Then you’ve cooperated with him.
Ok, now explain how not voting is voting.
Abstaining affects the outcome as much as voting does.
As much? Are you sure about that?
I’m pretty sure they mean half as much.
Panama, Greenland, Canada, Gaza, what else? The world?
new zealand’s underground movement to keep it off world maps about to pay off.
If only it weren’t for those damned Hobbits.
Once the elves left the property values went to shit.
Australia is west of New Zealand…
does that make Australia the undying lands?!
Isn’t that where billionaires own a lot of property? I could be misremembering.
They want us looking elsewhere while they steal the keys to the kingdom.
Everywhere will be a state!
Well except Puerto Rico, for some odd reason the one place that could reasonably become a state isn’t on the list.
The US is his focus, everything else is a means to an end. Either to distract people with his antics, rile up his base to hate “the others”, or get his detractors reacting instead of acting.
He has always been a two-bit conman, the problem is he’s got the backing to get everyone hunting the queen, while his friends are busy picking our pockets.
Peacemaker à l’orange.
Mars should be on that list
“It seems that there might finally be a temporary peace in gaza… wait, it’s, it’s, BY GOD IT’S THE US COMING FROM BEHIND WITH A STEEL CHAIR”
Punk rock predicted this.
Propagandhi - Haille Sellasse Up Your Ass
“The West Bank, The Gaza Strip, soon will be parking lots for American tourists, and fascist cops”
Great band! Awesome to see them mentioned.🤩
I’m starting to adjust to the Trump term and learn how not to be disappointed with these news stories - here’s my one simple trick:
Expect news tomorrow to be worse than today, in ways you can’t even imagine. Each day repeat this process, with new baseline lowered expectations from the day before. It’s that easy!
the thing is, i expected ‘bad’. we got ‘worse’ instead.
then i expected ‘even worse’, and we got ‘what the fucking hell?’ repeatedly.
and it’s been downhill with no end in sight, since.
2 weeks down, 206 to go
At this rate I expect their second civil war to have kicked off by April, should be quite an event!
From my perspective, that’s “our” second civil war 😐
Each day’s better than the next…
Every day worse than the last, it’s part of their tactics to demoralize and inundate us as well.
Yeah, in posting my comment, I was thinking about this as well. It’s certainly their tactic and it’s how fascists win.
The problem: I don’t know how to effectively counteract it. “Stay hopeful,” “don’t get discouraged” is all well and good, and I’m going to continue to watch the bloody corpse of America get hacked to bits out of some semblance of duty, even if I’d like to look away.
The only response that would actually help is collective action and direct resistance - and I’ll certainly join a protest, or something with an actual end-game plan that isn’t just “raise awareness we don’t like this.” But none of the leaders we elected are giving any actual leadership. Even if they were, the media isn’t reporting on it so we can’t efficiently align. Lawsuits aren’t even being filed fast enough to keep up with the onslaught, even if the Supreme Court is potentially captured. The Overton window is moving so fast, they’re actually pulling off the coup.
I did my taxes the day I got my tax forms because I’m afraid Elon Musk is gonna determine that tax refunds from last year are not “efficient.”
My return was only like $300, but imma need all I can get with how things are going.
We have to look at the positive side: from now on, every day will be the best¹ day of the rest of our lives!
1.— Least worst, truthfully, but it works out the same, more or less.
Hmm, I’m worried to find out if we’re talking a Fahrenheit/Celsius kinda scale where our expectations become negative at some point, or if it’s more of a Kelvin where absolute 0 is the destruction of planet earth or life as we know it.
Trump is a real estate guy. That’s why he wants Canada and Greenland: lots of undeveloped real estate. Never mind that the reason for this is given by being non-developable.
And now Gaza: he actually thinks that he just has to move a few million people somewhere, and turn it into his personal luxury resort.
Do you want another 9/11? That’s how you get another 9/11.
Do you want another 9/11?
Even if they don’t, it feels like it would help them…
That is a problem that I also noticed.
Its not shocking because he told us this plan last month.
I recall reading months ago that Jared Kushner visited and was calling it prime beachfront property then. 🤷♂️
When the Ottomans Ruled the area Gaza was primarily a resort town.
What the actual fuck…
Just don’t call it genocide
Apparently that was 100% Joe Biden 🙄
Well, this is involuntary ethnic relocation for the sake of American real estate tycoon wannabes. Not genocide at all. Nosireebob.
Trump doesn’t speak for his citizens. “Trump” is the one who wants it
Shock
To people who weren’t paying attention probably
Shock? I’m surprised Trump didn’t start bombing it on day one.
To hear him speak of it, there’s nothing left to bomb.
“Shock”, only people getting shocked are the centrist that arent far righters but actually believed in the shit they spread. But as always nobody learns from anything.
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said the U.S. would take over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and develop it economically
The scope of this statement is a shock, but the motivation that led to it, isn’t. That said, I hate everything about this.
I’m not the first to bring this up, but it bears repeating. This is colonialism, plain and simple. That, in turn, is an outcome of unchecked capitalism. Practiced ideologically (i.e. as the guiding light in one’s life), it holds up “exploitation at all costs” as a virtue. Second to that is “give your competition no quarter.” Combined, that explains the current state of affairs.
We all may be used to thinking of colonialism as some thing that ended on one more more independence days in the last 300 years or so. In reality, the engines of commerce and industry that made that happen kept right on running. Since nation-state-sized real-estate deals like this don’t come along very often anymore, these animals are quick to react and pounce before someone else figures out how to exploit the situation.
As an aside: the attitudes and values that enabled things like the US westward expansion, slavery, classism, eradication of indigenous peoples, environmental destruction in the pursuit of minerals, pollution and litter from energy extraction, etc., are still alive and well in the population. Being this kind of evil is insanely profitable under the right conditions, which confers an outsized advantage to reproduction and social influence. Which is to say that it’s not the ideology of capitalism that propels these values to stay with us, but rather the other way around. It’s as though those colonists with exploitation in their hearts are still very much with us, and that’s something to keep an eye on.
This is colonialism, plain and simple
This is gangsterism, plain and simple
By the way, Trump recently asked Ukraine for rare earth elements, lol
