• spaceghoti@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    10 months ago

    “We recognize that an abortion has two victims: obviously, the unborn child, and the other victim is the woman who’s the birth mother, who probably got talked into abortion by a boyfriend, a friend, a mother, a grandmother, maybe a father,” Huckabee said.

    This betrays a staggering misunderstanding of the issue…

    If I may present another hypothesis: this isn’t a misunderstanding. It’s a deliberate lie, a misrepresentation of the real issue to try to hide the fact that they know how sadistic their demands are and they’re not willing to be honest about it.

  • Veraxus@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    10 months ago

    According to my family, I’ve been brainwashed by “the mainstream media”. When I asked what that even means, they listed all these conservative news outlets that I don’t follow AT ALL. All I could do was laugh. “Where did you hear this?” I asked. You can guess at the answer. You’ll probably get it on your first try.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    10 months ago

    The “brainwashed” thought is a problem for many, mostly at the fringes of a given subject. They believe something so strongly that it seems like it is self evident fact, so how come 51%+ of the country either disagrees or doesn’t care? And social media bubbles, news media political differentiation, and the rural/urban divide make it worse because everyone they know, agrees with them too.

    So everyone else couldn’t possibly be looking at the same objective facts and disagreeing in good faith…they must be…brainwashed?

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    It fits into their worldview that anyone who is left leaning is somehow not a “real” American and that they alone are the rightful stewards of the nation.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    There had been six previous statewide initiatives centered on that question since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and each of the six had been successful, including in states redder than Ohio.

    As the third Republican primary debate was underway Wednesday night, Fox News’s Sean Hannity interviewed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee about the party’s underperformance on Tuesday.

    The video-sharing application, based in China, has become a boogeyman of the right (in particular, though not exclusively), including earning an extended conversation during Wednesday’s Republican primary debate.

    This was in response to a question centered on the idea that TikTok is amplifying anti-Israel propaganda, a claim made both by congressional Republicans and, according to a CNN report, by the Biden administration.

    As journalist Ryan Broderick noted, this misunderstands the scale and fragmentation of TikTok, a platform that isn’t “based [on] mass appeal snowballing into global virality, but about identifying niches.”

    That there were immediate responses on college campuses in the wake of Hamas’s attack in Israel would suggest there were existing belief systems about the region before this alleged TikTok nefariousness came into play.


    The original article contains 1,000 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    Both sides should avoid this trap. Lazy and stupid and makes for bad faith debates absent of substance. There are plenty of people on both the left and the right who don’t think for themselves. but whether a person regurgitates a talking point, or comes up with an original idea, has no bearing on the merit of that talking point or idea.

    Both sides have valid issues in complaints. Both sides have crappy issues and complaints. Neither side is perfect. Both sides need to realize that they themselves are not perfect.

    • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      Like nearly every single “both sides” argument in all of online history, this one fulfills one of these two roles:

      • Detract from something good about Democrats
      • Deflect from something shitty about Republicans

      You’ll nearly never see a “both sides” argument in the wild that does one of these things:

      • Detract from something good about Republicans
      • Deflect from something shitty about Democrats

      You may draw your own conclusions from that, gentle reader.

      Edit: Removed the hyperbole.

      • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        Clever, and not invalid. But it also ignores the point I was making.

        I’m NOT trying to minimize the shitty things GOP has done recently. The Karl Rove strategy of pandering to religious social conservatives has caused more pain for this country than can be put into words. Just like McCain legitimizing Sarah Palin (although he redeemed himself with Obamacare), legitimizing the ‘Evangelical’ political position is damn near unforgiveable. And as a single strategy that has done more to tear our country apart than anything DNC’s done. So please don’t think I’m excusing the GOP’s sins.

        What I AM saying, is that whatever their sins may be, they don’t always get it wrong all the time. Nobody does. Democrats don’t always get it right all the time. Nobody does.

        And thus it’s dangerous for anyone (on either side) to fall into the logical trap of ‘I’m a good person, a smart person, I’ve decided this is right. Therefore, everyone who thinks it’s wrong must be a dumb person or a bad person’.

        I believe every American should judge each argument on its own merits, regardless of its source. And if the result is always that blue is right and red is wrong, so be it-- but that should NEVER lead to complacency where blue is always assumed to be right and red is always assumed to be wrong (or vice versa) with analysis or debate deemed unnecessary.

        That is a VERY dangerous slippery slope that has, historically, led to some very dark places.

        • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          I definitely don’t think blue is always right. Been a long time since I’ve seen them be less wrong than red though. And, I’ve seen what they do when we let them have power these days.

          I will vote against red at every level, from local on up, because they have shown me (and all of us) who they are. I believe Republicans in power are a worse thing for this country than any likely negative impact from voting blue.

          In the meantime, I’ll hope that blue become better at living up to something more than just not being red.

          Maybe R will reform themselves enough to be trusted with adult things before I die of old age. I’m not holding my breath.

          Regardless, I appreciate your nuanced rebuttal, and can see that your aim was not as it appeared to me. However, I like to remind folks at every opportunity that influencers in online discussions who do “both sides” an argument are never doing it to promote balance, even though they always try to frame it that way. They are doing it to help one particular side.

          For that reason, I still stand by the comment, am glad it was well received by others, and hope it will shape how they evaluate that sort of argument when it comes up.