President Trump

BlueHammer85 said:
Reform are second in the polls, they have copied the Musk style anti migrant disinformation war and using it to affect. America is has having influence on voters here, especially on social media.
Click to expand...
Bit silly to blame the popularity of a UK party among UK voters on America no.
 
WT86 said:
Bit silly to blame the popularity of a UK party among UK voters on America no.
Click to expand...
A bit much to blame it on Americans, and it seems to be mirrored across much of the west. Many of the same factors at play with the rise of the authoritarian right everywhere.
 
That's for sure. Trump is sui generis but the ideology he represents is nothing new.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
The Europeans were doing pretty good themselves before America apparently did this TO Europe.
Click to expand...
Who owns FaceBook and the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter, or Instagram and TikTok?

There are certainly UK accounts posting some pretty nasty shit, but they are being amplified by US right wing account (including the ownerof a US social media platform with heavy connection to the sitting president) and troll farm accounts in Russia and China who most definitely have a vested interest in the destabilisation of Western democracy.

The modern extreme right wing in Europe were pretty much fringe organisations before the cancer of social media took hold.
 
Mr Kobayashi said:
There aren't many European owned social media companies.

In a parallel universe would twitter have been shut down and it's British owner jailed if they'd down the same as Elon Musk had during the summer?
Click to expand...

100%

How this was allowed to happen is beyond me, but then I've never really the seen blatant corruption of government up close before, and to see people so utterly 'meh' is frightening. Collectively we have learned absolutely zero from history.
 
Magicpole said:
Americanland Theme Park

Come on in, it’s fucking terrifying, dumb, hysterical and will leave you shitting yourself and scratching you’re heard as to why we were allowed to be built.
Click to expand...
My concern about this mentality is that it ignores the reality of what is going on in the world to simply label it as stupid.

Trump is trying, and apparently succeeding, in creating a right wing paradigm shift. There are multiple levels to it, and much of the domestic aspects of it are being semi-hidden, shuffled down the news cycle headlines, and being done behind closed doors.

On the other hand, the global aspect of it is being done right now, in your face, without excuse or explanation.

Too much money being wasted, too much money to be made. The major global players all have too much to gain from a successful outcome to the above for it not to happen.

In America, this means business and the wealthy have literally trillions of dollars to divvy up between themselves if this “new wave” actually breaks open the America of yesterday.

If you’re tired of hearing the words “waste, fraud and abuse,” you need to sit down, turn the sound down on everything, and crack a book.

Civil service and bureaucrats are now Public Enemy Number 1 in American government and F’Elon Musk and his DOGE Bros are inside the machine blowing it up. Where, and more importantly how, it all ends remains to be seen, but one thing is certain…Trump and the people in the shadows pulling his strings are moving at lightning speed to make certain they can get it past the tipping point of being reassembled in any past guise before the Midterms, because losing the House or Senate makes all of it much more difficult.

While it’s clear there is WF&A in the U.S. bureaucracy, as there is in all of them, the term is really being used as a smokescreen for both gutting the social service aspects of Federal Spending and the deep reduction of the U.S. military budget, which is bloated beyond any realistic level. Couple this with Trump’s nationalistic isolationism and you can envisage their dream of a shrinking U.S. global military footprint that frees up hundreds of billions of dollars.

To be fair, there is good and bad about all of this, but the balance is a cause of concern, as is the manner in which it is all being done!

Maybe, as will be asserted, this “Shock and Awe” approach was the only way to do it. “Rip the Band-Aid off” as it were, and it’ll only hurt for a little while.

That might be true of the financial hits, but the second and third order effects on workers, inflation, tax rates, interest rates, the level of social services and whether they’re damaging to (m)any, not to mention the seismic political shift underway.

May you live in interesting times…
 
Trevor Morley's Tache said:
Who owns FaceBook and the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter, or Instagram and TikTok?

There are certainly UK accounts posting some pretty nasty shit, but they are being amplified by US right wing account (including the ownerof a US social media platform with heavy connection to the sitting president) and troll farm accounts in Russia and China who most definitely have a vested interest in the destabilisation of Western democracy.

The modern extreme right wing in Europe were pretty much fringe organisations before the cancer of social media took hold.
Click to expand...
So it’s the mechanism not the message?

Did the mechanism change people’s minds or was that the massive migration issues that have dominated European politics for the recent past? Wasn’t that what Brexit was about for many? Isn’t that why Meloni was elected? Macron is in trouble? AfD is so resurgent?

All of that is the result of a mechanism dragging people by the nose to a place they weren’t already occupying or wanted to go?

Nah.
 
Mr Kobayashi said:
There aren't many European owned social media companies.

In a parallel universe would twitter have been shut down and it's British owner jailed if they'd down the same as Elon Musk had during the summer?
Click to expand...
Given the lack of freedom of expression in the UK, and Europe in general, I have no doubt social media would be squashed like a bug by the “authorities.”

You believe this to be a good thing?
 
ChicagoBlue said:
Given the lack of freedom of expression in the UK, and Europe in general, I have no doubt social media would be squashed like a bug by the “authorities.”

You believe this to be a good thing?
Click to expand...

There is a balancing act isn't there. Freedom to spread poisonous lies and incite mobs isn't Freedom of speech.

In the USA, a sitting president can incite a mob and avoid all consequences of it.

Is that better?
 
ChicagoBlue said:
Given the lack of freedom of expression in the UK, and Europe in general, I have no doubt social media would be squashed like a bug by the “authorities.”

You believe this to be a good thing?
Click to expand...
if the alternative is to allow hate crime lies to be peddled without redress,then perhaps yes
 
Slightly (perhaps) off topic, film on Amazon Prime at the moment, Civil War. Set in, you guessed it, the good old US of A. Good film, story told through the eyes of a photojournalist. Particular liked the line about the conflict starting whilst the Pres was in his third term.
 
Trevor Morley's Tache said:
American right wing policies being amplified by social media influencers in America and beyond (troll farms) is definitely having an effect on UK and European politics.
Click to expand...
Maybe there's some influence, but it takes two to tango and that they're finding an audience in Europe is an reflection of Europe. We don't write the Sun or the Mirror. We didn't give you Farage or Powell or Mosley. Reform is a reflection of British society at root. Murdoch is Australian and he built his empire in Britain, Musk is born and bred in South Africa, but I wouldn't say the commonwealth is at fault for Trump.
 
Mr Kobayashi said:
There is a balancing act isn't there. Freedom to spread poisonous lies and incite mobs isn't Freedom of speech.

In the USA, a sitting president can incite a mob and avoid all consequences of it.

Is that better?
Click to expand...

The reason for it was exactly the reason Musk would be in jail…tyranny of the decision-maker, which used to be the King, but is now an “always offended” political class.

Of course there might be a balancing act, but who decides where the tipping point is?

In the States, we do actually have some guardrails on speech, but they’re exceedingly broad, and rare, (“Fire!” in a crowded theatre being the oft-quoted example) so as not to snare people who are merely expressing an opinion that is not in vogue or appreciated by the current zeitgeist.

And, believe me, I agree that X is a complete cesspit of drivel, bots, and ubiquitous right wing commercials. My concern, as always, with censorship is “Who decides?” and “Who will be deciding tomorrow?” If it is me, great!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top