It’s hard not to be angry at the legion of angry, scared, dimwits that voted for this. It’s also just not productive. In the end, what’s the point of that anger? We have to figure out how to reach those people, and how to cut through the fog of misinformation and propaganda that they are lost in. Things are just going to get worse and worse unless we do.

Can we stop using this Stephen Crowder meme? That guy is the worst

You’re cherry-picking one issue, and ignoring the absolute FLOOD of misinformation and propaganda that is filling those social platforms. Not to mention that those honest critiques of the US’s complicity in genocide are picked up and weaponized by bad actors across the spectrum. Most people have not been taught to critically consume news, they just go on vibes. Corporate news, social media, it’s all broken, and none of it is serving people’s best interests. I would argue that informed voters were stuck between a rock and a hard place; we knew that the Harris campaign was just more neoliberal bullshit, but the Trump vision of the world is so much worse. Social media is causing so much more harm than good, and the people in charge of those platforms absolutely do not have your best interests in mind. All they care about is engagement metrics, and nothing drives that more then anger and fear

The problem here is too much information, or misinformation. In social spaces, if you post something about vaccines, or join a group that is focused on children’s health, for example, you’ll start being inundated with anti-vax misinformation. People get lost in these walled gardens of bad info, and stop being able to distinguish between truth and fiction. All these systems are designed to drive engagement, and nothing drives that better than fear and anger.

Optics discussion aside, I think it cost like $800k to transport them via C130. There’s no reason to use this method other than to grandstand. They’ve sent thousands of folks back to Colombia via commercial and chartered flights.

This is the most frustrating and stupid news cycle - the US government has been sending folks back to Colombia via commercial flights since like 2020. The Biden administration sent 124 flights last year. The only difference is that the Trump team wanted to make a big show of sending people in chains on a military flight, and the Colombian government wanted their citizens to be treated like human beings. Our media is shamefully inadequate to this moment.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/08/03/paul-reubens-child-pornography/