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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 15, 2024

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The only top-level-ish comment I feel like making at the moment is that both Reddit and X are insane right now when it comes to politics, even more than usual. For X of course part of it is the algorithm showing me highly charged politics stuff based on my previous choices, but still. Both platforms seem to be overrun by some combination of delusional, hysterical partisans on both sides of the political spectrum, astroturfers paid by one or the other side, astroturfing bots, and fervid conspiracy theorists who do not understand how basic reality and politics work.

Reddit is mainly overrun by "If Trump wins, the orange traitorous insurrectionist Putin agent failed businessman will put all the LGBTQ people in camps and bring about Christofascist dictatorship" types of posts.

X is overrun by a variety of wild shrill nonsense... or, most charitably, rampant poorly-argued speculation... such as "The Democrats killed Biden and are hiding it", "Biden hasn't been told that he's been dropped out against his will", "The Dems pressuring Biden to drop out is equivalent to a coup", "The Trump shooting was a false flag done by the Republicans", "Kamala is not African-American because her father is Jamaican", "Trump should resign because he is the oldest candidate in history (haha I'm only saying it because you said it about Biden)", "Biden dropped out because he was behind the Trump assassination plot and it failed", "The New York Times is a right-wing organization that is responsible for forcing Biden out", and so on.

Reddit has been delusional and probably compromised for years. I had high hopes for X, but in practice, while I think that it's better than Reddit, it seems to be at the mercy of political campaigns that drown out organic discussion.

It's all kind of amusing, but tiresome, to expose myself to such a high level of inanity, insanity, and astroturfing. But I seem to be addicted to it on some level.

When you say “Reddit is compromised,” can you explain what you mean by that?

I mean astroturfed. I should have been clearer about that.

In internet slang, "astroturfing" refers to the practice of creating a false impression of grassroots support for a cause, product, or policy. This is often done by organizations, political groups, or companies that hire people to post favorable reviews, comments, or endorsements online, making it seem as though these opinions are coming from ordinary, independent individuals. The goal is to manipulate public perception and give the illusion of widespread support or opposition.

Reddit is mainly overrun by "If Trump wins, the orange traitorous insurrectionist Putin agent failed businessman will put all the LGBTQ people in camps and bring about Christofascist dictatorship" types of posts.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_tx6E3Gb78Q

We have some of those arguments here. Kamala (and Obama) not being ADOS has been well litigated here.

It is actually an interesting question why blacks in some areas seem to rise up faster than ADOS (Nigeria is mostly just a bigger filter). Kamala’s though is Tamil Brahmin class Indian elite married to an Askenazi Jew. Ethnically she has nothing in common in ADOS.

Obama isn't an ADoS, but Kamala is. It's not like Black people moved to Jamaica of their own volition.

ADoS refers specifically to descendants of slaves in the United States, not the Americas generally.

Yes, Kamala is an American Descendant of Slaves but not an official ADOS, which is confusing.