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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   36912 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024

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He just called in via phone during Kamala's first speech in Wilmington. Ironically, sounds the best he has since the SOTU.

Kamala at one point says: “joe we’re so happy to have you on the recor….on the call. It is just so good to hear your voice”

Does this not strike anybody else as a pretty odd thing to say?

Imagine this was another country. Putin disappears due to some illness, and a few days later announces that he is withdrawing himself from politics, but he does this by posting a jpeg to Facebook, then nobody hears from him for a full day, and what we finally get is him calling into his replacements press event with what could easily have been some prerecorded audio.

I mean…what the hell? Why not have Jill call in at least?

Why not have Jill call in at least?

I can't imagine that would reassure anyone on the "dead Biden" train.

Maybe not the dead Biden thing, but the palace coup thing.

I thought the speculation on his whereabouts was over when I heard he phoned in. Then I saw this clip.

https://x.com/goddeketal/status/1815521002773766502?s=42

Someone please explain this. She blew it.

it also could have been a recording because they decided to record it rather than do it live. like how singers sometimes mime a recording at their concerts rather than sing live. not because he is incapacitated or locked up but because they can do a cleaner take and there is less chance of a technical issue that could interrupt the call. but i also think its funny that it could just be a lot of small lies that are feeding the conspiracy narrative. i'm sure there is some lesson about how you should be honest.

Or she was about to say, "on the recovery[...]", or "on the record[...]" and either changed her mind or blended two sentences together.

Regardless, I very much doubt he is dead, it makes no sense to hide that. If anything I think it's much more likely that he is being isolated because he doesn't really want to resign from the 2024 candidacy, and this is more or less a palace coup, either explicitly (he never said that he is resigning) or that they don't trust I'm to not say something ambiguous (or forget that he's resigned) during a live press conference.

This clip is the best evidence for "Biden dead" I've seen so far. Harris is even more sus than tricky Dick himself.

I thought she was going to be saying 'on the record' or something but no, that's not right at all. This is wild. And the whole way she's talking also makes it seem like a hoax.

What of the comments by 'Biden' just after where he says "It's mutual, I love ya kid" etc ?

The Kamala campaign certainly has a press person capable of hitting the stop and play buttons at the correct time. It's not like this was an impromptu speech.

As an American abroad for some time it's odd to see the US from the outside in the current era. There's no conspiracy speculation in Japan that I have heard of in the news regarding Biden's health, but it all seems bizarrely obviously a set-up in banana republic-type proportions.

Biden says he will only step down for health reasons. It is conveniently announced that he has COVID. He vanishes, tweeting out his disinclination to stand for re-election (though does not mention health anywhere in said tweet). In fact no one really mentions his health except to say he is on meds. Word trickles down that his staffers are surprised by his tweet.

His next presence is days later in a voice (not Zoom, not video) call, of course praising Harris as the inheritor of the mantle. A happy, positive old man gracious praise of Harris, who seems tickled pink and gushes how Joe and Jill are just like family (who gives a f**k?) It's bizarre. Am I just online too much or reading too many conspiracy types? Even taken at face value this all seems odd.

It's certainly plausible that there are recordings of him saying that in some other context. Though to what end, I don't know. Certainly they couldn't maintain such a rude all the way to November, and I don't see what a week or two would buy, other than maybe fake endorsements from a candidate who then tragically died.

Normalcy bias wins yet again. Nothing ever happens, yadda yadda.

Ironically, sounds the best he has since the SOTU.

I imagine he's had a weight lifted off his shoulders, much like the man who has decided to end it all. Hopefully, he can enjoy the final years of his life in peace. The last few months have been painful for everyone.

How sure are you that the voice you heard wasn’t AI synthesized?

If only AI Biden is based.

Am slightly disappointed it wasn't the "I'm smoking on Bhutanese Shadow Garden Dark Evil Pack" meme.

I assume you're joking, but I have to imagine we're not far away from Deep Fakes being used by state actors to manipulate the public. The technology is getting better and better.

I wonder how far we are from forging a voice being as difficult as forging a signature. Hopefully that's paired with widespread doubt about it as a method of authentication, but you still hear (occasional) stories about forged signatures being used for fraud in the age of photocopiers.

OpenAI were recommending phasing out voice auth back in March, passably mimicking voices is now extremely accessible. Current TTS can't replicate more subtle mannerisms and tics, but human mimicry and speech-to-speech gets you most of the way there.

Our whole system is built with toothpicks and rubber bands. The idea that a signature or a docusign means anything is farcical. Biden's signature didn't even look right on the Twitter JPEG. (Note: I'm not claiming its false – only that it shows just how bad a signature is as a form of ID verification).

It's funny how much of our fintech stack is built on obsolete technology. I've had trouble doing a Zelle bank transfer for $1200. On the other hand, my handwritten $400,000 check goes right through no problem with nary a notification.

Our best defense against cyberattacks is also the President's best defense against assassination: only stupid and crazy people ever try. So maybe that's some relief. Even when Deep Fakes are easy, reputable people might just not do it.

Consider this synthetic shitpost: https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1815137702561689866#m

You can tell from the x.com username that this is obviously going to be a fake, and the word choices and speech pacing make it even more clear. But for someone without such an idiosyncratic speech rhythm and reputation for stumbling and mumbling? We're well past "you can fool some people some of the time" and probably even "you can fool most people some of the time". I'd say we're at "you can fool most people most of the time" now, and it will only get worse.

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