Cool.
Cool, you own whataboutism
What happened to NO POLITICS?
In regard to making up stuff -
(Copied from a friend)
…,
Post debate thoughts
I wasn’t alone yesterday, so I didn’t catch everything. But mostly, I watched without captions. I missed a lot. I’ve rewatched it with captions.
It started off with a dangerous lie and went downhill from there.
JD claimed, “Iran has received over a hundred billion dollars in unfrozen assets thanks to the Harris administration.”
Frozen assets are assets an entity owns that another entity is withholding for whatever reason.
I went to look for any indication the Harris administration gave Iran $100 billion.
They didn’t.
But, you can find the first search result to be the Heritage Foundation of Project 2025 disrepute.
The Biden administration convinced South Korea to unfreeze $6 billion from Iranian oil revenue to be used for humanitarian aid for food and medicine. This was in exchange for American prisoners held in Iran.
There’s a comprehensive NY Times article about it that details the very complex checks and balances that went into managing how funds were distributed and used-- like being held and managed by third parties that included not a proverbial Switzerland but a literal one.
If you’re interested in looking it up, it is titled, “U.S. Reaches Deal With Iran to Free Americans for Jailed Iranians and Funds” (2023).
Both Dems and Republicans oversimplify, reduce, and demonize what opposing administrations do in order to degrade the reputation of the other party. That’s just politics.
But, this is not politics as usual.
Toward the end of the debate, JD Vance made an argument for free speech that included the right to willingly spread misinformation.
This is misinformation used with malice to intentionally set a tone at the beginning of the debate.
This is clear by his next few sentences that began with a rhetorical question: “What did they use this money for? They used this money to buy weapons that they’re now launching against our allies, and God forbid potentially launching against the United States as well.”
Here’s why this is dangerous:
- The confidence heuristic
When people have no or poor information literacy, they can only choose a side on semi-arbitrary criteria. They tend to choose a side that seems the most confident. This phenomenon is called the “confidence heuristic.”
Without having the knowledge about how to fact check, and what sources to trust, they will just use the appearance of confidence as a proxy for who to trust.
The brain is wired to see security, and people with poor information literacy are never confident. Their choices feel like Russian roulette.
Vance tells people Iran has a hundred billion dollars, and they might use it to launch attacks at the United States.
Iran gave it a hard go at Isreal two days ago, and they didn’t take a single life. That’s not to minimize the attack, but to illustrate that from a munitions standpoint, they are simply not equipped to match Israel’s, and especially not the United States’ military capacity.
We are facing military unrest that may result in a large war in the Middle East; however, Iran does not have the ballistic capacity to strike the United States.
Biden using diplomatic means to unfreeze assets to fund humanitarian aid to Iran would make them less likely to be interested in using their very limited resources on attacking us with proxy warfare.
- Breakdown of Shared Reality
Misinformation creates a divided society where people live in different realities based on the information they consume. This makes it nearly impossible to have productive discussions or find common ground, further polarizing the public.
They can’t understand how their “opponents” are so immoral.
- Amplification of Fear and Hatred
By boldly stating that Kamala is allowing Iran to arm itself with 100 billion dollars for weapons, Vance is tapping into deep-seated biases and fears.
The more people are afraid, the more likely they are to support extreme measures or policies, even if those policies violate rights or escalate conflicts. This is how the far Right is weaponizing a large percentage of the populace.
- Legitimizes Misinformation as Normal
When politicians defend the right to “spread misinformation,” they are normalizing dishonesty as a political strategy.
How can we hold anyone accountable for misleading the public, since the argument becomes about the “constitutional right” to lie, rather than the ethical responsibility to tell the truth or the catastrophic impact of lies?
Right now, a giant chunk of the population believe the democrats used weather terrorism to cause Hurricane Helene to prevent red states from being able to vote.
That’s where we are, folks.
- Threatens Democracy
A functioning democracy relies on informed constituents. When voters make decisions based on lies, the democratic process is corrupted.
Politicians who intentionally spread misinformation are effectively manipulating voters to gain power, which undermines the legitimacy of elections and democratic institutions.
It also threatens diplomatic alliances and amplifies biases and extremism, weakens critical thinking in favor of blind partisanship, and prevents a fair election.
Tim Walz doesn’t understand neoreactionary debate. He’s never argued with people who cut their teeth on 4chan, Stormfront, Menicus Moldbug, or Jordan Peterson.
He doesn’t get that behaviorism has made behavior modification into a mechanized, data-driven, democracy-busting machine. He said this:
“January 6th was not Facebook ads. And I think a revisionist history on this… Look, I don’t understand how we got to this point, but the issue was-- that happened.”
Tim Walz was prepped by Pete Buttigieg, who absolutely does know how to face off against neoreactionaries. Walz can’t get into that headspace. It seems so far fetched.
Last night, Walz clearly wanted to give Vance good faith. That was a mistake. Vance is a method actor.
By defending the right to spread misinformation, JD Vance is advocating for a political landscape where deception is a legitimate tool of governance.
Why have debates or elections if there’s no expectation of honesty?
Intentional political deception is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, where leaders maintain power by distorting the truth, manipulating the media, and controlling public opinion through lies and propaganda.
It was a hallmark of the propaganda in the coal camps my and JD Vance’s recent ancestors occupied.
If the public becomes desensitized to lies and no longer values truth in journalism, it becomes easier for those in power to delegitimize all media-- even independent journalists and eventually historians scientists.
We’re there already.
This misinformation campaign paves the way for authoritarian control over information, where the truth is whatever those in power say it is.
This is dangerous because it undermines the core principles that a healthy democracy relies on: trust, truth, and informed decision-making. Informed voters.
JD Vance acted like Harris was a dictator because he was prioritizing his “right” to spread misinformation. He’s not just lying to win a debate—he is eroding the foundation of civil discourse, increasing the potential for conflict, and weakening the integrity of democracy itself.
Vance being nice-ish to Walz was a convincing (to the unseasoned) propaganda tactic to divide and conquer allies. This wasn’t good faith on Vance’s part, but a skilled performance.
Truly, Vance is very intelligent. He’s brave, too. He’s dangerous.
Vance wrote the best-seller, Hillbilly Elegy. He describes conservative white racist conspiracy theorists with, “You can’t believe these things and participate meaningfully in society.” Now, he further entrenches their delusions and biases by being the PR strategist for a man he called “America’s Hitler” and “social heroin.”
People are inclined to see Walz like a grandfatherly, nice dude, and being mean to him would be perceived negatively by feelings-based voters.
Harris is a lot more tough, and Vance continuing to agree with and offer empathetic responses to Walz (who is on the same page as Harris on all these issues) while following up with, “But not your running mate, Kamala Harris,” he drives a wedge between Harris and Walz and undermines the optimistic, joyful, and unifying image she has to paint her as a wolf and Walz as a sheep.
We watched a master class in sophisticated propaganda last night. I’m just getting started.
I’ve got about 15 more posts in me about this. Consider this part one. 
#TimWalz #JDVance #Election2024 #debate #melungeon
3 Likes
That’s not entirely true.
One person, a Palestinian, was indeed killed in Iran’s missile strikes on Israel.
This is perhaps the most baffling one. Joe goes on these shows like The View (which is awful and toxic btw!) and he pretends as if he stepped away on his own. Incredible. Everyone knows Pelosi and Obama (the most powerful Democrat) forced Joe out! Hell, Joe hates Kamala. She did call him a racist after all. lol!
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He had final say, no one else did
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I was once robbed at Gun point. I guess I had the final say as well.
The donors cut him off and it was explained to him that if Trump wins Hunter and you are going to jail for a long time. Your choice Joe.
Ridiculous analogy. Campaign dollars was the gun put to Biden’s head.
If you are cut off from the money you are going to lose. His son’s situation was the gun to his head.
Obama and Pelosi had the final say. Biden wanted to stay in the race.
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He could have been stubbord. No one had the power to push him out.
Whereas Republicans did have ro power to investigate Jan 6th. Shameful party
“The rules were you guys weren’t going to fact check”
Same verse. We know you feel this way. No need to put it on repeat.
Thank you for responding, people end up reading what you are responding to. Thank you.
And no it wasn’t repetitive, it was spot F’n on.
I’m telling you it is, and most here have heard it as well. I speak for myself. It is repetitive and tiresome.
Well let people read it. Don’t be the thought police and you aren’t cool enough to be the social police. So just be you.
Oh, I’m cool enough for that. Not being the thought police. Letting you know how you are coming across, especially to me.
So don’t read it. It is America, you don’t have to. Did you already read it?
Your rant? Yes, of course. It takes up a huge block of text. I scanned it for any new info (none of course), and moved on, annoyed.