#political manipulation

[alwaysbewoke]

we're making fake ai images of trump with black people to make him seem less racist? that's what it's come to?

#trump #ai images #ai lies #maga #political manipulation #image manipulation #artificial intelligence #misinformation #propaganda tactics #racial politics #voter manipulation #election strategy #social media influence #disinformation campaigns

[ophilosoraptoro]

So peep this...

New York is claiming that Trump has committed fraud, because his Mar-a-lago property in Florida is actually worth $70 million, and not $220 million. It might be in Palm Beach county's best interest to file a lawsuit against New York for making this claim.

Here's why: If NY is right, that means Palm Beach county has been massively overcharging Trump on his property taxes. Without getting into fluctuating tax rates, whether or not the property has been reappraised, or any applicable tax write offs, over the course of the 38 years that he's owned Mar-a-lago, Trump would've paid roughly $92,796,000.

220,000,000 × 1.11% annual tax rate × 38 years

If the property is actually worth $70 million like NY is claiming, that means he should've only been charged $29,526,000, and Palm Beach county owes him a $63,270,000 refund.

#donald trump #trump indictment #trump 2024 #trump #maga #ultra maga #jan 6 #new york #florida #tds #trump derangement syndrome #property taxes #mar a lago #propaganda #politics #lawfare #political manipulation

[justbeingnamaste]

In early 2020 in the midst of the covid lockdowns, blue states run by leftist governors pursued mandates with extreme prejudice. In red states like Montana, after the first month or two most of us simply ignored the restrictions and went on with life as usual. It was clear that covid was not the threat federal authorities made it out to be. However, in states like Michigan the vice was squeezed tighter and tighter under the direction of shady leaders like Gretchen Whitmer.

Whitmer used covid as an opportunity to institute some bizarre limitations on the public, including a mandate barring larger stores from selling seeds and garden supplies to customers. “If you’re not buying food or medicine or other essential items, you should not be going to the store,” Whitmer said when announcing her order. The leftist governor was fine with purchases of lottery tickets and liquor, but not gardening tools and seeds.....

#Climate change hoax #food storage #political manipulation #climate change scam #SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMER

[shadowmaat]

IS it free speech? At what cost?

The substack bullshit is only the latest in a long line of companies choosing profit over people. As has become familiar, they cite the excuse of "free speech" as the reason why they won't deplatform (or demonetize) Nazis.

Where I'm having trouble is how "free speech" fits into things like this. First of all, censorship is done by a government, not a privately owned company. I also have issues with using "free speech" to excuse a multitude of crimes. Hate speech hurts. Doesn't matter if it contains "specific threats" or not, the words and the attitudes behind it are meant to cause harm and they do. Is speech of that type really free when it comes at the cost of the safety of others?

Hate groups, death cults, and other extremists are taking full advantage of the First Amendment and it seems like a lot of corporations are letting them get away with it by using the broadest possible definition of part of that Amendment.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Substack, Twitter, Meta, etc. are not part of Congress. They are not establishing national laws. They are supposed to be upholding a code of conduct for the people who choose to use their platform; a code that every user must agree to before they can post.

The problem is that they're not really doing that. Or at least they're being very selective of what bits they consider an actionable violation and what bits are just "free speech."

Calling on people to rise up and kill a CEO or political figure would almost certainly be ruled a violation, but calling on people to rise up and exterminate an entire group, well, I guess that isn't specific enough.

If someone hasn't published a study yet about how corporate "morality" is tied directly to their profit margins, I hope one get published soon because we all know that's what this is about: money. Violent extremists bring in a whole lot of dividends, so the CEOs aren't going to ban them. Gotta think of the shareholders, right?

I understand that it isn't always a black-and-white situation, and I know those kind of moral judgement calls can be tricky at times, but sometimes it's very obvious who's in the wrong. Pretending that banning one hate group will "set a bad precedent" and be used to try and ban other, benign groups is bullshit. Even if there IS a chance that someone would try to use that to try and get, like, the National Puppyhuggers Club banned, so what? It's the company's decision. So unless the Puppyhuggers are going around advocating for cat lovers to be put to death or sent to conversion camps so they can learn to love puppies instead, I don't think it's going to be an issue.

I also know there's an issue of "how do you define hate speech?" but again, even if something like that can be weaponized it doesn't mean you should just... not do anything.

I'm tired of people getting away with abhorrent behavior in the name of "free speech." Or deliberately spreading misinformation because "free speech." I know morals are anathema in the corporate world, but FFS people, grow a spine.

#politics #political manipulation #fascism apologia

[hellyeahheroes]

The Electoral College Is Anti-Democracy by Second Thought

#thought provoking #thought provoking summer bummer #democracy #electoral colle #political manipulation #voter supression

[nerdykeith]

So it seems that Xitter is going to start allowing "political ads" again. Let the misinformation and manipulation begin. I don't care what Musk and company claim, we all know what's going to happen. Thank god I'm no longer on that platform.

#twitter #x #Elon Musk #Xitter #social media #political manipulation #misinformation #Evil Musk

[qqueenofhades]

I'm sure it's only a coincidence that a few days after Putin says Biden "needs to be undermined from the left" to help Trump win, noted Russian agent Jill Stein, who the Kremlin already extensively promoted in 2016 in the successful effort to hurt HRC, and who already endorsed fellow pro-Russian tankie Cornel West, jumps back into the 2024 race as the "Green Party candidate" talking about how "the two-party system has failed us."

For the love of fuck, let's not do this again.

#hilary for ts #politics for ts #kinda hoped she was dead ngl #can we upfront demystify the notion that she is anything except a russian agent trying to help trump win again #because yeah #putin understands exactly how to manipulate the american left and does so extensively #and they take the bait every time #which is why it is such a low-risk high-reward strategy for him #but as we know #fascism and genocide Good as long as an Anti Western person does it!!!!1

[kvetcher-in-the-rye]

That's an excerpt from the speech commonly known as "The American Dream". Here's a 5 minute video of it:

..."there’s a reason education SUCKS, and it’s the same reason it will never, ever, EVER be fixed. [...] Because the owners, the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the BIG owners! The Wealthy… the REAL owners! The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.

Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don’t want:

They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests.

Thats right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that!

You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shitty jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fucking place! It's a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.

By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care! Good honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cock suckers who don’t give a fuck about you….they don’t give a fuck about you… they don’t give a FUCK about you.

They don’t care about you at all… at all… AT ALL. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Thats what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick thats being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth.

It's called the American Dream,because you have to be asleep to believe it."

#george carlin #quotes #quoteoftheday #education #educate yourself #educate yourselves #humor #comedy #comedian #funny #government #laughing man #ghost in the shell #the laughing man #operation mockingbird #censorship #mind control #propaganda #reeducation #unlearning #manipulation #slavery #politics #conspiracies #conspiracy #conservative #liberals #republicans #democrats #america

[guqin-and-flute]

Something about the fact that these shots are all grouped together, one after another, visually giving them equal weight just gets me. The narrative knows what's going to happen between JGY and Huaisang at this point, knows how it's going to treat JGY at the end of everything. And it still takes time to show Meng Yao instinctively and immediately going in front of Huaisang and Huaisang instinctively and immediately hiding behind him. It takes the time--literally, showed it in the background and focused on it with the same general amount of time as the other shots--to show that this act of protection and trust are just as real and true as Jiang Cheng defending his sister, as Wen Qing defending her younger brother.

Like, I dunno! There are other Nie juniors there! They have swords and shit! Huaisang could have gone and hid behind the wall, but he hid behind Meng Yao! And Meng Yao could have moved back with Huaisang, but he steps directly in front of him!

There's a lot CQL did to JGY's character and narrative that I don't like and that flatten or just straight up erase his full complexity. But I really appreciate the lengths that it went to in Episode 4 to explicitly tell us that he does not hesitate to protect Huaisang, even though at this point he does not have a sword and definitely does not have anywhere near the same cultivation power (if any) as any of the rest of the people in the room.

Right now, after being publicly humiliated, unarmed and definitely outclassed, he is brave. Along with the rest of the characters, he's allowed to be uncomplicatedly young and loyal and just as innocent as any of the other students there.

#Besides Wen Chao fuck u bud #Honestly I think that along with Xichen Huaisang is the other person he legitimately never considered hurting #(In the same way that he didn't consider killing Mingjue hurting them but I digress) #With Xichen I think there were plenty of times were he came to the conclusion that fucking him over or overtly manipulating him #in a disadvantageous way would benefit himself and he actively decided that he would not do that #Whereas with Huaisang I just get the impression that it never occurred to him to do that #And I'm not saying that was ALWAYS out of the goodness of his heart #I think he genuinely didn't think he would get anything out of taking advantage of Huaisang personally or politically #Which is not the most ringing of endorsement next to 'I knew I could and chose not to' #But it wasn't ALWAYS that #for a man who has to constantly be on guard and look for leverage in every single interaction and aspect of his life #I think it's pretty significant that he let Huaisang in so close that he was shocked when he found a metaphorical sword in his chest #along with the physical one #Because in never trying to hurt him he never felt he had to defend against him #He loved him. They both loved each other :( #Also him finding Huaisang's bird antics so genuinely amusing in the background of this ep is just 😭 #jgy #nhs #my stuff #jgy meta #nhs meta #text

[seraphicsuicides]

sometimes i hate being a woman. why cant i do the same things as men without getting sexualized and asked for tit pics? why cant i play this damn video game w this random guy without him saying im shit bc im a chick and then asking for my number? why cant you KEEP YOUR DICK IN YOUR FUCKING PANTS? why cant i go to college and major in a male-dominated field without people expecting me to drop out and give up? why cant i get the same pay as my coworker? why cant you compliment my brains and not just my boobs? why cant you have a conversation with me about something other than burying your dick inside of me? why cant i cut my hair short? why cant i have casual sex without being seen as public property? why is my uterus your business? why cant i go on a walk alone? why do i have to check my back seat every time i get in my car? why do i have to watch my weight because "a man likes a girl with meat on her bones, but not too much of it", why do i have to fight EVERY DAY and even in my fucking SLEEP to feel like i belong on the fucking planet. BEING. A. WOMAN. SHOULDNT. BE. A. FUCKING. CHORE.

#female hysteria #female manipulator #girlblogging #femcel #gaslight gatekeep girlboss #female rage #lana del rey #lizzie grant #manic pixie dream girl #lizzy grant #feminism #pro choice #equal #being a woman is a chore #pro life #IT ISNT POLITICAL #ITS BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS #I JUST WANNA BE COMFORTABLE

[alwaysbewoke]

#redistricting #voting rights #political manipulation #racial discrimination #civil rights law #voting power #partisan politics #electoral fairness #voter representation #legal challenges #minority rights #judicial decisions #racism #white racial hatred #white supremacy

[ophilosoraptoro]

BlackRock Recruiter Who ‘Decides People’s Fate’ Says ‘War is Good for Business' Undercover Footage

#blackrock #james o'keefe #campaign finance #hedge funds #wall street #politics #military industrial complex #russia #ukraine #economy #agriculture #market manipulation #o'keefe media group #political manipulation #ESG #propaganda #war propaganda #war profiteers #Youtube

[greatrunner]

So, apparently, because politicians received an influx of calls from their constituents asking them to vote against H.R. 7521, some or most of the politicians voted in favor of it.

One of them bitches was on the news bragging about how they voted in favor of H.R. 7521 because they loathed how many times they were called upon to vote against it.

Most of the seats in the House of Representatives are up for reelection. I urge y'all to pick a target who voted yea on H.R. 7521 and find a replacement who actually wants to do their job and not spite the people for demanding that they do it.

#greatrunners meta #politics #house of represenatives #tiktok #media manipulation #hr 7521

[galactic-rhea]

[ID: Screenshot of a chat that says "just leave my queen alone, she's already suffered enough. She wanted a life with her malewife murder monk pilot mechanic racer and you should respect her for that!]

It's Padmé defending's hours for me

I have been seeing more negative (with very weird connotations, tbh) posts about Padmé on my dash lately, and while I'm a firm believer of the "scroll past it" rule, it really irks me a lot because MOST of these takes sound a bit mysoginistic to me and also (to me) shows a lack of trying to understand her as a character, not in a "you don't get her" way, but in a "you don't even try to understand the character and her context in the damn story just because you wanna sound holy than thou" way.

I'm all for accepting takes about Padmé's flaws or having a slightly more privileged/closed view (and that makes sense, she's aristocracy) but these people are SO WEIRD whenever they wanna talk about her 🤨

I'll forever mad that George eliminated SO MANY scenes with Padmé in the movies, but I feel like even if we had those scenes, people's complaints would be exactly the same.

But also i think half of the time people fail at understanding Padmé is because they're also failing to understand Anakin's as a character, idk

#we love Padmé in this blog damnit #how so many people can forget the fact she had also an absolutely horrible childhood and was lonely and used to political backstabbing #and assasination attempts #at fourteen #and it just kept getting worse #the fact that she found a bond with Anakin and fandom makes it all about her being a stupid girl or evil for that it's ridiculous #and some of these takes sound victim-blamey if i'm honest #is she flawed? yes obviously but that makes her more interesting #anidala is supposed to be space Romeo and Juliet right? Eurydice and Orpheus Lancelot and Guinevere they're doomed for loving each other #but loving isn't their flaw actually #the flaw in Star Wars is some old guy called Palpatine he's in the background if you squint and Padmé was manipulated by him too #rambling #star wars #sw #padmé amidala #padmé #anakin skywalker #anidala

[odinsblog]

Caveat Lector 🚨🚨🚨

Donald Trump supporters have been creating and sharing AI-generated fake images of black voters to encourage African Americans to vote Republican.

BBC Panorama discovered dozens of deepfakes portraying black people as supporting the former president.

Mr. Trump has openly courted black voters, who were key to Joe Biden's election win in 2020.

But there's no evidence directly linking these images to Mr. Trump's campaign.

The co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a group which encourages black people to vote, said the manipulated images were pushing a “strategic narrative” designed to show Mr. Trump as popular in the black community.

A creator of one of the images told the BBC: “I'm not claiming it's accurate.”

The fake images of black Trump supporters, generated by artificial intelligence (AI), are one of the emerging disinformation trends ahead of the US presidential election in November.

Unlike in 2016, when there was evidence of foreign influence campaigns, the AI-generated images found by the BBC appear to have been made and shared by US voters themselves.

One of them was Mark Kaye and his team at a conservative radio show in Florida.

They created an image of Mr. Trump smiling with his arms around a group of black women at a party and shared it on Facebook, where Mr. Kaye has more than one million followers.

At first it looks real, but on closer inspection everyone's skin is a little too shiny and there are missing fingers on people's hands - some tell-tale signs of AI-created images.

“I'm not a photojournalist,” Mr. Kaye tells me from his radio studio. “I'm not out there taking pictures of what's really happening. I'm a storyteller.”

Disinformation tactics in the US presidential elections have evolved since 2016, when Donald Trump won. Back then, there were documented attempts by hostile foreign powers, such as Russia, to use networks of inauthentic accounts to try to sow division and plant particular ideas.

In 2020, the focus was on home-grown disinformation - particularly false narratives that the presidential election was stolen, which were shared widely by US-based social media users and endorsed by Mr. Trump and other Republican politicians.

In 2024, experts warn of a dangerous combination of the two.

(continue reading)

#politics #republicans #donald trump #deepfakes #disinformation #republican dirty tricks #misinformation #ai #a.i. #artificial intelligence #media manipulation #false narratives #black republicans #caveat lector #black voters matter #mark kaye #fake ai

[hussyknee]

Tfw your favourite faux-leftist liberal shill turns against you. 🥲

#WE HAVE VOX #hahahahahhahahahha #you don't understand look at the Vox stories promoted on their twitter feed the last six weeks and now look at this #this fucking bootlicking shill turned against Biden #although now I'm thinking the Dems are setting him up to be fall guy #as though this is his circus instead of a bipartisan collusion with the military industrial complex #still it's a sure sign of the tide turning fast #ideally I want Vox bombed along with CNN but. Baby steps #Can't wait to see which dick-riding rag turns next #media manipulation #free Palestine #genocide Joe #fuck Joe biden #us politics