This is definitely me when I'm not parroting state propaganda!
This is part 1 of our new Libs of Lemmy series. If you wish to contribute, just make sure you include Libs of Lemmy in the title. An award* will be presented for capturing the biggest lemmy lib, so get posting!
NSFW spoiler
*one-way ticket to official CCP cbt + milking dungeon
Why is it always "paid agents" or "russian bots". Don't they know, in this day and age, its way more likely we're all just fucking idiots. Anyone can post anything on the internet, the US barely has to spread its own propaganda because there's about a million morons logging in and posting every day
I think it's a combination of thought terminating cliche and in-group signifier.
"You're a bot/Russian agent" completely dismisses everything you have said and could possibly said and shuts down the conversation. It's a textbook thought terminating cliche. They can throw your entire argument out while protecting themselves from cognitive dissonance.
And then it also signals to their fellow libs that they can disengage, the enemy has been discovered and dealt with, we have won, blah blah blah. If anyone questions it or continues engaging they're undertaking a very small risk of being challenged by their fellow libs ie "why are you arguing with them, it's just a bot, come back to our safe lib spaces where we will talk about the GDP and nato's new cluster bomb that mulches 3% less infants".
Reminder that most of these people's political theory comes from whatever the last marvel movie they watched or whatever childhood videogames they've put the most time into.
So it's either brainwashed russians/non-whites or npcs (bots) through that lens.
Like there's a good chance the worst material "harm" that these people have experienced in their lives is the inflation of gold prices on the market on their world of warcraft server.
I get the impulse towards extreme cynicism but most libs afaik are still one or two paychecks away from the street, making decisions about when they can afford to get medical care, etc. The general public is mostly ignorant, alienated, and disenfranchised, completely trapped in the hegemonic power of a propaganda regime they don't even suspect exists. You don't have to be nice to them but it's worth remembering most of them were probably perfectly decent when they were six and it took years of indoctrination to turn them in to libs, just like it does for everyone else.
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liberals have a tendency to look for a qualifier in their political opponents that makes them a bad person with opinions not worth considering. They have to discover which aspects of your political ideology are invalid enough so they can dismiss you.
Strangely, being an idiot isn't enough for them. They think idiots can be reasoned with. You have to be compromised in some way, or lying about your ideology. They have to find that you're breaking the rules somehow. They have a hard time conceiving of a reality where their political opponents strongly believe what they mean, they have to believe you've been tricked or have ulterior motives. They think liberalism is simply the ideology you arrive at if you've thought really hard.
Exactly. Liberals don't believe they have an ideology. Ideology is something bad and brainwashed peoole have. They fundamentally think ideology is a problem and stops people from being able to understand reality the "correct" way like they do.
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