This is more effective and less risky than actual vandalism. Stand out there and be our protest. Good work, cops.

This sounds a lot like “I’m immune to propaganda”.

You… do understand that the point is the problems with our social media and our geopolitics, right? It’s not something that’s gonna actually change.

It’s more like a trusted authority would know your name and your pseudonym, and only your pseudonym and your country or county would display online.

They’d make sure you’re not using ten accounts to reinforce each other, and make sure you’re representing the country you say you are. Ideally, like medical records, the more detailed information would be secret.

Good. I’m glad you’re upholding the rule of law up there. I hope for your success, as I hope you would like for ours. Your longtime ally is still in here somewhere.

Because they would have had to take the risk and come back in their leaky original vessel that made it home successfully?

All anonymous social media threatens democracy.

I’ve done my best over the years, but regular people can’t compete with the resources of a nation-state that decides to go on a social media influence campaign. No matter how right you are, it’s near impossible to win over public opinion while having 20 times your numbers arguing against you, bandwagoning, and “helping” you by creating easily defeatable strawmans.

It’s really hard to be outnumbered in an argument and then also argue with your “allies” that no, that’s not what you meant. And when the average third party reads over all of that, what are the odds they pick out your small part? You need those odds to be around 70% or more, and they’re just not.

And that’s if you don’t just get banned by hostile moderators. I don’t know if you’re aware of how most moderators are chosen, but it’s not a job interview. And if it is a job interview, it’s in Mandarin or Russian. Even if it’s a legit mod, they’re going to be one of those average third parties that have been subject to all those other arguments.

Today someone said, “Burn the (US) Democratic party to the ground”. That’s so hard to deal with. There are two parties in the US, and you chose that statement?!? The prevailing sentiment spreads. There are valid criticisms to make of the Democratic party, absolutely. Those criticisms needs to be targeted, well-researched, and specific if they’re going to be helpful. So you’re one or ten or a hundred people trying to improve the shitshow. Meanwhile there’s a mix of natural sentiment, seeded sentiment, and fake sentiment making arguments all over the spectrum for your side, and their number in the tens or hundreds or thousands. And that’s before you get to the actual opposing side, which has its own, similar nuances and outnumbering tactics.

Oh, and don’t forget, you’re not immune to the tide. They’ll feed you false information that aligns with your arguments just to discredit you. Something like “Lottery winner pays 70% in tax. Only billionaire to be taxed properly.” That’s not how that works. They pay the same 37% or whatever top marginal rate everyone else does (and then state).

I think it’s possible to have pseudo-anonymous social media, but some authority has to know who you are and where you’re from. The giveaways of propaganda Twitter posts with Russian flags were a clumsy mistake and unlikely to continue voluntarily. Whoever that authority is will be uncomfortable for us, but the only reason we’re comfortable without verification is that we’re used to it.

Looks like the taxes are closer to 37.5%

https://lemmy.world/comment/15540664

It’s still the recognized Internet stereotype.

People just aren’t noticing that this is protection.

I understand people being frustrated. Who isn’t. But these people lash out like children are just as bad as the people who caused this. It’s like our collective getaway car is a rusty Ford Pinto and they’re like “fuck that thing, burn it down!”

My man, that was our getaway car from fascism. Was that your intention?

Yes, let’s pick a party and burn it to the ground. Wait, what?

You better look around you, fam. I seem to remember some trucker convoys up there.

To be fair, they’re exaggerating in order to scam people. Not that many people paying actual double mortgage, especially if you count any kind of upkeep.

But that’s just another way of leeching.

I’d be discussing declining the procedure based on that. I don’t know if I’d pull the trigger, based on a number of things: how likely can I get the procedure done elsewhere or by a different surgeon, how badly and quickly do I need the procedure, insurance issues. But I’d certainly try to talk to hospital staff about it.

On the other hand, I’ve heard Herman Cain was an idiot savant. So just because they can’t make change without an automatic register doesn’t mean they can’t do surgery.

Putin is. He knows exactly which ones to hit and when. Plays him like a damn xylophone.

It’s more like, “I went through it the hard, legitimate way. It took me years. And then these people just hop the fence and get me in trouble for it?”

There’s a good NYT - The Interview podcast about it. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/15/magazine/ruben-gallego-interview.html

This particular rhetoric isn’t helpful. The man is a child. If you tell him he got bitch slapped, he’ll drive us all into the ground just to “win”.

I could be wrong. Maybe it’s more important to message voters. But it’s a risk.

The guy in the pic?

Yep. Why would anyone assassinate him? It doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t have any hidden information. If you think he did it, well, he’s already on trial for murder. Who is that not enough for?

It’s dumb.

For the record, yours is the last funny one. But we all know how the Internet works. Out of all the people here, someone will want to drive the joke into the ground. (Don’t be that guy.)