I don’t even get why they chose TDS. I like most people assumed it meant Trump supporters being deranged when they first saw it. Not the smartest choice to choose a phrase that requires them to explain they don’t mean them.

To even come to that logic in the first place you’d have to be fine with him stating he’s going to be a dictator and be fine with his racism and ties to Epstein.

So… I don’t buy the bullshit that they didn’t vote for people to suffer. That’s the Republican talking point used to gaslight those that accuse them of being racists. Equivalent of that’s not a Nazi salute its our hearts go out to you.

Try a different audience that will fall for it. Not here.

They see him as someone who finally made it acceptable again to say all the bigotry that they had to keep to themselves after years of suffering under a society that was pushing woke values. They see him as a hero that is taking the country back to the good old days and putting the undesirables away.

Sure there might be financial blow back that makes them angry, but the ideologies pushed override that and they will support him or the next leader that is bringing the country closer to their idea of paradise that has the right type of people and beliefs.

The biggest mistake I think people make is they automatically assume racists must be misinformed or tricked or stupid. When they can be intelligent and know more, and it comes down to simply not liking a certain group for existing and wanting to reduce those groups influence and population within their country. And that can be despite them seeing more of the world than other people.

I think this automatic assumption of wanting to believe they are dumb or tricked is why they have successfully gained traction, since people still keep underestimating their intelligence and planning. Its like people just don’t want to believe people can actually be evil at their core.

Yeah, lot of bigots are self aware enough to try to hide their hatred and point to other things when it comes to making what they support more palatable to those who might not be. They aren’t complete idiots like some immediately assume which is why they have been underestimated by the opposite side and gained such huge traction and seen increasing success.

Even the dumb ones don’t try to show the full extent of the bigotry, since they know there are still some in society who resist such ideologies despite growing embracement of it.

If they are intelligent then the xenophobia and desire for authoritarian government to push policies that would be difficult to pass is what they rationally voted for. For well off intelligent racists who might get along with some minorities but see them as exceptions as opposed to the norm Trump is doing a good job.

Got to not see it through the eyes of someone who is concerned about the economy, health care, or international relations. But, bigots who have a long term idea of the America they want and willing to suffer economically for what they believe is a better future for their kind.

And those who are intelligent are good at arguing they aren’t racist, which is why they are smart enough to come up with slogans like America first as opposed to ethnic cleansing and use of minorities in some positions to point as examples of how they are totally not racist.

Sorry to tell you this but the racism really resonated with them.

Tankies feel like they push pseudo communism with the bourgeoisie still at the top giving scraps to the proletariat and passing it off as paltry socialism. There’s no societal change to the hierarchy, balance of power, or wealth. Usually some power of personality to rally around as their God who’s surrounded themselves with oligarchs who are enriching themselves and providing scraps to pass off as communist enough.

It’s more a weird ultra nationalism where proletariats are being tricked into thinking power has been given to the people when the ones at top are abusing their power to oppress forms of counter thought to seize whatever they want and retain their wealth. I wouldn’t consider them left just because there’s some form of socialism. Lot of countries do if at the very least they fix roads and have fire fighters.

The integration of authoritarianism just conflicts with my idea of communism, since my idea of communism is power to the people and one where the government fears the people because people control the means of production and they choose who stays in power. Not trading the usual suspects of kings, dictators, warlords, or whatever they call themselves for a different coat of paint.

No he didn’t. He just says this kind of stuff to seem impartial but continues to push the same right wing agenda to his cult followers.

I found it odd back then that they shifted to strategy of saying how could he support Trump if Yen isnt sexist and isnt homophobic when uproar was Slater’s anti consumer past being ignored. And they kept shifting away from Slater career criticism like some form of gaslighting and ignoring it. And it worked on some people, since they forgot about the positive endorsement of Trump’s pick while omitting Slater’s murky past because look how not racist Yen is.

But, Tim Cook groveling before Trump showed that people who’s goal is to make more money will sell themselves out to try and get within the inner circle if it is more financially advantageous to do so regardless of their personal ideologies. Money and power rules them. It’s fortunate for Proton the sucking up didn’t get them any further, since who knows if Yen would be giving golden gifts at Trump’s dinners if he’d been invited into the fold. “Dear Mr. President you are the most privacy respecting leader in the world and here is a golden statue as a gift.”

That article is such bullshit. That anonymously submitted medium article that gets floated around ignores Internet Association, so wouldn’t be shocking if it was from proton attempting to do PR damage fixating on identity politics with intentional omission of Internet Association involvement.

Yen conveniently ignored that after working at the FTC, Slater become the vice-president for legal and regulatory policy for the Internet Association lobby group. Which was founded by “small business” like Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook.

And involved in trying to infringe upon privacy rights. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/09/lawmakers-must-not-let-internet-association-weaken-california-consumer-privacy-act

So yeah, proton founder cherry picked information that tried to make it seem like it was acceptable to praise the pick when reality is the past is too murky to endorse in any manner.

Now seeing straight up bribing and gifts from corporations not even hiding it the whole thing aged like milk.

RSS app of choice still remains my preferred method to retrieve articles from sources I want.

Seeing as how they’ve taken over and their influence is spreading seems it’s been very effective.

There is something to learn from them when it comes to their ability to win over the masses with their approach and no middleground tactics. They don’t seem to get swept up into trying to appeal to both sides.

Right wingers seem way far ahead of the curve when it comes to media outreach.

It is interesting that forums had less people but felt very active and didn’t need the millions of people that places like modern day social media do.

And I think big part of it is the presentation of material with threads that get bumped up when people comment and can keep going on for years.

In reddit type social media a thread is considered dead after like a day or less, so needing a new one even if it is the same topic to start up conversation again. Even more the case for one off comment type social media like mastodon.

I hear echo chamber brought up a lot but never really have seen examples of a place that doesn’t have an echo chamber.

I think that’s just the natural result of people forming communities as opposed seeking out battle grounds for adversaries.

Only thing that can be done is offering people the tools to freely form as many communities as they want with the main barrier being who feels compelled to join the new echo chamber community.