When I talk to Trump folks (I don't seek them out) I realize that not only are we not reading/watching the same news -- we aren't even in the same reality. Fox pushes "immigrant criminals" day and night. If you watched it religiously, you would be frightened of things I never even think about. They
I accidentally happened on one of their sites and it was insane how they outright lie to fit Trump's narrative. If any of these people are religious, they should be concerned about their own damnation🤦
don't know that our democracy is hanging on by a thread. They think the US is under attack. They think the schools are failing kids and hurting them by suggesting kids change genders. They think teachers are teaching communism. Yes, they should know better, but they are conditioned to be scared of
the wrong things. I don't want you to get the impression that we should spend a ton of time on converting these people. Most are lost. But, there are a lot of folks who do not like Trump, but don't know about Democratic policies. These are the ones we should try to reach on platforms. We need
journalists on every medium. Be it Blue Sky or Facebook or Insta or TikTok or Reddit or LinkedIn or YouTube or SubStack. We have to be in these spaces as truth tellers against the lies. We have to reach those who aren't completely lost, but who haven't found the truth. We need to expand our reach.
Finally, I am not asking you to feel sorry for adults who don't vote or who are willingly ignorant. But I do think there are spaces to reach those who are trying to be informed while also working two jobs and raising kids and doing their best. Send journalists to where they are -- we can try.
Thanks for bringing this up. I'm sure you'll get a lot of frustrated responses saying everyone should've been more informed. But most people are bad teachers who think everyone should know what they learned last week. Bottom line is conservatives are winning the information battle. How and why?
Is there a non partisan site, where people can go to verify what the see or read on the internet? A site we can send people to, where they can verify information.
I love ground news myself. It tells a different story than you’d expect. Check it out
I second the Ground News vote. It's a news aggregator thst does a good job of coverage of all issues from a variety of perspectives. There's a free level or a reasonable $7/month subscription with more perks.
Snopes? It is so challenging because there is just so much disinformation online. I'm in my mid 50s and am embarrassed about how many times my kids have pointed out that something I've shared is AI.
The scary thing is, I've tried to point people to Snopes and they immediately snap back that Snopes is biased and liberal.
Oh, no! I had no idea people think they're biased. Is there a legitimate fact checking site that everyone agrees upon? It's depressing when facts aren't trusted. I'm really worried because it feels like the bifurcation of our society is wholly dependent on an individual's news diet.
These voices do, admittedly, tend to be the ones that believe that anything that's critical of 47 is inherently biased, so it may be that there are no fact-checking sources that they'd believe. 47 himself tends to be loud about that sort of thing.
That makes me feel marginally better. But how does our society survive if we're living in two separate and disparate realities? It is exhausting.
Snopes sometimes does get it wrong, and sometimes fall prey to false balance, but they do honestly try to give an unbiased assessment of each story -- and mostly succeed.
Reuters
That’s my primary news source these days
Hard to bet against a consistent outlet with no state backing
Yep which is why I subscribed to their news feed.
The Guardian.
Trust me, MAGA thinks Reuters is the left wing media.
Yeah, but MAGA is literally insanse, so…🤷♂️
Bias exists in us all. The important thing is to look at all the data. Look at multiple sites to verify.
Beware of pink slime journalism. It’s thousands of fake news sites owned by conservative activists, and they even mail out smeary “papers” to voters. It’s a whole thing, and you wouldn’t even believe how bad it is. I wrote about it: open.substack.com/pub/ruralorg...
This stuff is my specialty, so if it’s not too spammy, I have a couple recs. First, PolitiFact is an excellent fact-checker with every fact linked to solid sources: www.politifact.com
ProPublica is an outstanding source of in-depth, independent journalism: www.propublica.org
Reuters is fine, but they’ve started paywalling their content so I tend to recommend the Associated press more. One of the reasons you can trust them is that it’s not just from one source: it’s from local newsrooms nationwide, so any possible bias balances out.
Above all, do not watch cable TV news or go to their websites. I’m talking CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Newsmax, any of that. Broadcast TV news sites are usually ok: ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, BBC.
Above all, do not watch cable TV news or go to their websites. I’m talking CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Newsmax, any of that. Broadcast TV news sites are usually ok: ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, BBC.
No one needs to splice anything to show that trump speaks like an idiot.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
All this! Find the independent voters. Talk to those who aren’t lost to the MAGA cult. Ask: Is this the America you want?
The problem is this person admitted she knew before the election trump’s America isn’t what she wanted, but didn’t vote anyway for an idiotic reason.
Make a plan with her—eg, drive to the polls and go for ice cream—for the midterms. (Hey, it worked with my 19 yr old!)
Kudos to those who can do this. My energies will have to be used elsewhere. I just can't engage with the apathy any longer. I appreciate those who can.
I understand. Keep up the good fight.
Nah. You have fun, though.
Yes, and this is why insulting, condescending, patronizing comments toward Trump voters are counterproductive. Agree some will never change their minds. But many, like the one you cite in this important thread, might. And that's how we defeat Trumpism and save our country. Give them space to convert
Are the people recently elected to the DNC getting this message?
Everything is an attack on Labor, Working People, Retired Workers, Workers Rights, Unions. Democracy simply stands in the way. At a point, they will come for the guns for the same reason. It did not start with the orange ego. He wants to be the one who finishes the destruction of the working class.
There is no left and right. No Christian, Muslim, or Jew. In Musk and Trump's America there is only Politically Connected Super Rich and the Exploited.
You’re right, but what about this specific example? She *hates* Trump policies but Kamala “can’t speak well” and thus she votes for neither? Why are they even remotely equivalent? Why wouldn’t you want someone who speaks poorly but has good policies? What is that thought process?
And she watches one YouTube video and makes up her mind on who to vote or not vote for president…people get the leadership they are too apathetic to care about. Unfortunately it impacts us all.
I have more sympathy because many people are only given an 8th grade education and the need to work multiple jobs to earn enough to live. They don’t have time to follow politics like politically engaged people do. But I still can’t comprehend “bad policy is equal to can’t talk good so I won’t vote.
And that’s what authoritarians want, limited education and barely making ends meet so they can control the population.
It's my belief - I don't have anything to back it up - that the vast majority see the political classes as different from us. Sometimes, they just give up on politics, because they know there's nothing they can do; leave it to the professionals. Many in the political classes like it that way...
It's almost a fashion statement to say all politicians are alike and both parties are the same and both are as extreme. Meanwhile, center voters whip us around from one election to the next because they either have microwave patience and/or are easily manipulated.
I was involved in Party politics (Green Party) for 17 years, very active. I resented it when voters came out with "you're all the same"; but now being out of it, I can entirely see how it looks to many. These are amongst the people I want to reach.
...because they're easier to influence like that through the media. So I consider these people to have been let down. Democracy is supposed to be government of the people for the people and by the people. But the only people with any political agency are the billionaire donors...
...so we get government of the people, for the billionaires, by their paid stooges in the political classes. We need a government by Citizens Assemblies selected by sortition to make politics important to us all; and a UBI to help alleviate the struggles poverty imposes. No more corruption!
Everything you just said, my partner has been saying for years.
i really think ur on to something. ty for helping me get the point!
Please keep up your good work, Jess. A lot of the country thanks you.
#FightEverywhere #FighttRump
I'm not on many apps but enjoyed my Twitter account a lot for non-political type interactions. I've mostly transitioned over here but check the other every now and then. It's toxic soup while this one is all the other way. Definitely illustrates how what people are exposed to matters. I'm in 🇨🇦 btw.
I was on Twitter for a decade and left 160K followers after election. I couldn't stand to give Elon a dime or interact with Nazis anymore. It is a cesspool now. I loved that app.
My rep friend said they watched the debates “very closely” and just couldn’t vote for Harris. I said, we can’t talk politics or I’ll make you feel stupid.
I know someone who said she couldn't vote for Harris because of "her laugh." If that's your tipping point, you must fall on flat surfaces a lot.
Maybe so but unless you are living under a rock there's no way these people didn't know that Trump was a convicted felon or tried to overturn a fair election. That alone should have motivated them to vote against Trump.
Lie to them. It works.
the way out is to reinstate the fairness doctrine, which would have broad public support. the people decide laws in this country, even if it takes an amendment to the constitution to change how free speech has been interpreted.
So you want to amend the Constitution to give the government the right to control speech and the press? And you think this will end well?
no, i want the people to decide, and the government to do what they say. partisan news under the guise of freedom of speech has made our country worse, not better. we need a solution to that.
The people did decide - they elected Trump. And Trump is doing what the people who elected him have been trying to do for decades and shutting down PBS and NPR. By your own claims you should be happy.
As a former teacher and one who knows quite a few, smart people know this is far from any truth
And this is what makes it so hard to hold a serious debate. You can’t just debunk one thing, because it’s built on a scaffolding of bullshit that you also have to address.
Fox started blurring the line between fact and opinion from the first day they came onto the air. So now we have an entire generation that doesn't know the difference.
Fox News is a cancer.
Bad news it has metastasized. Worse news it is in the brain, nerves and muscle of the Government Worst news its fatal to democracy The good news, it's treatable Get out there, every dang protest, show up, fight back Or watch your beloved country die.
I don’t think I would call what they perceive to be truth “reality”
I periodically open Breitbart because I know that's what my brother reads and I think that's what my mother (full MAGA) reads. I figure it's the only way to get a view into what they're seeing. It's absolutely a different worldview. Trump is thin and young even lol. But seriously, it's eye opening.
Do they know how to read? Probably not beyond a third grade level
Why do they choose to stay in that echo chamber and not seek other new sources? I think there is a willful ignorance with a lot of folks they love the bs Faux News puts out.