#why is bernie sanders meme viral

[victoriaemayfield]

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[aung-khant-kyaw]

How Viral Memes are Shaping U.S Elections and Public Opinion

Back in the early ages of the internet, memes were just supposed to be fun, mischievous and shareable jokes that many young users used to express themselves. But in recent years, memes have become such a powerful tool to use even for business or politics. The most notable example of this is how in recent U.S. elections, politicians use memes in their promotional campaigns to raise polls, especially among younger voters. In this blog, we are going to look at how meme culture is growing to be a powerful weapon to harness if you want to attract more attention online.

How the Internet Changed Political Communication

Because of the internet, we have shifted the way we engage in politics. While traditional media is still alive and around, younger generations, especially people younger than 35, Millennials and Gen Z, are getting more political news from social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and even YouTube. Memes are a huge part of today's online world, offering either long, detailed video essays on platforms like YouTube or quick attention-grabbing content such as memes.

Why Memes Click with Young Voters

First of all they are short. With so much information and posts out there, memes offer a fast and often fun way to break down complex political topics. Second of all relatable. Political memes tap into everyday frustrations or experiences, making politics feel more connected to real life. And finally they are easily shareable. Memes spread quickly, making it easy for political ideas to go viral on different social platforms.

Politicians Are Jumping on the Meme Bandwagon

Seeing how effective memes are, politicians have started using them in their communication strategies. This marks a huge shift in how they connect with younger voters.

Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign was one of the first to really use social media well. This has made other politicians hop in the meme whip to use on digital political campaigns. Now, we see politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (famous on the internet as AOC) taking it further, using platforms like Instagram and Twitch to engage with voters. AOC mixes internet humor with serious politics, making her relatable to Millennials and Gen Z.

The Two Sides of Political Memes

Memes can shape a politician’s public image, but this can go both ways. They can make politicians seem more down-to-earth and relatable, or they can dig their own grave by accidentally making their past mistakes come out and harm their reputation.

Making Politicians Relatable

Bernie Sanders has become a stable in the political meme world, with images and videos like “I am once again asking for your financial support” and his viral mittens moment at Biden’s inauguration. These memes showed Sanders as authentic and down-to-earth, even appealing to people who might not agree with his politics.

Another great example of a politician connecting with voters through memes and social media is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). She frequently hops on Instagram Live to talk directly to her followers while doing everyday things like cooking dinner or getting ready for bed. These casual, relatable moments have been meme’d endlessly, with screenshots and clips from her live streams spreading across platforms. The combination of her authenticity, humor, and openness has made AOC a favorite among younger voters. Memes from these streams reinforce the idea that she's not just a politician but someone you could hang out with, and that helped her build a strong connection with her fun base.

Another example is Hillary Clinton's attempt to reach younger voters with her infamous "Pokémon Go to the polls" line. While the intention was there, it instantly became a meme because of how forced and out of touch it sounded . The internet took it and memed the living world out of it, highlighting her struggle to connect with Gen Z and Millennials.

When Memes Backfire

On the other side, memes can also be used to mock politicians. Donald Trump’s interview with Jonathan Swan on Axios became a meme when people focused on what they saw as his poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These memes made the interview go viral and the video made its impact way beyond its initial broadcast.

And then there’s Joe Biden, who has had plenty of meme-able moments. One of his infamous blunders was when he said he could sum up China in "one word," and then proceeded to say something totally incomprehensible and totally not "one word". That moment, along with other slip-ups, fed into memes questioning his ability to lead and questioning his health especially related to dementia. In fact, Biden recently dropped out of the 2024 election, and many believe it’s partly due to the accumulation of these viral stumbles. The memes, like ones showing him mixing up numbers or fumbling sentences, stuck with people and shaped how they saw him as a candidate.

Memes as Political Game Changers

Memes aren’t just for laughs—they can actually influence political outcomes. They spark conversations, spread messages, and get voters, especially younger ones, involved.

During the 2016 election, Trump’s campaign got a boost from meme makers who helped make his anti-establishment image. Memes like “Covfefe” and “God Emperor Trump” spread his message on platforms like 4chan, Reddit, and Twitter .

In the 2020 election, both Trump and Biden’s campaigns used memes to rally their supporters. Memes about Biden’s speaking style or Trump’s tweets helped shape how the public viewed their leadership.

The Future of Political Conversations

Looking ahead, it’s clear that memes are more than just online jokes. They’re becoming important tools in politics, influencing how people vote, shaping public opinion, and giving politicians new ways to connect with younger audiences.

For Millennials and Gen Z, memes offer an easy entry point into politics, making complex issues more relatable. As meme culture keeps evolving, its influence on U.S. elections is likely to grow, becoming a part of digital politics.

While we still are not sure about the true impact of memes on political conversations, one thing for sure is a meme can be more powerful than we think.

References

Cillizza, C., 2020. 'The absolutely remarkable social media power of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez', CNN [online], 24 July. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/24/politics/aoc-ted-yoho-cspan/index.html [Accessed 28 October 2024].

Donovan, J., 2019. 'How memes got weaponized: A short history', MIT Technology Review [online], 24 October. Available at: https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/10/24/132228/political-war-memes-disinformation/ [Accessed 28 October 2024].

Douglas, E., 2022. 'Texas GOP's voting meme shows how Trump-style messaging wins internet's attention', The Texas Tribune [online], 8 January. Available at: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/08/texas-gop-voting-covid-meme-trump/ [Accessed 28 October 2024].

King, A., 2023. 'How meme culture is engaging Gen Z in politics', Canvas8 [online], 3 January. Available at: https://www.canvas8.com/library/reports/2023/01/03/why-satirical-memes-have-gen-z-talking-about-politics [Accessed 28 October 2024].

Mina, A.X., 2018. 'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Has Mastered the Politics of Digital Intimacy', Harvard Kennedy School [online], 30 November. Available at: https://cyber.harvard.edu/story/2018-11/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-has-mastered-politics-digital-intimacy [Accessed 28 October 2024].

Ossorio, M.A., 2024. 'Do memes affect our political ideas?', Universitat Oberta de Catalunya [online]. Available at: https://www.uoc.edu/en/news/2024/memes-affect-political-ideas [Accessed 28 October 2024].

Pew Research Center, 2018. 'Social media outpaces print newspapers in the U.S. as a news source', Pew Research Center [online], 10 December. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/12/10/social-media-outpaces-print-newspapers-in-the-u-s-as-a-news-source/ [Accessed 28 October 2024].

Costa, P.O., n.d. 'Barack Obama's use of the Internet is transforming political communication', Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona [online].

[sarcasticcynic]

Does it seem as if just about every potential Democratic presidential candidate is suddenly terrible and not worth your vote? This is why.

“The goal of the coordinated barrage appears to be undermining the nascent candidacies through the dissemination of memes, hashtags, misinformation and distortions of their positions. But the divisive nature of many of the posts also hints at a broader effort to sow discord and chaos within the Democratic presidential primary.”

It’s called “Operation Divide the Left,” and it’s being promoted by by our friendliest foreign allies.

“There are state supporters and funders of this stuff. Russia. North Korea is believed to be one, Iran is another. In certain cases it appears coordinated, but whether coordinated or not, there are clearly actors attempting to influence the primary by exacerbating divisions within the party, painting more moderate candidates as unpalatable to progressives and more progressive candidates as unpalatable to more mainstream Dems.”

They know exactly which lies will most effectively smear their targets:

“Recent posts that have received widespread dissemination include racially inflammatory memes and messaging involving [Kamala] Harris, [Beto] O’Rourke and [Elizabeth] Warren. In Warren’s case, a false narrative surfaced alleging that a blackface doll appeared on a kitchen cabinet in the background of the senator’s New Year’s Eve Instagram livestream. ... One widely seen tweet employed racist and sexist stereotypes in an attempt to sensationalize Harris’ relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. That tweet — and subsequent retweets and mentions tied to it — made 8.6 million ‘potential impressions’ online ... Another racially charged tweet was directed at O’Rourke. The Twitter profile of the user where it originated indicates the account was created in May 2018, but it had authored just one tweet since then — in January, when the account announced it had breaking news about the former Texas congressman leaving a message using racist language on an answering machine in the 1990s. That tweet garnered 1.3 million potential impressions on the platform. ... An official with the Harris campaign said they suspect bad actors pushing misinformation and false narratives about the California Democrat are trying to divide African Americans, or to get the media to pay outsized attention to criticism designed to foster divisions among the Democratic primary electorate.”

“There are clear signs of a coordinated effort of undetermined size that shares similar characteristics with the computational propaganda attacks launched by online trolls at Russia’s Internet Research Agency in the 2016 presidential campaign, which special counsel Robert Mueller accused of aiming to undermine the political process and elevate Donald Trump. ... a relatively small cluster of accounts — and a broader group of accounts that amplify them — drove a disproportionate amount of the Twitter conversation about the four candidates over a recent 30-day period. ... Guardians.ai identified a cohort of roughly 200 accounts — including both unwitting real accounts and other ‘suspicious’ and automated accounts that coordinate to spread their messages — that pumped out negative or extreme themes designed to damage the candidates. This is the same core group of accounts the company first identified last year in a study as anchoring a wide-scale influence campaign in the 2018 elections. Since the beginning of the year, those accounts began specifically directing their output at Harris, O’Rourke, [Bernie] Sanders and Warren, and were amplified by an even wider grouping of accounts. ... ‘We can conclusively state that a large group of suspicious accounts that were active in one of the largest influence operations of the 2018 cycle is now engaged in sustained and ongoing activity for the 2020 cycle.’ ... That cluster of accounts was the driving force behind an effort to aggressively advance conspiracy theories in the 2018 midterms, ranging from misinformation about voter fraud to narratives involving a caravan coming to the United States, and even advocacy of violence. ... Some of the accounts are believed to be highly sophisticated synthetic accounts operated by people attempting to influence conversations, while others are coordinated in some way by actors who have identified real individuals already tweeting out a desired message. Tens of thousands of other accounts then work in concert to amplify the core group through mentions and retweets to drive what appears, on the surface, to be organic virality.”

This activity spikes each time a new potential Democratic threat (to Trump) announces his or her candidacy:

“A recent analysis from the social media intelligence firm Storyful detected spikes in misinformation activity over social media platforms and online comment boards in the days after each of the 2020 candidates launched their presidential bids, beginning with Warren’s announcement on Dec. 31. Fringe news websites and social media platforms, Storyful found, played a significant role in spreading anti-Warren sentiment in the days after she announced her candidacy on Dece. [sic] 31. Using a variety of keyword searches for mentions of Warren, the firm reported evidence of ‘spam or bot-like’ activity on Facebook and Twitter from some of the top posters. ... messages appeared [on fringe platforms 4Chan and 8Chan] calling on commenters to quietly wreak havoc against Warren on social media or in the comments section under news stories. ‘Point out that she used to be Republican but switched sides and is a spy for them now. Use this quote out of context: “I was a Republican because I thought that those were the people who best supported markets.”’”

Remember: Every time you repeat something that damages a Democrat without verifying it first, you’re doing Russia’s work for it.

[digital123sblog]

what memes mean ?

In 1976, Richard Dawkins invented the expression ‘meme’ in his book The Selfish Gene to make clear how ideas develop and are shared transversely in diverse cultures. But later, “Meme” made a different meaning across the entire world, which is a fun way but somewhere, When the Internet linked different corners of the world, this switch of cultural artifacts became much quicker and a lot well-organized. Today, memes are all over. No matter if it’s a boyfriend that’s a bit unfocused or some other times, it’s Winnie the Pooh pointing the disparity between common and classy language. So if you are finding an amusing way to connect the public on social media? Have you ever thought about using memes in your marketing? You’ll find out how your trade can use memes to fit into place and connect with people. The meme culture is growing every day as a marketing move. How meme will decide the next move in marketing? Make a new marketing move with growing Meme culture. Add meme in your marketing move on this topic.

Should we do Meme Marketing?

In a time where many customers skip advertisements on every occasion they can, advertising with humor and familiar media can interact with hard-to-attain customers. For expert storytellers — digital marketers, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and innovative pros — meme marketing may be a very low-value manner to create attractive content material that could bore fruit as good digital marketing strategies does. On social media, memes typically take the shape of a GIF or static photograph gambling on a familiar theme, meaning, or phenomenon, regularly with textual content layered on top of or over the image. Memes are approximately connected as plenty as they’re about humor. They have the strength to build online groups, albeit for a temporary period. Consider the Bernie Sanders mittens meme that went viral closing year. It allowed humans to sense sound, share fun, and work as social glue in a politically unstable time. Here are a few points for what you should consider using meme marketing.

1) Memes Are Inexpensive Content.

2) Memes Are Engaging.

3) Memes Support a Sense of Community.

4) Meme-Based Content Incites Shares.

5) Memes Can Help You Go Viral.

These were the few reasons why you should use meme marketing in your digital marketing strategies, but if you want to know more about more marketing, search engine optimisation or suppose you want to grow your business online or need any help regarding digital marketing or handling digital marketing tools. If you are looking for more blogs like this, visit Digileap marekting services for more details.

[pulseonpolitics]

This is Will Cunningham, the gay black Millennial running for Congress that you’ve probably never heard of

Will is a gay, black, formerly homeless, Ivy League grad, former teacher, and Millennial, running for House Representative for NJ District 2, a seat that has been Republican controlled for over 20 years. He was a member of NJ Senator Cory “Bae” Booker’s staff, and also worked for Elijah Cummings on the House Oversight Committee investigating price gouging by Big Pharma. Currently, he’s the only of 4 Democratic candidates running for this district who has actual on the ground experience in Washington and he’s progressive AF: read about his campaign platform here. To highlight though, Will supports civil rights for those communities that need them most (POC, LGBTQ+, women, immigrants, the homeless, etc), taking corporate money out of politics, preserving pro-choice policy, reforming education, making prisons more rehabilitative and less punitive, implementing socialized health care, advancing common sense gun control, amongst other things. If you ever have the opportunity to meet him, he’s one of the most down-to-earth, relatable people you’ll ever meet and he doesn’t come off at all like your typical stuffed shirt running for public office. He probably has a secret tumblr full of cat memes honestly because that’s just the kind of person he is.

And then there’s This Guy.

This is NJ State Senator Jeff Van Drew, Will’s main competition in the NJ District 2 Congressional race. If you’ve heard of him, it’s probably because Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg famously called him out on Twitter back in April.

Van Drew is a Democrat in name only, as he consistently voted against legalizing same-sex marriage and has an “A” rating from the NRA (who have donated to him in the past), probably because he helped sponsor legislation that would’ve allowed concealed handguns in NJ. When asked by NJ students who organized South Jersey March for Our Lives events about the donation, Van Drew LIED and said he’d never taken any money from the NRA. He also declined to make an appearance at the South Jersey March For Our Lives event, in spite of being invited. Van Drew also has a dirty history of sponsoring conservative anti-choice legislation and then removing his name from the bills after they pass or fail. In short, he’s a shady AF mayonnaise-flavored milkshake whose political leanings apparently change whichever way the donation winds blow. However, because he’s an old rich white guy with lots of old rich white guy friends involved in NJ politics, he’s taken the line for the primaries in pretty much every county in District 2. Many who sit on their County Democratic Committees have expressed a feeling that their county conventions were merely staged parties for Van Drew, and that having elected delegates vote for primary candidates was just for show, as his nomination had been secured the moment he announced he was running. Given the opportunity to throw their support behind a young gay man of color who worked in Washington and has appeal to a very wide constituency base and Another Old Status Quo White Guy™️, NJ Democrats in high positions chose Van Drew over his arguably more diverse and qualified competition for an election that has been identified by political experts as a battleground race that will be key in flipping Congressional control.

Gee, why does this scenario feel so familiar? It’s almost like old liberals learned absolutely nothing from the 2016 election cycle and are hell bent on alienating the people whose votes they need most. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The shame of it all though is that in spite of plenty of coverage locally in NJ, almost nobody outside of the state has heard of Will Cunningham.

So please, help me make this man go viral. Barack Obama said, “Be the change you want to see in the world” and Will is a part of that. If we want real change in our government, it starts at a local level by electing candidates who actually represent the interests of the people. Arguably, primary elections are more important than general elections, and if you don’t believe me ask yourself how the 2016 election would’ve gone if Bernie Sanders had won the democratic primary election instead of Hillary Clinton.

It’s rare to have the opportunity to vote for a candidate with as diverse a background as Will Cunningham, so I hope you all will help get his name out there so people in NJ know they have an option other than the same old same old who might as well be the Republican whose held that office since 1995.

#dismantlethemachine #whentheresawilltheresaway

[digileapmarketing]

Meme Culture - New Marketing Trend

In a time where many customers skip advertisements on every occasion they can, advertising with humor and familiar media can interact with hard-to-attain customers. For expert storytellers — digital marketers, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and innovative pros — meme marketing may be a very low-value manner to create attractive content material that draws a following. On social media, memes typically take the shape of a GIF or static photograph gambling on a familiar theme, meaning, or phenomenon, regularly with textual content layered on top of or over the image. Memes are approximately connected as plenty as they’re about humor. They have the strength to build online groups, albeit for a temporary period. Consider the Bernie Sanders mittens meme that went viral closing year. It allowed humans to sense sound, share fun, and work as social glue in a politically unstable time. Here are a few points for what you should consider using meme marketing.

Memes Are Inexpensive Content

Memes Are Engaging

Memes Support a Sense of Community

Meme-Based Content Incites Shares

Memes Can Help You Go Viral

These were the few reasons why you should use meme marketing in your digital marketing strategies, but if you want to know more about more marketing or suppose you want to grow your business online or need any help regarding digital marketing or handling digital marketing tools. If you are looking for more blogs like this, visit us for more details. Visit our site www.digileapservices.com.

Read full article at : https://www.digileapservices.com/meme-culture-your-next-marketing-move/

[freenewstoday]

New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/03/27/why-the-internet-loves-the-suez-canal-stuck-ship-saga/

Why the internet loves the Suez Canal stuck ship saga.

It’s a moment that has managed to wrap Bernie Sanders’s mittens, jokes about poor driving skills and timeless office humor into one.

Initially it was the sheer oddity of a ship being stuck in the Suez Canal, single-handedly snarling global trade in a world already mired in a pandemic, that grabbed the online world’s attention. But it was the photo of a tiny digger working away at its mammoth task that sealed the Ever Given’s fate as the foundation for thousands of relatable memes.

Was the digger — which was trying its hardest to dislodge the vessel despite a titanic size difference — the perfect metaphor for thinking we can make any dent in our to-do lists, finally manage to stop procrastinating or get our thousands of unread emails down to zero?

Was it the visual representation of the scant relief that a walk outdoors can offer from the doom and gloom of a pandemic-gripped world?

Or was it simply us trying to do our best despite the odds?

Perhaps we were just looking for solutions.

Soon, the 1,300-foot Ever Given was so splashed across social media feeds that its many colorful containers and the large white lettering spelling out the name of the company that operates the ship spawned a viral tweet showing people how to “steal his look.”

After becoming the subject of meme after meme this past week, the stuck ship soon cross-pollinated with others of its ilk, including some of Bernie Sanders’s most unforgettable moments.

And it wouldn’t be a fully fledged internet moment without a website built specifically to answer a simple question, which in this case was: Is that ship still stuck?

As of Saturday, the answer was still “Yes.”

Source

[orbemnews]

Why the internet loves the Suez Canal stuck ship saga. It’s a moment that has managed to wrap Bernie Sanders’s mittens, jokes about poor driving skills and timeless office humor into one. Initially it was the sheer oddity of a ship being stuck in the Suez Canal, single-handedly snarling global trade in a world already mired in a pandemic, that grabbed the online world’s attention. But it was the photo of a tiny digger working away at its mammoth task that sealed the Ever Given’s fate as the foundation for thousands of relatable memes. Was the digger — which was trying its hardest to dislodge the vessel despite a titanic size difference — the perfect metaphor for thinking we can make any dent in our to-do lists, finally manage to stop procrastinating or get our thousands of unread emails down to zero? Was it the visual representation of the scant relief that a walk outdoors can offer from the doom and gloom of a pandemic-gripped world? Or was it simply us trying to do our best despite the odds? Soon, the 1,300-foot Ever Given was so splashed across social media feeds that its many colorful containers and the large white lettering spelling out the name of the company that operates the ship spawned a viral tweet showing people how to “steal his look.” After becoming the subject of meme after meme this past week, the stuck ship soon cross-pollinated with others of its ilk, including some of Bernie Sanders’s most unforgettable moments. And it wouldn’t be a fully fledged internet moment without a website built specifically to answer a simple question, which in this case was: Is that ship still stuck? As of Saturday, the answer was still “Yes.” Source link Orbem News #canal #Internet #loves #saga #ship #stuck #Suez

[alexplainlaterblog]

This image is the No. 1 contender in the lightweight division, Dustin Poirier knocking out global superstar Conor McGregor. The photo was taken by Jeff Bottari, who was on assignment in Abu Dubai, where the fight took place. The picture is incredible because it is from an outsider’s view. We see what is taking place through the cage, kind of like a voyeur. The photo is an action shot, and it shows Poirier just about to land the final shot to turn off McGregor’s lights. The picture also shows McGregor’s reaction to being dropped. I think the photo was edited slightly to make it darker, but I cannot confirm that. There are a few reasons why I think this photo is so capitating and significant. Firstly, and mainly because no one thought Poirier was going to knock out McGregor. No one. Most of the sports world didn’t even give Poirier a chance to beat the Irish superstar, let alone knock him out. Similar to the first point but Poirier was the underdog. He has been an underdog his whole career, and people keep doubting him. He was 3 to 1 underdog, which was insane in hindsight. Poirier has been more active and has had ten more fights than McGregor since their first fight. The significance of him being an underdog is simply that he is a role model for anyone who feels less than or counted out. Poirier has taken that mantle and ran with it, but he also is humble in victory. This is an epic sports photo.For my second picture, I was going to choose President Joe Biden getting inaugurated because of how toxic our country has been the last four years. However, I cannot overlook the best picture to come out of the inauguration. Bernie Sanders. Yes, the image that ended becoming an internet viral meme. The man who took the photo was Brendan Smialowski, a decorated photographer with Agence France-Presse. We all need to thank him. The picture isn’t anything crazy. It merely is Sanders who is all by himself, being socially distanced. There are few other people in the picture, but they are unrecognizable. Sanders is sitting by himself in mittens, looking cold as hell. He also seems somewhat annoyed, but I may be reaching. As I said, it is nothing super crazy photo wise, but it’s the significance of it that will go on. There is a funny saying that was going around when the photo came out and the memes starting to pile in. Biden won the presidency, but Sanders united us. I agree wholeheartedly. Our country has been on fire for the last four years - racism, hatred, violence, the list can go on. When this picture came out, we all needed a laugh, and I felt that the image was the first step to potentially healing the country. Laughter heals, and this picture brought the laughs. I might be silly to say but if memes are what heals the country, bring them on.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, January 30, 2021

US jobless claims drop; still at 847,000 as pandemic rages (AP) The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell but remained at a historically high 847,000 last week, a sign that layoffs keep coming as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage. Last week’s claims dropped by 67,000, from 914,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. Before the virus hit the United States hard last March, weekly applications for jobless aid had never topped 700,000. Overall, nearly 4.8 million Americans received traditional state unemployment benefits the week of Jan. 16. That is down from nearly 5 million the week before and far below a staggering peak of nearly 25 million in May when the virus brought economic activity to a near halt. There is optimism that COVID-19 vaccines will end the health crisis and help stabilize the economy, but that effort is moving forward haltingly and right now, the job market is stressed. Since February, the United States has lost 9.8 million jobs, including 140,000 in December.

Biden faces scrutiny over reliance on executive orders (AP) President Joe Biden and aides are showing touches of prickliness over growing scrutiny of his heavy reliance on executive orders in his first days in office. The president in just over a week has already signed more than three dozen executive orders and directives aimed at addressing the coronavirus pandemic as well as a gamut of other issues including environmental regulations, immigration policies and racial justice. Biden has also sought to use the orders to erase foundational policy initiatives by former President Donald Trump, such as halting construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and reversing a Trump-era Pentagon policy that largely barred transgender people from serving in the military. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Biden’s early reliance on executive action is at odds with the Democrat’s pledge as a candidate to be a consensus builder. Biden on Thursday framed his latest executive actions as an effort to “undo the damage Trump has done” by fiat rather than “initiating any new law.” Earlier in the day, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield bristled at the criticism of Biden’s executive orders in a series of tweets, adding, “Of course we are also pursuing our agenda through legislation. It’s why we are working so hard to get the American Rescue Plan passed, for starters.”

Christianity on display at Capitol riot sparks new debate (AP) The Christian imagery and rhetoric on view during this month’s Capitol insurrection are sparking renewed debate about the societal effects of melding Christian faith with an exclusionary breed of nationalism. The rioters who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, leading to federal charges against more than 130 people so far, included several people carrying signs with Christian messages, and video showed one man in a fur hat and horns leading others in a prayer inside the Senate chamber. The rise of what’s often called Christian nationalism has long prompted pushback from leaders in multiple denominations, but in the immediate wake of the insurrection, other Christian leaders spoke out to denounce what they saw as the misuse of their faith to justify a violent attack on a seat of government. Russell Moore, president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that when he saw a “Jesus Saves” sign displayed near a gallows built by rioters, “I was enraged ... This is presenting a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ that isn’t the gospel and is instead its exact reverse.” The Rev. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, cited the corrosive effects of “a convergence of a nationalist identity and a Christian identity.” “Certainly I love our country, and as the son of immigrant parents I am deeply grateful for the hope this nation represents,” Kim said. “But as a Christian, my highest allegiance is to Christ.” Yet some supporters of former President Donald Trump say that denunciations of Christian nationalism are a way of attacking them politically. Former Rep. Allen West, now chairman of the Texas GOP, said on a Tuesday panel with several other religious conservatives sponsored by the group My Faith Votes that the term is used against those who “don’t conform to a progressive, socialist ideological agenda.”

Bernie Sanders’ mittens, memes help raise $1.8M for charity (AP) About those wooly mittens that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders wore to the presidential inauguration, sparking endless quirky memes across social media? They’ve helped to raise $1.8 million in the last five days for charitable organizations in Sanders’ home state of Vermont, the independent senator announced Wednesday. The sum comes from the sale of merchandise with the Jan. 20 image of him sitting with his arms and legs crossed, clad in his brown parka and recycled wool mittens. Sanders put the first of the so-called ��Chairman Sanders” merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers, on his campaign website Thursday night and the first run sold out in less than 30 minutes, he said. More merchandise was added over the weekend and sold out by Monday morning, he said. “Jane and I were amazed by all the creativity shown by so many people over the last week, and we’re glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need,” Sanders said in a written statement.

No Justice, No Peace (Foreign Policy) While headlines may be zeroing in on the latest COVID-19 variants to arise in Latin America, another story—with ramifications for peace and justice in the whole region—took a key step forward this week. After an investigation spanning more than two years, Colombia’s transitional justice court charged eight former guerrilla commanders for crimes they committed during the pre-2016 civil conflict, including kidnapping, homicide, forced disappearance, and sexual violence. Two of the defendants are sitting senators, positions they were granted as part of the peace deal. Under that 2016 agreement, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels agreed to demobilize and undergo investigation in exchange for concessions such as reduced criminal sentences, physical protection, and seats in Congress. That first concession is what is in play now. The ex-commanders can either recognize the crimes and take a five-to-eight-year sentence or face longer sentences of up to 20 years. The defendants’ and other political actors’ responses to these charges—part of the first of seven umbrella cases at the war crimes tribunal—will constitute a temperature check on Colombia’s fragile peace process.

UK PM Johnson ‘immensely proud’ as visa offer for Hong Kong citizens launches (Reuters) Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday hailed a new visa scheme that offers qualifying Hong Kong citizens a route to British citizenship—a programme launched in response to China’s new security laws in the former colony. The scheme, first announced last year, opens on Sunday and allows those with “British National (Overseas)” status to live, study and work in Britain for five years and eventually apply for citizenship. Britain says it is fulfilling a historic and moral commitment to the people of Hong Kong, after accusing China of breaching the terms of a 1997 handover by introducing security laws that London says are being used to silence dissent. The 250 pound ($340) visa could attract over 300,000 people and their dependents to Britain and generate up to 2.9 billion pounds net benefit to the British economy over the next five years, according to government forecasts. It is still highly uncertain how many people will actually take up the offer. Government estimates show that 2.9 million and a further 2.3 million dependents will be eligible to come to Britain.

Macron weighs up a third lockdown despite signs the French ‘can’t take it anymore’ (AFP) Amid risks of a push back from a population wearied by successive restrictions, the French government is mulling tougher anti-Covid curbs—including a third lockdown—after conceding a nightly curfew was failing to suppress the spread of the virus. When it comes to deciding on new measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, French President Emmanuel Macron and his government are walking a tightrope. Should another nationwide lockdown—the third in less than 12 months—be quickly imposed on the French, as scientists are advocating? Or should the government wait a few more weeks, or even opt for a less strict approach, so as not to alienate part of the population? It is a decision that has left the state’s leaders in a quandary. The French, like so much of the rest of the world, are increasingly succumbing to a generalised state of weariness after nearly a year of living under Covid-19 restrictions. Frustration and fatigue have set in after almost a year in which ordinary lives have been upended. Recent events in the Netherlands, where a protest movement and riots took place after the announcement of a Covid-19 curfew last weekend, would not have escaped Macron’s attention. The police arrested 250 people on Sunday evening and another 70 on Monday. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the riots “the worst in 40 years”, in a country that has not seen a curfew since the Second World War. At the same time in France, the hashtag “#JeNeMeReconfineraiPas” (#I will not go back into lockdown) appeared on Twitter, where it went viral with more than 40,000 shares. Some of the posts even invited civil disobedience.

Italian grandmother finds treasure at home thanks to confinement (Worldcrunch) The story began grimly, with an all too familiar ring: Another Italian grandmother had tested positive for COVID-19. At the age of 98, Nonna Maria was at particularly high risk in one of countries hit hardest by the pandemic—and though she had only developed light symptoms, doctors told her to remain at home in “maximum isolation.” But it was while in quarantine last November, that this COVID story would take a very different twist: the Nonna (“grandmother”) found a fortune hidden in her apartment in eastern Rome, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reports. Without much else to do in lockdown, Maria had set out to organize her memorabilia and tidy up her apartment. It was in the hidden compartment of an old sewing machine that she found a 1986 government bond that she had completely forgotten about. Her late husband, a former army official, had decided to put his savings into an Italian Post bond originally worth 50 million Italian lira (26,000 euros), before hiding it there to protect it from burglars. An ongoing legal investigation will confirm the bond’s present value. The Italian Post has already offered 200,000 euros, although some have questioned the math and say she could be due as much as half a million, or about 19 times the amount of the initial investment. And the best bit of good fortune: Nonna Maria had fully recovered from COVID-19.

In Afghanistan, Follow the White High-Tops and You’ll Find the Taliban (NYT) The unassuming white leather high-top sneakers with green-and-yellow trim are a best seller for a roughly half-dozen shoe vendors in a sprawling bazaar in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. But they are not in demand because they’re the latest fashion trend. For many Afghans, the sneakers evoke only one emotion: fear. That’s because they’re beloved by Taliban fighters as a status symbol. In Afghanistan they’ve been worn by rifle-wielding insurgents for decades—from the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s to the U.S.-led war that began in 2001. The sneakers have become synonymous with violence, and especially so on the feet of the Taliban. Even in the heart of Afghanistan’s most populated cities, including the capital of Kabul, the shoes evoke a certain sense of dread. “I have seen these shoes worn by the Taliban many times,” Said Mar Jan, a resident of Khost city in Afghanistan’s mountainous east, said. Government militia members, some security forces, criminals and people in rural areas also buy and wear them.

Wake-up call for elite as COVID-19 floods Zimbabwe’s hospitals, killing rich and poor (Reuters) When Zimbabwe’s rich and powerful get sick, they often go abroad in search of the best treatment money can buy; ousted President Robert Mugabe died in a hospital in Singapore in 2019. With travel curtailed by the coronavirus, that luxury is not available, exposing the elite to a truth the majority has long known: Zimbabwe’s health system has been crumbling for years and is now struggling to cope with a spike in COVID-19 cases. Anger among overwhelmed medics is adding to broader public dissatisfaction with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who pledged an economic revival after he took over from Mugabe following a coup in 2017. “It’s a rude awakening to the government and to the politicians,” said Norman Matara, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. “If you have decades of continuously destroying your public health system, and then now you have a pandemic, you cannot then overturn that decay ... in one year or in six months.”

Bison rangers (Foreign Policy) As U.K. conservationists plan to introduce European bison to the county of Kent, they are seeking Britain’s first-ever bison rangers. Wild bison—Europe’s largest land mammals—haven’t resided in Kent for millennia. Moved from the Netherlands, Romania, and Poland, the animals will help manage the Kent woodlands. Stan Smith, who works for the Kent Wildlife Trust, told Reuters that while the ideal applicant for the job should be accustomed to animal behavior, they were not expected to have experience with bison, “because you can’t until now.”

[usnewslatest]

Bernie Sanders mittens that made him a meme will be auctioned off

Bernie Sanders mittens that made him a meme will be auctioned off

Three pairs of the famous Bernie Sanders mittens that made him a viral meme on the Internet are being auctioned off. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont’s outfit caught everyone’s attention at Joe Biden’s inauguration. “I was just sitting there trying to keep warm,” he says, justifying why he wore handmade mittens to a formal event. Afterward, the detail of his costume went viral – social media…

[megacircuit9universe]

Pokemon Go to the Polls!

THU MAR 05 2020

The big news today was that Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race.

She didn’t endorse either Bernie, or Biden, but she did at least get out of Bernie’s way.

As I wrote yesterday, when Pete and Klobi dropped out the day before Super Tuesday, the iron was hot, and their unexpected departures and endorsements of Biden made it hotter.

Warren’s departure isn’t like that... dropping out two days after Super Tuesday, when that iron is cooling off... but four days before the next round of states: Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and Washington... which are all stone cold right now.

There is no fun name for these six states on March 10th. Consequential Tuesday is what it should be called, but I’d settle for Cool Tuesday, or even Casual Tuesday... anything.  But no.

There will be no debate between Biden and Sanders before these states vote.  And Warren isn’t going to endorse anybody beforehand.

Nevertheless, Washington and Michigan are two biggies, with Washington seemingly safe for Bernie Sanders, and Michigan a toss up.  The other four are now presumed to be going to Joe Biden.

I think Warren’s exit will solidify Washington for Bernie, but he really needs to kill it in Michigan, if he’s gonna break the Super Tuesday spell and claim to be making a comeback.  

And it would not hurt if Bernie stole one of the other four out from Under Biden.

The 18 to 38 vote here would make a huge difference, but will they turn out in force, like the cavalry, on Tuesday the 10th to save his ass?

Based on the primary season so far... no, they won’t.

Because they have not turned out in any numbers at all in Iowa, New Hampshire, and all the rest.  And nobody in the media... not even in the alternative media, like TYT and the like on  YouTube, are reaching out to this demographic in any meaningful way.

It’s a huge disappointment!

On TikTok, I am finally seeing this week, some peer pressure from fellow youngsters to get up off their asses and act, but not nearly enough.  

When I think back to last summer, with the, Raid Area 51 Memes that everybody was doing... and to this past January with the WW3 memes that were just as viral... these few isolated videos I see where somebody is begging their fellow teens or twenty-somethings to vote in the primaries... it’s just sad how weak the signal is by comparison.

There is a meme that’s pretty viral called, “don’t make me vote for Joe Biden” that’s been going around all primary season, but... it got it’s start with jaded millennials on Twitter, and, was picked up by younger TikTockers who... are buying into the apathy of their 30-something counterparts without questioning it.

The central conceit of this meme is that they’re not going to vote at all until the general election in the fall... so please... old people... don’t nominate Joe Biden.  Please, old people... nominate Bernie Sanders, who is our hands down fave!

Now, clearly, they all know they are allowed to vote in state primaries... but they’re all acting like... that level of involvement is a bit too much to ask of they, themselves... the hip and jaded youth.  Going to the polls two times in one year?  Come on!  We have lives!

Never mind that for all these young adults, either on Twitter or TikTok, who are overwhelmingly white and/or affluent, their polling place is probably within easy walking distance of home... and that voting will take only about five minutes... is free... and is painless (it’s not like you have to get a shot or something)... it’s still a hell of a lot to ask them to do twice in the same year.

I put this mainly down to ignorance of the big picture.  That big picture being: voting is the most important thing you can do to improve your life.  It’s more important than school, work, dating, chasing your dreams, or even eating and using your toilet, because it’s fundamental to all of them.  

Story time here...

When I was turning 18, in 1987, my home state of Illinois was still considered a red state.  Reagan could rely on us both times around, and we regularly voted for Republican Governors. 

This, of course was long before the internet, but there was a definite underground movement going on at the time, to get young voters registered and involved in the political process. 

This is why I voted for Mike Dukakis right after I turned 18... and why I continued to vote in every single election, primary or general, local, state, and federal, for the rest of my life.  It was instilled in my whole generation, here, that this was a fundamental civic duty that paid off.

So... I do not think it’s a coincidence that thirty years later, Illinois is considered as reliably blue as California and New York, and that in 2020, when so much of the Midwest, and the rest of the country are withering under far right oppression... we have a democratic Governor, Senate, and House, enjoy legal weed, are leading the Midwest on climate change and green energy,  are a sanctuary for undocumented migrants, a haven for the LGBT rights, and doing better than most states with racial and gender equality.

This is what happens when you get a generation of young people to prioritize voting early and often, from the age of 18 onward.  

It’s what should happen to every state, but what could happen in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas and Florida very soon, if anybody gave enough of a fuck to mobilize the young voters.

It seems ridiculous to me that here in 2020, when we have such a sophisticated internet, with hand held devices in every pocket... and with this ideal Presidential candidate... Bernie Sanders... champing at the bit to bring, not just the states mentioned above, but the entire country... into the 21st century in terms of universal health care, climate change, legal weed, etc... that the 18 to 38 demographic is sitting on their hands, pretending nobody under 60 is even allowed to vote for anything.

In normal times, I’d say... you’re gonna wait 30 more years for the stars to line up again like this with a national candidate who is anywhere near as progressive as Bernie.  But these are not normal times, so... if you (they, we) do not take this opportunity... it may well never come again.

Climate change, pandemics, authoritarianism... economic depression... famine and war... 

...all things which have been bearing down constantly on humanity since the dawn of civilization, and which only modern democracy has managed to hold back, the last 70 or 80 years... 

...are right on the doorstep now, waiting to devour us... this time on a global scale.

Is that fear mongering?  No.  That’s reality.  This is an emergency.  All hands on deck, goddammit!

Generations of people dedicated their lives... or gave their lives... to defend this democratic system we have in the free world where intellect wins over ignorance, innovation over hardship, and enlightenment over brutality... and that system goes away tomorrow... if you don’t vote.

Elderly voters don’t give a shit about the future. They care about the past... and protecting themselves in their old age.  Is that callous?  Yes!  Old people have no problem sending young people off to war to die... and no problem handing their own grandchildren a flaming pile of shit world... because they are selfish, brain damaged bastards, the whole lot of them.

That’s why a whole generation had to fight to lower the voting age to 18... because they were being fucking slaughtered in Korea and VietNam.

They won’t just make you vote for Joe Biden, if you let them... they will make you watch Trump destroy him, before he destroys you.  Why the fuck would you sit back and let this happen?

Millenials and GenZ... and all the yet to be born generations to follow are crippled with debt out of college, have no hope of owning homes, are facing a planet that is slowly turning into a hellscape, and watching right wing fascists dismantle the constitution in front of their faces in real time... and doing nothing to stop it, by using the most powerful tool they have... the one that was won for them by blood sacrifices.

Why?

Just fucking go to your goddamn polling place and spend five minutes of your shitty life checking some boxes for fuck sake!  Jesus, fucking Christ!

Okay, that seems like a good place to leave it tonight.

I’m going to bed.

[berniesrevolution]

Socialism is stubborn. After decades of dormancy verging on death, it is rising again in the west. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn just led the Labour Party to its largest increase in vote share since 1945 on the strength of its most radical manifesto in decades. In France, the leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon recently came within two percentage points of breaking into the second round of the presidential election. And in the United States, the country’s most famous socialist – Bernie Sanders – is now its most popular politician.

The reasons for socialism’s revival are obvious enough. Workers in the west have seen their living standards collapse over the past few decades. Young people in particular are being proletarianized in droves. They struggle to find decent work, or an affordable place to live, or a minimum degree of material security. Meanwhile, elites gobble up a growing share of society’s wealth.

But grievances alone don’t produce political movements. A pile of dry wood isn’t enough to start a fire. It needs a spark – or several.

For the resurgent left, an essential spark is social media. In fact, it’s one of the most crucial and least understood catalysts of contemporary socialism. Since the networked uprisings of 2011 �� the year of the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and the Spanish indignados – we’ve seen how social media can rapidly bring masses of people into the streets. But social media isn’t just a tool for mobilizing people. It’s also a tool for politicizing them.

Social media has supplied socialists with an invaluable asset: the building blocks of an alternative public sphere. The mainstream media tends to be hostile to the left: proximity to power often leads journalists to internalize the perspectives of society’s most powerful people. The result is a public sphere that sets narrow parameters for permissible political discourse, and ignores or vilifies those who step outside of them. That’s why social media is indispensable: it provides a space for incubating new kinds of political thinking, and new forms of political identity, that would be inadmissible in more established channels.

Every movement needs a petri dish for developing the specific contagion with which it hopes to infect the body politic. The Reformation had the printing press. The French Revolution had the coffeehouse. Today’s new new left has Twitter and Facebook.

Last month’s election in the UK offered a stark illustration of this dynamic. Much of the British media attacked Corbyn relentlessly in the weeks leading up to the election. An analysis from Loughborough University found that Labour received the vast majority of the negative coverage, while a study from the London School of Economics concluded that Corbyn had been the victim of “a process of vilification”.

In another era, such an assault might’ve proven fatal. Fortunately, social media gave Corbyn’s supporters a powerful weapon. Banished from the public sphere, they built one of their own. They didn’t merely use social media – judging by the number of tweets and Facebook engagements, they dominated it. Pro-Labour memes, slogans, videos, and articles saturated online networks. Some were funny, like a viral video of Corbyn extemporaneously eating a pringle. Others were serious, drawing on independent left-wing outlets like Novara Media to advance an analysis of austerity’s corrosive effects on British society. Together, they made millions of people feel connected to a common project. They made Corbynism feel like a community.

(Continue Reading)

[anexplanationofunfortunateevents]

THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU. PAY ATTENTION.

It’s hard to know how much to say about Trump-Russia reports because they’re mostly confirmation of things that we’ve known for ages. But last week there was a wave of information about how the disinformation attack happened, and it’s really important to understand.*

Maybe even more important, it’s been confirmed where the attack happened: everywhere. Every social media network, whether or not it has a conventionally political slant, was infected by viral disinformation. Google! Pinterest! Tumblr! Pokemon Go! Is nothing sacred?!???

It’s important to remember: just because this operation was to help Trump, does not mean that all the misleading online content was overtly targeted at Trump supporters. We’re talking about disinformation – ie, lies. They impersonated and exploited people all over the political spectrum. White supremacists. Conventional registered Republicans. Sanders supporters who don’t identify with any political party. Texas secessionists. Racial justice activists. Environmentalists. And on, and on. The idea was just to crank up the volume and turn the environment hostile and irrational. That would always benefit Trump because nobody does hostile and irrational better than Trump and the Pepes, which was a big part of why he was the Kremlin’s guy.

This infinite list of feigned viewpoints is possible in part because compared to television and other older media, political ads on social media are cheap and unregulated. (Snapchat, which does screen the content it promotes even if it hurts their bottom line, doesn’t seem to have been hit with the disinformation campaign.) If you’ve targeted your audience as carefully as you would if you were selling homemade soap, your target audience will pick it up and pass it on for free, doing most of the work for you. They might even take a meme from one platform and pass it along to another, infecting a whole new group of people with the disinformation.

It doesn’t even all have to be ads, which at least leave a money trail for us to catch. Some of them are just fake accounts, pumping this stuff out for free. During the election, the people leading the Trump campaign regularly shared content from at least one Twitter account which was a Kremlin sockpuppet. (Which, tbf, was a pretty good impersonation of a standard-issue #maga supporter.)

A few examples:

Then there’s these clowns: 

One of the posts from that month includes a link to a story about Hillary Clinton wanting to censor New York’s Laugh Factory comedy club. “Hillary must be in prison for this!” the account wrote with the link attached.

The pair also promoted a shirt labeling Bill Clinton as a rapist in an October video called “A word of truth about a rapist’s wife.”

“To say the truth, Bill Clinton is a rapist. And there is a lot of fact to prove it,” the host says, before saying the Clintons are “serial killers and they are going to rape the whole nation.”

The video concludes with the line: “We have to do all we can to not allow this racist bitch to become the next president.”

In an August video, one of the hosts explicitly endorses the movie Clinton Cash and begins the video by saying, “I support Bernie Sanders.”

“Today is old bitch Clinton time,” the host says before a title card informs people watching that the film will premiere the day prior to the Democratic National Convention.

Most people aren’t dumb enough to think this is logically substantiated, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to overload people with this firehose of vitriol until they lost track of where all the ugly was coming from, until they bought into the slogan here:

“Everyone Sucks, We’re Screwed 2016” was not a reasonable assessment of reality, which was that all the suckage was coming from Trump. But somehow it became a mantra repeated constantly by Trump skeptics on the right, Bernie fanatics on the left, and smug comedians on late night television.

Because it was fucking everywhere, including on Tumblr. (Those links are to the Wayback Machine and just posts that I could find easily. I don’t know if they’re troll accounts or suckers, but they’re examples of the propaganda.)

It’s going to be a while before we know how widespread this campaign was. For now, you can flip back through your own tags from last year. Did you interact with Wikileaks posts? Links to right-wing propaganda sites from accounts that otherwise seemed progressive? People questioning the legitimacy of the Democratic primary process? Jill Stein cheerleaders? Then you got dragged into this, too, and you deserve to understand as much as possible about how it worked.

Some of it was more or less straightforwardly what you’d expect from an operation with the Kremlin’s goals. Remember, they wanted to install Donald Trump in the White House if possible, and if that didn’t work, at least damage Hillary Clinton enough to hobble her presidency. So, although these guys weren’t the only targets, it makes sense that there was lots of Breitbart-style trash targeted at conservative-leaning voters. But that kind of stuff isn’t only absorbed by people already inclined to hear it. When it gives the rabid right-wingers something to splash all over their social media networks, it makes the political environment downright hostile for people who were sincerely excited, and as those voices are silenced, all that’s left to worm its way into the subconscious of people who are largely apathetic is loud ugliness.

They also targeted voters who were inclined to be anti-Trump by trying to gin up apathy or outright hostility toward Hillary Clinton from the left. Some of this was the same misogynist tropes as the pro-Trump ads, just swapping out Trump for Bernie Sanders or Green Party nominee Jill Stein. The left isn’t nearly as bad as the right, but we do have bigots, nihilists, and weak-willed Billy Bush types who accommodate them, which allowed the propaganda to take hold. That failure was particularly destructive because the left tends to have a lot of impressionable idealists and young people who are forming their political outlook based on general vibe of the current election. So you had a lot of people cynically expressing, passively validating, or actually believing this idea that there wasn’t a meaningful choice between the candidates. By the way, weeks before the election, Steve Bannon was openly boasting about the campaign running exactly this digital strategy. What a shocking coincidence! 

There’s an even more devious layer. Remember the dress from a couple of years back? 

There’s studies about something called priming: basically, when you remind people of social outgroups, it can actually activate some people’s subconscious biases against those outgroups. So a Kremlin troll looking to turn Americans against each other could target ideologically opposed groups with the same ad. Conservative-leaning whites would see what appeared to be an uncompromising Black Lives Matter post, get defensive, and become more susceptible to Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. The exact same post would win credibility with members of the multiracial progressive coalition who were young or otherwise new to politics, making the troll account more effective when it told them not to bother voting. Other troll accounts made similar efforts with the LGBTQ movement and with at least one defunct Muslim organization – appropriating the activism and the very identities of the people the Trump and Putin regimes threaten the most.

It can be subtle.

After an American admirer of ISIS massacred 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in June 2016, the community quickly created an event titled “Support Hillary. Save American Muslims!” that presented Clinton’s name in an Arabic-style font.

The fake United Muslims of America page was quick to point out Clinton was “the only presidential candidate who refuses to ‘demonize’ Islam after the Orlando nightclub shooting,” and boasted that “with such a person in White House (sic) America will easily reach the bright multicultural future.”

Insofar as you can evaluate the words The Daily Beast quotes, they’re either true or aspirational. If you’re a person who was disgusted by Trump’s Islamophobia, you probably did support Hillary at least in part to protect Muslim Americans from the nightmare they’re experiencing now. It’s very true that Clinton was the only candidate who refused to demonize Muslims after the Pulse Nightclub murders, and she was as clear as could be that demonizing Muslims is wrong. If you’re a person who understands that was the right thing to do, you probably didn’t think that electing her would “easily” bring about any “bright multicultural future,” but you certainly hoped it would be a step in that direction – and it hardly seems unfair to Clinton, since it seems pretty clear that if she could wave a magic wand and get rid of xenophobia easily, she would. So you have to squint for the tells that it’s meant to push people away from her and toward Trump:

The timing. American Muslims are normal, decent people, as much as any other group of Americans. They didn’t make the Pulse shooting about themselves as Muslims. They showed up for the people who were attacked. Or they kept their heads down, specifically because saying things like this while the attack was fresh in everyone’s mind would have the priming effect on some people, reminding them that Trump and his supporters believed it was socially acceptable to use the tragedy as a club against Muslim Americans.

The Arabic-style script. If the ad was for Arabic speakers who would have a harder time reading the Latin alphabet, the ad would be in Arabic. It’s in English because it’s not for them. It’s there in a distinctive script to prime the audience to associate Clinton with the foreign and unfamiliar.

The phrasing. Voters who were susceptible to Trump’s rhetoric were likely to have a deep anxiety about the changing demographics of the future. The confident assertion that Clinton’s America would “easily” bring about its multicultural future aggravates that anxiety. Also, and this may have been an unintentional error but the effect would be the same, the ad doesn’t refer to “a” hypothetical “bright multicultural future.” It uses “the,” a definite article, suggesting that this multicultural future is imminent and inevitable. Basically, this endorsement pushes the same button as “taco trucks on every corner” guy. (Reason #22,909,002 to stay mad: WE COULD HAVE HAD A TACO TRUCK ON EVERY CORNER.)

This attack could not have worked if there weren’t already deep fissures in American society. That’s no excuse to take this lying down! First of all, if the divides were as deep and poisonous as they could be, nobody would’ve bothered with an attack. If the Kremlin had not interfered in last year’s election, if we had only been up against our own undemocratic demons like voter suppression, campaign finance failures, and the Electoral College, we’d be living in a world where President Hillary Clinton was solidifying the gains of the Obama years, Associate Justice Merrick Garland was striking down voter suppression laws, and we were all arguing about Empire and Riverdale instead of fighting for our lives every fucking day. If not for this years-long foreign assault on our hearts and minds, we’d be alright. We’d be far from perfect, but we’d be able to keep working on bridging those divides. Hell, without Russian help, Trump may not have made it past the New Hampshire primary. There’d still be a bunch of boneheaded racist misogynists who abandoned the GOP to support him as a third-party candidate and they’d still be a problem, but they wouldn’t be running the show without an international criminal conspiracy to get them there. (But we’re the “globalists.” Sure, Jan.)

On top of that, though? There’s a reason that they attacked the Democratic candidate and were so desperate to demoralize progressives. There’s a reason that they could take over the GOP. The Republican Party is already a party of intolerant extremists who are doing everything they can to destroy liberal democracy – or, worse, people who know better but have enabled them for decades. The left-of-center coalition has to hold the line right now. Not just on principles, either, but in giving a shit what’s true. That’s not even about moral superiority, though if moral superiority keeps you on task, by all means, go with it. It’s strategic. We’re never going to beat them at their own game. The Democratic coalition is too diverse to agree on some fantasy, and too young to avoid the long-term consequences of ignoring reality. We’re going to have to keep on being the party that autocratic oil baron pigs hate. That means hone your bullshit detector, and start expecting the people around you to do the same. Do more call-ins than call-outs. Start watching out for sites or situations that push your buttons more than they inform you. These kinds of attacks aren’t going to stop, so we need to start building immunity now. I’m sorry, I know this is the hard way, but them’s the breaks.

Further reading:

There’s a deep dive at The Guardian.

A researcher at Columbia University, ran the data on six – six – of the 470 profiles Facebook has acknowledged were Russian troll accounts. The results are sobering – as was Facebook’s response to the scrutiny. 

If you’re curious how this worked on the Russian side of things, read the summary of an investigation done by Russian independent media and an interview with a paid troll who worked out of St. Petersburg. This won’t get at the size of the operation, but there’s some insight into how it worked.

And no, we still haven’t done the kind of forensic audits that would tell us if this years-long intensive cyber operation successfully hacked the final vote. Sleep tight.

*An illustration of how this news flow works: this post was mostly done by Monday. New reports that were worth adding into the description have come out at least once a day since then.

[joel-furniss-blog]

Shitposting and Dada

I discussed briefly in my project statement how I sense a certain lack of ambition and that I enjoy and produce work that is often of low-effort and low-quality, and in the previous semester I intended to sort of trick the examiners into giving me a better mark by overloading them with a quantity of work, trying to sort of test the ‘quality ≠ quantity’ saying. This method of producing work is quite like another of my favourite pastimes, the online behaviour of shitposting.

As vast as its internet domain, shitposting can take up a myriad of different forms on different forums, but a generally agreed definition is ‘posting large amounts of content "aggressively, ironically, and of trollishly poor quality” to an online forum or social network,’. Usually this is in order to derail otherwise orderly online discussions or alternately to bastardize a site to its regular visitors. Its usage dates to the early 00’s under the influence of niche online forums and imageboards, in which comment threads were often derailed from discussion by anonymous users either adding unconstructive posts out of ignorance or malicious intent. The resulting environment of chaotic misuse it results in is commonly referred to as ‘cancer’ (highlighting just how seriously an issue it is thought to be).

From its initial days as a minor annoyance on obscure online sump, shitposting has since changed into a much more mainstream culturally practice, especially in the intersection between internet trolling and politics. With its ability to aggravate, avert information, and overload systems, shitposting has fit well into the maddening expanse of contemporary politics and its sensationalist coverage, its first prominence being in the 2016 United States presidential race among examples of other radicalised internet phenomena—such as the appropriated mascot Pepe the Frog who has his own shitposted legacy—where the internet-savvy right-wing circles used memes as a new age propaganda machine to entertain its recruits and alienate its enemies through a stream of coded slang and images pumped out at a perpetual speed.

A most extreme and unfortunate example of the extent of the radicalization shitposting can cause is the 2019 Christchurch shooting in which an ethno-nationalist terrorist livestreamed his attack on Facebook and released a 74-page manifesto publicly on Twitter and imageboard 8chan as well as being sent directly to more than 30 recipients including multiple media companies and the New Zealand prime ministers office. The manifesto was allegedly littered with multiple memes including references to video game Fortnite, YouTube personality and alt-right running dog PewDiePie, and the classic Navy Seal copypasta, as well as alt-right associated meme and Serbian anti-Muslim turbo-folk song commonly referred to as Remove Kebab, paired with the method of distribution the manifesto could be seen as a most radical version of shitposting, intended to throw out morsels of the shooters philosophy to confuse outsiders and tempt those who might sympathise.

But shitpostings use is not exclusive to the political-right, as left-identifying groups have also used it for their own advancement, such as Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens with over 175,000 members who produce and exchange memes and general discourse related to environmentally friendly and socially accommodating urban design schemes and transport reform, whose impact has seen 2020 United States presidential candidate Bernie Sanders become a member and supporter. Shitposting and trolling has even cropped up in the UK political scene, with current Liberal Democrat party leader Jo Swinson having to explicitly state that she does not murder squirrels after a fake screenshot of a news article saying so began circling Twitter.

With its relation to the fake news phenomenon and the post-truth environment, shitposting has found a comfortable place in the current political climate, but for my own sake I have to ask; how does it relate to art. Surprisingly, shitposting—while not in its current form—was very crucial to art history. The conceptual elements of shitposting, its ideas of producing an output of notably low effort, with enough capability to rise reactions from those lacking in acumen, and then continue to overwhelm the viewers by reproducing the same min-effort/max-impact work are comparable to the pursuits of the Dada movement. With its lack of principles, no cohesive aesthetic, and overt anti-normality take on making art, Dada holds many similarities with shitposting. Even contextually they are somewhat parallel, with the birth of Dada spewed from the loins of a WWI-era Europe in which class divisions widened between the uppers who were protected and profiteered from the war and the working class who suffered financially and psychological from its first-hand effects, paired with a spike in nationalism and a deduction in perceived human rights it was the turmoil and the bastardizations of the modern human society that spurred the reflective works of Dada, in essence producing shit art for a shit period. Whilst lacking in the same kind of industrialised killings of a World War, today’s society can be seen as comparable to the same conditions Dada was born under, a sharp rise in nationalism broaching into outright fascism in many places; a correlating increase in alienated peoples changing the other side of the political pendulum; governments which actively undermine their own people for financial gain (as if that’s anything new); consequences from governments decades past haunting marginalised communities and countries; a revolt every other day in every other country; an alphabet or damaging ‘-isms’ and ‘-phobias’; and a general feeling of slow and sinking madness infecting society, it’s easy to see why such absurdist practices as shitposting were born.

It’s easy to see certain similarities, even in famous—or infamous—examples such as Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) which was sent to a gallery exhibition as an absurdist remark on arts dichotomy between the aesthetic and the conceptual, the ceramic shitpost (or rather pisspost) of an overturned urinal embodied the same attitude as a modern shitposts, irritating to any traditionalist constant, and amusing to those who either don’t understand it or do. Shitposting is an effective way to overturn expectations and subvert opinions. Even the way it spread so suddenly, with a rise and fall caught in six years in over ten countries across the globe mimics the viral sensationalism of internet trends, rising to a global impact to suddenly deconstruct itself through saturation.

Both subjects were also entwined with the political game, with Dada practically challenging any traditionalist view it could, condemning the rising nationalist tendencies and capitalist fervour of societal ‘progress’, found especially amongst the Berlin group. Under the depression of the Weimar republic and the following rise in oppression by the Nazi party, German Dadaists continued their absurd political communication and activities through art, with their efforts corralled in with other morally objectionable art labelled as ‘degenerate’—a word that has also found relevance amongst certain shitposters—they rebelled nonetheless, with artist John Heartfield even sending postcards of his work directly to Nazi leaders, a literal shitpost.

However, just as concept and context can be applied, so can criticism to both subjects. Some art historians have noted Dadas perverse relationship with race, with a streak of using racially charged language an imagery with little to know relation or appreciation for other races, especially that of Africans with prominent member George Grosz often performing a minstrel show at the movements epicentre the Cabaret Voltaire and the Incoherents Paul Bilhaud painting an all-black work titled Combat de Nègres dans un Tunnel (Negroes Fighting in a Tunnel by Night, 1882). Paired with a fetishization of racial others as ‘primitive’ Dada had problematic effects, much like shitposting which, as previously discussed, has become lumped in with the narrative of deplorability within right-wing margins, and later majorities. However, from personal experience I have seen just as much shitposting from left-wing sources as right-wing, because it lacks any concrete coding and has evolved from mindless pastime to activist tool, but there are obvious questions on whether politics should be taken in such a Dada direction, whether it’s anti-sense sensibilities will reduce politics to further churlishness that it already is, whether elections will do away with voting systems for a game of ‘how many memes can either side send’.

I’m not here to concern myself with the politics of shitposting, I’m studying this topic from a sincerity past politics and into a wider philosophical scope. I love shitposting, the anonymous nature of the internet lets me crawl into someone else’s life, sew whatever discourse or confusion I can and then promptly leave, like a stray rat running across a kitchen floor only to never be seen again, moved on to another person’s virtual kitchen. However just as a rat searches for food, I search for shitposting grounds that are comfortable to me, things that I care about or have some sort of personal opinion on, things like euthanasia, suicide, societal expectations, abortions, issues on morality, art, and other various philosophical conundrums that I am slowly devolving. In some cases, I think it’s the most earnest thing one can do, to laugh into the void as it were and generate absurdist rebellion to normality that’ll upset its balance. I even think it has practical applications, take into consideration the increase in targeted advertising algorithms, in which websites and apps hijack personal information you send or even speak privately to sell you products. But by streaming false or flagrantly inflated information instead it is possible to confuse and disrupt the targeting algorithms, a small rebellion against corporate injustice. Some may call it sadistic, or sociopathic, or just plain sad to deliberately seek and produce such effortless and meaningless content, but I see it to hone my ideological axe, to build my ideas into more concrete forms. Paired with the previously mentioned anti-normality connotations with the Dada movement, and the current cultural relevance of it, I think the philosophical implications behind shitposting are essential to my current work and I will continue to take inspiration from it.

 “How does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying dada. How does one become famous? By saying dada. With a noble gesture and delicate propriety. Till one goes crazy. Till one loses consciousness. How can one get rid of everything that smacks of journalism, worms, everything nice and right, blinkered, moralistic, Europeanised, enervated? By saying dada. Dada is the world soul; dada is the pawnshop. Dada is the world’s best lily-milk soap

Why can’t a tree be called Pluplusch, and Pluplubasch when it has been raining? The word, the word, the word outside your domain, your stuffiness, this laughable impotence, your stupendous smugness, outside all the parrotry of your self-evident limitedness. The word, gentlemen, is a public concern of the first importance.”