• OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Dystopian fiction: The regime alters photos to make people look happy and smiling, to hide their cruelty.

    Dystopian reality: The regime alters photos to make people look sad and pained, to brag about their cruelty.

  • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf
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    7 months ago

    I know history is full of nasty little dictators and their lackeys but have any of them ever been this fucking childish?

    • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I don’t know about childish but the Khmer Rouge was batshit insane, their way of “governing” was completely unsustainable.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Hitler was actually extremely childish as was his entire regime. The similarities are remarkable.

      Henry VIII of England was basically what would happen if a pro American football player was a powerful king. He’s suspected to have had CTE.

      Versailles was basically a cruel experiment on the mental health of trapped nobility and rulers, that involved basically nothing but petty social games for power and prestige, but no options to use them.

      Rome had plenty of emperors like this including Caligula and Nero. Nero had a neck beard and unhealthy attachment to his mother. Meanwhile if half of what was written about Elagabulus is true then we have proof of how bad of an idea it is to give absolute power to a horny teenager with neither qualifications nor training.

      Speaking of weird mommy issues, Wilhelm I of Prussia/Germany was a weird childish man whose family spat was the first world war. On the other side was Nicolas of Russia who wasn’t much better.

      Also Ghaddafi was nuts, like in funny and horrifying ways, but definitely never matured after taking power young.

      So yeah, I’m conflating kings, emperors, and dictators as all more or less the same, because they kinda are. Julius Caesar took the title of dictator, was assassinated to prevent him from being a king, and was invoked by the emperors. We have a modern tendency to think of dictators as people who came to power through coups or the military, which can lead towards more mature and sane figures, but we still use the term for the hereditary absolute ruler of North Korea (it’s a socialism themed monarchy) and we don’t use it to describe the huge portion of roman emperors who were generals installed by coup. Additionally, history indicates (to me at least) that you likely have to be a bit nuts and immature to overthrow an established republic, because of the behavior shown by citizens in a destabilizing republic.

      I understand the urge to treat this administration as a freak of history, but they’re just too similar to the third reich to do so responsibly. And yeah those similarities include immaturity. It seems that a destabilizing republic is best hijacked by the narcissistic, and narcissists who are leaning into their disorder tend towards immaturity because growth often requires painful self reflection.

    • Affidavit@lemmy.worlddeleted by creator
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      7 months ago

      Now, I am not an expert of US law, but if American news has taught me anything, the only possible outcome of going through the courts is the following:

      Court decides against the govt
      Govt appeals to a higher court

      Higher court decides against the govt
      Govt appeals to a higher court

      Supreme court decides Trump is God and all is well

      The end.

  • ruuster13@lemmy.zip
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    7 months ago

    The altering of a photo is meant to distract you from the fact that they are arresting ordinary citizens who don’t have the financial means to legally protect themselves. It may seem like an irrelevant distinction based on everything else they do but this is an escalation.

    • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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      7 months ago

      The jolly old USSR was as half-assed as the Trump DOJ. There’s a famous case of someone being airbrushed out of a group photo, but they couldn’t be bothered to get rid of his shoes.

  • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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    7 months ago

    Ignoring the fakery, I don’t see how the alteration makes her less sympathetic. I would also be distressed if being frog-marched by facists for the crime of being born autistic.

    All this propaganda does, is cement my decision to fight. The Trump Regime and Dogey Americans, are enemies of any decent human being, and must be destroyed.

    • jj4211@lemmy.worldBanned
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      7 months ago

      They think they are portraying the subject as ‘weak’. It’s for their racist base to feel like ‘right on, we made a weak black leftist woman cry, like they all deserve’'.

      It was never about making her less sympathetic, but a celebration of hurting the ‘correct’ people to get hurt.

      • Windex007@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It’s not JUST for thier base.

        For anyone pondering joining such actions, these would be leaders.

        If you’re thinking of joining, and the leaders look “weak”, it might not inspire much faith. You might decide to hold back.

        The truth is, she looked calm and collected, confident in her decisions and actions. She looks like a leader. She looks like someone worth following. That type of imagery is dangerous if you’re trying to suppress action.

        So, in short, it’s an attempt at active suppression, not just a “treat” for thier own. It’s the modern equivalent of going on about how short Napoleon is. It’s an attempt to diminish those they’re afraid of to try and keep others from following them.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It’s also meant to say “look see we can make them regret it” as well as to draw into the paternal metaphor they keep using. Those weird comments they keep making about “daddy” being home to punish dissenters, feels very in line with this. The idea being that they’re trying to depict themselves as tough but necessary, and opposition as the same as a child misbehaving because of unenforced boundaries. In this regard they’re depicting her as crying to treat her like a child who has been spanked, and as such (in their eyes) one who will in the future respect their authority and eventually thank them for it.

        They need to maintain the narrative that the protesters to contain both hardened rebels, and primarily be ordinary people who just don’t understand discipline and the need to enforce the rules.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Now he’s hurting the people he needs to be hurting! I still cannot afford jack squat, and don’t have a job or health care, but at least he’s punching down, thank goodness!

    • TemplaerDude@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      It’s not meant for you. They actually don’t care how it makes you feel. It’s for their racist, fascist loving voters. They love this.

  • 58008@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    An ICE pastor is the craziest part of this story… has the cunt ever read his supposedly favourite book?

    • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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      7 months ago

      Just the Old Testament. Yahweh is bit of a dick in that half, from what I recall. Gaslighting some dude to sacrifice his child, I think?

      • razzazzika@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        Well in that particular case he stopped him last second like ‘oh man, you were actually gonna go through with it, nah bro just joking you don’t gotta kill your kid.’ But in other instances he fully destroyed cities, the world, and just killed random people cause they didn’t do what he said.

      • Airowird
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        7 months ago

        The original “just testing if you love me” trashy girl

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        YHWH is the archetype of a controlling, abusive father.

        The other highly informative part is the Book of Job, where God and Satan are hanging out and making wagers on how severely they can fuck with some decent, honest guy before he loses it.

        The opening verse of Highway 61 Revisted should be added to the Bible. It’s more insightful and better-written than most of the canonical parts. I’d also throw in Dante’s Inferno and Paradiso. I’m in two minds about adding Milton, though.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Harris adviser says VP ran ‘flawless’ campaign, GOP campaign managers candid on primary missteps

      Damn, I guess people were just too stupid to vote for the most qualified candidate to ever run for office and the country deserves what it gets. Maybe four more years of fascist tyranny will teach people to vote correctly next time. Or maybe we just won’t have elections anymore, because stupid idiot Americans aren’t responsible enough to manage their own country.

      The important thing to remember is that it’s never the fault of the people in power. It’s always the gross, dumb, smelly voters who can’t pick the Lesser Of Two Evils often enough.

      • LePoisson@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The important thing to remember is that it’s never the fault of the people in power. It’s always the gross, dumb, smelly voters who can’t pick the Lesser Of Two Evils often enough.

        It’s both. I’m not going to pretend that people voting against their own self interests isn’t a problem. If people actually voted in a way that would help them we’d have a lot more Dems than Republicans in the USA.

        It’s stupid to pretend we don’t live in a first past the post system where most voters are going to vote straight D or straight R. Voting 3rd party is just shredding your vote in almost all cases.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I’m not going to pretend that people voting against their own self interests isn’t a problem

          The problem with “lesser evil” politics is that neither candidate represents your interests.

          You had a corporate Democrat running against a fascist Republican. This after four years of liberals breaking their campaign promises, fattening the wallets of Techbro AnCaps, and beating up civil rights protestors on national TV.

          It’s stupid to pretend we don’t live in a first past the post system where most voters are going to vote straight D or straight R.

          It’s stupid to close off your primary so an unpopular incumbent in a dementia spiral doesn’t have to campaign against another wave of progressive outsiders.

          When Henry Cuellar or Jim Justice or Kristen Sinema are the Ds on my ballot, it isn’t even FPTP. It’s a forgone conclusion I’m getting fucked from either side.

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Three weeks after doomsday, yeah her campaign manager’s gonna say something nice. What is this supposed to show, anyway?

        Did they get caught giving away the dark secret that they did their best to run a successful campaign?

      • SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world
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        7 months ago

        Her primary problem was going for the left’s vote when the left doesn’t vote.

        The only way to fix it is to go further right and pick up the voters who are disillusioned by Trump in 2028.

      • socsa@piefed.social
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        7 months ago

        What do you mean Harris literally said “ceasefire?”

        She didn’t order the IDF to stand down though. So, fascism I guess.

          • Optional@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Aha! So you admit you love genocide and have no moral compass whatsoever!

            You’re an embarrassment to purity-test political nut-scratching! Can you just imagine, for ONE second what would have happened if Harris had won?? It’s too terrifying to contemplate!

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Those weren’t progressives. Those were right-wing concern trolls cosplaying as leftists.

  • elbiter@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Very professional and mature. This is what everyone expects from a government institution.

  • JackBinimbul
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    7 months ago

    It’s like fucking 4chan is running the goddamned country.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    As an American, watching the highest office in this country be turned into an absolute joke over the decades has been demoralizing, to say the least. There’s nothing to be proud of. I feel like, thanks to social media, we got to see the real people, and then it distilled people down to their worst parts. I despise seeing the leaders of the nation be so petty, so idiotic, so childish.

    I mean, throw this on the pile of reasons the current administration isn’t worthy. The felonies, the child raping, the blatant attempts to start wars, the blatant disregard of the Constitution, and just misinformation galore. They edited a photo… how small of a person do you have to be to think “I’m part of the government, I have access to the White House official channel, I’m going to be very transparent about what I think of the current situation and use AI to mock and try to spread misinformation.” I hope people link back to these things (all of these things, not just this photo) every single time anyone in the current administration speaks. When ever any company supports them. When ever any person supports them. Like NEVER let it go. Just flood them every single time. They say Merry Christmas, bring up the Epstien files, the rape, the photo editing, the felonies, the… everything. Just non-fucking-stop.

    It’s just so god damn fucking embarrassing to be an American right now. And I know by the end of the year, I’ll be wishing to get back to how it is now, I’ll look back fondly on how it was “only” so bad at the start of 2026.

    Sorry for the rant, I’m just, so god damn tired of every single day Dimentia Don, doing yet again, another dumbass thing.