#You are not immune to propaganda

[fruitpeels]

Had breakfast with my folks the other day

[spiralatria]

[vaspider]

I am begging everybody, fucking begging them, to slow the fuck down and fucking look things up. Right now, there are a lot of people who are making money off of creating headlines that are meant to make you mad, and it's going to get worse as we get closer to the election.

If someone tells you that there's a secret conspiracy to [do a thing you don't like] and that it's unique to Biden, you better fucking look that thing up, because chances are you're going to find that it's been happening under every administration for the last 50 years. Is that good? No! Should you want to change it? Probably! Is it a unique crime to Biden? Nope!

"Biden said [bad thing] [X] years ago." Well, this bad thing he said happens to be true, but it looks like it was 45 years ago, and he changed his stance 40 years ago. "Biden said [other bad thing] [Y] years ago." What's the source on that? So there's one person who says he said it? And nobody else who was there has corroborated that account? Who posted the story?

These are all random examples of things I've seen over the last couple of weeks, with the details slightly changed from the Tumblr posts and news articles I've seen, because the point isn't the details of the particular story, so I don't want to get bogged down in particulars that don't matter to the point I'm making.

The point of this post isn't the specific things I'm referencing but the fact that in each of these cases, the reality was not what was initially presented. Either the reality was wildly different, or this story can't be corroborated and was told by someone with a clear and very well-known agenda of their own, which means that at the very least, the story should be treated with extreme suspicion.

And on that note, please don't believe that because you're a leftist that you can't be radicalized in the same way that right-wingers are. You aren't immune to propaganda either. I'm not saying you have to like, or should like, any particular politician or political entity. I am saying, however, that you should view a lot of the news with a gimlet eye, and that goes double for anything that makes you real fucking mad.

You need - need - to stop and read the whole article and ask yourself if you can verify the claims and who benefits from this making you mad.

Please. For the sake of the people around you who have to patiently explain to you that you've gotten fucking bamboozled again by propaganda if for no other reason. We're all very tired of you thinking that leftists can't be propagandized.

[abyssalbloom]

People on tumblr really will go „I cannot believe silly right wingers fall for fear-mongering and moral panics and accuse random queer people of being pedophiles for self expression and kinks, anyway, block and unfollow xyz because they’re a proshipper and glorifying abuse”

[amaditalks]

There are four possibilities for the people chanting “globalize the intifada” and “intifada everywhere” and none of them are any good.

They don’t care that they’re calling for mass terrorist violence and deaths because they don’t care who lives or dies. (The nihilist option.)

They assume that anyone who’d be killed in such violence deserves it and haven’t considered that it could easily be someone they claim to care about. (The true terrorist option.)

They’re willing to sacrifice the people they care about for “the movement.” (The true terrorist plus volunteering others for martyrdom option.)

They’re happy to chant whatever the loudest person tells them to, and they have no idea what the intifada even is. (The ignorant lemming option.)

People have to do better.

[rigaudon]

Okay, everybody, repeat after me: Voting is a civic duty, not a moral litmus test.

Voting is a civic duty, not a moral litmus test.

[trashpoppaea]

A friend of mine whose husband survived the Shoah said to me the other day, "The historical and logical endgame of antisemitism is ritual murder. Most recently, on an industrial scale. It is historically acceptable and has sometimes been considered praiseworthy to kill Jewish people for the last two thousand years. That’s the underpinning of the thing. You can't have casual antisemitism, really. It's a repeat offender on a gigantic scale."

I've been thinking about her words a lot lately.

[elder-millennial-of-zion]

There was never going to be any form of Jewish self defense that the world would deem acceptable, and there was never going to be any act of anti-Jewish terrorism that the world would deem unacceptable.

There is nothing Israel could ever do to defend itself that wouldn’t be accused of going too far, of being “way beyond self defense.” There is no method of Israeli self defense that wouldn’t be maligned as “genocide.”

Inversely, there is no atrocity that could ever be committed against Jews that wouldn’t be denied/excused/justified. There is no level of violence against Jews, however gruesome, however blatant in its goal of genocide and targeting innocents, however many children and babies are burned alive and kidnapped, that wouldn’t be justified as “resistance,” as something that the Jews must have provoked, as the very least that Jews deserve, as something that the terrorists were driven to and couldn’t possibly be expected not to do.

No act of violence against Jews was ever not going to be called “resistance,” and no response from Israel was ever not going to be called a “genocide.”

The only Jewish country in the world was never not going to be maligned as the worst country in the world.

For fuck’s sake, use some critical thinking skills.

[floralcavern]

“I want Gaza to go back to the way it was before the war!”

[incorrect-mtg]

In honor of new Tatyova art, I'm bringing back this meme I made some months ago

[sharp-rosee]

A lot of "radfems" continually peddle the idea that Middle Eastern men are more misogynistic than white, "Western" men and either do not realize or purposefully do not mention that this rhetoric was started by the far right to popularize white supremacy/Neo Naziism and is a dogwhistle to "The Great Replacement" theory.

They start off at first framing their worry with immigrants by spinning a story of how Middle Eastern men are coming into Europe and raising the incidents of rape to an extremely high degree. They show false statistics and reports that have been faked to further convince you of this new rape epidemic.

After watching crazy exposes of these supposed incidents you continue to "research" more and more into this phenomenon, why nobody is acknowledging it, etc. and after they radicalize you into hating these men specifically, they introduce escalating ideas of racism to you until the idea of the "great replacement" is acceptable to you - and that we shouldn't accept immigrants and refugees because rapists are coming through the border to Rape our Women and Convert them to Islam (and to get rid of white people) and we hate the Men, not women! (Ignore that a majority of refugees are women and children; ignore that immigration is a lengthy process, and "Illegal immigrants" are just refugees, those who have been on the waiting lists for years, or those who are technically considered "illegal" because they didn't renew their visas; ignore that the sources we provided are made up, ignore that we only ever talk about black and brown people, we can't have white people going extinct- being replaced!)

How do I know about this and the things they say? I was introduced to a big part of alt right propaganda by Lauren Southern, which led me down what online leftists called the "alt-right pipeline." I wasn't looking for this, I was introduced after watching more and more misogynistic content. It happened slowly, and before long, I knew of the theory. I knew of the Evil Jews destroying the Earth. I awaited the Boogaloo. Overall, though, I didn't care much for these theories - I just wanted to indulge in my self hatred, and yet bigotry was instilled in every misogynistic content they produced. Every word and line they said implanted the seed of what they were really fighting for. And although I enjoyed letting my mental illness fester by watching this content, I couldn't ignore the racism/homophobia/etc. and, in a way, I suppose that made me realize that misogyny was illogical just like any other bigotry, too.

I was going to link to Lauren Southern's video popularizing this term further and how she uses the rhetoric above, however, she's since deleted it. Another Youtuber has called her out in this video here, which clips some of her original video:

More examples of her peddling the Rapist Immigrant rhetoric:

Seeing the same propaganda pop up in the space I've learned to love myself in is terrifying. Seeing the beginnings of what became an awful ideology I found myself in whenever I festered in my own mentally ill thoughts is terrifying.

This is a racist talking point you are promoting. It is false. It has been disproven time and time again and yet here you are, still believing in it.

And to any radfems still questioning that this is propaganda, I urge you ask yourselves:

What sources gave you this information?

Why is it only this specific group of men?

If reports of rape are rare compared to actual incidents of rape, and if the concept of "false accusations" are always brought up whenever any incidents of rape do get reported/do occur, why is it only in this specific instance that rape is being called out at all?

If the sources that gave you this information truly cared about women, why do they never report similar "spikes" when referring to immigrants/refugees in other countries or just in other countries in general?

If you can believe it is all men, then why do you assume that one culture is worse when there are similar or even higher misogyny rates in every single country on planet Earth?

If you still cannot introspect on your racism and the origins of the ideas you are peddling, whether ignorant to it before, you are not a radical feminist, let alone a feminist at all. You are a white supremacist. You are not welcome here, and never will be.

And above all else, you are actively harming and making it unsafe for black and brown people, especially black and brown women, to be here on Tumblr and make it unsafe for them to exist at all.

[retirement-home-rumble]

Some Granny Weatherwax propaganda:

- Literally lives in the village of Bad Ass.

- Was bitten by some vampires once; they all started craving tea and cookies.

- Intimidated Death into losing a card game against her.

- Had a staring match against the sun, for multiple hours; only stopped because she heard a child crying.

- Always knows who and where she is.

- Grabbed a sword by the blade and 'didn't have time to get cut by it'

- Set a voodoo doll of herself on fire by sticking her hand into a torch.

- Did not run with the bulls; forced them to run away instead.

Bonus Nanny Ogg Propaganda:

- Rules the Ogg clan with an iron fist

- Brews her own alcohol strong enough to dissolve metal

- Can crack coconuts with her thighs

- Rumored to be even smarter than Granny Weatherwax

- Had a farmhouse land on her head ala The Wizard of Oz, and was fine

- Owns Greebo, a four legged demon in the shape of a cat.

Bonus Bonus Greebo Propaganda:

- Has killed at least two vampires.

- Said to be the single male ancestor of every cat in a wide radius

- Can turn into a human; he still has his claws in this shape

They sound so iconic honestly

[creature-wizard]

The warning comes after a tumultuous few weeks in U.S. politics that have forced Russia, Iran and China to revise some of the details of their propaganda playbook. What hasn’t changed, intelligence officials said, is the determination of these nations to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims about American democracy to undermine faith in the election.

(Reminder that Jill Stein is a Russian asset, by the way.)

[cryptic-klepto]

Yall are the Nazi's useful idiots. Block me.

I don't have mutuals because if I give any of you long enough you'll inevitably prove to be Jew Haters. I've blocked half this hellsite because you crypto-fascists masquerading as progressives can't read my pinned post BEGGING you to block me first. "Haha this person posts funny/informative posts. I'll follow them! ...Oh wait they mindlessly eat up nazi and terrorist propaganda like they're fistfuls of shredded cheese direct from the fridge at 2AM. Well nevermind then. Unfollow/blocked." Palestine will not be free or at peace with Israel destroyed and Hamas in control. Hamas has been murdering, raping, and torturing Palestinians for almost 2 decades. On top of that, so many of yall regurgitate nazi conspiracies and blood libel like you are vultures vomiting up worms to feed other mindless pawns of the Far Right. Leftists have been doing more legwork to promote the agenda of fascism than any Proud Boy or Neo-Nazi Gun Club has in years. Do I seem mad? I am mad. I'm mad that those I care about have to start making plans for when their home countries kick them out or hunt them down. For when YOU hunt them down. Not "if." WHEN. They know that they have nowhere to turn but Israel, the one place that has never turned them away. Every single country refused Jewish refugees during World War 2, during to pogroms, during the purges. Every single one. With one exception. Israel. That's why Israel must survive. Because without Israel, the Jewish people may not. They are a remarkably tenacious people, survived everything the world has ever thrown at them. The Romans, the Nazis, the Soviets, everything. But I don't want my loved ones to be in survival mode for every subsequent generation to follow. I want them to be and feel safe. That's what this is about. Safety. Jewish people, AND Palestinians, are being held hostage by Hamas. Women, children, elderly, the disabled. If you want a ceasefire, then they must be released. It's honestly the simplest and easiest demand Israel could make. Return the innocent. And yes they are innocent. They're only crime was not being Hamas, a crime so many of you openly believe deserves the death penalty. You want to free Palestine? Free Palestine from 17 years of Hamas tyranny. Demand that the hostages be released. Only then can their be a ceasefire. You can't expect Israel to just lay down arms while her people are having their heads cut off. Are you stupid or do you just want Jews to die that badly? Don't answer that. Two things can be true. Free Palestine from Hamas. Free Israel from Netanyahu. Release the hostages, negotiate ceasefire. Stop parroting Far Right propaganda. Jump off the bigoted bandwagon. Failing that, STFU and block me. I'm sick of this shit. Eat glass.

[relaxedstyles]

[rigaudon]

Since the ratfucking has quintupled since the debate last week, here's a reminder that comments like this only exist to depress voter turnout.

these are all comments on the post I just reblogged. from within the last month.

Not every comment like this is part of an astroturfing psyop (and I'm not saying that the people in the screenshots are part of an astroturfing psyop), but we need to remember that the whole point of the astroturfing psyop is to flood your feed with certain ideas or claims in order to make it seem like a lot of people are talking about this so it must be serious and also true!

The thing is, it doesn't matter whether it's an outright lie, a half-truth, or even actually true. Because the goal isn't just to make you believe the lies. The goal is to make you proliferate them. To distort the truth just enough. To use empathy, outrage, fear, and (most importantly) urgency to convince a few regular people like me and you to believe This Thing is important enough to repeat.

And it only takes a few. Because once the idea is coming from someone you know and trust --your friends, your family, yourself-- it becomes the truth.

If the people I trust believe it, that must mean it's true.

If it's true, why is no one talking about it?

If no one's talking about it, they must not know about it.

If they don't know about it, I have to tell them.

If they don't believe me, I have to convince them.

If I can't convince them, I have to shame them.

You are not immune to becoming propaganda.