How the right is weaponizing pro-Palestinian campus protests in the US

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How the right is weaponizing pro-Palestinian campus protests in the US
theguardian.com

Republicans are using a narrative of chaos and ‘philosophical divisions on Israel’ among Democrats to sink Biden’s campaign

Republicans have identified recent college protests against Israel’s war in Gaza as the core of an election campaign narrative of chaos that they hope can be used to sink Joe Biden’s presidency.

The approach was bluntly crystallised by Tom Cotton, the Republican senator Arkansas, in a recent television interview when he mocked the encampments that have sprung up in recent weeks as “little Gazas” and lambasted the president for a perceived failure to unequivocally denounce instances of antisemitism.

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So what's new? The right inserted provocateurs into BLM demonstrations to create violence and bad press. This time their provocateurs prime aim is to alienate Biden voters. It is so easy to lead people.

Just look at Lemmy. There's tons of anti-Biden posters who twist everything with misinformation and deception

That's what happens when the establishment uses their stranglehold over mainstream media to strong arm a primary. The right wing is going to right wing, and misinformation is their whole game. Democrats can learn to be a party that can win in that environment, or they can let institutional inertia destroy the country. They seem to be leaning to the latter.

Yup. They’re using the same voter disengagement strategies that Republicans have used for decades. It’s never about how great Trump is. It’s always about how you should just stay home in November because Biden sucks too.

Abstaining from voting will lead to Trump’s second term. Inaction is action.

Edit: The downvotes without rebuttal are proof of this statement.

Abstaining from voting will lead to Trump’s second term. Inaction is action

And boy do they get butthurt when you point out that there are only two choices that are realistically possible, and not voting or voting third party inherently favors republicans.

Let's not forget that the left abandoning the democrats in the 70s and 80s didn't make the party move left, they moved right and we got 3rd way dems.

That’s exactly what we should expect to happen. Inversely, if Democrats maintained control for extended periods of time, all candidates would be forced to adopt more progressive platforms in order to capture more of the vote. Every time liberals and progressives abstain and Republicans take office, the impact is twofold.

Agreed. It's really sad how many people are unwilling or unable to think about 2nd and 3rd order consequences to actions.

"Everyone that disagrees with me is a shill"

Listen, I'm going to hold my nose and vote for Biden in November because a Trump victory risks the end of democracy in the US, but I'm so tired of this idea that all criticism of him, and anyone who disagrees with us about whether to vote for him, is a victim of some kind of conspiracy.

That isn't to say that people don't want to exploit those divisions and will try to spread misinformation to do so, but that isn't an excuse to dismiss everyone you disagree with either.

In a normal media environment I’d agree with you completely, the problem is that we have a media apparatus that is set up as a propaganda arm of a political party and mainstream media thinks that balance is that any negative news story must be balanced by a negative news story in the other direction (“Trump incites riot and Biden mispronounced his granddaughters name, why both could mean the collapse of their campaigns” type coverage), instead of being balanced in standards of reporting.

I don’t know what the solution is. My strategy though is to work down ballot to get better people in positions to push Biden and get him more flexibility to make better choices and changes.

I think Biden is far from perfect. I straight up disagree with him on a few things. I'd say he actually kinda sucks in some ways. But at the end of the day, he's gotten a lot more done in closer to the right direction than I ever would've expected, and the other viable option to vote for will undo that and steer things in the wrong direction if elected.

We just can't let good be the enemy of perfect. Biden is the only option for any hope of a positive future. A lot of the posters you're talking about are bad faith actors, and their whole goal is convincing some people to stay home in November. 2020 went to Biden by only like 30k people across a handful of states, so it's pretty clear that they want to dissuade people who are somewhat on the fence to chip away at that difference. They know that trump is polarizing af and even with the electoral college tilting in their favor, they need to pretend that Biden is polarizing too.

I don't think you understand that these Gazans would see America burn to the ground before they acknowledge that Biden might be the best option.

Gazans? I'm missing something here.

I'm guessing they're using the shit stain politician's nomenclature to describe the protesters.

I can't keep up with all the dumb lore in the right wing fandom. There's better fiction out there, guys.

Biden does anything good: "Oooh where was all this for the last 4 years?"

Gets tiring to see.

Yeah the "gEnOcIdE jOe" are the worst simpletons.

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