In April, NBC News found that on X, at least 150 pro-Nazi accounts were able to purchase verification on the app and boost pro-Nazi content that was viewed millions of times on the app.

“If I’m not able to drive any consistent views to my newsletter from Twitter, why am I here?” Lavin said about her decision to move to Bluesky. “All the replies were AI bots and Nazis, and none of the earnestly engaged readers are seeing my content. So what was the point of subjecting myself to psychic damage?

I don’t think many of us on lemmy are that surprised to see this is happening. It’s just a shame it’s happening after the US Presidential election.

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, it was never about “Free Speech,” so much as it was a means to drive right-wing propaganda to masses on a platform that had been largely used by the mainstream media, politicians, celebrities, sports media, etc. Twitter was basically the place where all of this could be found.

As a side note, I haven’t used Bluesky so I cannot personally speak to its merits. I do wonder how it compares with Mastodon though, which I have used.

For real, this doesn’t even make sense.

Even outside my own personal investment accounts, I’ve worked at companies that offered shares as a benefit. It’s fairly common, too. Does that somehow mean everyone at that company is now not a worker?

Well, I just voted early for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz today!

My only regret is I live in an extremely blue state, and therefore my vote is mostly symbolic at the federal level. I voted against Trump all three times he was on the ballot, and I kept up the tradition this election cycle as well.

However, my vote at the local level is not symbolic and actually will still have an impact on my area. Living in NYC, I voted “Yes” for propositions 1 and 2, but voted “No” for 3, 4, 5, and 6 because they all seemed like ways for Mayor Eric Adams to give his corrupt buddies jobs and ways for the Mayor’s office to stop legislation he doesn’t like.

Also, as a side note, Mayor Adams is taking the “Trump Defense” by calling his FBI Indictments fake and hoax while also cozying up to Trump to get out of them. So, the less power to him, the better.

Posting another discussion thread (even though it’s the end of October.)

It’s depressing and dumbfounding. And it all goes back to the propaganda.

Growing up, I always wondered how 1930’s Germany could look at Hitler & the Nazi’s and think “Yeah, this looks like a good guy.” I also used to think it could never happen in the United States.

Fast forward to today, it really feels like Trump has (1) one, given me a front row seat understanding how how it happened and (2) proven to me that, yes, it really can happen in the US.

It’s really easy to write all of his supporters off as being blatantly evil (many are - the Nazi Flag waving at the Florida boat rally is an example) but just as many are simply blind to Trump’s evil. They’ve succumbed to decades of powerful propaganda and think that anyone - even Donald Trump - is better than a Democrat.

It’s stupid, exhausting, and defies logic, but it’s what they believe.

IANAL, but I believe this case, which is being oversaw by Tanya Chutkan, is for Sedition, whereas the case being oversaw by Aileen Cannon is for Treason. Jack Smith is the special counsel for both.

Sedition is for inciting rebellion against the authority of the state, and treason is betraying one’s country.

See the archived link here.

Also, here is a direct link to the document itself.

It’s a long article, but the general point is the United States, while flawed, is very important for maintaining the current world order and preventing despots (such as Putin) from engaging in further wars of conquest.

Trump, being who he is, is the type of President who would enable this sort of situation to occur; he is a populist, protectionist, and isolationist who also hates immigrants.

It’s a lengthy article. Here is the archived link for those interested.

Thoughts on this? I am a big proponent of nuclear energy, not just because it creates a lot of energy but because it represents a way we can combat the climate crisis.

However, geothermal energy takes advantage of the energy that’s already in the Earth; the trick is accessing it, which the article suggests may soon be a viable option to broadly generate energy without generating greenhouse gases.

Here is the archive link for those interested.

With the last eight years as context, I don’t think Trump will lose any supporters over his performance last night against Kamala Harris.

However, after watching that debate in June, I can say this one left me feeling much better. Trump was easily baited into saying ridiculous shit, such as immigrants are “coming to eat all the pets,” that there are ongoing free transgender reassignment surgeries on illegal aliens in prisons, admitted he negotiated with terrorists by bypassing the Afghan government to directly negotiate with the Taliban, wasted time defending his rallies after Harris is pointed out people were leaving them early because they were “bored,” and defended the consequences of Roe versus Wade being overturned by saying “This is what everybody wanted.”

In my opinion, Kamala Harris set the tone of this debate at the very start when she crossed the stage to force Donald Trump to shake her hand.

Here is the archived link for those interested.

It said that in seats won by the Lib Dems “voters would explain that they were voting Lib Dem in these traditionally Tory strongholds because Ed Davey’s party just seemed more ‘normal’”.

Yes.

Archived version for those who want to read the article.

Democrats are good the economy. Republican are bad for the economy.

It’s amazing that republicans have managed to convince so many people otherwise.

$10 a month. I plan to cancel after the election.

Personally, Morris’ model at 538 had such a questionable take on Biden vs Trump it shook my faith in it. I still think it’s good as a polling aggregator, and its tools (such as the interactive map) are pretty solid, but I decided that $10 per month was acceptable to get access to a model I think has a more realistic take on the election.

538’s new model is untested, and for all I know it could be accurate. However, it still has some takes I find extremely unlikely.

Nate Silver’s model (in my opinion) paints a more realistic picture of what to expect; despite Harris’s qualifications and Democrats extremely high enthusiasm, it remains an uphill battle because of the electoral college.

This is what Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin has right now.

As always with polling predictions, it’s a big if. So, if the elections were to happen right now and Nate Silver’s model is completely accurate (it’s obviously not; no model is) then the results would be 303 Kamala Harris to 235 Donald Trump.

Screw Kari Lake. She’s an election denier.