@jeffowski this really should have a content warning...
The #TurdReich in words and deads
@jeffowski
This link contains the congressional Rep. Self quoting Goebbels on the floor of Congress. It's from X, of course, which means it might get deleted. I dare say the man protests too much.
@jeffowski It's quite paradoxical that there are so many guns in the US because it is claimed to "protect people from tyranny", but they are most often used to kill children in schools instead.
Good point. Guns don’t get used to overturn tyranny or protect against tyranny; rather they serve to deter and suppress protests that might overturn tyranny. And they get used to kill children.
@jeffowski Strange as it may seem, I could be wrong.
I believe the hearing was about Biden administration efforts to counter misinformation from foreign governments. It was wrongly characterized by Republicans as censorship.
So I think it likely that Rep. Self was ineptly trying to tie Biden to the Nazis rather than endorsing Goebbels himself.
@jeffowski Looking this up, it seems to me that he wasn't speaking in defense of state control of speech; he was speaking against it: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/north-texas-congressman-quotes-nazi-propaganda-minister-joseph-goebbels/287-fe3d60ad-e239-40c6-a98e-67ee909cd278
If there's something I'm missing, though, please point me to it.
@jeffowski as many others pointed out, this is out of context.
Don't stoop to the level of Republicans by promoting this Facebook-level, misleading meme.
@jeffowski Yeah, this is out of context. Self is an asshole, but that quote was him accusing someone else of having that opinion. During the process, however, he revealed that he is a partisan hack using distractions (Hunter Biden's laptop, in this case) to draw attention away from Republicans repeatedly attacking organizations trying to reduce misinformation and Russian election interference.
His fascist dipshittery is immense but not illustrated by this quote.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/keith-self-congress-quoted-joseph-goebbels/
@jeffowski The only shock is that he said the quiet part out loud. The US government has been controlling the narrative for decades. The Nazis and the CIA have a lot in common.
@jeffowski This is shockingly bad. I’m not sure how America will end up, but I’m glad I’m not living there.
@johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
Perfect form.
@TanekRune @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
more on the context.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-rep-keith-self-004100761.html
We need to try and slow the wild swings from the left to the right and back. Its wiping our us in the middle.
#democracy is more than voting.
@mral @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
Maybe I was out of my gourd that whole sociology degree, but last I checked, democracy is that system where the government is supposed to represent the people. Not declare a special package of goals they will carry out. You're not just supposed to vote 'em in and ignore them, or they pull this BS.
@TanekRune @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
we have lost a lot of the ideals.
Right now
people running for office only focus on jumping though the hoop of getting elected and then forget all about the representing the people part of the deal.
@mral @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
Seems so. Politicians seem to have gotten extra comfortable, thinking they don't work for their constituents. It's hard to keep up with every little piece of political discourse, but I very much feel like elected officials see election as a sign-off on whatever they believe - not what is currently wanted by their riding.
@TanekRune @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
you got that right.
My real question is; what do we do about it and how.
The guillotine used to be a device that helped to ensure that the elected stayed focused but I dont really like that idea. There should be a better way.
@mral @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
There used to be law, but even that began to fall apart as people seemed to become too busy to demand justice en masse. However I'm all up for bringing back The Democracy Maker in politics.
@TanekRune @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
maybe we can view it as when a politician is two faced, we cut off one of the faces. sorta like plastic surgery.
@mral @johnnyd_cm @jeffowski
Even just a single consequence might begin to register in their thick skulls that this isn't okay. Chuck some of these dudes in any one of their lowest ranked prisons and see how quick the tone changes. No house arrest. No fines. Just put 'em right in with the other mass murderers.
@jeffowski Isn't Goebbels also known for such gems as “We strive not for truth, but for effect.” and “Give me the media and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs.”
@Robo105 @jeffowski
Yep, that was him.
He clearly was the mastermind behind the whole Nazi propaganda machine.
@jeffowski and so the decline continues
@jeffowski Anyone who goes through my post history, knows I work for Meta (Facebook).
I've been trying to sound the alarm, because we're working closely with the government. We are monitoring anyone who uses the word "protest".
In the meantime, I have been trying to find digital services outside Us Jurisdiction.
@Linux @jeffowski you need some help?
Personally I'd recommend @monocles as they request no #PII and support anonymous payment incl. #CashByMail & #Monero!
@jeffowski
Little known fact. There's a farming community in Pennsylvania called Nuremberg.
Do you think they'd maybe host a few criminal trials?
@ausgroucho ---
If you look at dictators and their demises, they're better off with a trial.
@jeffowski I'm sure he's a repulsive individual, but he wasn't quoting Goebbels approvingly. He had been discussing the Biden administration's attempts to combat misinformation, and *that* is what he was comparing to Goebbels.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/keith-self-congress-quoted-joseph-goebbels/
@bodhipaksa
OK can we see this quote in context then? I'm almost certain that @jeffowski will retract that post for the sake of their integrity if it turns out this has been incorrectly taken out of context.
@johentsch @jeffowski Did you read the article I linked to? It gives a transcript of the exchange in which Goebbels was quoted.
@bodhipaksa
I apologize, I had not read it. Having read it, I would like to suggest to
@jeffowski to also read it and remove the misrepresentation of the quote. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/keith-self-congress-quoted-joseph-goebbels/ I think it's crucial to call out on disinformation but we should not take recurse to disinformation to that aim!
@johentsch @jeffowski It’s very easy for us to see outrageous information and to share it without checking it first. Our heightened emotions actually dial down our critical faculties. It’s happened to me a lot. Nowadays I try to take the outrageousness of the information as a trigger to pause and dig deeper. It doesn’t always work, but it helps some of the time.
@bodhipaksa
That's what's actually scaring me most nowadays: outragey click-bait news (different context than that one here), tailored to whatever generates the highest engagement, are such a simple and effective idea profiteering off human reflexes that it feels to me like an unstoppable downwards spiral
@jeffowski
@johentsch @bodhipaksa @jeffowski it's tricky, because it's not hard to imagine how a "disinformation governance board" could be abused.. but i mean (and this is just a cursory look and I cant' get too deep into this atm), janko's own description of the work they do just sounds like a counter-intelligence thing, right? https://abc7amarillo.com/news/nation-world/jankowicz-blames-boards-pause-on-disinformation-says-criticisms-of-it-were-incorrect-nina-ministry-truth-governance-board-department-homeland-security-chris-hayes-conspiracy-theories-lies
and it sounds like it never really got off the ground to begin with so idk... the first news of it is from a few months before that?
@jeffowski From snopes.com, his biggest crime is a failure to appreciate irony:
@rjblaskiewicz @jeffowski Doesn't matter. This will just keep getting repeated until everyone believes it. It's unfortunately very easy to believe.
To a small percentage of people, it does matter. That's who I'd rather reach.
Gives some context; all the same, he managed to disgrace himself.