Pasayten's Methow Valley Bulletin Board

Thanks to Musk's X interview with Trump last night we now know that Venezuela is Trump choice of escape destinations should he lose in November. And, thanks to X responses to his slurred speech we have this: 'Trump is slurring his words - shucha shad shituation'

mister_coffee wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2024 6:18 am ...
Also, and weirdly, I suspect that the Iranians think that Harris is a better deal for them than Trump.

Well I stand corrected. Word amongst those in the know is that whoever hit the Trump campaign hit the Biden-Harris campaign too. But it is unclear if the attacks were successful.

Nate Silver's substack now has Harris up 2.8% over Trump.

That might sound good, but keep in mind that Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by 2.5% and Biden won the popular vote in 2020 by 4.5%. So there is no reason to be very confident at the moment. Cautiously hopeful, perhaps. But not confident. We've got some work to do here.

I suspect the Russian trolls are little bit busy with issues closer to home right now. Or in home if they live near Kursk.

Also, and weirdly, I suspect that the Iranians think that Harris is a better deal for them than Trump.

Excellant. It does matter what one clicks on. Click on the positive. Of course I like to know what the doomers are saying but it is really the same old thing. So go to the positive.

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Timothy Snyder has a great, short piece today on Russian bots, jd Vance, etc

“The election is 85 days away. For many of us, that means 85 days of intense screentime.

If we are using social media, how should we do so?

We should help other people to bloom.

We should introduce them to helpful ideas. We should provide them with specific offline actions they can take. We should encourage and affirm. And we should recall always that the election can only be won by votes.

And we should be aware of those who doom.

We should know the tricks of the trade of the bots and trolls who try to distress us. They have only one goal. The trolls and the bots' creators want us not to take action, and so they try to find ways to make us feel bad.

It really is as simple as that. The algorithms, and the people who have been educated by algorithms, aim for depression. They do certain very predictable things. They call names, they make vulgar references, they make outrageous claims, they trivialize the meaningful. That's pretty much the repertoire.

None of this is done in order to convince. It is only done to deflate. It is there to break the chain between action in the online world and action in the offline world. It is there to keep us online, while making us depressed.

The Russians were pioneers of this, and they are still at it. It has become harder and harder to distinguish Russians from MAGA on line, and for the purposes of this election it does not really matter. They are doing the same things for the same purpose. Much of MAGA has been educated by Russian bots, such that their own online (and even offline) behavior simply imitates demotivational algorithms.

JD Vance is the central example of this. Sponsored by tech broligarchs, he behaves irl like a fleshy algorithm. He follows Kamala Harris around much as the comments section follows a cheerful tweet.

It is possible to fight the doomers, of course. In the current Ukraine war, an anarchical collective called NAFO has done a good job making fun of Russian and Russian-aligned propagandists. And there are some excellent American wits doing the same kind of work.

But for most of us, the assignment is simple. Recognize the doomers, and ignore them. Most of them are not human, most of the humans are not American, and none of them care. They are like a pothole in the road: there is no point reasoning with them. Just keep moving along, doing your thing.

And your thing should be to help others to bloom, by acting offline. And, of course, we should act offline ourselves. More about that in posts to come.”

https://snyder.substack.com/p/blooming-and-dooming
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