Teacher's Pet wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2024 12:23 pm Let me guess: The Taylor Swift dance class stabbing is being blamed on immigrants and this guy is an anti-immigrant protester?

Yep. The suspect was under 18, and so wasn't named. Social media picked up the slack and filled in the blanks using islamophobia etc providing a name and a religious motivation. This was also picked up by a random online news site in the US which added some specious credibility.

It was subsequently revealed that this 'information' was absolute bollocks, and prejudice is not some sort of truth-revealing solvent.

Did he get hit by bricks thrown by his own team?

Oh yes, and how!

Thank you. Good grief, he actually gets hit by THREE bricks.
I guess he chose a bad spot to stand during that moment.

pldms wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2024 3:01 pm Social media picked up the slack and filled in the blanks using islamophobia etc providing a name and a religious motivation. This was also picked up by a random online news site in the US which added some specious credibility.

This makes it sound more benign than it was. This is being organised and manipulated in a very determined way.

Channel 4 reported that 49% of social media posts that were inciting these people came from America. No doubt the usual 'think tank' suspects.

We have MAGA fuckery all up in our politics, too. Makes me sick to hear Trump supporter language in my country, but Project 2025 is already happening in New Zealand right now.

Here's the Guardian summary on the assault on indigenous rights by the current NZ government: https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... cy-changes

Needless to say that doesn't cover all the racist dog-whistling going on. Put it this way, one of the first things they did when they got in was order that bilingual roadsigns be replaced with English-only roadsigns and all government departments with Maori names be replaced with English names. This is the level of motherfuckery we are contending with here. David Seymour, the Heritage Foundation-funded pod person, child groomer and Associate Minister of Everything is going around calling anybody to the left of Hitler "woke". When he was cancelling the school lunches to children program the other week, he called sushi fucking "woke".

Now imagine all of that happening in environmental policy as well. And education. And justice. And health. And transport. And every-fucking-thing. The new government is full of former tobacco and oil lobbyists. Remember during the Trump administration when there was a fresh outrage every day, something new to be furious about every time you opened the news? This has been what it's been like here for nearly a year now. We've got a mega-church pastor directing violent mobs and harassment campaigns against drag queens. The deputy PM attacks the "woke media". The gaslighting and the lies is continuous. The entire board of the Health department has just been sacked and replaced by a czar tasked with slashing our health system. The former health board are accusing the government of spreading lies and disinformation (they are correct).

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I could write twenty pages about all the things I'm furious about. Fast-track legislation allowing ministers to approve mining on conservation land that bypasses environmental law and removes the need for public consultation. Or as our new resource minister, piece of shit Shane Jones put it, if an endangered native frog stands in the way of a mining project, it's "bye-bye Freddie".

We are slashing public services while running up billions in extra debt so we can give a round of tax breaks to high earners and tobacco companies.

The scum are in charge. Proper scum: Republican-strength scum swept into power by a bunch of anti-vaxxers, anti-environmentalists, and white grievance dickheads and funded by American think tanks. And if they get a second term I will seriously be looking for a new country.

Wow... that's insane. How did they even come to power in NZ? Do you think it will eventually implode? I can't imagine the whole of NZ putting up with anti-environmentalism in a country with such a fragile and beautiful eco-system.

White racists, anti-vaxxers and a whole lot of American money. Disaster capitalism.

Curry Pervert wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2024 4:04 pm

pldms wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2024 3:01 pm Social media picked up the slack and filled in the blanks using islamophobia etc providing a name and a religious motivation. This was also picked up by a random online news site in the US which added some specious credibility.

This makes it sound more benign than it was.

I'm surprised to hear social media described as 'benign' in this day and age. Giving a succinct explanation of what happened is difficult, with the mess of bubbles, motivated reasoning, bot-farm amplification, and conspiracy theorising. I've no doubt that the likes of Tommy Robinson, Farage, and Galloway, with those shadowy think tanks, try to direct these things to their own ends.

turnbullac wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2024 10:46 am JD Vance will not make it to the election. He will be replaced. Trump even said that it isn’t important who the vice president is at the NABJ.

Who will dump the fauxbilly doughboy first: his wife or Trump?

pldms wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2024 5:15 pm I'm surprised to hear social media described as 'benign' in this day and age. Giving a succinct explanation of what happened is difficult, with the mess of bubbles, motivated reasoning, bot-farm amplification, and conspiracy theorising. I've no doubt that the likes of Tommy Robinson, Farage, and Galloway, with those shadowy think tanks, try to direct these things to their own ends.

Fair enough.


RE: trump.

I'm pretty sure trump is toast at this point. Women and young people are going to decide this election. Biden did not appeal to the youth vote, I think a lot of them would be sitting this one out if it wasn't for the change in candidate.

Charlie XcX tweeted in favour of KH very soon after Biden dropped out.
Cardi B is in favour.
Beyonce is in favour and gave KH permission to use her music at rallies.
Megan Thee Stallion performed for KH.
Taylor Swift I don't think has commented yet, but probably will, but regardless there are already 'Swifties for Kamala' groups.

Think of how many fans these artists have combined. Mostly female, mostly young, and completely repulsed by trump and the maga crowd.

The sweet irony here is that anytime KH is mentioned anywhere that allows comments, the magamorons flood the comments with misogynistic remarks, further alienating the very people you would think they might be trying to win back after Roe V Wade drove them away.


And none of the above is even taking into account the people put off by the criminal charges, Jan 6th and the general racism.

Curry Pervert wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2024 9:15 pm Charlie XcX tweeted in favour of KH very soon after Biden dropped out.
Cardi B is in favour.
Beyonce is in favour and gave KH permission to use her music at rallies.
Megan Thee Stallion performed for KH.
Taylor Swift I don't think has commented yet, but probably will, but regardless there are already 'Swifties for Kamala' groups.

Think of how many fans these artists have combined. Mostly female, mostly young, and completely repulsed by trump and the maga crowd.

Unfortunately the Rock The Vote turnout is usually pretty low, maybe a little better for Obama 2008 but I don't think this will be that.

There's definitely enough stuff on Trump to turn off The Olds and Suburbanites who ultimately swing these elections, as indicated by most post-Dobbs elections. And while these "white dudes for Kamala" Zoom groups are odd, there's definitely enthusiasm that wasn't there a month ago.

I don't think it'll be a blowout either way, and I absolutely expect some fuckery from MAGA. That Trump is still even allowed to run already tells us that the system is not on our side..