Anonymous wrote:Trump Claimed a Social Media Video Showed ‘Burial Sites’ of White Farmers. It Didn’t.
During a meeting with South Africa’s president, President Trump played the video as evidence of racial persecution. A Times analysis found he misrepresented the contents of the video.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/us/politics/trump-south-africa-president-white-farmers-video.html

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents recently became convinced that Ron Howard had died in a car accident. They showed me the YouTube videos that led them to that conclusion.
This latest incident in the Oval Office gave me the same sinking feeling as witnessing them being manipulated.

(They were initially pretty angry with me then embarrassed when I had to show them how they had been deceived by clickbait. We did a little nonjudgmental tutorial on reliable sources and I reminded them of when I jumped the gun on James Earl Jones dying and to please always come to me with any information that concerns them and we can look into it together and they have)

The folks manipulating maga really nailed it this time around. People, and for some reason Americans in particular, are really easy to manipulate. Trump is easy to manipulate. Clearly, that’s why he’s so useful to them, he’s no better than your parents at telling truth from fiction. He also has a child’s emotional intelligence so it’s that much easier to give him a pat on the back head snd tell him that he’s a big boy to get him to do what you need him to do.

My question is, why it is so bad in the US compared to other western countries? Why are we so uniquely stupid?

Boomers have no media literacy. They grew up trusting media and government. It is beyond their comprehension to conceive of otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents recently became convinced that Ron Howard had died in a car accident. They showed me the YouTube videos that led them to that conclusion.
This latest incident in the Oval Office gave me the same sinking feeling as witnessing them being manipulated.

(They were initially pretty angry with me then embarrassed when I had to show them how they had been deceived by clickbait. We did a little nonjudgmental tutorial on reliable sources and I reminded them of when I jumped the gun on James Earl Jones dying and to please always come to me with any information that concerns them and we can look into it together and they have)

The folks manipulating maga really nailed it this time around. People, and for some reason Americans in particular, are really easy to manipulate. Trump is easy to manipulate. Clearly, that’s why he’s so useful to them, he’s no better than your parents at telling truth from fiction. He also has a child’s emotional intelligence so it’s that much easier to give him a pat on the back head snd tell him that he’s a big boy to get him to do what you need him to do.

My question is, why it is so bad in the US compared to other western countries? Why are we so uniquely stupid?

Anonymous wrote:My parents recently became convinced that Ron Howard had died in a car accident. They showed me the YouTube videos that led them to that conclusion.
This latest incident in the Oval Office gave me the same sinking feeling as witnessing them being manipulated.

(They were initially pretty angry with me then embarrassed when I had to show them how they had been deceived by clickbait. We did a little nonjudgmental tutorial on reliable sources and I reminded them of when I jumped the gun on James Earl Jones dying and to please always come to me with any information that concerns them and we can look into it together and they have)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With Trump attacking world leaders with false claims from the Oval Office, I guess our only allies will soon be Israel and Russia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/us/politics/trump-ramaphosa-south-africa-visit.html

Trump Lectures South African President in Televised Oval Office Confrontation
President Trump showed a video and leafed through printouts that he falsely claimed showed widespread persecution of white South Africans. The country’s president tried to correct the record.

In an astonishing confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Trump lectured President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa with false claims about a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers, even dimming the lights to show what he said was video evidence of their persecution.

The meeting had been expected to be tense, given that Mr. Trump has suspended all aid to the country and created an exception to his refugee ban for Afrikaners, fast-tracking their path to citizenship even as he keeps thousands of other people out of the United States.

“We’ve had tremendous complaints about Africa​, about other countries too, from people,” Mr. Trump said. “They say there’s a lot of bad things going on in Africa, and that’s what we’re going to be discussing today.”

The meeting quickly became a stark demonstration of Mr. Trump’s belief that the world has aligned against white people, and that Black people and minorities have received preferential treatment. In the case of South Africa, that belief has ballooned into claims of genocide.

But the discussions took a turn when a journalist asked what it would take for Mr. Trump to change his mind and see there was no “white genocide” in South Africa.

Mr. Ramaphosa, answering for the president, said: “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.”

Mr. Trump was ready with his response. “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” he told his aides.

A booming video mash-up began to play, including footage of people calling for violence against white farmers in South Africa. One clip showed white crosses planted alongside a rural road stretching far into the distance, which Mr. Trump said were part of a burial site for murdered white farmers. The crosses were actually planted by activists staging a protest against farm murders.

Don't forget El Salvador and Hungary.

Anonymous wrote:With Trump attacking world leaders with false claims from the Oval Office, I guess our only allies will soon be Israel and Russia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/us/politics/trump-ramaphosa-south-africa-visit.html

Trump Lectures South African President in Televised Oval Office Confrontation
President Trump showed a video and leafed through printouts that he falsely claimed showed widespread persecution of white South Africans. The country’s president tried to correct the record.

In an astonishing confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Trump lectured President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa with false claims about a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers, even dimming the lights to show what he said was video evidence of their persecution.

The meeting had been expected to be tense, given that Mr. Trump has suspended all aid to the country and created an exception to his refugee ban for Afrikaners, fast-tracking their path to citizenship even as he keeps thousands of other people out of the United States.

“We’ve had tremendous complaints about Africa​, about other countries too, from people,” Mr. Trump said. “They say there’s a lot of bad things going on in Africa, and that’s what we’re going to be discussing today.”

The meeting quickly became a stark demonstration of Mr. Trump’s belief that the world has aligned against white people, and that Black people and minorities have received preferential treatment. In the case of South Africa, that belief has ballooned into claims of genocide.

But the discussions took a turn when a journalist asked what it would take for Mr. Trump to change his mind and see there was no “white genocide” in South Africa.

Mr. Ramaphosa, answering for the president, said: “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.”

Mr. Trump was ready with his response. “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” he told his aides.

A booming video mash-up began to play, including footage of people calling for violence against white farmers in South Africa. One clip showed white crosses planted alongside a rural road stretching far into the distance, which Mr. Trump said were part of a burial site for murdered white farmers. The crosses were actually planted by activists staging a protest against farm murders.

Trump Lectures South African President in Televised Oval Office Confrontation
President Trump showed a video and leafed through printouts that he falsely claimed showed widespread persecution of white South Africans. The country’s president tried to correct the record.

In an astonishing confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Trump lectured President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa with false claims about a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers, even dimming the lights to show what he said was video evidence of their persecution.

The meeting had been expected to be tense, given that Mr. Trump has suspended all aid to the country and created an exception to his refugee ban for Afrikaners, fast-tracking their path to citizenship even as he keeps thousands of other people out of the United States.

“We’ve had tremendous complaints about Africa​, about other countries too, from people,” Mr. Trump said. “They say there’s a lot of bad things going on in Africa, and that’s what we’re going to be discussing today.”

The meeting quickly became a stark demonstration of Mr. Trump’s belief that the world has aligned against white people, and that Black people and minorities have received preferential treatment. In the case of South Africa, that belief has ballooned into claims of genocide.

But the discussions took a turn when a journalist asked what it would take for Mr. Trump to change his mind and see there was no “white genocide” in South Africa.

Mr. Ramaphosa, answering for the president, said: “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.”

Mr. Trump was ready with his response. “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” he told his aides.

A booming video mash-up began to play, including footage of people calling for violence against white farmers in South Africa. One clip showed white crosses planted alongside a rural road stretching far into the distance, which Mr. Trump said were part of a burial site for murdered white farmers. The crosses were actually planted by activists staging a protest against farm murders.