Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure all the white liberals outraged by this are cancelling their summer trips to Europe to book an Airbnb in Soweto to show their solidarity against Trump in these troubling times.

+1. This is one of the many reasons I voted for Trump.

We're not outraged. We're embarrassed. Our president is either gullible or a liar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure all the white liberals outraged by this are cancelling their summer trips to Europe to book an Airbnb in Soweto to show their solidarity against Trump in these troubling times.

+1. This is one of the many reasons I voted for Trump.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is not a generation issue. This is a stupidity and ignorance issue.

The generation wars are also propaganda.

I disagree. It's definitely a generational issue. Millennials and Gen X were taught: pix or it didn't happen/show me the receipts. We believe nothing without proof to back it up.

Gen Z is the cap/no cap generation but they are the first generation to be raised fully on social media, which is fake. They trust just as easily as Boomers.

My Boomer parents believe everything they see on Facebook. They have the "well, why would someone lie about that" attitude about information. Our local library had an internet safety and social media literacy class for seniors that I encouraged them to attend. I was their driver and hung out in the library while the class was going on. The first thing the teacher did was walk in holding a sign that said "Free $100 to the first person who shakes my hand!" and when no one did it, she asked, why not and they all responded with "if it's too good to be true, it probably is." So then she flipped the sign over and it was a Facebook post that said "I'm sending $100 to the first 10 people who Like this post!" and proceeded to explain to them that it was the same concept. If it was too good to be true, it probably was. She also taught them to Google before reposting photos with political or social claims. These Boomers had never thought to stop before reposting and quickly Google "are dogs and cats being eaten in Ohio?" There was also a section on spotting AI-generated images, but sadly, that was the least understood concept in the class. They were all failing and falling for AI-generated content over and over during that portion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine being SO stupid that you think a bunch of white sticks in the ground that are supposed to look like gravestones are real and are marking actual graves in some random field.

I’ll freely admit I’m not sure exactly what those tombstones are supposed to represent, but I know it’s not an actual cemetery. But apparently Orange Fatso couldn’t deduce that.

Imagine being that dumb.

And now remember that that’s our president.

And imagine being the person tasked with locating all the fake propaganda photos to show the dumb dumb. Imagine that’s your job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fourth largest party in the country:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Freedom_Fighters

So what? Most governments in the world have parliamentary systems with more than two parties and may include some that are very fringe or extremist (on both sides). I'm Greek American and the 4th largest party is the Communist Party (KKE). They don't have a lot of power and will never be in power, but they're in the mix along with some extreme right-wing parties. One might argue that countries with parliamentary systems are more democratic than ours because they allow for a wider range of beliefs and they often have to work in coalition.

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:Fourth largest party in the country:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Freedom_Fighters

Anonymous wrote:Fourth largest party in the country:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Freedom_Fighters

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine being SO stupid that you think a bunch of white sticks in the ground that are supposed to look like gravestones are real and are marking actual graves in some random field.

I’ll freely admit I’m not sure exactly what those tombstones are supposed to represent, but I know it’s not an actual cemetery. But apparently Orange Fatso couldn’t deduce that.

Imagine being that dumb.

And now remember that that’s our president.

Imagine being so dumb that you get confused and use clips of Malema, who's a member of the opposition, to attack Ramaphosa, who went out of his way to be inclusive, include Afrikaners in his government in key positions, to be anti-racist and so on. To Trump and his staffers I guess all blacks look alike?

This Presidency is the dumbest of our lifetimes.

It's striking how every single world leader he sits down with is leagues smarter and more knowledgeable than him. All we have is a senile old man spouting lies and conspiracy theories he found online.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine being SO stupid that you think a bunch of white sticks in the ground that are supposed to look like gravestones are real and are marking actual graves in some random field.

I’ll freely admit I’m not sure exactly what those tombstones are supposed to represent, but I know it’s not an actual cemetery. But apparently Orange Fatso couldn’t deduce that.

Imagine being that dumb.

And now remember that that’s our president.

And imagine being the person tasked with locating all the fake propaganda photos to show the dumb dumb. Imagine that’s your job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine being SO stupid that you think a bunch of white sticks in the ground that are supposed to look like gravestones are real and are marking actual graves in some random field.

I’ll freely admit I’m not sure exactly what those tombstones are supposed to represent, but I know it’s not an actual cemetery. But apparently Orange Fatso couldn’t deduce that.

Imagine being that dumb.

And now remember that that’s our president.

Imagine being so dumb that you get confused and use clips of Malema, who's a member of the opposition, to attack Ramaphosa, who went out of his way to be inclusive, include Afrikaners in his government in key positions, to be anti-racist and so on. To Trump and his staffers I guess all blacks look alike?

This Presidency is the dumbest of our lifetimes.

Anonymous wrote:Imagine being SO stupid that you think a bunch of white sticks in the ground that are supposed to look like gravestones are real and are marking actual graves in some random field.

I’ll freely admit I’m not sure exactly what those tombstones are supposed to represent, but I know it’s not an actual cemetery. But apparently Orange Fatso couldn’t deduce that.

Imagine being that dumb.

And now remember that that’s our president.

Anonymous wrote:Imagine being SO stupid that you think a bunch of white sticks in the ground that are supposed to look like gravestones are real and are marking actual graves in some random field.

I’ll freely admit I’m not sure exactly what those tombstones are supposed to represent, but I know it’s not an actual cemetery. But apparently Orange Fatso couldn’t deduce that.

Imagine being that dumb.

And now remember that that’s our president.