Ideally, I'd love for Dems to just start taking credit for everything MAGA brags about. Since apparently the Republicans aren't in charge.
Nah nah nah dawg.
The antifa deep state led by Soros and his Jewish space lizards are holding the government hostage. Except Israel, those guys is cool.
One of the double speaks an authoritarian spokesperson has to perform is the opposition is both strong and weak at the same time. Strong, so they can be blamed for anything that goes wrong, and to stoke fears in the faithful, and weak because no one is allowed to be stronger than the authority.
I know that is 1984, but it really reminds me of the "could god create a boulder so large that he could not lift it" thought experiment.
Isn't that weak so they can't be blamed for what goes wrong and strong because they are the absolute authority?
Maybe you should swear in the Democrat that Arizona elected, Mike? Since they are required.
So, what they're saying is they've been lying about having a mandate all this time.
You don't understand! The public gave them a mandate, but Democrats stole enough seats to take control anyway! From the shadows!!!
Ideally, I'd love for Dems to just start taking credit for everything MAGA brags about. Since apparently the Republicans aren't in charge.
Well, not so nice this day without a spine.
If the Dems were in charge, they'd have sworn in the representative-elect from Arizona that he refuses to by now.
It would make sense, wouldn't it? It would be hilarious to see how fast the entire Republican party would spin if Democrats started taking credit for all the terrible shit Republicans have done with their power.
Oh my God that would be genius lmao. Also no way it could backfire
I know you're being sarcastic. It would absolutely destroy their chances of ever holding office, but if Dems don't win the midterms, that's it. They may as well close up the Party HQs, retire from politics and IDK, take up knitting or something.
Mike Johnson wants to kiss boys and he's real mad about it
Republicans have never demonstrated the ability to govern in my life time.
Obviously you are imagining things the only things the Republicans have is a majority in the House and Senate, the support of the supreme Court, the White House and the richest man in the world and most oligarchs. Oh and some really crazy fascist MAGA cultists. It's practically nothing and these crazy people act like they run the government. I mean really.
Adelita Grijalva - learn that name, people.
If any Democrat is controlling government, it's Adelita Grijalva. Now hand the keys, Mike.
And the Democrats have also made abundantly clear what the Republicans have to do in order to get their votes.
Hey, average web surfer here. I just want you all to know that I see posts like this and it is the message that I'm left with. I actually don't know what the democrats or even people on the left are saying about this. I just see these posts. I think democrats are the reason the shut down is happening
So you don’t actually know anything, but you think the Democrats are the reason.
Fucking typical. I think people like you are the reason the government is shut down.
Their reason for voting against the funding bill has been quite clearly stated on platforms and news programs everywhere. Even searching "why are democrats voting against reopening the government" will get you a fairly decent answer. They haven't changed the answer in the past three weeks, or hidden their demands, or anything like that.
I'd recommend you get in the habit of looking stuff like that up before you've made up your mind about something, because it's a really helpful life skill for an "average web surfer." Deciding what your opinion is before you have all the facts just means that you're letting someone else think for you.
The information is out there, maybe reconsider where you're getting news from? Democrats are asking for healthcare to be protected, and are planning a vote for releasing the Epstein files. Republicans are opposing both.
Republicans are exclusively at fault because they have the speaker position AND a majority of members in both houses and can get back in business whenever. They just don't have all their own members on board yet, so they need enough Democrats to join to reach a majority, and none will do it.
So Republicans are stuck with a majority they can't use, and have to negotiate, and refuses to negotiate.
I'm just pointing out that it doesn't matter if the information is out there. I'm a low watt fence sitting lefty. Like majority of people. If people hate Trump and wanted to do something about it then maybe recognize people like me aren't reading stuff that isn't in meme format. You get a few seconds of our time. But I appreciate the explanation i quickly skimmed.
I'm a little confused.
You're a fence-sitting-lefty?
Without being rude... what behavior on the right are you in favor of? Is it the reduction of rights for literally every minority? Is it the clearly stated planned process in Project 2025 that is being implemented? Is it tariffs, to punish our "trade partners" (read: farmers, citizens, small businesses)? Do you think trans people are not human?
I'm cranky, clearly, but honestly looking for some insight. What makes you not a staunch lefty? I don't think an informed lefty can possibly be fence-sitting; the political landscape is just so polarized and the right is just trashing everything they can get their hands on.
If you're just uninformed and not paying attention, then you need to start looking around. There are tons of left memes right here, so if you're not seeing them, then you're not looking. If you're seeing the right-leaning memes more, then check your sources and biases.
Oh so good information on the left must be searched while good information on the right is actively searching for me?
See any problems there?
Why has the left failed to understand this
The firehose of ~~bullshit~~ falsehood plus, A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes
This isn't that the left has failed to understand, this is that the left actually values accuracy where the right doesn't.
"They're eating the dogs!" he said, just making shit up. Proving that they are not, in fact, eating dogs requires a bit of work. The right works on 'feels' and their 'guts' where the left values truth and reality. It's easy to make something up as a meme and just post it, with no intent to ever defend it. Some amount of people will see it and believe it's true.
A thing that separates left and right is that we are skeptical and require proof before we believe.
Oh so good information on the left must be searched while good information on the right is actively searching for me?
[Emphasis mine.]
I would strongly disagree with the idea that the right is putting out "good information." I will agree that they are searching for gullible people like you. In this thread alone, we have the most powerful people on the right stating the shutdown is caused by the dems. It took an intern 10 minutes to print a "the democrat shutdown" sign, but takes significantly longer to write an article that describes why that isn't accurate, and that article won't be read by the people who need to see it. Falling to their level and making a 'the republican shutdown' sign and holding a press conference with it just enforces the 'both sides' narrative that only discourages people from voting.
I don't have a solution, but it certainly isn't "meme harder". It's more like "encourage critical thinking and expect people to be informed before voting". I'll even put out a point: Democratic leadership wants to encourage education by making it affordable to everyone while republican leadership constantly pushes to de-fund teachers, schools, and programs that would let the poors into college. I could back that up with examples and proof, but it would take that time I'm talking about, go looking for counterpoints instead and spend your own time making yourself better.
donald trump famously said, "I love the poorly educated". I don't think he loves them because they are amazing people, or that he wants to take care of them. He loves them because they are rubes and marks and he is a con-man.
This is your wake-up call. There is no such thing as a 'fence-sitting lefty'. You are either:
You’re still missing the point. Accuracy doesn’t matter first. Engagement does. Nobody listens to a perfectly factual argument if they’ve already tuned you out. Humans don’t operate on data — they operate on emotion, identity, and story. That’s why propaganda works. That’s why memes work.
If exaggeration, satire, or outright lies are what make people look long enough to even hear a truth later, then that’s the cost of entry. You can’t correct someone who never engages. You can’t educate someone who scrolls past you.
The moral panic over “lying” misses the bigger picture — refusing to adapt to human psychology isn’t virtue, it’s self-sabotage. When the other side is willing to weaponize story, fear, and spectacle, and you cling to purity, you’re not defending truth — you’re surrendering it.
Sometimes, yes, the ends justify the means. Because the alternative is letting the “truthful” side lose to those who don’t care about truth at all — and that’s how you end up with demagogues, fascists, and history repeating itself. If preventing that requires bending the truth to win hearts before minds, then it’s not immoral. It’s necessary.
And here I will not disagree with you that the accuracy doesn't matter right now, and I'm not missing the point. I see how we on the left are losing the "cultural war," but I'm not sure that turning to propaganda with blatant lies or half truths is going to work.
If I saw an advert for my local statesman that claimed that their republican opponent eats babies, it wouldn't change how I vote, but it would diminish my fervor for voting for them. The end-game of this propaganda war is that nobody pays attention at all, since it can't be trusted, or that everyone believes everything they see regardless of it's merit. Obviously there is a spectrum, and you can't fool all of the people all of the time, but I don't think aiming for that lowest common denominator is the way to go.
Calling back to my previous post, you don't seem like a 'fence-sitting lefty' to me. You come across as a cranky lefty like myself. I know I don't have a solution to this issue of messaging and you think you have yours. I do disagree that it would be better to meme harder at the expense of truth, but we're broadly on the same side and have the same goals.
I'm just curious at this point: What would your memes look like? I'm such a sucker for accuracy that all I can come up with are things like: "Republicans could end the government shutdown at any point: They have the majority and can change the rules whenever they want, but they can't even come to an agreement amongst themselves about how hard to fuck you over", or "You can't have informed voters if they can't read [temple-tap]" and I don't think those would sell.
By memes I just been content. But the goal is to culture jam them. Fascists put so much value in these little things that it all adds up to powerful tools. We need content, influencers and networks. Everyday putting content out showing their weakness and corruption. Drop the racism stuff. Nobody who isn't already a leftist cares. But show they are weak, ineffective and insane and their voters will abandon them
Assuming you are posing this concern in good faith, the answer is it is a very real issue that has everything to do with the platforms presenting meme based/photo based information. Virtually all major social media outlets sku heavily right and promote right leaning content well above similar content on the left. Its not that the left doesn't have this kind of content, it is that it isnt being shown as often by content providers.
If you find everything you are seeing is posts like the picture here, please recognize you may be a victim of propagandizing efforts and reconsider what platforms you explore.
Certainly here on lemmy, you can find many more short form/meme type messaging from the left/liberals than you can the right. It's a notable exception to the general trend
Sku? I think you meant 'skew'. Took me a while to figure that one out.
If you look closely you can see the sweat.
Translation: If they voted yes on this bill they hate, the government would reopen. They have all the power here.
They can’t even get their own party to vote unanimously for this bill. Why do they expect the other party to at all?
This isn't really clicking for me.
If the Republicans "are in charge", then they wouldn't need democrat votes. But they clearly do need the votes? So they're not fully in charge, right?
Some Congressional votes require 60% votes. Most Congressional votes just require a simple majority. So Repugnants control Congress most of the time.
Did the democrats make you go to Grindr too Mike?
I honestly don't like this. While there are Republicans who are closeted, there's no evidence Johnson is one of them and the creepy shit we do know makes him seem even straighter.
The beauty of voting Democrat or Republican is that you have no real, solid political ideals.
They can change on a whim, based on convenience or whatever your favorite MSM news broadcast just told you, and the best part is you probably aren't even aware of your own hypocrisy.
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