“Pump and dump”

It’s illegal,unless Tumo does it.

has pitted Americans against each other. Undermining unity is from Putin's playbook.

It's shit on top of shit on top of shit. Also add in the fact that we don't regulate anything in the United States, so these corporations are able to get away with it.

Especially after a big loss, it's far more comforting to believe you made a good decision and are a merely victim of some outrageous injustice.

That's especially true for magats, who are addicted to martyrdom.

it's very human to not want to admit being taken for a fool

started 40 years with talk radio led by Rush Limbaugh. To this day, 50 million people listen to that garbage weekly. Then came Fox News. And now the right wing internet sites. Maybe 1/3 of the population only ever sees or hears "reality" as seen through the right wing lens. At this point, probably about 1/3 of the population does not believe in objective reality. They believe what their right wing leaders tell them to believe.

maybe some kind of mass hypnosis?

or is it all repetition of lies and redefinition of terms?

However, I doubt it's anything but repetition and targeting of vulnerable people who lack critical thinking skills. They have used typical cult "recruiting" tools.

But many/most are scarred for life.

And social media and cable news prevent their being any time to breathe before the next round, so reason never catches up.

...when in line at the grocery store with my mom, starting about age 8, and saw things like "Woman Gives Birth To 3-Headed Alien Baby," and the like, even then I wondered (although not in these words), "Who is stupid enough to believe this bullshit?"

I'm now 75. The gullibility of human beings continues to horrify me.

National Enquirer. I always assumed it was sort of a vomic book for adults. Now I know differently,

believe it or not.

How often is DU plagued by some bullshit nonsense clickbait YouTube video, the only merits of which are giant yellow arrows. Even then, the poster ADMITS that they have no earthly clue what they just posted, what value it has, what merit it has, what reality it has.

And every poster here who just read that and can admit that applies to them, also just said to themselves, "I don't care."

Fucking clout chasing, useless fucking mouthbreathers who only see value in likes, clicks, subscribes, bell rings, recs or whatever. THIS is YOUR fucking fault.

I saw a MAGAt say social media exposed Democratic propaganda, hence November 2024.

Social media, if anything spread lies, manipulation, brain rot and radicalized people.

One of my relatives used a variation of that statement. Of course I never asked him just how supporting Trump would equal loving America.

where I can watch videos of the former bikini model sharing her thoughts on vaccine efficacy.

Reagan was the Hollywood prez, straight from the silver screen.
T1.0 was the tv prez, had his own show
T2.0 is the phone prez.

In the last decade, the oligarchy has succeeded in accomplishing the Orwellian goal of making us all doubt our eyes and ears. We have become doubtful of the existence of objective reality itself.

My girlfriend lives with her mother, who spends many hours a day watching Faux. She never talks politics with us, but my goodness, I could hear in the room the other day - ‘Socialist this, socialist that. Socialist, socialist, socialist.’

And they don’t even know what it is. Social programs are not the same thing as socialism.

cults. I suggest it’s deep childhood trauma. They feel promises made were broken. Not feeling safe or happy on any level. Some reach for alcohol or drugs or religion. Some rage at others. Some find safety in cults.

“ The widely known Kübler-Ross model describes five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance…”