the media are also mentally preparing people for a stolen election

https://rdrama.net/h/maxn/post/312087/the-media-taylorlorenzcrying-thinks-the-usmarseysaluteusawont

Edit: also here's a post from yesterday that made front page drawing skepticism/scrutiny to the legitimacy of electronic voting

https://rdrama.net/h/maxn/post/311869/fyi-marseymoreyouknow-its-okay-to-be

What used to be a bannable offense is now mainstream on reddit. Reddit admins couldnt be trying to inspire mass doubt through covert propaganda could they?

!nonchuds !khive Let's kneel to the wikigod

• The "Donald Trump and fascism" Wikipedia page was created on September 21, 2024, the same day The Guardian published a 4,000 word essay titled, "Is Donald Trump a Fascist?" --- and which is cited as a source in the Wikipedia article

• Contributions from just two editors comprise 91.2% of the "Donald Trump and Fascism" article's content, suggesting a tightly coordinated effort to control the narrative

• While the "Trumpism" Wikipedia page argues that Trumpism "has significant authoritarian leanings," describing it as "far-right," "national-populist," and "neo-nationalist," it relies on a source that argues exactly the opposite

• One of the next major citations to the "Trumpism" article that claims that the movement displays "significant authoritarian leaning" is sourced to sociologist Richard Hanmann who was eulogized in 2021 as "a committed leftist, an anti-imperialist, and a true activist-scholar"

The October surprise of this year's election cycle has, at least so far, appeared in the form of a talking point: Donald Trump is a fascist. This idea has been blasted out by Kamala Harris, the DNC --- which recently projected "Trump Praised Hitler" on the wall of Madison Square Garden during the MAGA rally --- and Hillary Clinton.

But for months the idea that Trump is a fascist has been quietly seeded on Wikipedia, lending it credence in the face of deep skepticism from the public. This includes an article on "Trumpism," which mentions some variation of "fascism" 31 times, the article on "Donald Trump and Fascism," an article on "Fascism in North America" that includes a dedicated section on "Donald Trump and Fascism," and an article on the "Racial views of Donald Trump" that includes a comparison to Hitler.

As I've documented in previous reporting for Pirate Wires, radical ideologies are laundered by Wikipedia into the mainstream. The key to this is Google, which boosts Wikipedia articles to the top of search results, and often includes a knowledge panel that gives the appearance they've been vetted by the search giant, even though they aren't.

In this case, if you Google "Trump and fascism," one of the top results will be the article on "Trumpism," which mentions some variation of the term "fascist" 92 times. In its lead summary, the article states: "Trumpism has significant authoritarian leanings, and is strongly associated with the belief that the President is above the rule of law. It has been referred to as an American political variant of the far-right and the national-populist and neo-nationalist sentiment seen in multiple nations worldwide from the late 2010s to the early 2020s."

The first source in the article (for the claim Trumpism is a political movement) is a 2016 article in Scientific American by psychology professors Stephen Reicher and Alexander Haslam. In their article, Reicher and Haslam reference the work of sociologist Theodor Abel, who studied the rise of the Nazis. But what Reicher and Haslam actually wrote in their article makes no comparison between Trump and fascism or Hitler whatsoever. In fact, the source article explicitly states the opposite: "We are not comparing Trump, his supporters or their arguments to the Nazis in any way. Instead, our goal is to expose some problems in the ways that commentators analyze and explain behaviors of which we disapprove."

Reicher and Haslan's critique was not of "Trumpism," but of the media and commentators (and ostensibly, Wikipedia editors) who contort the discourse --- particularly by demonizing constituencies --- to advance political agendas. The authors of the paper cited a Salon.com headline smearing Trump's supporters as "hideous, disgusting racists," as an example of how the media does this, in part by making hyperbolic distortions. The very title of their article --- "The Politics of Hope: Donald Trump as an Entrepreneur of Identity" --- made their position clear. Yet their piece was used by editors of the Wikipedia article to buttress claims that Trumpism is a form of authoritarianism.

One of the next major citations, this one for the claim that the movement displays "significant authoritarian leaning," is sourced to sociologist Richard Hanmann who was eulogized in 2021 (by the "Marxist sociology blog") as "a committed leftist, an anti-imperialist, and a true activist-scholar." This is a pattern across the Wikipedia articles drawing comparisons between Trump and fascism --- the citations are often radical leftist or Marxist academics.

One of the most egregious instances of editors laundering far-left sources comes in the Trumpism article, which attempts to re-position the populism associated with Trump as neo-fascism, claiming, "Some commentators have rejected the populist designation for Trumpism and view it instead as part of a trend towards a new form of fascism or neo-fascism."

The main source for this claim is a 2017 essay by Marxist ecologist John Bellamy Foster --- billed as "one of the world's outstanding radical scholars" (by his own magazine and his personal website) --- in the socialist journal he edits, Monthly Review. To publicize the essay, *Monthly Review *included a blurb by a Marxian economist who argued revealingly that, "By rejecting the term 'populism' that is widely used to describe the Trump phenomenon and other similar ones around the globe at present, and using the term 'neo-fascism' instead, John Bellamy Foster has done a great theoretical service to the Left."

The majority of the content on the "Trumpism" page (50.5%) was contributed by a single editor, J JMesserly, who was the editor responsible for arguing that fascism, not populism, is the correct characterization of the Trump movement. To implement this, J JMesserly removed another editor's contribution that stated, "Some historians have argued that [characterizing Trump as fascist] is an inaccurate use of the term, pointing out that while there are parallels there are also important dissimilarities." In its place, J JMesserly added the very opposite claim, citing radical scholars to make the point: "Some commentators have rejected the populist designation for Trumpism and instead view it as a new form of fascism, such as Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, Juan Cole, Henry Giroux, Paul Street, Enzo Traverso, Davide Tarizzo and Cornel West."

The Trumpism article links to a separate article called "Donald Trump and fascism," which extensively compares Trump to Hitler. "Trump's embrace of far-right extremism and several statements and actions have been accused of echoing fascism, Nazi rhetoric, far-right ideology, antisemitism, and white supremacy," one section of the article asserts, citing the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and Washington Post as sources for these claims. The article prominently features a painting by an otherwise obscure Dutch artist that merges the faces of Trump and Hitler.

The "Donald Trump and Fascism" article was created in last month --- in the thick of the presidential campaign --- by a user called Di (they-them). The contributions of Di (they-them) and another user, BootsED, comprise 91.2% of the article's content. Curiously, the article was created on September 21, 2024, the same day UK leftwing newspaper The Guardian published a 4,000 word essay titled, "Is Donald Trump a Fascist?" --- and which is cited as a source in the "Donald Trump and Fascism" Wikipedia article. The Guardian essay hits many of the same points made in its Wikipedia counterpart, and while ithedged by averring that Trump is not literally a fascist, it concludes that he could be "a cause of 21st-century fascism" who "could yet be one of its enablers."

As the Trump fascism rhetoric continues to rage in advance of the election, it's likely that more voters will turn to Wikipedia to clarify the matter. And while the seemingly dispassionate statements of alleged fact found in the Wikipedia articles might sway them, what voters will not see are the edit wars waged to get these points on the site --- or the radical and Marxist scholarship used to justify them.

My name isnt even Andrew, thats how much i mean to her T.T console me someone

Im not desperate im just begging

‼️Austin TX podcast or let her walk. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/05N9SHVzEv

— Joe Rogan Podcast (@joeroganhq) October 29, 2024

!nonchuds !khive

I'm at the firm belief that much of Trump's supporters know what exactly what he means to do to democracy as we know it, and that he's proposing fascism. They just don't care as long as "we're the ones winning."

But they don't know what actual fascism and authoritarianism is, they've never experienced it.

If this many people are in favor of Trump despite everything he's said and done, maybe we do need a taste of a full blown dictatorship just so Americans can know just how shitty it is. Let's see after 4 years of loss of freedoms and subservience to the "winning team" what the people will want after that...let's see how people to respond to gradually not even having a choice in the matter.

!khive new accent just dropped and we love it!

The Harris-Walz 2024 campaign's new Fortnite map Freedom Town, USA is part of the Democrats’ push to reach gamers and young voters. pic.twitter.com/20gDhpaDhv

— IGN (@IGN) October 28, 2024

Kamala Harris got access to intelligence reports and this is what she did? I feel like this is a parody of a liberal. pic.twitter.com/JaZNu0Gr3l

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) October 26, 2024

!nonchuds !khive Let's get her in!

!khive

Also

Coom

S*x

S*x

S*x

This Saturday was quite the slowdown for Reps statewide. Looks like they only gained <1k compared to several thousand a day previously. https://t.co/iR3HS25eFr

— Dr. John R. Samuelsen (@JohnRSamuelsen) October 27, 2024

!khive Love it when Momala chills and relaxes with the natives. Trump can never bring this much joy to the people!

!nonchuds !khive Hope Obama is returning the favor

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Devi Harris, a Barack Obama [Images] campaign insider, who also serves on influential policy making committees of the Democratic National Committee and was one of the headliners of the only Indian-American event at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, said her grandmother in Chennai who scrupulously follows the campaign, had told her when she spoke to her on the phone before she left for the convention in Denver, "You let them know I am going to the temple everyday and praying for Barack Obama."

"It's very exciting and certainly my grandmother and our family members, not only in India, but in this country are all very excited about the future of our country," she said.

Harris, also an appointed at-large delegate from California to the convention, said, "I was very proud to be one of the first elected in California to endorse Barack Obama. I supported him for the US Senate and he supported me in my race to become the first Indian-American district attorney in the country."

"And, I can tell you that I know very well of his commitment to doing good in terms of his leadership of this country, and in particular, to the very important aspect of a good democracy, which is coalition-building."

"Barack was recently in San Francisco at a Indian-American (fund-raising) reception we hosted for him and he proudly declared to the crowd his status as a desi and talked about the need to have an Administration in Washington, DC, and the White House that understands the plight of immigrants coming into the country -- the need to have an administration and policies that reflect good immigration policies and also that look to leadership in terms of having a good relationship with our international neighbours," Harris recalled.

"I think Indian-Americans can be very proud of our support of Barack Obama and electing the next president of the United States, who again by his own admission will be a desi," she added.

At the August 17 fund-raiser, Obama said, "Not only do I think I'm a desi, but I'm a desi," and added, "I'm a homeboy," and recounted that when he attend Occidental College his first roommate was a Pakistani and said to laughter, "in the dorm, Indians and Pakistanis came together under one roof... to cause havoc in the university."

To much applause, he also said how in interacting with his South Asian friends he had become an expert in cooking dal and other subcontinental delicacies although "somebody else made the naan."

"Those are friendships have lasted me for years and continue until this day," Obama said, and declared, "I have an enormous personal affection for the people of South Asia."

Preeta Bansal, former New York solicitor general and currently a partner with the international law firm of Skadden Arps, who is a senior advisor to the Obama campaign and was the other headliner, declared to the packed audience in the ballroom of the Denver Athletic Club, "I really think that Barack's story is our story and his candidacy is an especially extraordinary milestone and a catalyst for our community."

An at-large appointed delegate from New York to the convention, Bansal said that Obama's first book Dreams From My Father was one she believed "almost every Indian-American kid growing up in this country who reads that book has unbelievable moments and glimmers of recognition -- his struggle for an identity, his struggle for values, his struggle for finding his place in society."

"His America represents what all of us would hope and want our America to be," she said.

"In terms of the campaign and its impact on our community, what I have been so excited about working with so many of us like Ann Kalayil and Subodh Chandra -- and so many of us who've been involved in his campaign from the very beginning -- what's been extraordinary about this campaign is they have looked to our community, not simply for our pocketbooks," Bansal said.

"They didn't ask us to open our wallets, they asked us to open our minds and our hearts," she said. "So, they really looked at us as a full community -- one that has policy ideals, one that has grassroots involvement and engagement and I think in this campaign is really the first time our community has married all the three levers of influence."

Bansal described these as "policy thought leadership, grassroots and ground-up involvement and financial strength," and pointed out that in the South Asians for Obama co-founded by Hrishi Karthikeyan and Devendra 'Dave' Kumar, "we have an incredible grassroots movement. We have probably one of the earliest and best organised efforts within the campaign in terms of mobilising you."

Bansal also said the community "has a very strong finance committee and we have good fundraising at the moment and then we have key people throughout this campaign in positions of policymaking."

"It is an extraordinary opportunity for our community. At the end of the day what's so exciting about Barack Obama is that he is someone who is rooted in his identity, but he is not confined by it and that's something that we all as a community strives to be -- people who are rooted in our origins as Indian-Americans, but people who are not confined by it," Bansal asserted.

PLEASE KAM KAM 🥵🙏

(i will get better at these honest, i just am not used to photoshopping my bad!)

!nonchuds !khive rules for thee but not for me

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk --- the world's wealthiest man --- has come out harshly against undocumented immigrants since becoming one of former President Donald Trump's biggest donors and campaign surrogates. But a new report reveals that he launched his career in the United States without legal status.

The Washington Post is now reporting that Musk was illegally staying in the U.S. on a student visa despite dropping out of school. While Musk, who is from South Africa, emigrated to attend Stanford University, he called his department chair shortly after the fall 1995 semester began to inform him that he wouldn't be attending classes.

At that point, Musk was legally obligated to leave the United States, according to the Post. But instead, he illegally overstayed his visa while building his first company, Zip2 (originally called the Global Link Information Network).

Eventually, venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures made a $3 million investment into Zip2 in 1996. Upon learning that both Musk and his brother, Kimbal, didn't have legal status to be in the United States, the funding agreement included a clause that stipulated Mohr could claw back its investment if the two didn't obtain a legal work visa within 45 days.

"Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.," Zip2 board member Derek Proudian told the paper. "We don't want our founder being deported."

Because U.S. immigration records aren't public, determining when Musk's immigration status changed is difficult to ascertain. However, the Post cited two different biographers who wrote that Mohr ultimately arranged for an attorney to line up visas for both Elon and Kimbal Musk in 1996. This means both he and his brother were technically illegal immigrants for the better part of a year. This is particularly noteworthy, as Elon Musk has used his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to regularly launch attacks against and spread disinformation about undocumented immigrants.

"*llegals in America can get bank loans, mortgages, insurance, driver's licenses, free healthcare (California & New York) and in-state college tuition," Musk tweeted in February. "What's the point of being a citizen if an illegal gets all the benefits, but doesn't pay taxes or do jury duty?"

The Post's reported that Musk's colleagues confirmed that he drove a car during the period in which he was in the United States illegally, meaning he would have needed both a driver's license and auto insurance in order to do so. The report also confirms what Kimbal Musk said in a 2013 interview, when saying that he and his brother "were illegal immigrants" when their company landed the $3 million investment from Mohr. Elon didn't use that exact phrasing, but rather said that their status "was a grey area."

Despite making a promise in March to refrain from endorsing a presidential candidate, Elon Musk has not only appeared onstage with Trump, but is now his second-biggest campaign donor. Forbes reported earlier this week that Musk has donated roughly $118 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. His largesse is outpaced only by Timothy Mellon, who had given $150 million to the former president's 2024 bid for the White House.

Unlike Donald Trump, I grew up in a middle class neighborhood with a working mother who kept a strict budget and made sure our family had all that we needed.

I will never forget where I come from—and I will always put the middle class first.pic.twitter.com/mI1r82k66S

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 25, 2024

VOTE VOTE VOTE !khive !nonchuds

!khive !nonchuds

KAMALA: "We will work together, and continue to work together, to address these issues, to tackle these challenges, and to work together as we continue to work operating from the new norms, rules, and agreements, that we will convene to work together. We will work together."

🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/VpxHw1odnA

— Cillian (@CilComLFC) October 24, 2024

!nonchuds !khive vote this fool out

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump unleashed a series of personal attacks at Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her "lazy" — a word long used to demean Black people in racist terms — and repeatedly questioning her intelligence and stamina.

At an event Tuesday in Miami aimed at courting Latinx voters, Trump said he said Harris was "lazy as heck" for not holding a campaign event. Trump's comments ignored that Harris spent her day in meetings in Washington and recording interviews with Telemundo and NBC. He referred to the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket as "slow" and having a "low IQ."

Later in the day during a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, he called Harris a "stupid person" and went on to ask: "Does she drink? Is she on drugs?"

Tuesday marked the first day in more than two weeks that Harris had no public events scheduled after a run of more than 14 consecutive days of travel to political events in pivotal states, including a three-state run on Monday, starting in Pennsylvania, continuing to Michigan and ending in Wisconsin.

Yet Trump signaled he will lean harder into disparaging Harris during the remaining two weeks before Election Day, despite the urging of allies who have repeatedly suggested he should steer clear of personal attacks including references to her race and gender.

He, however, implied that Harris, a onetime California attorney general and U.S. senator, became the Democratic nominee because of her race and gender.

"She's running because they want to be politically correct," Trump said.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said the former president's criticisms had "nothing to do with her race or gender."

"It's simply because she has no respect for the American people and takes voters for granted," Cheung said in a statement Wednesday.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the "lazy" comment. However, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for Harris, noted that Trump canceled a Tuesday afternoon town hall with allies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard before his evening rally in North Carolina.

"Donald Trump continuing his recent trend of canceling campaign events... With just two weeks to go...," wrote Sams on X. "Granted, this one seemed like a real peach, so don't blame them for wanting to call it off!"

The former president has questioned the work ethic of various opponents throughout his career. He accused President Joe Biden in 2020 of campaigning from his basement, even as Trump continued to hold large events during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2016 routinely called Democrat Hillary Clinton physically weak and low-energy. He also accused both of being under the influence of drugs.

Trump has also engaged in questioning people's racial backgrounds — including Harris' — and racial dog whistles and overtly racist rhetoric have been fixtures of Trump's public life.

The federal government sued Trump for allegedly discriminating against Black apartment seekers in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Trump purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty after five Black and Latinx teenagers, known then as the Central Park Five, were accused of raping and beating a white woman jogger in New York City. The five said they confessed to the crimes under duress, later recanted, and pleaded not guilty in court. They were convicted after jury trials, but the convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.

Recently, the men, now known as the Exonerated Five, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Trump. They accused Trump of making "false and defamatory statements" against them in his debate with Harris last month in which Trump wrongly stated that the victim was killed and that the wrongly accused suspects had pleaded guilty.

Using the term "lazy" to describe Harris, who is Black and of South Asian descent, evokes tropes that paint Black Americans as lazy, unsophisticated, submissive or inept.

Such stereotypes have been pervasive throughout American history. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the stereotypes had a purpose and "were used to help commodify black bodies and justify the business of slavery."

"Yet laziness, as well as characteristics of submissiveness, backwardness, lewdness, treachery, and dishonesty, historically became stereotypes assigned to African Americans," the institution found.

In several of his personal attacks on Harris, including the reference to drinking, Trump appeared to be referencing falsehoods or unsubstantiated claims spreading online in far-right circles. Trump has repeatedly amplified debunked or unproven claims, perhaps most notably when he claimed during his debate with Harris that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating dogs and cats. Officials in Springfield have said the claims are not true.

Trump has also associated with people who spread conspiracy theories, including right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who traveled with him to the presidential debate and several 9/11 memorial events. He declined at a press conference last month to denounce Loomer, saying she's "been a supporter of mine."

Kamala Harris: "I may not have the answer as soon as you ask it about a specific policy sometimes because I'm gonna want to research it...I'm kind of a nerd sometimes ha ha ha ha ha! I confess!" pic.twitter.com/Rsa7zRQJvn

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 24, 2024

She's gonna build the wall too!

Dunks on Trump for kittying out on appearing at the Town Hall

Her mistake is working too hard for us

!nonchuds !khive

So what? Trumptards were not going to change their minds