4 ms·

"there’s one set of COVID rules for the rich and the protesters, and another set for religious groups and “normal” people" I feel like comparing the anti-lockd

"there’s one set of COVID rules for the rich and the protesters, and another set for religious groups and “normal” people" I feel like comparing the anti-lockdown protests with BLM is a talking point that was distributed from some central source, because all of a sudden a whole bunch of people popped up and started hammering away at it, including on HN. It raises all sorts of questions, none of which are answered by yet another article pretending it's a compelling original thought people need to be informed of. I personally am not 100% sure it's Russian propaganda, but it's blatantly someone's manipulative party line, and it makes a paranoid person wonder what influence the source has with any of the protesters, right or left.

hedora 6y ago
I see your point (and don’t disagree that BLM isn’t the same as anti-lockdown protesting), but the article cites egregious examples on both sides. One example is rich folk flying around the world to second houses because they’re annoyed with their spouses. Another example involved people being banned from small religious ceremonies (like funerals, probably, though I only skimmed it), and then not being able to protest about losing their right to religious assembly. Contrast this to Fox News, which hasn’t been deplatformed, but falsified photographic evidence against the CHAZ BLM people, and then ran headline stories about events that didn’t happen. Again, I’m not seeing why ZeroHedge got the ban hammer when most right wing sites are much, much worse.
- tathougies 6y ago
  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cbs-news-italian-hospital/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cbs-news-italian-hospital/ Are we going to now deplatform every news outlet that publishes false images? Let's start there. But seriously, this is ridiculous. News media makes mistakes
r29vzg2 6y ago
You’re implying that people can’t come up with that conclusion on their own? Why does it have to be a central source, and not just people realizing it themselves?
zaroth 6y ago
I think it’s more likely that the claim of “Russian propaganda” is itself a form of propaganda. It’s like the new boogeyman of 2019/2020. I worry that people tend to use such a device to shut down discussions on a “reasonably well researched” article which espouses a widely held viewpoint that they might not agree with. Most people were told they weren’t allowed to hold funerals for their loved ones, but thousands of people can protest together. The rules are undeniably slanted in their application based on politics. I think the tipping point was the open letter from healthcare professionals claiming that BLM should be exempt from social distancing rules that shut down the economy and put 40 million people out of work. Another recent article on ZH showed a video taken in a predominantly Hasidic Jewish area of Brooklyn of city workers literally welding the gates shut at a park, in the same weekend that massive protests for BLM were being held. They mentioned in the same piece I believe that NYC has ordered contact tracers not to ask residents if they had attended a protest. The first amendment protects freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. The State here is picking favorites. It doesn’t take a “Russian troll” to tell you that.
philwelch 6y ago
It’s an obvious point to make, and most people who hear and agree with a certain point will reuse it themselves later on. Besides, knowing Russia’s m.o., they’re probably promoting both sides at once to sow division.
crocodiletears 6y ago
I haven't participated in either, but I support both. I don't think that the lockdowns and systemic police violence are especially comparable in terms of severity, but it's been infuriating watching the very people in my network that were mocking the 'dumb rednecks trying to kill themselves and everyone in their community over a haircut', and making a scene of complaining that three people at the supermarket weren't wearing ppe turn around and fanatically support some of the least controlled mass gatherings in recent memory. It's not a centrally distributed talking point, it's a readily perceived point of contrast which any casual observer could make, even if it's somewhat tacky and ill-advised so far as rhetorical gotcha's go. A counterargument would say that concerns of government overreach and economic damage weren't worth the risk that accompanied their expression. I'd argue that getting any significant number of libertarians and conservatives out on the streets to demonstrate is exceptional enough an occurrence that clearly they'd beg to differ.
ajzinsbwbs 6y ago
I saw, on Twitter, a “before-after” compendium showing how some of the same users posted tweets in support of the anti-lockdown protests, sometimes saying the virus is a hoax or whatever, then later tweeted that the BLM protests were going to spread the virus. My point is that there’s a lot of very obvious opportunities to find hypocrisy here, given two protest movements from opposing sides capturing the nation’s attention and occurring in short order during a time of social distancing and lockdown. It would be shocking if the internet wasn’t full of people talking about this. It’s thick grist for commentators of all stripes.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

hedora 6y ago

I see your point (and don’t disagree that BLM isn’t the same as anti-lockdown protesting), but the article cites egregious examples on both sides. One example is rich folk flying around the world to second houses because they’re annoyed with their spouses. Another example involved people being banned from small religious ceremonies (like funerals, probably, though I only skimmed it), and then not being able to protest about losing their right to religious assembly. Contrast this to Fox News, which hasn’t been deplatformed, but falsified photographic evidence against the CHAZ BLM people, and then ran headline stories about events that didn’t happen. Again, I’m not seeing why ZeroHedge got the ban hammer when most right wing sites are much, much worse.

tathougies 6y ago
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cbs-news-italian-hospital/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cbs-news-italian-hospital/ Are we going to now deplatform every news outlet that publishes false images? Let's start there. But seriously, this is ridiculous. News media makes mistakes

r29vzg2 6y ago

You’re implying that people can’t come up with that conclusion on their own? Why does it have to be a central source, and not just people realizing it themselves?

zaroth 6y ago

I think it’s more likely that the claim of “Russian propaganda” is itself a form of propaganda. It’s like the new boogeyman of 2019/2020. I worry that people tend to use such a device to shut down discussions on a “reasonably well researched” article which espouses a widely held viewpoint that they might not agree with. Most people were told they weren’t allowed to hold funerals for their loved ones, but thousands of people can protest together. The rules are undeniably slanted in their application based on politics. I think the tipping point was the open letter from healthcare professionals claiming that BLM should be exempt from social distancing rules that shut down the economy and put 40 million people out of work. Another recent article on ZH showed a video taken in a predominantly Hasidic Jewish area of Brooklyn of city workers literally welding the gates shut at a park, in the same weekend that massive protests for BLM were being held. They mentioned in the same piece I believe that NYC has ordered contact tracers not to ask residents if they had attended a protest. The first amendment protects freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. The State here is picking favorites. It doesn’t take a “Russian troll” to tell you that.

philwelch 6y ago

It’s an obvious point to make, and most people who hear and agree with a certain point will reuse it themselves later on. Besides, knowing Russia’s m.o., they’re probably promoting both sides at once to sow division.

crocodiletears 6y ago

I haven't participated in either, but I support both. I don't think that the lockdowns and systemic police violence are especially comparable in terms of severity, but it's been infuriating watching the very people in my network that were mocking the 'dumb rednecks trying to kill themselves and everyone in their community over a haircut', and making a scene of complaining that three people at the supermarket weren't wearing ppe turn around and fanatically support some of the least controlled mass gatherings in recent memory. It's not a centrally distributed talking point, it's a readily perceived point of contrast which any casual observer could make, even if it's somewhat tacky and ill-advised so far as rhetorical gotcha's go. A counterargument would say that concerns of government overreach and economic damage weren't worth the risk that accompanied their expression. I'd argue that getting any significant number of libertarians and conservatives out on the streets to demonstrate is exceptional enough an occurrence that clearly they'd beg to differ.

ajzinsbwbs 6y ago

I saw, on Twitter, a “before-after” compendium showing how some of the same users posted tweets in support of the anti-lockdown protests, sometimes saying the virus is a hoax or whatever, then later tweeted that the BLM protests were going to spread the virus. My point is that there’s a lot of very obvious opportunities to find hypocrisy here, given two protest movements from opposing sides capturing the nation’s attention and occurring in short order during a time of social distancing and lockdown. It would be shocking if the internet wasn’t full of people talking about this. It’s thick grist for commentators of all stripes.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]