6 ms·

Assembling a mob is almost always a bad idea as it tends to get out of control. What’s notable about the Capitol riot is that it was a rare instance of Republic

by Tycho 6y ago

Assembling a mob is almost always a bad idea as it tends to get out of control. What’s notable about the Capitol riot is that it was a rare instance of Republicans doing this. The only other instance that springs to mind is “Charlottesville”, which of course the media talked about for years afterwards. Meanwhile, “the left” formed mobs all summer - in city centres, outside police precincts, outside the White House, etc. When “the left” does QAnon it’s called the Mueller Investigation and the Rachel Maddow Show and it’s broadly embraced rather than limited to a bunch of cooks on social media.

hooande 6y ago
So one side believes that rich people secretly get together to eat babies, and the other side has a news opinion show? Yup, same thing.
- Tycho 6y ago
  I think probably <0.1% of R voters think rich people secretly eat babies, and it was certainly never an idea entertained on cable news. Whereas there was practically non-stop media focus on the Russian collusion conspiracy theory and I think probably half of Democrats thought it was actually true.
  - cozuya 6y ago
    30% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of QANON, which explicitly says high ranking Democratic Party leaders drink the blood of babies/are pedos/etc. https://www.businessinsider.com/30-of-republicans-have-favorable-view-of-qanon-conspiracy-theory-poll-2021-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/30-of-republicans-have-favor... What is your non whataboutism response to that?
    - subjectsigma 6y ago
      I think that poll is likely bullshit. Only 1500 people participated which is basically nothing. How can that possibly be representative of a country of ~300mil? The questions say "Have you heard of Qanon?" and "Do you like Qanon?", but doesn't clarify what Qanon is... For all we know those 30% of people polled heard "Qanon is a movement against the Democrats" and thought, "Oh, I like that." They did not sign up for 'satan worshipping pedos'. Without seeing their methodology, there's no reason to believe the information is accurate. How did they confirm people submitting answers were really who they say they are? And YouGov is a British company which I've never heard of, not a criticism but it does make me suspicious. There's so many problems with surveys like this, but instead you jumped immediately from "Business Insider said this" -> "30% of Republicans are conspiracy theorists."
      - cozuya 6y ago
        OK, lets say you're right. Lets say less than 30% of Republicans are conspiracy theorists who think that prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton are secret pedophiles who should be murdered. What is the acceptable percentage of Republicans that think Hillary Clinton should be murdered? 25%? 10%? Because its certainly greater than 1%. Much greater. This is only the beginning.
        subjectsigma 6y ago
        I understand where you're coming from but this isn't a good argument. First, you're again jumping to conclusions about what people believe in order to straw man them - I've never heard anyone call for Hillary's murder, only her imprisonment. I still don't see that kind of thing as representative. Second, by this kind of logic, the Muslim ban was a great idea. While only an incredibly small percentage of them actually committed terrorist acts, what's the acceptable percentage of those who think that radical Shari'a is a good idea, even if they don't engage in violence? 25%? 10%? Look, here's another random unverified poll that says half of all British Muslims support illegalization of homosexuality: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-musl... Guess we should systematically discriminate against them! In both cases you are using stereotypes to hurt people. This is not to say Qanon people should be given a free pass, call them out on their bullshit. But I think the percentage would have to be nearly 100 in order to justify any extreme actions against Qanon. And it clearly isn't.
        cozuya 6y ago
        What are you talking about? Are you in the right thread? None of this makes sense in regards to my parent comments. Yikes. And I'm not engaging in your "Muslims are bad" whataboutism deflection. What extreme actions do you see me advocating for here? What stereotypes am I propagating? Weird stuff.
        subjectsigma 6y ago

by Tycho 6y ago

hooande 6y ago

So one side believes that rich people secretly get together to eat babies, and the other side has a news opinion show? Yup, same thing.

Tycho 6y ago
I think probably <0.1% of R voters think rich people secretly eat babies, and it was certainly never an idea entertained on cable news. Whereas there was practically non-stop media focus on the Russian collusion conspiracy theory and I think probably half of Democrats thought it was actually true.
- cozuya 6y ago
  30% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of QANON, which explicitly says high ranking Democratic Party leaders drink the blood of babies/are pedos/etc. https://www.businessinsider.com/30-of-republicans-have-favorable-view-of-qanon-conspiracy-theory-poll-2021-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/30-of-republicans-have-favor... What is your non whataboutism response to that?
  - subjectsigma 6y ago
    I think that poll is likely bullshit. Only 1500 people participated which is basically nothing. How can that possibly be representative of a country of ~300mil? The questions say "Have you heard of Qanon?" and "Do you like Qanon?", but doesn't clarify what Qanon is... For all we know those 30% of people polled heard "Qanon is a movement against the Democrats" and thought, "Oh, I like that." They did not sign up for 'satan worshipping pedos'. Without seeing their methodology, there's no reason to believe the information is accurate. How did they confirm people submitting answers were really who they say they are? And YouGov is a British company which I've never heard of, not a criticism but it does make me suspicious. There's so many problems with surveys like this, but instead you jumped immediately from "Business Insider said this" -> "30% of Republicans are conspiracy theorists."
    - cozuya 6y ago
      OK, lets say you're right. Lets say less than 30% of Republicans are conspiracy theorists who think that prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton are secret pedophiles who should be murdered. What is the acceptable percentage of Republicans that think Hillary Clinton should be murdered? 25%? 10%? Because its certainly greater than 1%. Much greater. This is only the beginning.
      - subjectsigma 6y ago
        I understand where you're coming from but this isn't a good argument. First, you're again jumping to conclusions about what people believe in order to straw man them - I've never heard anyone call for Hillary's murder, only her imprisonment. I still don't see that kind of thing as representative. Second, by this kind of logic, the Muslim ban was a great idea. While only an incredibly small percentage of them actually committed terrorist acts, what's the acceptable percentage of those who think that radical Shari'a is a good idea, even if they don't engage in violence? 25%? 10%? Look, here's another random unverified poll that says half of all British Muslims support illegalization of homosexuality: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-musl... Guess we should systematically discriminate against them! In both cases you are using stereotypes to hurt people. This is not to say Qanon people should be given a free pass, call them out on their bullshit. But I think the percentage would have to be nearly 100 in order to justify any extreme actions against Qanon. And it clearly isn't.
        cozuya 6y ago
        What are you talking about? Are you in the right thread? None of this makes sense in regards to my parent comments. Yikes. And I'm not engaging in your "Muslims are bad" whataboutism deflection. What extreme actions do you see me advocating for here? What stereotypes am I propagating? Weird stuff.
        subjectsigma 6y ago