Musk on X with a poll on liberating GB

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 5 minutes ago
Shades of grey. It may just be the steady decline of standards but it feels like it was accelerated under Blair and it has been a decline since. Johnson may also have accelerated that but you could argue that Sunak slowed any trend somewhat? Starmer is only just started so let's come back later but his record breaking polling reversal and popularity ratings thus far I think say it all.

--------------------------------------------------

The fact that he's unpopular doesn't say anything at all about him being dishonest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I repeat - shades of grey. The gratuitous policy reversals are indeed the biggest lies of all because they affect daily lives. Oh sure, they'll bleat about black holes as some sort of justification for their change in morals but the electorate have decided - short-term at least. As a footnote I'd like whoever invented the phrase mis-truth to suffer terrible misfortune.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 57 minutes ago
Shades of grey. It may just be the steady decline of standards but it feels like it was accelerated under Blair and it has been a decline since. Johnson may also have accelerated that but you could argue that Sunak slowed any trend somewhat? Starmer is only just started so let's come back later but his record breaking polling reversal and popularity ratings thus far I think say it all.

--------------------------------------------------

The fact that he's unpopular doesn't say anything at all about him being dishonest. I'd agree that Blair's government took spin to another level, but you would never get Blair telling bare faced lies, misleading parliament on factual questions, or promoting grubby rumours about rivals that would have been an open and shut case of defamation were he not protected by parliamentary privilege. I thought Cameron and May were pretty slippery and dishonest about the implications of their policies when selling them to the public, but there's also a qualitative difference between what they and Blair did at their worst and what Johnson (and Badenoch) have normalised. There's an important difference between stretching the truth and utterly doing away with it. It opens up a pathway to really dark political outcomes when a leader can say anything with utter disregard for reality and pay no price for it.

From that point of view, it seems to me that the main thing is that the media landscape has changed, not that politicians have grown worse. Fewer and fewer people primarily consume information sources that are scrupulously evidence based, either because they are on social media more or because newspapers have become more propagandistic (e.g. the Telegraph used to be far more rigorous and objective and ready to criticise its own side) and mainstream broadcasters struggle to call a lie a lie because it looks as though they are taking sides.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
WMD in Iraq. Wasn't that Blair?
He was the end of the Labour Party.
Tory lite.

Iraq was of course one monstrous lie on Blair's part, and most of the Left hasn't forgiven him for that. Lying in a shameless way wasn't a general MO for Blair as it is for Johnson - and I think that's an important distinction in terms of understanding the political moment we are living in today.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 44 minutes ago
Iraq was of course one monstrous lie on Blair's part, and most of the Left hasn't forgiven him for that. Lying in a shameless way wasn't a general MO for Blair as it is for Johnson - and I think that's an important distinction in terms of understanding the political moment we are living in today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
However, as lies go it was a whopper!

Indeed

More on Facebook ending fact-checking: Trump says it's probably due to his threats to jail Zuckerberg. And these comments won't be major news on any big platforms. What an incredibly dark place we're in.

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1876683641113248036?s=19

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
More on Facebook ending fact-checking: Trump says it's probably due to his threats to jail Zuckerberg. And these comments won't be major news on any big platforms. What an incredibly dark place we're in.

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1876683641113248036?s=19
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aren't SLAPP lawsuits illegal in US?

comment by son of quebec (U8127)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
More on Facebook ending fact-checking: Trump says it's probably due to his threats to jail Zuckerberg. And these comments won't be major news on any big platforms. What an incredibly dark place we're in.

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1876683641113248036?s=19
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aren't SLAPP lawsuits illegal in US?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No. Some states have anti-SLAPP laws. Sorry. Misremembered.

comment by son of quebec (U8127)
posted 15 hours, 10 minutes ago
comment by son of quebec (U8127)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
More on Facebook ending fact-checking: Trump says it's probably due to his threats to jail Zuckerberg. And these comments won't be major news on any big platforms. What an incredibly dark place we're in.

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1876683641113248036?s=19
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aren't SLAPP lawsuits illegal in US?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No. Some states have anti-SLAPP laws. Sorry. Misremembered.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously, not California as Chris Rock will testify

comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 11 minutes ago
comment by son of quebec (U8127)
posted 15 hours, 10 minutes ago
comment by son of quebec (U8127)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
More on Facebook ending fact-checking: Trump says it's probably due to his threats to jail Zuckerberg. And these comments won't be major news on any big platforms. What an incredibly dark place we're in.

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1876683641113248036?s=19
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aren't SLAPP lawsuits illegal in US?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No. Some states have anti-SLAPP laws. Sorry. Misremembered.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously, not California as Chris Rock will testify
----------------------------------------------------------------------
https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExcXdmZTE4cjNydDkzZDUxOHMyeGEwM2R6MGYzdjVlYmNvdmFiM24zeCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/qe0NFSnGCndhM40UbF/giphy.gif