A detailed look at the current wave of right wing propaganda against the lgbtq community that has arisen over the last several years how it fits into a broader history of anti lgbt activism and...
A detailed look at the current wave of right wing propaganda against the lgbtq community that has arisen over the last several years how it fits into a broader history of anti lgbt activism and the truth behind the claims the right likes to make.
I highly encourage this as a watch even if some of it is information you already know, and urge you to share to anyone you think is receptive to this message.
This rhetoric is dangerous.
This rhetoric is a crisis.
It must not be ignored. It must pushed back against.
Thanks for posting this. Unfortunately, I don't watch videos, but I'm quite interested in what it has to say, particularly with regards to "how it fits into a broader history of anti lgbt...
Thanks for posting this. Unfortunately, I don't watch videos, but I'm quite interested in what it has to say, particularly with regards to "how it fits into a broader history of anti lgbt activism."
One thing to remember is that the right knows what they say are lies. Unfortunately, this means educating them with the truth is not going to help-- they know the truth. But they need a scapegoat, and trans people are taking the brunt of it (obviously other LGBT+ people are getting attacked as well, but as an outsider looking in I think it does a disservice to trans people to not share they observation that the right-wing is particularly ruthless against people who are trans).
The implications are chilling, and I wish I knew how to stop the propaganda and hatred that is spewed everywhere. I agree that we cannot ignore it and that we must push against it, but on a practical level it's much harder to know what specifically we should do.
One thing I try to do is to appeal to the empathy of people I know who lean right (the ones who demonstrate they have empathy, at least-- unfortunately I think some people are lost causes). I exist in some Jewish spaces, and while most of us (like 70-80% of us) lean left, the Orthodox as a whole are very conservative, are pro-Trump, and are anti-LGBT+. However, I live in an Orthodox neighborhood, and I know that many of these individuals have a higher than average ability to sniff out bullshit. Unfortunately, many of these people only put on their bullshit sniffing hats when they hear the words "the Jews" and walk around blissfully unaware of the other forms of hatred and propaganda that pervades American lives.
The Orthodox are very much are not pro-LGBT+, but they are, for obvious reasons, quite sensitive to the act of scapegoating groups of people. I don't think we can get them full-on supporting democrats, but I do think they have the capacity to realize that republican values do not align with theirs as much as they think they do.
I get that it's only one very specific, tiny demographic, but making in-roads with anyone is a huge win, particularly in this day and age of extreme polarization. I encourage anyone who frequents any conservative circles to try to chip away at their blind allegiance to the republican party. Most people are good people underneath, and it's important to remember that if they are able to open their eyes, they may see the danger that is today's republican party. In my experience, though, you have to be gentle when trying to win people over. The moment you approach it as if they are the "enemy" (which is how most leftists online approach it) you've lost them. However, if they realize you're their friend and that you care about them and trust in their ability to think for themselves (this trust is hard to have, but the journey back to reality can only be taken by the individual and at most guided by a friend/family-member-- if you push them too hard and try to tell them what to think they'll shut down), then you can win them over.
Using this approach, I've known a few voting republicans to shift to being non-voters, which is a positive sign. It's a tough shell to crack, but if you have some faith in people (I know much of that faith has been lost), then you can make a dent.
I haven't completely figured out what has happened to society since 2015. I know the republican leaders are actually evil. They know they are lying, they know that they are destroying society, but...
I haven't completely figured out what has happened to society since 2015.
I know the republican leaders are actually evil. They know they are lying, they know that they are destroying society, but they are doing it for money and power. They know that they are promoting conspiracy theories that cause death. They know that they are promoting the destruction of the environment. They know that they are supporting traitors and seditionists.
I know the right wing TV and radio hosts are the same. Hannity, Tucker, Shapiro, Dennis Prager - these are actually evil and cynical people.
Typical republican voters... I know a lot of them. They aren't evil as far as I know. They are just fearful and programmed. They are usually authoritarian followers who were trained since birth to follow a certain team and consider outsiders as subhuman. They are mostly quite selfish, so they don't care much which happens to marginalized groups. And they somehow don't make the connection between what Jesus says when they are in church on Sunday, and the completely opposite things that are screamed at them by millionaires on Fox News that evening. By the way, they will usually treat marginalized groups a little better if someone close to them is in the group. So they don't exactly lack empathy (as long as they can picture the marginalized person), but they usually lack compassion.
I used to listen to a lot of conservative talk radio and I was quite worried about the fragility of society, and how the "left" was going to cause things to fall apart. But once I stopped listening to that droning propaganda, I realized that the collapse of society would be led by the greedy and cynical people on the right, who are willing to trade the entire planet for a bit of wealth and power.
There was Trump. It was known for a long term that right-leaning voters would be attracted by an anti-immigration candidate but they were never given that choice because elite opinion is unanimous...
There was Trump.
It was known for a long term that right-leaning voters would be attracted by an anti-immigration candidate but they were never given that choice because elite opinion is unanimous that immigration is good for the economy. (The headquarters of the local Republican party in my town for a few elections was a horse barn that was (a) a chronically failing business, (b) a notoriously bad employer, and (c) notorious for hiring immigrants without green cards.)
Note quite a few Republican politicians such as Mitt Romney (archdeacon of a church, if a strange church) and Mike Pence really are religious whereas Trump is as profane as anyone gets. If the religious right elected someone who shared their values that person could make excuses for not banning abortion along the lines of “the opposition is too strong”, Trump really had to deliver specific results so that they could believe that God was working through him in some mysterious way.
At this point there is a cult of personality around Trump, it is all about Trump being persecuted by his enemies now, at this point Trump doesn’t have to claim to represent any element of society except for himself.
At some point Trump is going to leave the scene either through death or some events that make him irrelevant but until then he’s going to be a powerful distorting force. Ron DeSantis and other republicans have to find issues and grievances that connect to voters but Trump is the seat of his own grievances which has so many advantages operationally. I think how CNN legitimized Trump as a candidate by playing up the story of their own personal conflict with Trump because it would keep viewers glued to the set without having to get off their ass and leave Atlanta and fly somewhere coach in order to do some real reporting…. And getting on a Zoom call with a politician in WDC or a “military analyst” who probably isn’t wearing any pants these days doesn’t count.
———
That said, I see many trends on the “left” these days that I find disturbing in their own way. On Mastodon I see a lot of dehumanization of opponents by people who are quick to call anyone they don’t like a “nazi” or a “fascist” (sci-fi writer Charlie Stross, for instance, said that Keith Starmer, leader of the UK labor party and lawyer for the defense in the McLibel case was borderline fascist…. I don’t even say that about the people in the trailer across the street who have a bunch of flags and banners that look like the concert in The Wall), who borrow from Hitler’s playbook in using other dehumanizing language for their opponents such as likening them to animals, insects and such, use terms like “racism” and “homophobia” as part of thought stopping cliches, etc.
There are a lot of nice people on Mastodon but also angry people or just people who are the host of selfish memes, so often the most boosted things are meme images that say things like “PRIDE MONTH: A TIME FOR HOMOPHOBES TO BE REALLY PISSED” or “WE’LL KEEP MAKING UP NEW GENDERS AS LONG AS YOU KEEP COMPLAINING”. An activist could have many goals such as better material conditions, acceptance, feeling “safe”, etc. It is up to them, not me, to decide what they want. If their goal is to piss people off, however, they’ll probably succeed.
I can't say I disagree with anything you said. I've been left-wing my whole life and most people I know (including Christians) are as well, so to be honest I don't have a great frame of reference...
I can't say I disagree with anything you said. I've been left-wing my whole life and most people I know (including Christians) are as well, so to be honest I don't have a great frame of reference for where they're coming from. Most Republicans that I know (since 2015) are Jewish, hence the post, but I've yet to meet a Republican in real life who didn't have some level of empathy for other people.
As far as the leaders are concerned, I see strong similarities between them and Nazi Germany, and the more I learn about Nazi Germany, the scarier the parallels become.
For many/most USA Christians (especially evangelicals), the rot is inside the Church/Jesus as well. They aren't really hearing opposite things.
And they somehow don't make the connection between what Jesus says when they are in church on Sunday, and the completely opposite things that are screamed at them by millionaires on Fox News that evening.
For many/most USA Christians (especially evangelicals), the rot is inside the Church/Jesus as well. They aren't really hearing opposite things.
Totally offtopic, but can I ask an honest question; What is the appeal of Some More News? They clearly align with my own political leanings, I agree with most of their video premises/messages, and...
Totally offtopic, but can I ask an honest question; What is the appeal of Some More News? They clearly align with my own political leanings, I agree with most of their video premises/messages, and they are clearly allies... but I also find them to be really really annoying. The presentation style is so over the top, cringey, and hyperbolic that they feel like Fox News but in reverse (maybe that's the point?). So despite repeated attempts to watch their videos, I usually can't make it past the first few minutes. And the odd time that I have gotten past the intro sections, I haven't ever enjoyed the rest of the video despite mostly agreeing with the content, since all they do is make me feel awful about the state of the world (USA specifically in most cases) and powerless to do anything. Which makes watching them almost feel like an exercise in masochism. :(
the general impression I get of their videos is they're trying to target a younger demographic, to provide a left-wing counterpoint to right-wing YouTube sources like PragerU (from Jan 2020:...
the general impression I get of their videos is they're trying to target a younger demographic, to provide a left-wing counterpoint to right-wing YouTube sources like PragerU
I watch them in spite of their sense of humor. I watch them because they are very good at breaking down problems to better understand why they are happening and they provide sources so I can look...
I watch them in spite of their sense of humor.
I watch them because they are very good at breaking down problems to better understand why they are happening and they provide sources so I can look into the details if I need to.
This is the big value. Someone needs to spend the time to dig through claims and debunk them. Looking up studies is easy but sometimes tracking down the real context behind blatant lies is harder....
This is the big value.
Someone needs to spend the time to dig through claims and debunk them. Looking up studies is easy but sometimes tracking down the real context behind blatant lies is harder. Often times a real video will be posted but it will be lied about, and it's it's hard to track down those truths for people who don't literally do it for a job.
I really struggle with cringey humor. It makes me super uncomfortable. I can't even watch The Office because of that. But next time SMN covers a topic I am actually interested in, I will try...
I really struggle with cringey humor. It makes me super uncomfortable. I can't even watch The Office because of that. But next time SMN covers a topic I am actually interested in, I will try taking a look at their sources document instead of watching the video. I didn't realize they provided their sources like that. So thanks for pointing that out.
I watch it sometimes because some pretty good arguments are made. But I agree with you, most of the humor is not actually funny and it would be better to just play it straight. I had the same...
I watch it sometimes because some pretty good arguments are made. But I agree with you, most of the humor is not actually funny and it would be better to just play it straight. I had the same problem with RedLetterMedia, which has some insightful content but sometimes present it in the character of Mr Plinkett who is a very unfunny serial killer.
The other problem with Some More News is that the episodes are just too long. The typical episode is longer than an hour. I think stripping out the cringey humor could cut them in half. I don't need "YouTube Shorts", but maybe 20 or 30 minutes would be fine.
Thank you for mentioning that RLM character, I cannot fucking stand him either lol Back on topic though, Some More News would benefit a lot from dialing it down a bit, running a comb through his...
Thank you for mentioning that RLM character, I cannot fucking stand him either lol
Back on topic though, Some More News would benefit a lot from dialing it down a bit, running a comb through his hair, and wearing clothes that actually fit... I agree with almost everything he says too, by the way. Maybe I am just too old because he just annoys me and I can't watch it - the content also seems to appeal to the "outrage" genre which I also detest
A detailed look at the current wave of right wing propaganda against the lgbtq community that has arisen over the last several years how it fits into a broader history of anti lgbt activism and the truth behind the claims the right likes to make.
I highly encourage this as a watch even if some of it is information you already know, and urge you to share to anyone you think is receptive to this message.
This rhetoric is dangerous.
This rhetoric is a crisis.
It must not be ignored. It must pushed back against.
Thanks for posting this. Unfortunately, I don't watch videos, but I'm quite interested in what it has to say, particularly with regards to "how it fits into a broader history of anti lgbt activism."
One thing to remember is that the right knows what they say are lies. Unfortunately, this means educating them with the truth is not going to help-- they know the truth. But they need a scapegoat, and trans people are taking the brunt of it (obviously other LGBT+ people are getting attacked as well, but as an outsider looking in I think it does a disservice to trans people to not share they observation that the right-wing is particularly ruthless against people who are trans).
The implications are chilling, and I wish I knew how to stop the propaganda and hatred that is spewed everywhere. I agree that we cannot ignore it and that we must push against it, but on a practical level it's much harder to know what specifically we should do.
One thing I try to do is to appeal to the empathy of people I know who lean right (the ones who demonstrate they have empathy, at least-- unfortunately I think some people are lost causes). I exist in some Jewish spaces, and while most of us (like 70-80% of us) lean left, the Orthodox as a whole are very conservative, are pro-Trump, and are anti-LGBT+. However, I live in an Orthodox neighborhood, and I know that many of these individuals have a higher than average ability to sniff out bullshit. Unfortunately, many of these people only put on their bullshit sniffing hats when they hear the words "the Jews" and walk around blissfully unaware of the other forms of hatred and propaganda that pervades American lives.
The Orthodox are very much are not pro-LGBT+, but they are, for obvious reasons, quite sensitive to the act of scapegoating groups of people. I don't think we can get them full-on supporting democrats, but I do think they have the capacity to realize that republican values do not align with theirs as much as they think they do.
I get that it's only one very specific, tiny demographic, but making in-roads with anyone is a huge win, particularly in this day and age of extreme polarization. I encourage anyone who frequents any conservative circles to try to chip away at their blind allegiance to the republican party. Most people are good people underneath, and it's important to remember that if they are able to open their eyes, they may see the danger that is today's republican party. In my experience, though, you have to be gentle when trying to win people over. The moment you approach it as if they are the "enemy" (which is how most leftists online approach it) you've lost them. However, if they realize you're their friend and that you care about them and trust in their ability to think for themselves (this trust is hard to have, but the journey back to reality can only be taken by the individual and at most guided by a friend/family-member-- if you push them too hard and try to tell them what to think they'll shut down), then you can win them over.
Using this approach, I've known a few voting republicans to shift to being non-voters, which is a positive sign. It's a tough shell to crack, but if you have some faith in people (I know much of that faith has been lost), then you can make a dent.
I haven't completely figured out what has happened to society since 2015.
I know the republican leaders are actually evil. They know they are lying, they know that they are destroying society, but they are doing it for money and power. They know that they are promoting conspiracy theories that cause death. They know that they are promoting the destruction of the environment. They know that they are supporting traitors and seditionists.
I know the right wing TV and radio hosts are the same. Hannity, Tucker, Shapiro, Dennis Prager - these are actually evil and cynical people.
Typical republican voters... I know a lot of them. They aren't evil as far as I know. They are just fearful and programmed. They are usually authoritarian followers who were trained since birth to follow a certain team and consider outsiders as subhuman. They are mostly quite selfish, so they don't care much which happens to marginalized groups. And they somehow don't make the connection between what Jesus says when they are in church on Sunday, and the completely opposite things that are screamed at them by millionaires on Fox News that evening. By the way, they will usually treat marginalized groups a little better if someone close to them is in the group. So they don't exactly lack empathy (as long as they can picture the marginalized person), but they usually lack compassion.
I used to listen to a lot of conservative talk radio and I was quite worried about the fragility of society, and how the "left" was going to cause things to fall apart. But once I stopped listening to that droning propaganda, I realized that the collapse of society would be led by the greedy and cynical people on the right, who are willing to trade the entire planet for a bit of wealth and power.
There was Trump.
It was known for a long term that right-leaning voters would be attracted by an anti-immigration candidate but they were never given that choice because elite opinion is unanimous that immigration is good for the economy. (The headquarters of the local Republican party in my town for a few elections was a horse barn that was (a) a chronically failing business, (b) a notoriously bad employer, and (c) notorious for hiring immigrants without green cards.)
Note quite a few Republican politicians such as Mitt Romney (archdeacon of a church, if a strange church) and Mike Pence really are religious whereas Trump is as profane as anyone gets. If the religious right elected someone who shared their values that person could make excuses for not banning abortion along the lines of “the opposition is too strong”, Trump really had to deliver specific results so that they could believe that God was working through him in some mysterious way.
At this point there is a cult of personality around Trump, it is all about Trump being persecuted by his enemies now, at this point Trump doesn’t have to claim to represent any element of society except for himself.
At some point Trump is going to leave the scene either through death or some events that make him irrelevant but until then he’s going to be a powerful distorting force. Ron DeSantis and other republicans have to find issues and grievances that connect to voters but Trump is the seat of his own grievances which has so many advantages operationally. I think how CNN legitimized Trump as a candidate by playing up the story of their own personal conflict with Trump because it would keep viewers glued to the set without having to get off their ass and leave Atlanta and fly somewhere coach in order to do some real reporting…. And getting on a Zoom call with a politician in WDC or a “military analyst” who probably isn’t wearing any pants these days doesn’t count.
———
That said, I see many trends on the “left” these days that I find disturbing in their own way. On Mastodon I see a lot of dehumanization of opponents by people who are quick to call anyone they don’t like a “nazi” or a “fascist” (sci-fi writer Charlie Stross, for instance, said that Keith Starmer, leader of the UK labor party and lawyer for the defense in the McLibel case was borderline fascist…. I don’t even say that about the people in the trailer across the street who have a bunch of flags and banners that look like the concert in The Wall), who borrow from Hitler’s playbook in using other dehumanizing language for their opponents such as likening them to animals, insects and such, use terms like “racism” and “homophobia” as part of thought stopping cliches, etc.
There are a lot of nice people on Mastodon but also angry people or just people who are the host of selfish memes, so often the most boosted things are meme images that say things like “PRIDE MONTH: A TIME FOR HOMOPHOBES TO BE REALLY PISSED” or “WE’LL KEEP MAKING UP NEW GENDERS AS LONG AS YOU KEEP COMPLAINING”. An activist could have many goals such as better material conditions, acceptance, feeling “safe”, etc. It is up to them, not me, to decide what they want. If their goal is to piss people off, however, they’ll probably succeed.
I can't say I disagree with anything you said. I've been left-wing my whole life and most people I know (including Christians) are as well, so to be honest I don't have a great frame of reference for where they're coming from. Most Republicans that I know (since 2015) are Jewish, hence the post, but I've yet to meet a Republican in real life who didn't have some level of empathy for other people.
As far as the leaders are concerned, I see strong similarities between them and Nazi Germany, and the more I learn about Nazi Germany, the scarier the parallels become.
For many/most USA Christians (especially evangelicals), the rot is inside the Church/Jesus as well. They aren't really hearing opposite things.
Totally offtopic, but can I ask an honest question; What is the appeal of Some More News? They clearly align with my own political leanings, I agree with most of their video premises/messages, and they are clearly allies... but I also find them to be really really annoying. The presentation style is so over the top, cringey, and hyperbolic that they feel like Fox News but in reverse (maybe that's the point?). So despite repeated attempts to watch their videos, I usually can't make it past the first few minutes. And the odd time that I have gotten past the intro sections, I haven't ever enjoyed the rest of the video despite mostly agreeing with the content, since all they do is make me feel awful about the state of the world (USA specifically in most cases) and powerless to do anything. Which makes watching them almost feel like an exercise in masochism. :(
the general impression I get of their videos is they're trying to target a younger demographic, to provide a left-wing counterpoint to right-wing YouTube sources like PragerU
(from Jan 2020: Right-Wing Views for Generation Z, Five Minutes at a Time: Dennis Prager believes teenagers are more open to conservative ideas than millennials. With PragerU, he’s making a play to get around their professors.)
you can also see this in the "shorts" they release, which are basically YouTube's version of TikTok videos.
I watch them in spite of their sense of humor.
I watch them because they are very good at breaking down problems to better understand why they are happening and they provide sources so I can look into the details if I need to.
This is the big value.
Someone needs to spend the time to dig through claims and debunk them. Looking up studies is easy but sometimes tracking down the real context behind blatant lies is harder. Often times a real video will be posted but it will be lied about, and it's it's hard to track down those truths for people who don't literally do it for a job.
I really struggle with cringey humor. It makes me super uncomfortable. I can't even watch The Office because of that. But next time SMN covers a topic I am actually interested in, I will try taking a look at their sources document instead of watching the video. I didn't realize they provided their sources like that. So thanks for pointing that out.
I watch it sometimes because some pretty good arguments are made. But I agree with you, most of the humor is not actually funny and it would be better to just play it straight. I had the same problem with RedLetterMedia, which has some insightful content but sometimes present it in the character of Mr Plinkett who is a very unfunny serial killer.
The other problem with Some More News is that the episodes are just too long. The typical episode is longer than an hour. I think stripping out the cringey humor could cut them in half. I don't need "YouTube Shorts", but maybe 20 or 30 minutes would be fine.
Thank you for mentioning that RLM character, I cannot fucking stand him either lol
Back on topic though, Some More News would benefit a lot from dialing it down a bit, running a comb through his hair, and wearing clothes that actually fit... I agree with almost everything he says too, by the way. Maybe I am just too old because he just annoys me and I can't watch it - the content also seems to appeal to the "outrage" genre which I also detest
I do agree about the runtime. They might find a broader audience if they could condense it or split it into logical subsections.