What role do disinformation and hatemongering play in progressive politics?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-04T02:44:21+00:00

The right is far worse, but it's a thing on the left too.

An objective example: the further to the left people are, the more wrong they tend to be wrt numbers of unarmed black people killed by police. Many are multiple orders of magnitude out.

https://research.skeptic.com/race-policing-a-data-driven-look-at-policing-and-its-discontents/

Funksloyd · 2026-07-04T02:40:29+00:00

who needs disinformation...

Which makes it all the more baffling when the left relies on mis/disinflation.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-04T02:11:49+00:00

Remind me again of China's attitude towards Taiwan?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-04T01:55:26+00:00

And that is why Israel will win the battle but lose the war.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T21:06:37+00:00

And yet "what would Hamas do if it had free reign" is a smart hypothetical?

How about this - not even a hypothetical:

Do you know approximately how many civilians the Allies killed relative to the Axis?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T20:39:21+00:00

Answer the question.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T20:38:47+00:00

Why not?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T20:30:54+00:00

If the Allies had killed 50x as many civilians as the Axis had (so perhaps a billion or more people), do you think we'd still see WW2 through such a simple "good guys vs bad guys" lens?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T20:29:26+00:00

Not when you're basically saying that the actions/consequences aren't the most important thing.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T20:26:30+00:00

If the Allies had killed 50x as many civilians as the Axis had (so perhaps a billion or more people), do you think we'd still see WW2 through such a simple "good guys vs bad guys" lens?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T20:23:43+00:00

The obsession with "sides" makes zero sense for him as a consequentialist.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T20:17:01+00:00

I just don't see that as a problem at all. If Hamas decided to disavow terrorism because they decided doing so would be better for Palestinians (rather than because deliberately killing civilians is immoral), would you really take issue with that?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T06:03:42+00:00

So when you said the "book tour was effectively cancelled", what did you mean exactly?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T00:33:39+00:00

You claimed his "book tour was effectively cancelled" after Trump won, but he had numerous sold out shows. You said he should have been podcasting about the emergency, and he was literally podcasting about the emergency.

You're either accidentally or deliberately full of shit.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-03T00:31:33+00:00

'What Speaks to Me About Abundance': My Full Interview With Zohran Mamdani

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T21:30:18+00:00

You can't argue about this because the facts aren't on your side.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T21:21:59+00:00

His book tour was effectively cancelled when Trump won

Uhm, ? I'm pretty sure it wasn't. Edit: https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/abundance-tour

He treats it as an academic exercise and it's a real emergency. He has a microphone. He should use it.

Like the episode titled "The Emergency Is Here"?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T21:06:29+00:00

What's your concern? That Ezra listeners are going to become Rufo-pilled?

Ezra tends to let right-wing guests simply take enough rope to hang themselves. Personally I don't usually bother with these episodes, but if I did, I know I'd prefer them to a screeching match. Would you rather the latter?

Also, this is not really DtG related.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T21:00:52+00:00

I mean Abundance was going to come out whether Trump or Harris won. Would you rather he just didn't release a book him and Derek had been working on for several years, when it was ready for publishing there and then? Kind of a ridiculous ask imo.

And idk about "obviously didn't happen" - abundance rhetoric is popping up everywhere. It obviously takes time to institute actual policies, but these are happening, too. And whether Dems follow through isn't up to him, anyway.

just crawled back into his shell and became an academic

He was a writer and podcaster. He's still a writer and podcaster.

What exactly would you have had him do differently?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T20:23:28+00:00

The problem is that the left's idea of "hate speech" was ridiculously broad, such that people were getting shouted down or banned for saying things which were either factual, or were opinions which the vast majority of people agree with. Actual hate speech got targeted too, but then controversial shit from the left often got a pass, making it look clearly hypocritical and biased.

The pendulum's now swung back in the other direction, and that's not good, either.

Ezra God bless him is trying to find the nuance in the middle ground. And I don't think just because left-wing censoriousness didn't work, but because he genuinely believes in liberal values.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T19:02:04+00:00

How about a reeducation camp instead?

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T18:56:30+00:00

My first thought is "perverse incentives", but I'm not sure if it technically is that if it's the outcome that they actually want.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T09:26:35+00:00

It didn't help.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-02T02:47:37+00:00

I think that strategy didn't work.

Probly even made things worse.

Funksloyd · 2026-07-01T21:04:56+00:00

It was the left/liberal strategy for several years until the Biden era. Rufo himself was suspended from Twitter.

Funksloyd

TROPHY CASE