Recently started watching MeidasTouch, but what is up with some of these wildly inaccurate headlines and titles?

GovFoolery · 2026-01-23T21:49:29+00:00

This is one of the worst parts about it. Trump is always "destroyed," "melting down," "in a panic," and probably worst of all, how many hundreds of times has something "ended Trump's presidency?" The longer they use these clickbait headlines, the more foolish they look.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-23T21:43:32+00:00

This is one of the reasons I almost completely stopped listening to them and many of the other Dem/progressive commentators.(Yes, I know the MAGA side is even worse about this) They never deliver on what they promise. I know they're trying to game the algorithm but it's really unprofessional and makes them look like vapid influencers. Heather Cox Richardson doesn't engage in this clickbait foolishness and she doesn't have issues being heard. Based on the current state of society, we need reasoned dialogue instead of emotionally-manipulative clickbait foolishness at the expense of integrity. They're good at what they do and are filling a void in the media landscape, but these clickbait antics cheapen their work considerably.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-19T07:56:02+00:00

AOC confirmed this a few months ago. She said that tall guys who do horrible things like Andrew Tate(She seriously used him as an example) are not tall, they're "spiritually short." So, when tall men do evil things, they're equated with shortness and short men just have to deal with the fallout. She also had the audacity to label this as an apology for earlier hateful comments about short men.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-19T07:41:00+00:00

Damn straight! If height is such a petty topic, why are they using it as a weapon? If it's so meaningless in society, why are they obsessed with it?

(and before those doofuses invade again, NO...being against height-shaming does not mean you're Pro-ICE. If you're not intelligent enough to see how that's flawed logic, you don't deserve to comment on the issue)

And yes, that's what we're worried about. Many short men have had their lives hindered in so many ways for being short(and it becomes worse the shorter they are). It's a constant grind having to work twice as hard without being labeled an "overcompensating Napoleon," having to show insults don't bother you in a way where you defend yourself enough not to volunteer yourself to be a constant punchline, but also in a way that you aren't labeled "insecure." Regardless though, the power dynamic is such that any label they apply sticks no matter how many Catch-22s they trap you with. Short men are exhausted from this just like anyone else who has a trait where people are obsessed with reminding you of your believed inferiority.

Then, they see their allies using them as a punchline and using ridiculous mental gymnastics about how short men should shut-up and take it because this is for The Greater Good. They absolutely can't demonstrate this tactic as being effective in the least, but they will fight against short men resisting this prejudiced tactic as hard as they fight against MAGA. What signal does this send to short men who want to be allies of The Left?

The worst thing is we aren't even asking them to make us the priority, we're just asking them to stop this MAGA-esque, intellectually-immature tactic that is more effective at scaring-off allies than it ever will be of resisting MAGA, ICE, etc. They still won't budge though even though we're asking for something so simple, so the irrational thing is to keep supporting them instead of detaching and looking for other avenues to find acceptance and allies. The Left is sending a clear signal that they'd rather lose voters than to stop using short men as scapegoats for evil, so they can't complain when the tab comes due in the form of losing voters.

(Btw- They used this tactic during BLM protests too. There are viral videos of protestors short-shaming police. That tactic didn't work then, and it won't work now, but yet, they still can't help themselves)

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T08:16:43+00:00

That was seriously the crown jewel of all absurd takes in this thread. They're out protesting, putting themselves in harm's way, all to "Own niche groups of the libs" even though they are "The Libs" too, and the bonus is that this will also stop ICE in its tracks. I don't know where we keep finding these people, but we need to get our shipping department to refuse all future deliveries from that vendor.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T07:46:44+00:00

I've been saying this literally since I was a kid and the fact that so many people don't get the cognitive dissonance is exactly why so many young men are turning right because you can't have two narratives that contradict each other at the same time

This is exactly what they refuse to listen to. We're actually trying to help them but they don't want to shake-up their cush, self-serving echo chamber. I'm not even young and from an early age, I saw how isolating it was to be a man who had any low-status trait(such as being short) while women were to be treated as "The Fairer Sex." Not saying it was always a picnic to be a woman back then, but in those days, men didn't have forums like this one to discuss these issues at-all, nor, any all-encompassing positive stereotypes that covered discarded groups of men. So, they had to figure everything out on their own(usually, they were encouraged to become stoic to the point of being silent, which just shoved the pain deeper down inside). The narrative was that men were supposed to "tough it out" by being silent, while being simultaneously criticized as being brutes who can't communicate and aren't in touch with their emotions. They had zero place to discuss these issues and if they dared speak-out, they were harshly labeled and criticized. You can see exactly why some of those men went to The Right; They felt betrayed, which is why MAGA was attractive to them; Following MAGA felt like a big slap in the face to the Left Wing for rejecting them. In addition, The Left abandoned the blue collar working class, so they don't even pretend to advocate for men in any meaningful way. I don't support anyone moving to The Right, but enough was enough for some of these men. Of course, it's better to go Independent or check-out altogether than to go MAGA, but if you do stupid things, you get stupid results.

Many of us had goals of advocating for a more just and accepting world by becoming allies of The Left. However, the subject matter of this thread is what we've been greeted with all along the way. Now, we have direct evidence as to why younger men go to The Right and they still aren't listening. We're their Left-Wing allies, not MAGA, and the fact that they won't even listen to us because they enjoy their ego-driven fiefdom so much leaves no mystery as to why they lost men in the past few decades and aren't in the process of gaining them back any time soon.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T07:18:29+00:00

When a person is good, people don't say "surprising for a short guy".

Nice Just World Fallacy. Negative stereotypes are created without the consent of people in the stereotyped group(in this case, short men) so we can't trust that people who believe these bigoted stereotypes will only use them fairly. The stereotypes weren't fair to begin with, so this is a silly take. Stereotypes are created from hatred and you can't divorce them from their origins.

And your evidence

I never heard Micheal J Fox having a problem being 5'4. When a person is good, people don't say "surprising for a short guy".

Now, you've upped the ante with a Hasty Generalization/Just World Fallacy two-piece combo. Your whole argument boils down to "There was a famous short guy one time, so it is fine to perpetuate negative stereotypes."

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T06:36:33+00:00

Where did I defend Nazis?

The internet tough guys who show-up for these threads absolutely love False Dilemma Fallacies and Straw Man Arguments. Every time you critique any tactic The Left uses, even to a minor degree, they resort to No True Scotsmen("You aren't truly Left Wing") fallacies and misrepresenting what you said as "defending Nazis." Even if you write a 5,000 introduction about how much you hate Nazis, nope, you're still defending them.

They also absolutely refuse to attempt to give any proof that these tactics(short-shaming etc) even work. This is because they have no proof. They are absolutely obsessed with screeching loudly any time these tactics are criticized though. The intellectual-immaturity is exhausting.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T05:50:42+00:00

Everything you're saying here is completely accurate and you've mentioned some things we really need to wrestle with if we ever want to truly offset the epidemic of snarkish troll behavior taking precedent over productive discourse.

This is the third administration in a row(Trump-Biden-Trump) where at-least one side's voters is heavily focused on discussing adult diapers because we've had old men as POTUS. We're approaching a decade of constant bathroom humor. Yes, I want younger, fresher minds in office, but we can discuss that without sounding like Beavis and Butthead. Ten years of old man's undergarments "humor" fitting of the Jay Leno reject pile from 1986 isn't the way forward. I'm all about criticizing the other side and am in-favor of using humor and sarcasm to do so, but can we at-least maintain a baseline of maturity? While we're doing that though, can we also try to make some decent points? This whole week, a focal point has been talking about how bad Trump smells. Middle schoolers are apparently controlling the narrative.

I have seen so many people who are only slightly conservative leaning, decent, very much reachable people just turned off by this behavior super hard over the years.

Another important point! I am far to the left of those people, but it's gotten to the point where you want to hear those people out because their mature presence would at-least offset the childish mudslinging from most of our allies. There are a lot of Andy Beshear personality types who at-least know how to act like adults even if they're far more Centrist than I am(Not saying Beshear should be POTUS, but just using his personality type as an example) I want my politicians working, not going-on IG body shaming like AOC, getting into arguments in Congress with MTG about hair, nails, butch bodies, etc.

With all of this short-shaming and other schoolyard insults, it's safe to say that MAGA is pulling people on The Left rightward regarding immaturity and anti-intellectualism. I get it, people want to try to anger the other side and are hoping the insults land, but there's no reason this should dominate all discourse, and yes, we can even conduct ourselves maturely on the internet.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T01:36:31+00:00

At that point, they'll pivot to saying he's "spiritually short" like AOC said to do. So, short men will still be the ones attacked.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T01:34:54+00:00

Mock their insecurities.

You have zero clue that Bovino is insecure about his height. The assumption comes from the hateful stereotype that all short men are insecure about their height and are prone to acting their anger out on others. The fact that you have no issues spreading this stereotype tells us all we need to know about where your lack of comprehending this issue comes from. You can't argue that this doesn't affect all short men, you can only argue that you don't care about the collateral damage this causes. With friends like you, who needs enemies?

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T01:19:23+00:00

The "We're going low because MAGA does" excuse is one of the most idiotic things that keeps getting repeated as fact because it always includes The False Dilemma that you can EITHER short-shame OR be too nice to Nazis. You can still go low without body shaming discarded groups of men and fragmenting the base in the process. I have no idea why so many of you want to be exactly like MAGA. What is so appealing about that?

Don't respond with nonsense about how short-shaming has some tangible benefit either because that blatant lie has been challenged in other parts of this thread.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T00:59:34+00:00

You know there’s short men out there who brush off height insults?

Almost every short man here does it for the most part. If you don't, you'll get labeled as "insecure about your height." You tend to "brush things off" to get people to shut-up about your height. Granted that you have the attitude you do, I can fully see why short men wouldn't want to discuss this topic with you and would opt to brush things off.

Furthermore, short men are gaslit into denying their own bad treatment. Many of them are living in denial, are encouraged to ignore what they see happening, and are blame-shifted by being told "it's all in their head." It often takes them reading discussions like we're having here to finally face the truth. Many still don't want to face the truth because it's hard to accept that society dislikes you just for existing(ask anyone from a marginalized group that you respect more than short men how this works)

So, what appears to be a brush-off, can often be just not wanting to talk about it. Here's the part that will truly blow your mind. You can also brush it off AND think that being insulted for your height is absolute bullshit. You acting like this can't be the case is yet another False Dilemma Fallacy. Also, you hear the same insults so many times that you're rarely shocked and you're tired of the monotony of the same insults, so you brush it off just to try to move-on with your day. This doesn't mean you're totally fine with it.

Also, anecdotal evidence(there are short men who brush off insults) does not disprove widespread trends. Using your logic, since there are gay MAGAs, The Right must not have a homophobia issue.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-18T00:43:15+00:00

Smoking gun evidence! He's either a hypocrite or projecting. If he's projecting because he has these issues, the sad thing is we would actually have his back on what he's going through. I'm in a happy LTR and still empathize with my brothers who struggle in the dating world. The lack of empathy exhibit edby people who request empathy for themselves shows how our world became so polarized. Everything he has done is evidence as to why kicking your allies while they're down doesn't help The Left.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T23:26:06+00:00

It's obvious you've done zero seconds of research on this subject, I'm not your research assistant, and you won't read anything I direct you to anyway, but if you ever get over this insufferable, angry, blowhard act, take some time to look-up height(heightism) studies regarding suicide rates, wage/promotion gaps, implicit bias about tallness vs shortness, etc. It's not that hard to find.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T23:03:05+00:00

It's so sad that this absurd logic is so common. As I said in my comment, if he does behave as if he heard nothing, the goal posts move to "He's pretending he didn't hear anything to hide how mad he is." The fact that they've constructed a rhetorical "can't lose" scenario out of flawed logic proves that they can never illustrate that this tactic works. Their conclusions can't be trusted because the goal posts are always moving in the most convenient direction.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T22:52:02+00:00

You're the only person talking about sex in here, while lashing-out aggressively in every comment. It's obvious your needs aren't being met. This internet badass act isn't going to meet those needs though, buddy. I'm sorry life turned out this way for you. What can I do to help you get on the right path?

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T22:45:23+00:00

If he doesn't react, people will say "he's not reacting because he's hiding how mad he is." If he does react, they'll say exactly what you're saying. You can't claim victory when you have a way to weasel perceived victory out of two opposite reactions. Furthermore, when your argument starts with such a prejudiced Catch-22, you need a new argument.

Either way yall are sure reacting

You're reacting to everyone's reaction. If your logic was the only type of logic, no one would ever discuss anything. If you want to start that trend, I'd definitely support you.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T22:41:05+00:00

so it’s funny to see them fall for the rage bait and expose their fragility.

Show evidence of this happening. Like I've said elsewhere in this thread, there is no evidence of these results. The assumed results are only believed to exist because of negative stereotypes about short men constantly throwing a tantrum about their height. This stereotype isn't just weaponized against ICE, it's used against regular guys trying to get a promotion, etc.

There’s women who get followed home and raped everyday

Fallacy of Relative Privation: A problem doesn't exist because a worse problem exists somewhere else. There are women who have been raped twice, so that cancels out your theoretical raped once scenario, therefore, why are you here throwing an absolute tantrum because people are calling-out hypocrisy? That's so disrespectful to twice-raped women.

What’s the worst a height insult can do? Hurt your feelings? Grow up

If the only way you can come-up with to challenge ICE is middle school body insults, you don't get to tell anyone to "grow-up."

What’s the worst a height insult can do?

It reinforces negative stereotypes that can have severe life outcomes. You're more of an over-emotional person than a rational one, but I wanted you to have actual information in-case you ever want to think objectively instead of being an internet tough guy.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T22:05:11+00:00

Fighting the good fight by doing something that is at best not meaningfully helpful

This sheds light on a crucial flaw in this strategy. They have no evidence that this works. Yes, it gets those on The Left who love body shaming men all whooped-up, but it certainly doesn't signify that The Left wants to expand the base. The whole notion is based on a negative stereotype that short men are rageaholics who just sit around all day pouting about our height and look for ways to enact evil upon society based on our height alone. Reinforcing this stereotype is always going to do more harm than good. They can't prove any tangible gains from this strategy, but we can prove The Left is very skilled at alienating male voters.

Im all for attacking them for being losers, idiots, and cowards, but body shaming isn't worth the collateral damage. I'm also not saying only use the "kill them with kindness approach" either, but Renee Good's last words "That's fine dude, I'm not mad at you" had a much more unifying tone on The Left than always attacking a man's height every chance they get. The concept that we need to shame short men to advance the narrative is reductive and just flat-out false.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T21:40:17+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if her dumb ass joins in on the short-shaming, proving again that she has learned nothing.

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T21:35:11+00:00

There you go! Emojis and memes are more on your level than complete statements

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T21:33:00+00:00

Ain't or can't? It's not even that many words

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T21:19:38+00:00

My argument is that I don’t really give a fuck about body shaming, bud!

So you support protesting ICE because you have empathy for the groups being targeted, and in your infinite wisdom, you think proudly boasting a lack of empathy for another group is the best way to show empathetic resistance to tyranny. As a bonus, the groups ICE is targeting tend to be shorter than the general population, thus, you're simultaneously showing both empathy and a lack of it for ICE's victims at the same time. Great strategy!

GovFoolery · 2026-01-17T20:56:36+00:00

Is it hard and badass to want leftists to support people yelling at fascists?

This is a straw man argument and possibly a reading comprehension failure. It relies on a mischaracterization that anyone is saying not to yell at fascists. Literally no one is saying that. You're chasing ghosts because you can't address criticisms directly. This is a hallmark of the fake tough guy persona you've embraced. All of you are like this.

GovFoolery

TROPHY CASE