2021 American Civil War

Mciahel Goodman

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Who is ‘they,’ the RW media I assume?

Doesn’t quite sound like a MOAB exploding, but I could be wrong.
No, the NYT. The NYT is the world's premier newspaper (along with the Financial Times of London and the Washington Post). It isn't right wing or tabloid, but centre-right (passing as liberal) and highly prestigious. It sets the topic of the American news cycle.

It's an enormous story that people in liberal circles (or "left-wing" in American contexts) might not talk about but absolutely should. It goes beyond any presidential campaign and speaks to the censorship present in corporate media. This was held back, intentionally, to influence an election cycle (labelled "fake news"). It has now been verified as factual, and was verified as such over a year ago. This isn't a storm in a teacup, but speaks to state/corporate blending in American political matters. If you can get over partisanship, you will be sickened by this.
 

calodo2003

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No, the NYT. The NYT is the world's premier newspaper (along with the Financial Times of London and the Washington Post). It isn't right wing or tabloid, but centre-right (passing as liberal) and highly prestigious. It sets the topic of the American news cycle.
I know what the NYT is, that’s why I asked you if it was news or editorial. The wording of your post was a tad unclear.
 

Mciahel Goodman

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I know what the NYT is, that’s why I asked you if it was news or editorial. The wording of your post was a tad unclear.
It's news. News that is rather important (the WSJ couldn't help itself by responding with an editorial to the news). It's not unambiguous any more. The media intentionally misled people. If this were Sanders, I'd be equally outraged and I know most here would be too. You either stand for the principle or you stand for the person and apply the principle selectively.
 

calodo2003

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It's news. News that is rather important (the WSJ couldn't help itself by responding with an editorial to the news). It's not unambiguous any more. The media intentionally misled people. If this were Sanders, I'd be equally outraged and I know most here would be too. You either stand for the principle or you stand for the person and apply the principle selectively.
Again, not the MOAB you’re making it out to be. It could become such, we shall see. If HB fecked up, he should be punished.

Weird thread in which to discuss this as well.
 

Mciahel Goodman

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Again, not the MOAB you’re making it out to be. It could become such, we shall see. If HB fecked up, he should be punished.

Weird thread in which to discuss this as well.
It's the perfect thread for it as the topic has been raised here before and people, like myself at the time, dismissed it as conspiracy. And it's far more important than you seem to realize. Go back over the election coverage and all of the news coverage surrounding this issue. You'll find it was called "conspiracy", "fake news", "Russian misinformation". It was none of these things despite fifty heads, past and present, of US intelligence agencies putting their names to such denials.

He somehow managed to drop a laptop full of incriminating stuff off at a shop owned by a maga nut for repairs 1000 miles away from where he actually was. Nobody has seen the incriminating stuff cos they lost it or something, we should just believe them though.
This is how I also thought about it at the time. Marginal right-wing conspiracy stuff. To pretend that we didn't think this due to the media's handling of the issue, which is tantamount to intentional suppression of factual data, also involving state actors, is to ignore exactly why this is important. It has nothing to do with Trump. This kind of thing should be called out on principle whether you're semi-marxist or a devotee to Ayn Rand.

But we'll see as the story progresses.
 

calodo2003

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It's the perfect thread for it as the topic has been raised here before and people, like myself at the time, dismissed it as conspiracy. And it's far more important than you seem to realize. Go back over the election coverage and all of the news coverage surrounding this issue. You'll find it was called "conspiracy", "fake news", "Russian misinformation". It was none of these things despite fifty heads, past and present, of US intelligence agencies putting their names to such denials.
This thread started well after the election. It would be more germane in the Biden Prez thread.

So, this is a conspiracy as wide or wider than the JFK assassination / cover up?
 

Mciahel Goodman

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This thread started well after the election. It would be more germane in the Biden Prez thread.

So, this is a conspiracy as wide or wider than the JFK assassination / cover up?
Don't know about direct comparisons, but this is incredibly damaging to the United States. Again, it isn't because of Trump or any of his insane fanbase, but because the state directly intervened to influence the course of an election cycle and the media, as well as social networks, ran with it. I'm no fan of Jordan Peterson (and never have been) either, but he's right to raise the issue.


It will be a kind of cognitive dissonance which prevents anyone on the left from really discussing this.
 

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Don't know about direct comparisons, but this is incredibly damaging to the United States. Again, it isn't because of Trump or any of his insane fanbase, but because the state directly intervened to influence the course of an election cycle and the media, as well as social networks, ran with it. I'm no fan of Jordan Peterson (and never have been) either, but he's right to raise the issue.


It will be a kind of cognitive dissonance which prevents anyone on the left from really discussing this.
Do you get paid in dollars or rubles? Asking for a friend.
 

calodo2003

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Don't know about direct comparisons, but this is incredibly damaging to the United States. Again, it isn't because of Trump or any of his insane fanbase, but because the state directly intervened to influence the course of an election cycle and the media, as well as social networks, ran with it. I'm no fan of Jordan Peterson (and never have been) either, but he's right to raise the issue.


It will be a kind of cognitive dissonance which prevents anyone on the left from really discussing this.
So, vastly bigger than JFK.

I look forward to more NYT articles that flesh this out.
 

Raoul

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Don't know about direct comparisons, but this is incredibly damaging to the United States. Again, it isn't because of Trump or any of his insane fanbase, but because the state directly intervened to influence the course of an election cycle and the media, as well as social networks, ran with it. I'm no fan of Jordan Peterson (and never have been) either, but he's right to raise the issue.


It will be a kind of cognitive dissonance which prevents anyone on the left from really discussing this.
You would need something more credible than a Jordan Peterson tweet amplifying an Op-Ed in a Murdoch owned paper.
 

Mciahel Goodman

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Is there anyone even remotely implying this is as big or bigger than JFK?
Is there anyone who cares about the JFK thing? Never was interested in it. This is important because of the media landscape. If true, it is very bad news for a lot of people.

You would need something more credible than a Jordan Peterson tweet amplifying an Op-Ed in a Murdoch owned paper.
I agree, this has to be further substantiated. They'll either need to stand by their original findings/investigative journalism or justify their move away from it. Wrong move would be to do neither. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because it was the NYT who seemingly verified it. That's not nothing. Needs more elaboration but consensus seems to be moving one way.
 

WI_Red

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Supposing the laptop is real, who cares? Hunter Biden is not a government employee. Hunter Biden was never considered to be an employee. Hunter Biden could be doing lines of coke off the back of a Ukrainian oligarch while jerking off to porn on his laptop as it streams live and it still would not matter.
 

calodo2003

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Is there anyone who cares about the JFK thing? Never was interested in it. This is important because of the media landscape. If true, it is very bad news for a lot of people.


I agree, this has to be further substantiated. They'll either need to stand by their original findings/investigative journalism or or justify their move away from it. Wrong move would be to do neither.
No, no one cares about a president assassinated on home soil less than 70 years ago, especially now that you have illuminated a far wider conspiracy. We have short attention spans.
 

Raoul

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Supposing the laptop is real, who cares? Hunter Biden is not a government employee. Hunter Biden was never considered to be an employee. Hunter Biden could be doing lines of coke off the back of a Ukrainian oligarch while jerking off to porn on his laptop as it streams live and it still would not matter.
Yeah I don't get any of this. If there was any meat on the bone it would be getting a lot of coverage by main stream press. Sounds like the latest Republican scheme to get some negative info back into the news cycle so they can fundraise for the midterms.
 

VorZakone

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Supposing the laptop is real, who cares? Hunter Biden is not a government employee. Hunter Biden was never considered to be an employee. Hunter Biden could be doing lines of coke off the back of a Ukrainian oligarch while jerking off to porn on his laptop as it streams live and it still would not matter.
I think the bigger potential story here is not necesssarily Hunters private shenanigans but how taboo it was to even mention the Biden laptop back then.

Though I looked up some Reddit threads discussing this and even there it seems there's no consensus on what the actual story is regarding the laptop and who denied what in 2020.
 

Raoul

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I think the bigger potential story here is not necesssarily Hunters private shenanigans but how taboo it was to even mention the Biden laptop back then.

Though I looked up some Reddit threads discussing this and even there it seems there's no consensus on what the actual story is regarding the laptop and who denied what in 2020.
It wasn't taboo, it was probably just a story with little to no legitimacy to where any reputable news organization was willing to publish it.
 

Mciahel Goodman

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No, no one cares about a president assassinated on home soil less than 70 years ago, especially now that you have illuminated a far wider conspiracy. We have short attention spans.
:lol: I never bought the conspiracy is what I meant.

I think the bigger potential story here is not necesssarily Hunters private shenanigans but how taboo it was to even mention the Biden laptop back then.
Yeah, I also don't care about Hunter Biden or what he did in his private time. I do care about how the media handled the issue and swung unanimously in one direction. That's the point for me.
 

WI_Red

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I think the bigger potential story here is not necesssarily Hunters private shenanigans but how taboo it was to even mention the Biden laptop back then.

Though I looked up some Reddit threads discussing this and even there it seems there's no consensus on what the actual story is regarding the laptop and who denied what in 2020.
it should be taboo to discuss a candidates family! If Trumps demon spawn had not been part of his campaign and then his administration I would have said the same for them.
 

Mciahel Goodman

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it should be taboo to discuss a candidates family! If Trumps demon spawn had not been part of his campaign and then his administration I would have said the same for them.
I agree with that too, but targeting family members in American politics precedes Trump. Trump did it worse than most, though.
 

VorZakone

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Some Fox News pundit said the laptop content could be a national security risk. :lol: Did they say the same about Trump taking White House documents with him?
 

WI_Red

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I agree with that too, but targeting family members in American politics precedes Trump. Trump did it worse than most, though.
But not by much and most sinisterly done by republicans (Limbaugh’s attack in Chelsea Clinton being the worst I can think of). Besides, it’s one thing for a candidate to seek advantage by acting like an ass, it’s another for media to do it.
 

Mciahel Goodman

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But not by much and most sinisterly done by republicans (Limbaugh’s attack in Chelsea Clinton being the worst I can think of). Besides, it’s one thing for a candidate to seek advantage by acting like an ass, it’s another for media to do it.
Well Rush Limbaugh was like Alex Jones on steroids. A cretin divorced from reality.
 

Ekkie Thump

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Hunter Biden gave a laptop for repairs, is this the story?
No, the story is that various supposedly apolitical government agencies went out of their way to discredit it and that this was followed by an acquiescent or complicit media gagging the story. Presumably this was out of fear that the right wing outrage machine might be able to leverage it into a 2nd Trump term. Essentially elements of the state were weaponised to prefer one candidate.
 

NotThatSoph

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This is the most remarkable story aside from anything Ukraine related. This means that the state intervened in a US election. Despite Trump being a scumbag, and almost understanding why you'd want to sabotage him, to do so is criminal. The media entirely covered this up via blanket silence despite knowing it to be true and various heads of intelligence agencies were also complicit. I, rightly at the time, assumed you'd have to be a conspiracy loon to take this seriously. Turns out it was all true.
This thread started well after the election. It would be more germane in the Biden Prez thread.

So, this is a conspiracy as wide or wider than the JFK assassination / cover up?
Do you get paid in dollars or rubles? Asking for a friend.
I thought this was well known for months, what's the controversy and why would it make someone a Russian asset if they correctly point out that Hunter Biden is corrupt as shit and a druggie?
 

Dr. StrangeHate

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No, the story is that various supposedly apolitical government agencies went out of their way to discredit it and that this was followed by an acquiescent or complicit media gagging the story. Presumably this was out of fear that the right wing outrage machine might be able to leverage it into a 2nd Trump term. Essentially elements of the state were weaponised to prefer one candidate.
Giving a laptop for repair is not a crime. Whether it's true or not is besides the point.
 

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The Specrstor pointed out that Biden had had personal interests already in 2014, due to his son's absurdly well paid job in Ukraine.
 

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Hunter Biden gave a laptop for repairs, is this the story?
Assuming there is an actual laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden once, I think Giuliani's narrative (summarized by Simbo) is still so far-fetched it's very doubtful that it's true. What I think would be far more likely would be that Trump's people directly stole the laptop then they concocted this narrative about it being left in some repair shop run by a MAGA nut.