Melvin_Ferd @ Melvin_Ferd @lemmy.world

Posts

6

Comments

1,222

Joined

2 yr. ago

The Users posted for free. They didn't get paid. They should be publicly available for scraping

It's like saying, look at the other team playing to the crowd, getting people excited and generally captivating audiences. Don't they know they're supposed to use logic and reason.

Our desire to shit on them has only alienated us from what works to win politically. That divide is growing.

Like a normal human being

I don’t think people, especially younger ones, understand why so many of us were drawn to the early internet. It was a new frontier, free from advertising and corporate influence. People just shared things. There was this powerful push to end information scarcity to make knowledge, art, and ideas freely accessible, without paywalls or subscriptions. There were 3 hour podcasts with people actually interested in sharing things with no fucking ads. The idea of making any money with any of it was silly stuff. Everybody thought it was silly when we started seeing ads show up. It was laughed at and people were embarrassed to do ad reads. But we ignored it. We'd soon find out how tragic a mistake that was.

Then came the musicians, the content creators, the artists and all their lawyers and with them, the advertisers. We lost everything. What started as a space for free expression was gradually reshaped into a sanitized, corporate-friendly landscape. Influencers played a huge role in that shift. They helped turn the internet into a marketplace, paving the way for brands to blend seamlessly into our lives under the guise of content. They helped create the enshitification we have today. Without them, the advertisers and lawyers wouldnt have been able to profit.

I genuinely hate what influencers have done to the internet. They don't get enough blame.

Wait until you find out how many people wipe their butts sitting down

How weird is it that the left doesn't make these connections and press it when we see people like Zuckerberg standing with Republicans while Republicans push for the laws.

Like what is lacking on the left side to make these really great observations but in meaningful ways?

People on the right seize on these opportunities every time. Within days whatever view they have is shared across multiple countries on multiple sites and influencers. But the left is like a few comments isolated on Lemmy among pictures of Ed Sheeran. We're having fun though. That's what matters.

Honestly, satire is pretty effective. Hitler was obsessed with projecting power, and humor especially the kind many Jewish people used to survive the camps was a powerful tool for undermining that illusion. Humour takes power away from a thing. It's why it's great against powerful entities but feels evil when used against the weak. If more people had mocked him early on, the myth of a strong, untouchable leader might never have taken root.

It’s always baffling when a leftist jumps in to argue that pointing this out is somehow pointless or juvenile. Maybe it’s a lack of social intuition, or just a failure to grasp the bigger picture but too often, the left underestimates the power of cultural resistance. Ridicule, art, memes, jokes these are tools that shape perception and cut authoritarianism down to size.

And these politicians you roll your eyes at? They’re not doing it for themselves. They’re calling out people like you, trying to shake you awake, trying to keep the pressure on. But instead of joining in, too many of you just sit back, waiting for someone else to fix it all.

I mean, I have doubts on that.

I wonder if this is why I have been seeing all about the Canadian war crimes back in WWII. That took off like a tinder box.

Poison the well before this report is completed

https://lemmy.world/comment/17413559

You all quit before you even get started. Just knee capping yourselves every chance. As a group, you're all fucked

Is that you Donald?

A cat guy made this

I have a guy that still hangs banners on the highways overpass. I see at least 5 stickers on bumpers every time I leave the house. It's crazy.

And when you bring this stuff up to people on the left, they're more interested in winning online arguments then addressing these issues and admitting we have a problem of being way behind the times.

The left really does encompass this academic mentality of losers sitting away in towers pouring over books thinking they're the smartest and the best while everyone else is outside getting shit done. I'm just so tired of people on the left telling me how dumb the people on the right are, while the people on the right are winning in almost every arena. I'm so fucking tired of seeing thousands show up to protests while nobody is actually making content online or standing on bridges of whatever the fucking equivalent on our side would be. We're all so ineffective.

1. Inconsistent Messaging and Fractured Priorities The left has often struggled to unify around a core set of policies, instead fragmenting into sub-movements each demanding top billing. While the right typically rallies around a few clear, emotionally resonant issues—border security, inflation, and national identity—the left has attempted to juggle climate, gender rights, labor protections, health care reform, racial equity, tech regulation, and more, all at once. This scattershot approach makes it harder to present a cohesive message that resonates with average voters, who are often just looking for straightforward answers to everyday problems.

2. Elitism Perception and Cultural Disconnect The left is increasingly viewed—rightly or wrongly—as a movement dominated by urban, college-educated elites. As a result, there's a growing disconnect between progressive leadership and working-class or rural voters. Language around “lived experience,” “privilege,” and “decolonization” may make sense in academic or activist circles, but can alienate voters who feel those terms don’t reflect their daily struggles with job security, rising costs, or healthcare access. This cultural gap is frequently exploited by conservative media to portray the left as out-of-touch.

3. The Right’s Dominance in Content and Narrative Warfare Conservative groups have become adept at creating and distributing viral content on social media, often using humor, outrage, or conspiratorial undertones to gain traction. The left has largely failed to counter this momentum with equally engaging, persuasive media. Many progressive messages come off as moralizing or scolding rather than compelling or emotionally resonant. Without an effective media apparatus to shape the narrative, the left often finds itself reacting to right-wing provocations rather than setting the agenda.

4. Overreliance on Institutions That Are Losing Trust The left tends to align itself with expert consensus, legacy media, academia, and federal agencies. However, public trust in these institutions has been steadily eroding. As skepticism grows—fueled by economic disillusionment, pandemic fatigue, and high-profile failures—the left’s instinct to defer to authority is increasingly seen as naïve or dismissive of public sentiment. This allows right-wing movements to present themselves as populist truth-tellers, even when promoting factually dubious claims.

5. Backlash to Progressive Social Policy While many Americans support basic civil rights protections, the speed and tone of progressive social reforms—particularly around race, gender, and identity—has triggered backlash among more moderate and traditional voters. This is not necessarily because people are bigoted, but because they feel overwhelmed, excluded from the conversation, or resentful of being portrayed as oppressors. When debates over language and inclusivity dominate headlines, they can drown out material policy wins the left may have achieved, such as infrastructure spending or student debt relief.

6. Ground Game and Local Influence Neglect The left has invested heavily in national campaigns, celebrity endorsements, and large-scale online mobilization, but often ignores down-ballot races and local organizing. Meanwhile, conservatives have spent decades quietly building influence in school boards, city councils, and judicial appointments. This strategic imbalance gives the right structural advantages, allowing them to shape policy and public discourse from the ground up—even in areas where they’re not the majority politically.

How many more this time? Are you winning yet?

That's enough I suppose then.

"they"

I really feel bad for any one on the left who takes a stance. She'll get eating alive while we passively watch

No, it's not that it's controlled. It's that none of you participate or share this stuff. "They're owned by X" argument is just an excuse.

They're the same with AI. Had these people been interested years ago, they would be sitting pretty. But they kept telling everyone it's garbage. Now it's just sunk costs for them

I mean, come on. Can you honestly say I’m wrong?

Tomorrow, you're all going to wake up and do the exact same thing. Check the headlines. React leftily. Complain into the void for a minute. Then log into social media and start dodging, blocking every right-wing group pumping out daily content. Nonstop memes, anti-COVID hot takes, “lefty tears” nonsense, trans jokes, Joe Rogan clips, cancel culture rants, just a constant churn of engagement bait, and it works.

You'll bounce between platforms, curating a safe feed. Facebook’s a mess, Reddit’s fucked, Lemmy’s a small last stand. You read this week’s posts of the moment while barely remembering the four that got quietly dropped last month. You gasp at what the right is getting away with again.

But do nothing. No counter-content. No message discipline. You won't organize, and you won’t create. Meanwhile, the right is expanding their media machine building, posting, podcasting, meme-ing, shaping narratives for millions.

Then it’s off to work, where your coworkers are proudly sharing the same memes you tried to scrub from your timeline this morning. And when it’s all said and done? You’ll go to bed, wake up, and do it again the next day.

You guys can get snippy and down vote or come at me to try to win some dumb online argument. None of it changes that this will continue until you all get lucky again and the Republicans lose because they fuck something up. You'll win from no effort from any of you on the left. It'll be from the right being assholes and going too far.