She got half of Burgerland to think that everything they don’t like is Russian propaganda, that the evil Russians helped Trump steal the 2016 election, Russia Russia Russia, it’s the ultimate thought-terminating cliche now. And even in the face of cold, hard evidence to the contrary (ie: Mueller report, off the top of my head) Libs just stomp their feet and insist that it’s still RUSSIAAAAA!!!1

I guess Bill O’Riely would be the Republican equivalent of her, but his oafishness and toxic masculinity got the best of him and he ended up losing everything got a multi-million dollar severance package from Fox News and then faded into irrelevancy.

Seriously though, I can’t think of anybody that could rival Maddow in terms of how effectively she brainwashed tens of millions of Burgerlanders into believing an absolute, absurd fantasy. You can’t have anything that resembles a level-headed discussion with any Lib anymore, largely due to her influence (and others of course, but I feel like she’s the most prominent figure in this regard).

Can you think of anyone that could rival her impact? Who else would be in the same league of propagandists in this day?

EDIT: Obviously I forgot to mention Tucker Carlson, but he also got kicked off Fox lol

  • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    73
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    I heard from my mom last night that Putin directed Iran to tell Hamas to do the 10/7 attack. It was calculated to divide the US so we would be less effective in supporting Ukraine. This led to me yelling for two hours, which I don’t feel good about, but I’m tired of explaining that when examining the world you have to strive to find plausible explanations for why things are happening, not something as fucking stupid as saying the people of Gaza were perfectly satisfied until a bunch of outside agitators got them stirred up.

    Edit: She actually doesn’t watch MSNBC. This is NYT brain. She used to be fine with criticizing media that promoted the war in Iraq, but doing that now means you’re just like Trump.

    • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      48
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      Liberals completely gave up on self crit at some point in the last 6-8 years

      It used to be how they showed they were ‘better’ than their counterparts, but Trump just broke so many brains

      • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        43
        ·
        3 days ago

        I fully believe a significant amount of libs opposed the Iraq war because it was started by Bush Jr. If it was a Democrat they wouldn’t have been against it. Nevermind all the Dems that started it. GOP = bad, Dem = good, and for the parts that overlap, it’s bad if GOP is currently in charge and a necessary evil/tolerable inconvenience if the Dems are in charge.

        See also: Children in cages at the border

        • falgscode [they/them]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          23
          ·
          3 days ago

          a significant amount of libs opposed the Iraq war because it was started by Bush Jr. If it was a Democrat they wouldn’t have been against it.

          well 99.9% is a significant amount

          Clinton’s NATO bombed the Chinese embassy 5 years before and not one peep

          • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            2 days ago

            Clinton’s NATO bombed the Chinese embassy 5 years before and not one peep

            I’ve posted about that several times. It happened while I was in high school. It blew my mind to see the media let the DOD say that they didn’t do it on purpose but they also hadn’t done anything wrong in planning or executing the mission. It was an early radicalizing moment to see how I apparently didn’t deserve a coherent explanation for why this happened.

        • CarsAndComrades [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          edit-2
          3 days ago

          Thank you, this is a perfect description. I’ve been arguing with a liberal friend who seems to blame everyone but the DNC and Harris campaign for their loss, it’s so frustrating and confusing why so many people are ride-or-die for the Dems.

          • GoodGuyWithACat [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            29
            ·
            3 days ago

            The ride or die Dems make sense because it’s the last thing holding their entire world view back from collapsing. Republicans are overtly evil so they’re not an option. Third parties have no real chance of elections or social change. There are no mainstream activist groups that have social capital or numbers for change (like the civil rights movements).

            So the Dems are all you have left to believe in the system. If you admit to yourself Dems are coconspirators in all the bad things about America, then you have no real reason to think America is a force for good. So for the majority of liberals the cognitive dissonance is an easier pill to swallow than saying “Are we the baddies?” Not to mention there is an infinite amount of media for you to consume that reinforces that dissonance so you don’t have to think about it.

    • I feel like your last sentence there captures something very important about the impact of current discourses pretty much everywhere in the west. And it feels more like something the libs in power prefer then are againts as it creates this hard divide that is kind of difficult to pin down.

      • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        As always, completely mystifying class and class conflict makes it impossible for a liberal to tell what the fuck is going on.

        I have had the same conversations for decades, and we’re back to ground zero as soon as she watches tv.

  • ZWQbpkzl [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    3 days ago

    I guess Bill O’Riely would be the Republican equivalent of her

    Wrong, Bill is the shoulders which Rachel stands on. Every cable news talking head is copying his game. Bill walked so Tucker could run. He’s only irrelevant now because he accelerated the american conservative past him.

  • RiotDoll [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    i feel like it’s a mistake to let the face of these operations have too much credit. This is a performance, and it is an editorial team that sets her agenda, it’s a crew that manages her image, and it’s the network that gives her the platform - the personalities of these people are there for your consumption and an icon you’re encouraged to relate to and see as a teacher.

    A friendly feminine presence who is there every night to tell you how to be an obedient little liberal

    but never forget she’s just a performer in an ensemble.

  • SteamedHamberder [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    55
    ·
    3 days ago

    John Stewart was a cheerleader for norms and civility from about 2002-2015. He defined what as worthy of ridicule (Kucinich, Chelsea Manning, occupy movement) and ultimately what was worthy of respect .

    • Lussy [any, hy/hym]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 days ago

      Yeah this is insane and would imply Maddow is good at what she does lol there’s not many burgers who give a shit about Russian interference

      • SevenSkalls [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Ya if there were, Trump probably wouldn’t have won lol. Since all the Russia propaganda is generally aimed at the libs, but it still wasn’t enough to get them to go out and vote.

  • kittin [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    Red MAGA propaganda - can you believe the libs think they know better than us, rage

    Blue MAGA propaganda - we libs know better than them, rage

    Synthesis: red libs who know better than everyone how to loot the country by enraging everyone as a distraction

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    3 days ago

    It’s plausible that Russia preferred Trump to his Democratic rivals, and did a little bit of trolling to fuck with America. But only to the tune of 0.1% of their military budget, not the 20% of GDP it would take to get anywhere near what BlueMAGA keeps accusing.

    • LanyrdSkynrd [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 days ago

      My impression is it’s less about pushing Trump and more about causing conflict within the US. There were Internet Research Agency(commonly called a troll farm) linked accounts pushing both sides of the COVID stuff, both sides during the BLM protests, etc.

      Dems blaming things on Russian disinformation plays right into that goal, too. If you want to rile up the US populace, make people feel like everyone they disagree with is brainwashed by evil outside forces. Republicans did the same shit with TikTok, blaming China for young leftists, trans people, etc.

  • GoodGuyWithACat [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    3 days ago

    I remember in 2016 right after the election she was on some talk show and made some word salad like “Well Trump has a lot of policies that want to help only Americans so he’s a nationalist. And he has policies that want to make sweeping social change, like a socialist. So he’s really a national socialist.” And I was nodding along with my lib brain.

  • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    3 days ago

    Can’t think of other examples. Just wanted to say that this happening is horrifying.

    • sexywheat [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      3 days ago

      Yeah comrade, I was once accused of “spreading Russian propaganda” for simply sharing an article written by Benjamin Norton (the article had absolutely nothing to do with Russia whatsoever) because he was on a Russia Today podcast once (I guess?).

      Absolutely deranged shit.

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        I mean, where do you even go from there? It’s worse than being a rabid flat earther. That generation that said TV turns brains to mush was right.

        • sexywheat [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          3 days ago

          Yeah it sure is a conversation ender. Not much you can say to that if they’re just gonna stomp their feet whenever you disagree with them about something.

        • sexywheat [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          3 days ago

          Indeed, but this particular accusation was in a politics chat for a podcast. So, amazingly, a real person.

          Though I’m sure they adopted their “debate skills” from those same fake reddit posters and hasbara bots.

  • ButtBidet [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    3 days ago

    Back before I was an ML I knew a few PMC liberal types who listened to Rachel Maddow. Yes, those individuals were the worst humans one could imagine. But what used to shock me was how non-Amerikans would listen for an hour (?) each day about Russian electoral interference.

  • underwire212@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    2 days ago

    I literally don’t know anyone who believes that. Of course, my circle of friends is extremely limited and unrepresentative of the general population, so I could be wrong. But you’re also generalizing half the population of a (assuming here) country you don’t even live in lol.

    But yeah Rachel Maddow sucks

  • coolusername@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    who takes rachel maddow seriously? i dont see why anyone would waste time watching her show. it’s not entertaining and not truthful in any way.