• @dhork
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    10 months ago

    “Well, they did it in Hawaii in 1960. They had an alternative slate,” Watters countered. “It’s fine. It’s been done before. And the other thing is, like, why can’t you just ask Mike Pence to do that? Mike Pence said no.”

    I hadn’t heard of that, so I looked it up:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_election_in_Hawaii

    That was Kennedy vs Nixon, and there were important differences vs the shitshow that happened in 2020/2021:

    • after the first full count, Nixon was ahead by just 147 votes, but there were legit math errors in the count

    • nobody invoked fraud claims to justify the recount, but they just wanted the count to be accurate.

    • the full retabulation couldn’t finish by the safe harbor deadline, so everyone agreed to certify both slates of electors. One slate wasn’t done on the sly.

    • just before Congress counted the votes, they affirmed that Kennedy actually won, and the Republican governor air-mailed his certification to Congress.

    • Both slates were presented to the Vice President, and he got unanimous consent from the Senate to accept Kennedy’s slate and ignore Nixon’s.

    • That VP was Nixon himself!

    Richard Millhous Nixon himself, with more integrity than Donald Trump…

    • @[email protected]
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      2010 months ago

      It is all about having a thin veneer of reasoning, no matter how wrong, it always is. So now they can advance to the next wrong thing with this new justification in their toolbox.

      I’ll say it again, but you can have a look at basically any position held by modern conservatives, anything, and it always end up being very wrong, based on paper-thin arguments. This is how they ended up with their own alternative reality, one very wrong conclusion at a time, wrapped in a thin argument. Conservative don’t care to look pas the conclusion, some are in it for themselves, but I think most are just morons.

      • @dhork
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        110 months ago

        Exactly, and all you have to do is look to this thing in Hawaii, and compare it with what is going on now.

        While I’m sure that there were some in Hawaii who wanted to StOp ThE cOuNt while their candidate was leading, there seemed to be a genuine desire to find the true outcome, and a recognition that the problems were due to error and not fraud. (This was their first Presidential election since becoming a state in 1959). Then, when the outcome became apparent, all sides acknowledged it, even the side that lost. (But it should be noted that Hawaii’s 3 EC votes would not have made a difference to the outcome, and maybe Tricky Dick would have done something different if it had.)

        The modern Conservative movement is rudderless, it has no direction other than amassing power and subjugating people who dont agree with them. (And that’s more than my opinion; they never bothered to make a platform in 2020 other than shouting “America First!”). Anyone who acts with the same integrity as the Republicans in Hawaii back then would be immediately called “RINOs” and have a ton of fundraising aimed toward a primary opponent. They would be accused of “helping the enemy”, even though we’re all Americans here, whether we’re model Conservatives or not.

    • Jordan Lund
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      1410 months ago

      So Hawaii was a TOTALLY different case for a few different reasons:

      1. By the time the electors needed to be submitted, they legitimately DID NOT KNOW who won the election. So they submitted two slates of electors, one for Kennedy, one for Nixon, with the proviso that only the slate for the winner should be counted when the tabulation happened in early January.

      2. BOTH slates formed in the Hawaii '60 election were official slates chosen by the state. They weren’t just a made up slate selected by god knows who.

    • @qwertyqwertyqwerty
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      4010 months ago

      They argued in court that the iconic characters on their shows are not journalists and that they aren’t a “news” channel for most of the day….and won.

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      This is one weakness of free soecieties. Even in good-natured reporting and arguments, it is very difficult to differentiate between a lie or a statement simply being wrong or different than yours. If you give an institution the power to decide what can be reported, what constitutes lies and such, this could get abused to silence all opposing voice.

      This leave us extremely vulnerable to propaganda, since bad actors have access to the same immunity journalists earned over time. It really is hard to differentiate the two legally.

      This leave only one way of getting rid of propaganda, and it is to prove intent. Have them admit that they’re lying on purpose. I guess 1 strike for fox wasnt enough.

  • @Blade9732
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    6910 months ago

    So, let me get this straight: Fox news, the republicans, Trumpers, ect. are arguing that “Sleepy” Joe Biden is allowed to submit fake electors to congress, no matter the votes for Trump, and KAMALA HARRIS gets to declare herself and Biden the winners of the next election? The Republicans are okay with this very legal series of events?

    • @mindbleach
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      610 months ago

      Of course not. They’re saying it’s okay when they do it.

      This is not a snarky reply. This is a fact we need to stop treating as obscure or questionable. Stop pretending their bullshit exists in any worldview where fairness applies. Don’t even do it rhetorically. It is an obstacle to internalizing how conservatives think.

      It’s simple and it’s nonsense and it’s terrifying.

    • @[email protected]
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      410 months ago

      Meanwhile Trump is out there telling people to vote for him while also claiming that the votes don’t matter because Republicans should just decide who wins.

    • @Xanthobilly
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      410 months ago

      No see, they’re Democrats. In/out-group behavior explains this perfectly. A member of the in-group can do no wrong, while a member of the out-group is never right. Instead of logic, the GOP functions mostly on tribalism and feelings, with classism and racism being two forms they use to appeal to the base. Religion being another. It’s not about a consistent philosophy. It’s about how it feels in the moment and does it help with the feeling of fear.

    • @jeffw
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      3410 months ago

      I mean, he’s employed by Fox, so…

  • @[email protected]
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    3110 months ago

    This is how they always do it. Vehemently deny that he did it until the evidence is incontrovertible. Then do a complete 180 and say of course he did it but there’s nothing wrong with that.

    • Davel23
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      2010 months ago

      That didn’t happen.
      And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
      And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
      And if it is, that’s not my fault.
      And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
      And if I did, you deserved it.

      The Narcissist’s Prayer.

    • Jordan Lund
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      310 months ago

      Standard Republican obstruction.

      Global warming is not happening!
      OK, maybe it’s happening, but there’s no evidence it’s human caused!
      OK, maybe it’s happening, and maybe it’s human caused, but doing something about it would be too large an economic burden! <- You are here.
      OK, maybe it’s happening, maybe it’s human caused, and maybe the costs to fix it were less than the costs of doing nothing… but now it’s too late anyway…

    • @[email protected]
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      210 months ago

      yup, and somehow they found out that it does not matter if you’re always wrong publicly while being recorded. All you need to do is to never admit to it, and double down on the next wrong step really hard with extreme confidance. Throw in a few accusations that your oponents did worse, even if this is without merits, and voila. Using this simple trick you could become the most influential person in the world.

  • 667
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    2510 months ago

    The Narcissist’s Prayer (by Dayna Craig)

    That didn’t happen.
    And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
    And if it was, that’s not a big deal. &lt;[ They are here]
    And if it is, that’s not my fault.
    And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
    And if I did, you deserved it.

    • IHeartBadCode
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      410 months ago

      The Narcissist’s Prayer (by Dayna Craig)

      That didn’t happen. &lt;[ They are here]
      And if it did, it wasn’t that bad. &lt;[ They are here]
      And if it was, that’s not a big deal. &lt;[ They are here]
      And if it is, that’s not my fault. &lt;[ They are here]
      And if it was, I didn’t mean it. &lt;[ They are here]
      And if I did, you deserved it. &lt;[ They are here]

      FTFY

      • @[email protected]
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        110 months ago

        haha, yep. It seems to me that we’re constantly bombarded by conflicting statements as they move back and forth in the prayer. They usually just regurgitate the argument of least resistance that fits the conversation.

        “Jan6 was false flag” " Free the patriots who did nothing wrong" “Nothing happened on Jan6” “This is what you get when you steal elections” “A coup is no big deal”

  • GreenBottles
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    2210 months ago

    Fox is 100% a co conspirator in this madness

    • @gAlienLifeform
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      910 months ago

      Always have been, they were started by Nixon administration veterans who wanted to make sure the next time a Watergate happened they got away with it (which they pretty much did with both Iran Contra and the 2003 Iraq War)

  • @RGB3x3
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    1210 months ago

    It’s just a ridiculous word salad. That entire quote makes zero sense. What is he even trying to say?

    This man is as much if not more of a moron than Carlson was (is).

  • EnderWi99in
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    1110 months ago

    I have no idea who Jesse Watters is and I intend on remaining ignorant on the subject.

    • @DAVENP0RT
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      210 months ago

      He took over Tucker Carlson’s time slot, so you’ll probably hear a lot more of his word vomit make it into headlines in the future. Fortunately, he seems like an idiot; unfortunately, the Fox News viewership is too dumb to notice.

  • BarterClub
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    910 months ago

    The government really should sue Fox news. This is really getting out of hand with about of lies they say.

    • @[email protected]
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      210 months ago

      This is kind of a pandora box. They need to prove intent, and probably link them to the coup with hard proofs. Otherwise you’re just saying it is Ok for government officials to attack “journalists” (quotes for fox news respectively)

  • @[email protected]
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    910 months ago

    Random unrelated thought: anyone ever find it odd or wonder why all the people who snap and become mass shooters never seem to target bags of ass like this guy? Just a completely random thought unrelated to this article. Just his face and knowledge of his statements caused this totally unrelated thought to emerge.

    • Turkey_Titty_city
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      1010 months ago

      because people who snap tend to be right wingers who think black people shopping at Safeway are ‘the enemy’.

      They worship bags of ass like this guy and wish they could be them.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        And to add to that, people that cause actual harm are usually money-loaded, surrounded by security and don’t interact with the general public much, while random passers-by are, by definition, everywhere around you, so they are significantly easier to target.

    • @[email protected]
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      210 months ago

      You need a sense of high entitlement to become a mass shooter, and they usually target a very specific demographic. I think statically this will end up being right winger targeting minority, but I would need to do more research on this, this is just speculation.

  • ArugulaZ
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    610 months ago

    I heard if you shout “Falafel! Falafel! Falafel!” really loudly, that sends Jesse Watters shrieking back to Hell (aka Fox News headquarters).

  • @TokenBoomer
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    410 months ago

    The inside of his head must sound like a running vacuum.

  • @PunnyName
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    410 months ago

    So let’s get Mr Waters on the chopping block.