Catherine Connolly, a left-wing independent, has been elected as Ireland's president. She secured 63% of the votes in a landslide victory on Saturday, defeating center-right rival Heather Humphreys.
I bet my left nut that we will see a large social media disinformation campaign coming down on Ireland soon and a shift to hard right politics the next election.
There’s a small hard right in the US (and probably most other places that are starting to get more authoritarian), that doesn’t stop them from manipulating their moderate compatriots.
Far-right groups in the United States have unfortunately become more widespread, as illustrated by the roughly 30% of Americans who consistently poll in favor of Trump’s political positions, even in the case of otherwise unpopular policies.
As has happened in similarly backsliding democracies such as Turkey and Hungary, the increasing control of the American far-right over print media, broadcast media, and social media has resulted in the silencing of dissent and is unduly influencing public opinion to improve their odds in future elections.
Yes, but those are far-right groups who represent a tiny minority manipulating more moderate right-leaning demographics. Most Trump voters you’ll meet will probably be really personable until you hit a specific topic they’ve been trained to react negatively to.
Thats the main problem in fighting these trends, people expect everyone supporting these awful policies to actually know what they mean and represent the hard right that is just influencing them.
Ireland understand colonialism from the victim point of view. Americans “leftists” are swooning over an Abu Ghraib torturer with a Nazi tattoo who says he didn’t know it was a Nazi tattoo he just wanted to get a tattoo of a skull to commemorate his four tours fighting, as if that’s better. That’s today’s US progressive.
Do you have a name to go with that torturer or do I get to just take your word for it?
“Leftist” is a particularly difficult descriptor to nail down, especially in the US. It can refer to people with actually progressive views, or just people who see something that helps them advocate violence against people they dont like, or even elements of Stalinism that people like to assume is progressive when it’s closer to fascism in practice.
Oh, there is no need for the troll farm spreading the disinformation to be Irish… It could be based in any dictatorship wanting to sow division in democracies to weaken them. It’s happened before.
Ireland’s current president that she’s replacing is also fairly left wing. It’s a ceremonial position for the most part. The head of the Irish government is the Taoiseach which is essentially the PM. The president is just the head of state.
You had me in the first half and then said the irish will go right. They are, by and large, the most oppressed, most stepped on, most ignored people in the world. But hey do have each other. There is not a way in hell that Ireland will pivot to hating their neighbors, they’re too socially advanced for that. And before you say it hit other “advanced” societies too, I said socially advanced. The one thing the USA has been stripping from every other part of the west, where it was still left.
I bet my left nut that we will see a large social media disinformation campaign coming down on Ireland soon and a shift to hard right politics the next election.
Say goodbye to your left nut. There’s a small hard right in Ireland, the rest of us are too busy enjoying ourselves
There’s a small hard right in the US (and probably most other places that are starting to get more authoritarian), that doesn’t stop them from manipulating their moderate compatriots.
Far-right groups in the United States have unfortunately become more widespread, as illustrated by the roughly 30% of Americans who consistently poll in favor of Trump’s political positions, even in the case of otherwise unpopular policies.
As has happened in similarly backsliding democracies such as Turkey and Hungary, the increasing control of the American far-right over print media, broadcast media, and social media has resulted in the silencing of dissent and is unduly influencing public opinion to improve their odds in future elections.
Yes, but those are far-right groups who represent a tiny minority manipulating more moderate right-leaning demographics. Most Trump voters you’ll meet will probably be really personable until you hit a specific topic they’ve been trained to react negatively to.
Thats the main problem in fighting these trends, people expect everyone supporting these awful policies to actually know what they mean and represent the hard right that is just influencing them.
Ireland understand colonialism from the victim point of view. Americans “leftists” are swooning over an Abu Ghraib torturer with a Nazi tattoo who says he didn’t know it was a Nazi tattoo he just wanted to get a tattoo of a skull to commemorate his four tours fighting, as if that’s better. That’s today’s US progressive.
Trump is a symptom, not the disease.
Do you have a name to go with that torturer or do I get to just take your word for it?
“Leftist” is a particularly difficult descriptor to nail down, especially in the US. It can refer to people with actually progressive views, or just people who see something that helps them advocate violence against people they dont like, or even elements of Stalinism that people like to assume is progressive when it’s closer to fascism in practice.
Aye, in terms of actual numbers there was a small hard right in Germany in the 1930s…
Sometimes you can seize power as a minority if you’re sneaky and underhanded enough, or if your opponent is complacent and weak.
People are easily fooled into acting against their own interests and helping their enemies defeat them (Brexit being an obvious recent example).
Oh, there is no need for the troll farm spreading the disinformation to be Irish… It could be based in any dictatorship wanting to sow division in democracies to weaken them. It’s happened before.
Ireland’s current president that she’s replacing is also fairly left wing. It’s a ceremonial position for the most part. The head of the Irish government is the Taoiseach which is essentially the PM. The president is just the head of state.
Oh, was the last president the guy who brought his dog everywhere?
Sure is! Catherine has some big shoes to fill because “Miggeldy” is beloved. The fact that she can ball helps.
You had me in the first half and then said the irish will go right. They are, by and large, the most oppressed, most stepped on, most ignored people in the world. But hey do have each other. There is not a way in hell that Ireland will pivot to hating their neighbors, they’re too socially advanced for that. And before you say it hit other “advanced” societies too, I said socially advanced. The one thing the USA has been stripping from every other part of the west, where it was still left.
The irish are going nowhere.
Im willing to bet no one is doing that for the President of Ireland because their actual leader is the PM.
Good thing I said next election, not next presidential election.