29 Comments

Well said. This should be read by every progressive.

Don't let them set the agenda, focus on ours.

The culture wars are how the Republicans distract from their war on democracy, real personal freedoms and the 99%.

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Best article on social media use I've seen in ages. Thanks

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We need to apply the screenshot versus retweet/comment method to shite headlines and crappy takes by our allies as well. Reward and amplify only what furthers our goals.

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Excellent point, Dan, and very well made. Exactly the kind of post I want to engage with and boost! :-)

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This is exactly correct. Online engagement only feeds the disinformation cycle.

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Thank you -- this is excellent. I have been as offended by, for example, Marjorie Taylor Greene as the next person, but I'm sure that the more attention I waste on her, the more likely it is that Gaetz, Jordan, or Hawley, just to throw some names out, are getting away with murder behind the scenes.

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I'm worried people will fall for the "danger of inflation" narrative the fiscal conservatives are trying to introduce. It's a narrative that most democrats will take very seriously.

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I agree 100% Dan. The R's only know how to send out hate and we need to quit responding to it. It only feeds their base and raises $ for them. Maybe if we quit feeding their frenzy, that will leave them to turn the hate on each other. (Now there is a pleasant thought.....) Loved your thoughts on what might have produced a Ted Cruz. I've always wondered----.

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serious question. as a democratic voter with high hopes for the 2018 house and a Biden admin to hold trump accountable, is there a point of voting again? i think it’s clear that dems still have weak messaging, the gop still drives the narrative, and the dems don’t actually do anything. despite the mistakes of the obama admin capitulating to dishonest calls for bipartisanship by the media, the Biden admin is fall for the same trap. why isn’t every democrat getting booked on every show calling out mcconnnel for saying he won’t work then them no matter what? if SB1 isn’t passed democratic turnout will dip 30%. trump crime family not being held accountable for anything by this justice department will lead to more malaise. the dems have a reputation for doing nothing and it’s playing out that way again.

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Grabbing an oar doesn’t mean that once we get a new captain we’re out of rough water; it means that the heading is changing, and we’re rowing towards better water and (hopefully) away from the rocks. Be patient yet engaged. It’s been 4 months. We don’t know all the strategy or plans for accountability. Rather than signaling disengagement (what’s the point of voting again if-) and feeding into the ‘weak dems’ narrative (it”s playing out that way again), there is a way to apply pressure while supporting overall platform (”SB-1 is vital for democracy itself, which is why we’re fighting for it as hard as we fought for the power to enact it” “Democracy requires truth, vision, accountability, and consequences. Take away any one of those pillars, and democracy will weaken.”)

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Very well said Anastasia. I struggle with very thing myself. I’m getting 2010 flashbacks every time I read another article about Joe Manchin, re- districting or about how slim our majority is. I just want them to get the damn things ( filibuster reform, HR 1) over with yet as you say it’s only been 4 months & it’s necessary to be patient. Seriously though the media narratives are irritating as fuck.

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“the media narratives are irritating as fuck”

I feel that to the depths of my soul. This will be a high-stakes experiment to see if we can train the media we all do the screenshot versus comment/reply/retweet to change their calculus.

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You said it. It’s a damn feedback loop anymore. Within a couple weeks of Biden being inaugurated I started noticing ominous articles - in places like the post - quoting Dem strategists basically saying they expect us to lose the house (facepalm). I wasn’t sure whether to be pissed off at the media or said strategists who said it the first place. All I could think was ‘Mo more self fulfilling prophecies!” Seriously what kind of message does that send ?! Doomism never helps ANYBODY - at least not on the left .

But I think/hope that Biden, Schumer & company are intentionally doing that “get caught trying” strategy. That way we nuke the filibuster & say to the GOP “we tried to negotiate but you made us do this !” I guess challenges really are twofold: 1) deal with GOP & 2) Deal with ourselves !

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this is exactly how everyone i know is feeling. just do something. have a plan that people can rally behind. take action on something. stop caving to republicans. biden wiping away $600 billion from the infrastructure bill to satisfy susan collins is a mistake. there won’t be 60 votes regardless. a lot is riding on the justice department as well. as an attorney i feel like my profession is meaningless as laws simply don’t apply to the gop.

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Biden is trying to fix more than just our agenda, and he has to get caught trying at that. I suspect fucking Manchin does as well. Keep that in your head and keep the pressure on, but by using positive action phrasing rather than self-fulfilling defeating.

Yes, this is a lesson even the pod save guys could learn...motivate to action with the positive 50%, accomplishment boasting 40%, apocalyptic doom 15%, rather than the perverse doom cautioning currently. Paint more pictures (publicly) of what can be done with the power than what happens if we don’t use it. And find some goddamn effective catch phrases.

It’s “forced birth” not “pro-life”

It’s “Democracy must be above politics” not “if we don’t do these things we lose”

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Indeed. We need our own catch phrases, every time we use one of the Frank Luntz republicant focus-grouped phrases that means we're buying *their* frame of the argument. And that's starting an argument in the losing position.

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i hear you, but the dems are weak narrative is now bleeding into dem voters. weak messaging is dems achilles heal. before 2018 the blue wave energy was palpable. now losing the house and senate feels inevitable. what will the catalyst be for winning in the midterms?

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There is a way to express it that furthers what you actually want rather than handing the republicans a beneficial narrative.

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NEWS in @PunchbowlNews this AM:

Senate Ds are now unlikely to try using the FY 2021 budget resolution to put together another reconciliation package, according to three sources close to the issue.

Senate Democrats instead will shift their focus to FY 2022. They can use that budget resolution multiple times as well, under MacDonough’s ruling, and they don’t have to worry about the Sept. 30 deadline, Democrats say.

But it also means the debate over infrastructure could drag well into the fall, which will put it on a collision path with the government funding and debt-limit skirmishes.

classic dems

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thanks for putting this out there. Hopefully cable news will also quit re upping the stupidity of the trolls.

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I agree. You always see them explaining they are sharing despicable behavior in the name of "news" but still manage to magnify and spread the horrible tweet or clip of loathsome behavior.

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goddamn i love this. thank you!

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Excellent post. Hope to see this theme repeated. Twitter is addictive, by design, so it's going to take a lot of effort to overcome it's design features and do the right thing.

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This is great information. I love the analogy to donating to someone's campaign.

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It's going to be hard to take this to heart. My rep is Boebert. And I really can't stand that woman.

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Screenshots, screenshots, screenshots. Only reply, comment on, or forward posts you’d pay to see amplified.

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She literally just posted that her "favorite pronoun is Patriot."

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Time to use your new screenshot superpower!

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She’s not only an affront to democracy, decency, and intelligence but also grammar.

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