Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill.
“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance posted Saturday on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”
Vance has claimed, falsely, in recent days that Haitians — who are not Africans — living in Springfield — a town of 58,000 which is not Dayton — were stealing, killing, and consuming their neighbors’ pets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism
Stochastic terrorism is political violence that has been instigated by hostile public rhetoric which is directed at a group or an individual. Unlike incitement to terrorism, stochastic terrorism is accomplished by using indirect, vague, or coded language that allows the instigator to plausibly disclaim responsibility for the resulting violence.[1] A key element is the use of social media and other distributed forms of communications where the person who carries out the violence has no direct connection to the users of violent rhetoric.[2]
They’re also purposefully leaning into this to keep the conversation about immigration, because it’s pretty much the only issue they have had an advantage on. Without Trump talking about eating pets, we’d all be talking about his abortion stance right now, which is deeply unpopular.
Democrats need to respond by making the story about why Trump killed the bipartisan immigration bill.
That bill was a super republican bill, I honestly do not know why the Democrats keep bragging about this as if every “bipartisan” bill has merit. The Overton Window continues to shift right. Just because the vociferous Republicans spouted incorrect information about the bill, that doesn’t make the quality of actual bill have any merit. I’m ashamed that any democrat thought this"immigration" reform bill was something worth fighting for. It is an anti immigration package that gives significantly more money and power to homeland security. It focused on funding border walls, detention centers, increasing the burden of proof required for asylum seekers, among others. It is a horrendous bill that cares little for immigrants.
That only underscores the point of advertising their refusal to pass it: it should have fully satisfied Republicans and given them most of what they want, but the Orange Shit Stain said not to pass it so they could complain about immigration during the election.
Democrats should use it as a loud and constant example of how Republicans are not leaders and have no solutions for America.
Yeah, you shouldn’t work with them on such heinous human rights abusing packages. That is what it underscores to me. If anyone actually read the bill, we might critically push back on the Democrats and make positive change instead of this bipartisan rivalry nonsense. It serves the status quo, not any of us. If the bill had any merit , I’d be totally with you on that point.
You’re not understanding me. Yes, the bill was awful and should not have had their support.
So given that, what exactly is the Republican justification for not supporting it? That needs to be highlighted so that perhaps enough GOP voters just stay home on election day - especially in swing states.
Like it or not, Republicans must not win this election so that our democracy survives. We will have lots of work to do after the election to push the Democrats back to supporting the average person and not the rich, but that’s the next fight and not this one!
Hold your nose and vote for democracy.
Oh I understand you. I don’t think you understand that voting for Democratics and criticizing them is more than OK, it is necessary.
Yeah, because advertising that you used a social murder bill to bluff with makes you sound SUPER sympathetic to the people who would have died if fascists had called your bluff 🙄
I don’t think it was a bluff, unfortunately. Neither do I think they should not criticize the Republicans for their behavior.
The point is that it was agreed to by both parties and Trump still had it killed so the mere concept of cooperatively working with the other party got thrown out the window.
It is important to keep reminding people that Trump refuses to do anything (or even allow things to be done) that doesn’t serve his own personal goals . He will actively prevent things from happening if that serves him better, regardless of the consequences to anyone else.
I honestly do not know why the Democrats keep bragging about this as if every “bipartisan” bill has merit
Because it’s what they do. To the Dem leadership, bipartisanship is the highest achievement in politics, no matter how awful the actual content.
If you could demonstrate bipartisan backing, they’d gladly declare this flag from Community the new national flag of the United States:
In fact, both that flag and the “Human Being” mascot (pictured below, middle) of the school’s football team are parodies of the way Dem leadership operates.
Exactly. Those ads should be in every commercial break in the swing states.
This is it. If were talking about immigrants not eating pets, we’re not talking about how Harris whooped trumps ass.
Baffling to think that such blatant and easily disproven lies can be beneficial to their cause.
Offering a $5000 bounty for video proof is the same as paying $5000 for someone to manufacture the proof. This is like a Cobra bounty in India only results in Cobra farms.
JFC, the person who started all this on Facebook says it’s false and these freaks are like “NOPE, THIS IS ALL WE CARE ABOUT NOW”
That person deserves some jail time
That person har indirectly gotten someone murdered.
People, remember how Trump presidency went! Bad news for Trump? Float a batshiit crazy thing to get the media to play with that shiny ball instead. This is a fucking distraction, Trump lost the debate, he is courting fascists, he is old and weird and people leave his rallys bored, he had to throw a stink bomb
*courting other fascists
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Cats have been known to scratch up a couch. Hummmm.
this is the reason
(the reason I am going to be spreading from now on hahahah)
No, it isn’t a couch.
They are often found residing on or near couches though
JD watches Backroom Casting Couch for a different reason than most of us.
Harvey Weinstein was so disappointed.
Well we know he’s gotten freaky with a dolphin so a cat seems plausible.
Wow. They are really going over the deep end on this. How could this possibly help them win votes?
Backtracking equals flip-flopping, and then it’s a slippery slope to learning and growing and admitting you were wrong.
You’re probably right. And if they’re going to keep swimming towards the bottom of the pool, I really want journalists to start asking them why Haitians are eating pets. Because that’s the part that they haven’t actually made clear.
Haitians don’t eat dogs and cats in Haiti. The Haitians in Springfield aren’t starving, most of them have jobs. So why are they eating them, JD?
JD isn’t talking to people who think stuff through like that, he’s talking to racists and they don’t care if it’s true or not, it gives them an excuse to feel that way.
They need to send Jose Maria Del Pino, the reporter who kicked Stephen Miller right in his whataboutism. That dude was relentless and would not fall for his shit.
JD would be fucked.
Dude has an accent in his voice, ergo he’s “biased” according to the loonies.
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It’s a distraction, classic Trump move to get you to look at something else
A distraction from what? What is overt, disgusting racism distract from in any helpful way?
It gets them angry and supporting Republican anti-immigrant positions, instead of thinking about the issues that actually affect them, like why Steward Health Care was allowed to buy hospitals, squeeze as much money out of them as possible, give the CEO $250m, and then go bankrupt, leaving hundreds of people without healthcare.
You think people don’t think about the dire financial straits they are in because Trump and Vance are being racists? And somehow that helps Trump get elected?
None of that makes any sense.
When someone is out of work, and the media tells them it’s because of immigrants stealing their jobs, and not because of private equity squeezing companies to death for profit, yes, it helps Trump and the Republicans get elected.
The media isn’t telling them that. The media is telling them that isn’t true. Trump and Vance and their surrogates are telling them that. Trump was literally corrected in the debate.
Here, an instance of media, in the “immigrants are taking your jobs” category. It demonizes Tyson while conveniently ignoring that Republicans haven’t done a damn thing for labor in my lifetime.
I do not have the spoons necessary to bring you up to speed on everything that’s happened in politics in the past few decades that you should already know. Honestly, I feel like I’m getting sealioned here.
His dithering, weak, incoherent performance in the debate? Or is that already forgotten?
But he literally talked about this in the debate…
The topic does not matter.
The assertion at hand does not matter.
Whether anyone believes the assertion does not matter.
The only thing that matters is: Are you playing offense or defense?
Cuz attacking looks like winning. And explaining looks like losing.
Okay? Well they’re being attacked. Massively. So I guess this distraction isn’t working out for them.
Who is defending? Not them, they are doubling down. Everyone else is calling the mayor and asking for a statement, or doing some vox pop with Haitians on the ground.
Yes, and all of those statements essentially are “Donald Trump and JD Vance are racist liars.”
Which you seem to think people shouldn’t say.
It “seems” you are wrong. I think they should go on the attack, and do that.
Overt, disgusting racism is what his voters support, so it is a good distraction if there was news about something they don’t support. They support everything, as long as it is evil, though, so do not ask me what that could be.
I don’t think this is going to help at all. Black people are going to be pissed.
They are too used to the typical news cycle where they bombard the public with lies to the point where everyone starts believing those are real. They’ve grown complacent.
Given most of the stuff right wingers complain about is projection, maybe we need to check this guy’s myfitnesspal
I don’t know about JD, but RFK, Jr. once literally got accused of eating a dog, so you think he at least would be out there calling them on this bullshit.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4753486-rfk-jr-vanity-fair-article/
Apparently not though. Guess it’s okay when the accusation is against black immigrants.
JDV is like a toddler trying to trick you by hiding behind the curtains, but you can still see his Scooby Doo Velcro shoes and he’s back there giggling.
I was thinking more like an Ivy League graduate from a Lawyering the Dark Arts School of Deceptive Loopholes and Twisting, but I see your point.
Edit: added a word
“Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”
This is the most infuriating thing they do. They assume that any developing story is actually the most extreme version that favors their side. Then they ignore all evidence to the contrary and fish for any evidence that they can claim as confirmation, even if it doesn’t pass the laugh test. But they assert “It was confirmed!” with such confidence and shamelessness that it becomes easier for people to believe them, and eventually the media stops trying to debunk them.
Definitely not the first time this happened. If you wanna find other examples, look at anything where experts on the topic believe one thing but a majority of the American people believe the other. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the thing the American people believe originated as GOP propaganda.
I wish I had told myself that from 25 years ago before I went online and was exposed to these people with all the naivety of the socially underdeveloped autistic 17 year old that I was at the time. I often have to learn things in the hardest way imaginable.
A nutjob conservative on Lemmy has been telling me that babies are being executed in post-birth abortions using these same tactics.
CH CH CH CHICK CHECKMATE!
Swift, the crazy cat lady, gives endorsement, distract with crazy cat news. This is a distraction, Trump does this
Being super racist as a distraction is not a very good distraction. It also doesn’t distract from the Swift endorsement at all.
Nobody is talking about anything right now except the memes around cats and dogs. You and I, we agree it’s racist, but independents may buy this hook without thinking it’s racist. We agree that everything coming out of his mouth is lies and garbage, but independents are much more neutral and are willing to give him, the former president, the benefit of the doubt. They probably are thinking, wow, things have gotten bad in Springfield, instead of haha what a crazy old man who lost the debate. They aren’t thinking about swift because this cat thing has completely flooded the zone. This is what Trump did all for years
That “may” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
They “may” see it as the extremely racist thing that is so racist that even Republicans are saying “stop with the racism.”
Or they may like the little tickle of racism,or any number of other explanations… The point is we are in a bubble and have no freaking idea what they actually think, so plausible statements aren’t that heavy of a lift. They may do as you say as well, but your may is no lighter of a lift
Then why are you arguing that it’s a distraction?
Because it is?
Either it’s definitely a distraction or we have no idea what they actually think. You can’t have it both ways.
I guess this will be the new birth certificate thing for them.
That, at least, had a vague air of plausibility. People do come to the U.S. illegally and people do have faked identification documents. It also only attacked one person. This is attacking a whole group of people with a ludicrous (and very obviously racist) charge. I realize there are a lot of idiots in this country, but I have a feeling this is going beyond the pale for some people who were going to vote for Trump. I don’t know that they’ll vote for Harris, but they might sit this one out.
it would be so much work to stalk, kill, prep and eat someone’s dog or cat. people don’t even keep their pets outside much anymore. If people had pigs or some larger, meatier pets kept outside all hours at least it’d be a more realistic lie but like c’mon… who’s out there with fuggen ninja cat hunting skills? What are they using to quietly and efficiently kill these pets? Who even got that kinda time?
If this dumb cluck had any sense he’d say they were buying pups from PetSmart or breeding them themselves to eat or something. That lie would at least be in the realm of possibility! Nobody’s pets would have to disappear before an idiot believed it!
Fucking loser can’t even stoke hate properly
Stalking a cat would be hard, but trapping one is easy.
The reason people don’t eat their neighbors’ cats isn’t because it’d be difficult, it’s because most people aren’t absolute psychopaths like JD Vance
Seriously, there’s better eating on a pigeon, and they’re easier to catch.
They don’t CARE about the facts or how absurd their claims are. Also pet eating is something that, in times past, was a racist slur foisted onto Asians, like Chinese restaurants who cooked cat instead of beef or chicken, and more specifically Koreans, who did consume dog meat sparingly, but that was something that happened historically it was never common and dog meat consumption is actually illegal now in South Korea, and eating dog meat has been in rapid decline for decades anyway.
Seeing Haitians get called pet eaters is actually a very new thing.
Eating a dog or cat you have bred yourself would make PETA angry. Eating a beloved family pet of a true blooded hard working American would make a lot more people angry.
US politics is hilarious. Why do you even waste time on those dumbasses? Go and do productive things. You have lots of time while this crazy trumpy shit is going on.
Because we’re fucking terrified of them winning.
I wouldn’t like to be paralyzed in terror. It’s not reasonable and not useful. I would be wise to think what to do instead.
Get back to us when when your country is a hair’s breadth from being taken over by a fascist dictator.
Actively doing something useful is what I suggested. It has already been communicated that the entire topic is bullshit.
Talking inside the bubble is not helpful anymore. There is no one listening here who could change an opinion about Trump.
this a thousand times over.
I would be wise to think what to do instead.
THIS^ this is the statement that needs to be repeated over and over in leftist american circles.
i think if we worked on this instead of endless whining and worrying, the problem would be gone by now. the solutions are simple. sorry you got downvoted. you didn’t deserve it.
Did you know: people can do more than one thing
Because ignoring them will only allow them to grow larger and stronger unchecked. It’s like talking about ignoring an obvious stalker who is clearly building a plan on your daily movements and knows exactly where you live and when you leave/return home. They can be a remarkably stupid person but they will eventually find the perfect opportunity to strike and you will never be able to get any justice for it.
That is literally something that happened to me. More than once.
There is no such thing as an “honest conservative”. No such thing.
