this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Leopards Ate My Face

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[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 46 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Man, this isn't even "doing your research" it's just knowing what very basic words mean.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That’s actually a huge problem I’ve had with a right winger.

Even though he was relatively reasonable, we got stuck because we could not agree on what fascism means.

I was good to use a dictionary or better yet Wikipedia. He said it can only mean what Mussolini meant when he came up with the term.

What was annoying is that all I wanted to do was say, group X does Y things, Y things are fascism and fascism is bad.

It’s just mental gymnastics because it doesn’t matter what we call it, group X is still doing bad things, but instead we got stuck on details.

Imo this is pretty much all right wing’s only play, dismantle the tools of logic so the conversation doesn’t even happen in the first place.

Mussolini also said that fascism was whatever it needed to be in the nation it was in, for future reference. There is only the pragmatic consolidation of power.

It does not even matter if is the state consolidating power, or the church, or corporations, only that the process is aimed at merging their powers in the end.

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Omg. We’ve come full circle now that smart people are telling idiots to do your own research…

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 80 points 1 day ago (2 children)

and every one of the millions who ~~were~~are just as dumb, will forget the lessons learned well before the next election and vote for it all over again.

[–] obinice@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You know, the one Trump wins with 106% of the totaled votes.

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[–] merdaverse@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Plot twist: the person writing this is President Musk and the employee he's referring to is Trump.

[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I tell people that if they think other countries pay the tariffs they probably believe Mexico is paying for a wall

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 42 points 1 day ago (6 children)

To be fair, economics is not intuitive. Half of it is built out of unicorn dust and human imagination. How else would bitcoin even exist? For those of you who are economists and love the money side, vs the behavioral side, that’s great, we need people like you to explain it to the rest of us.

I work with a real system that will still exist no matter what happens with politics or money, so it takes work, for me. That said, tariffs and inflation are not difficult concepts provided you simply take the time to learn.

I know someone who lost their job in December due to tariffs anticipation, and they were not alone in that group of layoffs. The effects are there even if you fail to learn the reasons.

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[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Doing your own research or, you know, trust the experts? There's no way I will get deep enough into virology to get a proper grasp if I need a vaccination. But I for sure won't trust a random space Karen or brainworm Jimmy.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

literally googling tariffs, brings you to a government page that lists tariffs, duties, and taxes under the same fucking definition.

How people like this DO NOT understand this shit, is beyond me. I can respect the humility in changing your position after being that stupid though, please, due your due diligence before mindlessly repeating the shit other people tell you, so you don't look stupid.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What, visit a website, read it, then comprehend it? What, like a book?! May as well ask them to make a phone call.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

yeah, otherwise you're a dumbass, and will look like one to everyone around you, unfortunately.

This is normal behavior. Ironically they would probably be more than willing to make a phone call.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 22 points 1 day ago

Isn't this the same debate as to how one country can (or cannot) force another country to pay for a random construction project that isn't in anyones interest (that wall)?

It's not like the concept is beyond (basically, 99.9+%) anyones cognitive abilities. It's just how ads (the science behind it is plentiful, it's a giant business sector) work on human brains.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

Of course the employee is wrong, but the OOP isn't tackling the argument in a really productive way. There's an opportunity to meet the employee where they are.

People caught in the right wing noise machine always seem to understand that businesses pass on business taxes to the consumer. So, if other countries were paying the tariffs, why wouldn't they pass those costs on?

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The whole thing was very purposefully talked about using the word "tariff" and never ever its synonym "import tax" exactly so that the traditional Fascist technique of redefining the meaning of words could be easily used: if all the Fascists' speech had been about "import taxes" they would not have been able to leverage most people's ignorance anywhere near this level because the very words "import" and "tax" were already reasonably well understood by most - unlike "tariff" - so the opinion makers would not have been able to miseducate their targets anywhere as easily.

I'm not saying that the people who fell for this are to be excused - if there is something important enough for you to put the effort into educating yourself, it's Politics - I'm saying it's understandable how so many were so easy to swindle.

[–] fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

And the people who voted for the orangetard will still be shafted by him and his mafia yet will continue to blame "obiden" for their economic woes. 🥱

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