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.

  • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    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]

    • protist
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      3 months ago

      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.

        • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          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.

          • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            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.

            • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              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.

              • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                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.

                • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Oh I understand you. I don’t think you understand that voting for Democratics and criticizing them is more than OK, it is necessary.

                  • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    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.

                    I’ve been attempting to respond to your original comment. The Democrats are not using this to brag. They are using it to highlight the failures of the Republican party.

                    I walked around knocking on doors in an unfriendly neighborhood for Bernie Sanders, so you don’t need to talk to me about criticizing Democrats or wanting them to move left.

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              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 🙄

              • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                I don’t think it was a bluff, unfortunately. Neither do I think they should not criticize the Republicans for their behavior.

          • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            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.

          • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            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.

      • ashok36@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        This is it. If were talking about immigrants not eating pets, we’re not talking about how Harris whooped trumps ass.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Baffling to think that such blatant and easily disproven lies can be beneficial to their cause.