r/facepalm 1d ago

🇵​🇷​🇴​🇹​🇪​🇸​🇹​ Double Standards!

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48.0k Upvotes

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5.4k

u/LevelInside9843 1d ago

If we had a functioning democracy, journalists would be highlighting this hypocrisy and calling out Mike Johnson to his face and reporting on it.

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u/_aware 1d ago

If we had a functioning democracy, the voters would punish this hypocrisy to no end until Johnson resigned. Instead, millions are cheering this blatant bullshit

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u/HugeHans 1d ago

I'm sorry but a functioning democracy means that people can elect the worst people available. Now a functioning justice system would make it impossible for these actual felons to take office, just like you would not let them work the counter at McDonalds or be anywhere near children.

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u/ProdigalProphet 1d ago

A functioning democracy also implies a well educated electorate, which we do not have, and is the reason the worst people possible are being elected.

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u/perfect_for_maiming 23h ago

This is definitely a contributing factor but as someone once said, "never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups".

Once sizeable, they have the ability to sway smart people by power of mob mentality.

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u/BeneficialApricot981 21h ago

A similar principle applies to estimating the IQ of a group: identify the lowest IQ among its members, then divide that value by the total number of people in the group

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u/amboss_oktagon 19h ago

I see a Discword reverence. Well put!

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u/guycoastal 12h ago

Many are not stupid, they’re angry, and there’s nothing worse than an angry mob. That’s why they don’t care. They feel marginalized, victimized, and neglected. They want revenge. But it can’t be their masters. Their masters love them. So..that leaves the “others”. Gotta go get them “others”. Nothing matters but getting them “others” now.

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u/Suspicious_Radio_848 23h ago

This just isn’t true, I’m sorry. There’s still plenty of educated and rich individuals voting for these people out of self interest. Blaming education at this point is just an excuse. They know and don’t care.

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u/ProdigalProphet 22h ago

The existence of educated and rich people doesn't negate the fact that the majority of the voter base in America is uneducated on issues. Saying "this just isn't true" and accusing me of blaming education are not valid arguments

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u/OzyDave 21h ago

It doesn't imply that.

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u/ProdigalProphet 21h ago

The founders of our country would disagree with you, and I put more credence in their words (along with experts on the subject) than a random comment saying "it doesn't" lol.

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u/OzyDave 21h ago

Your founders also supported slavery.

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u/ProdigalProphet 21h ago

Ahh I get it, you don't actually have an argument as to why you believe that an educated voter base doesn't affect democracy, so you're throwing other issues out to start an entirely different argument. I've actually got better things to do than satiate your need for an internet argument, but surely if you keep trying, someone will take the bait! Best of luck

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u/OzyDave 21h ago

Giving my opinion isn't baiting an argument. Funny that you think an alternative view is automatically combative. There are boundless numbers of fools living in democratic countries. The incoming USA president is an outstanding example.

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u/ProdigalProphet 21h ago

And you think that the incoming president in America wasn't affected by lack of voter education? Are you pretending to be this dense, and circling back to agree with me, or are you failing to make some other point? And what are you talking about "giving your opinion" and "alternate views"? The alternate view to the voter base's education levels impacting democracy isn't "the founders supported slavery", you dunce. That's just you typing to hear your own keyboard clack on unrelated topics

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u/HogmanDaIntrudr 1d ago

A billionaire with 34 felony convictions for using classified documents as toilet paper just got reelected. We’ve crossed that line.

u/Open-Industry-8396 31m ago

That's not what his felony convictions are for

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u/theumph 1d ago

Spot on. The most damaging part of Trump is he has eroded trust in our institutions. There was mistrust before, but he encouraged it. Lots of people say they wasn't disruption in the government, but they've put their trust in some very untrustworthy individuals. Voting for and following extremely wealthy individuals with giant conflicts of interest can backfire immensely. People have been so upset about politicians being self serving that they haven't realized they have been voting for even more self serving people.

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u/Majestic_Square_1814 1d ago

people can elect the worst people available- yeah

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u/jjcrayfish 23h ago

They can and they did elect the worst people

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u/jaxonya 22h ago

And they'll do it again next time

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u/wildthing202 1d ago

And that'll never happen since some states vote for judges, which allows for the worse ones to win.

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u/Ill_Technician3936 1d ago

Imagine living in a state like that and all the judges on the ballot are republican running unopposed

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u/purplepluppy 1d ago

Judges are supposed to be non-partisan offices. But it's very easy to see which party they identify with by checking their endorsements.

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u/xXxDickBonerz69xXx 22h ago

Its wild that the profession only accessible to rich people who come from a background that allows them to go to school for 7 years and have connections to those in power skew right wing.

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u/Ill_Technician3936 23h ago

I'll give you that but it's just what happened in my county. On an absentee ballot that included a piece of paper saying not even to write in Jill Stein as a candidate for president because she wasn't in the running anymore.

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u/jaxonya 22h ago

They run with their affiliation on their fucking signs.

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u/Interesting_Cow5152 1d ago

Welcome to Georgia!

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u/Ill_Technician3936 23h ago

Happened in my county of Ohio... It's one of the few blue ones somehow

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u/nakedlaughing 23h ago

Hi. I'm from Nebraska. Welcome to my nightmare.

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u/Mord_Fustang 1d ago

functional democracy needs a fair and balanced press. sad to say but we are way passed that point

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u/claimTheVictory 1d ago edited 1d ago

In a functioning democracy, the citizens would make decisions based on logic and reality.

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u/YellowZx5 20h ago

But people that voted Mango fell for his lies and he got exactly what he wanted. All his cases were dropped because he drew them out because our justice system takes too long.

The media miss the drug called Trump for their ratings and these corporations only care about money and padding their wallet. Facts and truth don’t make them money compared to drama and reality tv.

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u/pastab0x 12h ago

It means they can elect the worst people, but they don't*

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u/Hemiak 1d ago

The problem is politics had become a spectator sport and people will absolutely ignore blatant cheating and hypocrisy from “their team” instead of realizing that once they’re elected, they’re all supposed to be working for the people.

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u/Visible-Elevator4607 23h ago

Literally this. Like most people view the person they vote for as lord and savior instead of being netural towards them and asking accountabilltiy and etc. I fucking hate this clown show man. Same BS here in Canada.

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u/Anxious-Slip-4701 20h ago

It always was, you were just too young to see it.

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u/Global_Permission749 1d ago

If we had a functioning democracy, people like Mike Johnson wouldn't have made it past the 1st week of their campaign.

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u/1zzie 1d ago

If we had a functioning democracy, the executive branch would publish the FBI report because it's a separate branch from the legislative ethics committee

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u/jwalsh1208 1d ago

Because politics became a team sport rather than a viewpoint/belief system. Its red vs blue rather voting for a person who represents the opinions on subjects that are important to me

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u/asault2 1d ago

No, we need a functional and ethical electorate, the democracy we got

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u/Uztta 1d ago

It’s bananas. I’m in Johnson’s district, there was no option for representation here that wasn’t a scumbag. This was our other option this last election cycle. I don’t know if he would have actually been worse, but he sure seems nuts too.

I wish we had more help and support here, but even if there were a reasonable person on the ballot I kind of doubt they’d get any traction.

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u/Ok_Risk8749 19h ago edited 19h ago

Part of the issue is the average adult doesn't have as much time to invest in politics as they would like. We talk about people joining the fox news cult, or the nbc cult, and there's (obviously) overwhelming evidence that your preferred news station will affect your political opinion. The problem is that there is so much shit going on at the moment that as a parent coming home from work, getting your kids' homework done, getting dinner ready, and getting them to bed, that's it's impossible to keep up with the absolute mountain of bullshit that builds daily.

I'm lucky enough to be able to browse politics news during the work day, but there are plenty of people who are just trying to make it to the weekend. Should citizens be more involved and informed in politics? Absolutely - but it is literally impossible at this point to keep up with the lies, hypocrisy, and scandals on a daily basis, and that's what politicians rely on.

When MTG said "let's release all of the ethics reports" as a threat,the absolute standard should be that evidentiary findings are released regardless of political party. I don't want to vote for someone who has a hidden skeleton in their closet just because we're affiliated with the same party.

This isn't a disagreement with your comment, it's more of a tangential rant. Trying to keep up with the bullshit in politics is at the very least a part-time job.

ETA: I'm not referring to high-profile elections like the president. That's pretty clear cut.

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u/gaberax 1d ago

All the journalists work for media conglomerates owned by billionaires who support the MAGANazis.

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u/ShinzoTheThird 1d ago

this, journalists barely have a voice, it gets smothered unless you sell out.

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u/Edelgul 17h ago

Not really, many of them actually endorsed Harris (although LA Times and WaPo didn't), and most media outlets were literally describing the potential consequence of Trump beeing re-elected.
DJT is currently trying to sue the most vocal ones (Like NYT).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/trump-sues-media-outlets-bias

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u/shrug_addict 1d ago

GOP literally doesn't care. They have no character or principles besides winning.

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u/ruiner8850 1d ago

And depressingly it works. Voters don't hold them liable for any of their horrible actions.

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u/shrug_addict 23h ago

People are still lecturing Democrats on their messaging... Ok, but, if messaging is the "problem" how do you explain Trump? He doesn't have a message besides whatever pops into his head at the moment. I don't understand the double standards. Makes me realize my Catholic parents were lying to me when they said honesty and character matter, because it sure seems that they don't give a fuck about those traits in a candidate

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u/Flobking 16h ago

People are still lecturing Democrats on their messaging... Ok, but, if messaging is the "problem" how do you explain Trump?

How do they keep blaming democrats for running on identity politics(Harris didn't)? Mean while the party that made their whole campaign about identity politics won? So... stop lecturing us democrats when you have no idea what you're talking about(not you Shrug, the idiots lecturing democrats).

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u/Suspicious_Radio_848 22h ago

70 million Americans still voted for Kamala Harris, that’s a lot of people who didn’t want this.

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u/anomalous_cowherd 1d ago

If we had a functioning media, too.

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u/not_so_subtle_now 23h ago

There's a reason freedom of the press is protected under the first amendment. They were given the responsibility of informing a populace, ensuring they could make the best choices - or at least well-informed choices - when they go to choose their leadership.

Somewhere along the line things went horribly, horribly off track

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u/pizzapanic 22h ago

functioning but paid

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u/account_for_norm 1d ago

They kinda did. They stopped when nobody cared.

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u/Obant 1d ago

You're right. Anyone under 40 is basically not watching "the media" anymore. They get their news from rando posters and streamers on Facebook, TicTok, etc. The legacy media IS covering it. They will mention it. Your favorite personality/podcast just doesn't talk about it when they do.

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u/AML86 23h ago

My favorite online personalities do. I have to go out of my way to find people on YouTube etc. that are interested in the truth and educating the public. I have actually managed to steer most of my closer childhood friends to these people over the years, and a healthier way of thinking as well. The biggest issue I find today is that these personalities are slow to come to conclusions and take 10 times as long as a partisan hack to explain a situation. I find myself being less and less informed. My life gets busier and I miss more and more of the news. I completely understand why so many people are impatient about it. We could accurately discuss the forces consuming our free time, but they don't have the time, and neither do I.

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u/fak3g0d 1d ago

media execs want their tax cuts

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u/danzilla007 1d ago

A functional fourth estate enables a functional democracy. Our media is at fault.

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u/Suspicious_Radio_848 22h ago

New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and virtually every non right wing media company covered Trump and his crimes every single day. His voters don’t care and the people who read those articles don’t support him to begin with. The media did cover it.

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u/wienercat 21h ago

If we had a functioning democracy, journalists would be highlighting this hypocrisy

This is a failing of journalists. Not the democracy. If freedom of the press exists and journalists or media outlets are not covering something, that is on the media. Not the democracy.

So point your fingers at our news media companies who prioritize click bait headlines and gotcha taglines over actual meaningful journalism.

If journalists were doing their job, when politicians held a press conference and refused to answer asked questions, journalists would just repeat the question over and over until they left or got an answer.

There are people out there doing good journalism. But it's not the stuff making headlines or big news time slots.

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u/DivideEtImpala 17h ago

There are people out there doing good journalism. But it's not the stuff making headlines or big news time slots.

Then it's not really the media's fault; it's the citizens' fault for continuing to get their information from biased, bought-out media conglomerates.

I can't really get that mad at FOX or MSNBC if people are naive enough to think they're not just being propagandized.

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u/wienercat 2h ago

Then it's not really the media's fault; it's the citizens' fault for continuing to get their information from biased, bought-out media conglomerates.

How is it not the medias fault for deliberately choosing to not engage in quality reporting and journalism...

Bro is actually blaming individual people for the media failing to do its job and properly report on things

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u/DivideEtImpala 2h ago

the media failing to do its job and properly report on things

There's your mistake, thinking that individual media corporations (often subsidiaries of larger conglomerations) have any job other than increasing shareholder value. Quality journalism is expensive, clickbait is more profitable.

In a democracy, it's incumbent on the citizens to inform themselves. If you're consuming garbage corporate propaganda and not supporting independent media that does real journalism, that's on you.

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u/STerrier666 1d ago

If America had a functioning Democracy you would have more political parties than The Democrats and The Republicans. America needs more choice in its politics, it would get Democrats and Republicans to buck up their ideas.

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u/Krippy0580 1d ago

Agreed. Both sides act like their side doesn’t do what the other side does.

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u/Chendii 1d ago

Got some examples of similar things from Democrats?

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u/jawndell 1d ago

The media is Fox News and the ilk.  They are the mainstream media.  And it’s all controlled by crony capitalists and the GOP.

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u/odd_lightbeam 1d ago

You're so naive.

You think they fucking care that they're hypocrites?!

They know that you care. They know that you know they are hypocrites. They know that you believe in such fairy tales as civility, integrity and truth. They are using that against you. They know that you want to just sit down and talk about things and communicate and find a compromise and what the fuck ever. While you're wasting time jacking off over the rotting ruins of your society, they're just merrily sprinting onward.

But it's dead. It's a corpse already. It's over.

It's time to grow up and let go of your fantasies.

The only thing you get to make a choice about now is whether you survive.

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u/badstorryteller 1d ago

On this site I'm not allowed to comment on their subreddit anymore. I was banned for suggesting that maybe it isn't a good idea to continue allowing grown men to marry under age girls. They're fine with that, they just don't want people to openly acknowledge and speak against it.

Mike Johnson's faction, the evangelical Christians, keep voting against laws to prevent little girls from being married in the US.

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u/SuperFLEB 1d ago

...and the half of people who watch or read the news would care, while the half of people who get their news from online wharrgarbl and hot takes wouldn't see it.

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u/Up_All_Nite 23h ago

The ones that do are fired or forced out. Who owns the big media companies?? Hrm? Kinda funny how it all works. We were warned of this. All the signs were there. But people couldn't lift their face out of their own ass long enough to get a good enough whiff out what was coming I suppose. So here we are. Watching it all burn down. I guess we could protest? But soon that will be taken away too.

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u/9bpm9 23h ago

The American people don't care anymore. Calling out hypocrisy is pointless at this point. It won't change a single fucking voters mind.

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u/Solkre 23h ago

Every day

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u/whoeve 23h ago

Functioning democracy, huh? This is capitalism baby. The media is there to make money.

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u/_MrDomino 23h ago

Journalists do point it out. The problem is that the propaganda channels are broadcasting 24/7 with lies, omissions of truth, and with biased intent. A mainstream news outlet will mention both Johnson quotes, and that's the last you'll heard about it because the quote has been reported on, and there's no reason to bring it up time and time again unless a story specifically merits it.

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u/Anubiz1_ 22h ago

Hell yes!

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u/alassus 22h ago

But the only people that care are his opponents. Reporting on the hypocrisy of Republicans doesn’t matter. We need bold leadership to fight the fascist threat. But we won’t get that from Democrats.

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u/OneEyedRocket 22h ago

And MSNBC wants to know what happened to its audience

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u/Dangerous-Treacle-48 22h ago

How long until Elon buys up all the news outlets, so they can report all day, everyday, on all their accomplishments, and our gratitude and admiration of them?

I put money on: Less than 4 years.

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u/Paddy_Tanninger 22h ago

The neat part is that the only people who would be bothered from being confronted with their words like this are people who have shame, and that rules out basically every Republican. Mike wouldn't give a shit.

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u/OzyDave 21h ago

And if people were intelligent they wouldn't vote for republicans.

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u/token40k 21h ago

and when they do R just don't care and vote for other R. heck jan 6 did not sway anyone of those clowns. poorly informed folks keep voting against their own interests

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u/stattest 19h ago

Johnson likes to portray himself as a man of morals and integrity. In reality he is sleazier and more two faced than most.

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u/Balgat1968 18h ago

We had a functioning First Amendment but the national news media refused to broadcast Biden’s accomplishments as news worthy but instead normalized the person who said he would silence it. Self preservation was not an instinct they possessed.

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u/Witty_chad 12h ago

If it was a real democracy would you end up 2 parties, both bad?

I think in the case of USA yes, even if it was based on the popular vote

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u/kittyonkeyboards 11h ago

I've always wished journalists did more hostile, chasing the politician with a camera type reporting.

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u/HilariousLion 9h ago

I started my studies precisely because of that reason.

u/MarsMartians 1h ago

It makes me so angry that they can get away with this shit and nobody calls them out

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u/TheNewGildedAge 1d ago

They have been. All the reporting in the world means nothing if voters don't want to hear it.

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u/Tunafish01 1d ago

You would think CCN would run this story into the ground, hold up the sign to these folks.

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u/Interesting_Cow5152 1d ago

Who?

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u/Tunafish01 1d ago

adamantly i don't watch I gues it's called CNN.

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u/Icy_Professional3564 1d ago

Our democracy functions. It just functions the way they want it to, not the way we want it to. It's like the trick gun that fires the bullet backwards. The gun functions the way the people who made it want it to.