Democrats spent the last year asking where their Joe Rogan was. Hasan Piker is one of the few left-wing figures with the audience they covet — but the party is deeply hostile to the spontaneity and independence that make figures like him appealing.

  • Velma@lemmy.today
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    3 days ago

    Yep. And let’s not forget, just as recently as a year ago, Lemmy would ban people for saying “both parties suck.”

    Oh interesting. Good to know.

    • NekoKoneko@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I realize I’m late so am just responding here for posterity, but - while I’m open to evidence - in my experience the people who were banned were clearly or very likely bad faith astroturf and propaganda accounts. They were clearly trying to split the vote, depress left turnout, and would just repeat LLM-generated junk rather than respond to any good faith debate.

      And I think the bans were right in retrospect because the timed (not typically perma) bans expired and those people still magically disappeared completely from Lemmy after the election.

      In the end, they probably did their job. Trump is in office destroying the country/world, and right now there are probably real people in this thread who think their “both sides” opinions are being censored in part because of the echoes of the noise those bad faith agents made way back in 2024.

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        And I think the bans were right in retrospect because the timed (not typically perma) bans expired

        Lol, no they weren’t/didn’t.

        and those people still magically disappeared completely from Lemmy after the election.

        Lol, no we didn’t.

      • PapaSkwat@lemmy.wtf
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        2 days ago

        very likely bad faith astroturf and propaganda accounts.

        And that’s the same tired argument that was made then. Why do you find it so hard to accept that some people just aren’t onboard with either of the two main parties? Look around. Tide is turning. Lots of people on Lemmy now are open to third parties now. Are they all propaganda accounts too?!

        This is why you all lost the fucking election. Because you can’t wrap your head around the fact that you may be wrong about things.

        Facts: Lemmy had about 40,000–50,000 monthly active users worldwide in November 2024. There were 236 MILLION U.S. citizens voting-age. 154+ MILLION actual ballots cast. Third-party advocates made an even smaller slice of that already microscopic global user base. It’s utterly ludicrous for anyone to think that third-party voters on Lemmy could have split the vote or had any meaningful say whatsoever in the presidential election.

        Yet you are ok with them being censored because you were scared of them. How’d that work out? They were banned, and guess what? Trump still won. Again.

        those people still magically disappeared completely from Lemmy after the election.

        I was told I would “disappear” after the election. Maybe it looks like I did because I had to create a new username (not for ban evading–I actually blocked the instances I was banned from). But here I am.

        Am I a ‘propaganda’ account, still going, 2 years after the election?

        Not only that, but I see lots of people being accused of being alts of those ‘propaganda’ posters. So did they really disappear if their alts are everywhere? Hmmm…

        You want democrats to win the next election? Then pick a candidate who can win. You all lost to Trump twice. Think about that.

        Also, even if every single person who voted third party, changed their vote to Harris, she still would have lost. That’s how big the margin of her loss was. Lemmy wasn’t even close to making a dent in any of that, so to blame Lemmy posters for it is crazy.

        • NekoKoneko@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          It costs next to nothing to include Lemmy in a social media astroturf and propaganda campaign, and is even easier and more effective because the small userbase means people’s posts are viewed less suspiciously (case in point: Your entire “the userbase is too small lolol” argument here). I am absolutely certain a few people I interacted with during that time were astroturf, MAGA-in-disguise or propaganda accounts. Re-read the part of my reply about necessary but not sufficient causation, to address your “third party vote” argument (I said nothing about third party voters, note, but you also ignore depressed turnout).

          But to get a little meta: I’m engaging in good faith discussion and giving reasons for my arguments. And you come here, respond to me twice (edit: three times?) with condescending derision when I wasn’t even talking to or about you, and are making an illogical claim that a 50K userbase somehow means Lemmy is immune from propaganda (whether state or individual). You then downvote me, which I didn’t do to anyone I disagree with here. It’s childish and petty.

          We are two people who probably want the same left-based outcomes and have disagreements on the method to get there, but you’re ranting to me about random things in this thread that I didn’t even say. You’re being extremely unpleasant, unkind and uncivil. I stand by what I said.

          Second edit: Seeing your profile and comment about being banned, here’s a direct question: Did you go by the username UniversalMonk prior to the election? The MO, aggressive response style, and AI-generated profile stuff is almost identical.