I don't think the 'cult deprogramming' argument works for public figures! If you're a regular person, listening empathically to your anti-vaxx aunt is fine. If you're a public official speaking to millions, though, the message has to be "MAHA is killing kids," not "MAHA has some good points."

Boycott Society@boycottsociety.bsky.social · 5h ago

I think this thread is very relevant to the "leaders" in MAHA, such as there are, but I have to imagine there are those on the periphery. Cult deprogramming relies on not shaming, and keeping dialogue open. Isn't that what AOC is doing?

I am getting very tired of the term "vote shaming." 99% of the time it literally JUST means "reminding people how elections work." And apparently people do in fact need reminders.

please stop forgetting how elections work i beg of you@tonygoldmark.bsky.social · 2h ago

One month, three weeks and two days after telling me to "please leave folks alone" and then blocking me, Dan Floss is STILL stalking me from an alt and replying to replies to my posts. bsky.app/profile/dans...

An obsession with Israel from any angle is 🚩🚩🚩🚩

the whole idea behind MAHA and the griftosphere more generally is that there is One Neat Trick and that is why they fundamentally do not and can never have a point even if there are small benefits to some particular thing there is no One Neat Trick and never will be

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 5h ago

Second, MAHA isn’t all that concerned with treatment of disease anyway. Its core claim is that nearly all diseases can be prevented through virtuous lifestyles. If we were all drinking raw milk and taking zinc supplements, we wouldn’t be coming down with heart disease and depression and COVID.

Except that Germany (among other European societies) has robust social welfare and other state benefits and that still hasn't stopped the AfD's rise, because the AfD's rise is mainly about immigration (and therefore identity).

randy r. potts@thephatic.bsky.social · 8h ago

FDR knew that you push to the LEFT and give people real, material benefits if you want to neutralize a rising fascist threat. Sadly, contemp centrists in the US and Europe have not learned this lesson.

Max Blumenthal doing an interview with Nazi sympathizer Sneako.

I'm deeply disappointed in AOC for sanewashing MAHA. We should not be enabling this kind of crankery. No, the people who think you can magically make junk food healthy by using beef tallow and cane sugar instead should not be lended any credibility. This is why we have measles again.

This is how every piece of UK news finds me

I’m interested in the emotional response (I have it too) whereby anger at the worst people is immediately displaced on to institutions you think should be calling them out. Labour and the BBC’s weak response to fascists arouses more fury than the fascists themselves. Must be a term for it

This really Matts my Murdock.

rob@ok-but-still.bsky.social · 4h ago

al pacino is in this lol

I think MAHA is very straightforwardly the triumph of the snake oil salesmen and the way we beat it is the same way you always beat snake oil salesmen: regulate their claims

For those following the panic about the German election - in which an overtly neo-Nazi party declared an extremist group by Germany's intelligence service won big in an election in one of Germany's 16 federal states . . . here are some reasons not to panic:

38-31%. These are not good numbers.

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 5h ago

Britons tend to feel the masked demonstrations over the weekend were not a legitimate way of protesting, by 38% to 31% Note: Only a minority of the public report following the news closely

I love re-upping this: for decades the main library at UCLA had the generic name University Research Library because the person most responsible for getting it built was an English professor named Hugh G. Dick and the university refused to name it after him.

Katelyn Burns@katelynburns.com · 3d ago

Tell me a fun fact.

Just to be clear, since I haven't seen a lot of people say this: He is lying. Black Hollywood is not so touchy and flush with good roles that he couldn't cast his movie. He is just cheap and cranky.

The Playlist@theplaylist.bsky.social · yesterday

Paul Schrader Says He Turned To AI Because “No Black Actors Wanted To Play In A Movie Where There Are No Good Black People”

The correct snarky comparison is Just Stop Oil because the pensioners with placards were literally trying to get arrested to make the point

New - Marc Stears, the director of UCL Policy Lab, is joining Number 10 as a special advisor to Andy Burnham. Close to Ed Miliband, Stears has done a lot of work and research recently on the splintering progressive vote, especially stressing the importance of climate

Getting a bit tired of very rich actors and directors saying ‘AI is here we have to learn how to use it’ instead of ‘I am wealthy enough to dedicate myself only to projects which employ talented human beings because anything else is an existential threat to human storytelling’

Angry mutant woman with a sword. #Magik #XMen #Marvel

Anyone who has ever worked in American industry quickly caught on that the second floor air conditioned office workers view the sweaty laborers down on the floor as feudal serfs and resent having to lift a finger for the sake of their safety or productivity.

Weedle@weedle.bsky.social · 7h ago

Drinking from a two day old warm cooler of Gatorade because the only other liquid is on the other side of the warehouse 🙃

Ryan Bridge - Founder of "Raise the Colours" flag protests - charged with 14 offences including common assault. Danny Thomas - ringleader of Dover/Portsmouth thuggery - an ex-con jailed for attempted kidnap at knifepoint. Almost like they're not "ordinary people with concerns" but criminals.

... ...I hate that this means "LANTERNS" must be tracking pretty well, still 🤦‍♂️

Ron Filipkowski@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 10h ago

The government of the United States of America. The idiots are in charge.

I guess it’s important to communicate that MAHA is fundamentally an movement by individuals to capture health care dollars by lying to people about having products and services that work

Saganomics@saganomics.bsky.social · 24h ago

When my wife’s Meta algorithms sniffed out that she’s pregnant a bunch of medical crankery started aggressively filing into her Facebook and Instagram feeds. “MAHA moms” happen because there is a lot of money being spent strategically preying on women going through a stressful experience.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Dolly Parton's sister pleads for end to 'AI garbage' posts after singer's death

Since Parton's death in late August, dozens of AI-generated songs, images and videos have appeared online.

bbc.com

Welp, that's one way to establish your dominance. Fun Fact: Marsha hated seeing men's butts in movies & shows. It didn't matter how handsome the guy was or in how good a shape he was in. She saw man butt & it would disturb her so much that she couldn't enjoy the rest of show. 🤣 #Lanterns

After 6 years of the New Deal, 20,000 Nazis gathered at Madison Square Garden for a massive Bund rally. One of the most popular radio shows in America was a fascist Catholic priest. The New Deal didn’t neutralize the fascists - the war did

randy r. potts@thephatic.bsky.social · 8h ago

FDR knew that you push to the LEFT and give people real, material benefits if you want to neutralize a rising fascist threat. Sadly, contemp centrists in the US and Europe have not learned this lesson.

This is true, and I think it’s worth adding that MAHA is based on the idea that there are healthcare options out there that are guaranteed to work and aren’t unpleasant that “they” don’t want you to know about. The lie is that there are miracles out there that don’t make you face tradeoffs.

Ed@notdred.bsky.social · 8h ago

I guess it’s important to communicate that MAHA is fundamentally an movement by individuals to capture health care dollars by lying to people about having products and services that work

When blackshirts are marching through the streets of Dover and Portsmouth, the focus shouldn’t be on the disruption they cause, but on their fascist ideology and deliberate intimidation of migrants and people of colour. [1/2]

Make Britain a hostile environment for fascists

The AfD and Reform immigration policies are almost identical. There is no plausible reason for considering one far right and the other not.

Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 9h ago

Watching BBC News and it's striking to hear the presenters repeatedly referring to the AfD as "far-right" whilst refusing to ever say the same about the hundreds of actual masked blackshirts currently swarming British ports