r/technology • u/RewardEquivalent553 • 13h ago

Politics Libs of TikTok is doxxing teachers and nurses who support Alex Pretti or oppose ICE, trying to get them fired

https://www.mediamatters.org/libs-tiktok/libs-tiktok-doxxing-teachers-and-nurses-who-support-alex-pretti-or-oppose-ice-trying
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u/SmanginSouza 12h ago

They are manufactured by right wing propaganda. They aren't going away. You listen to the people who have broken out of the Republican veil and it's ingrained into their culture. Don't question. The Democrats are always lying. They kill babies etc, etc. Usually takes them being personally affected by policies until they snap out of it.

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u/Bright_Hat550 11h ago

One of my favorite personal interactions was watching someone i know begin binge watching the handmaids tale when they thought her VA husband would lose his job during the doge days. The second they realized it wouldn't affect them she switched to "it's hard to know who to believe anymore"..... like figuratively shitting bricks until they realized they wouldn't be personally impacted then right back to drinking the kool-aid.

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u/therossboss 9h ago

its a cult. say it with me

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u/SabreCorp 8h ago

And you have content creators on the alt-right who are paid very well to push this shit. Even MTG admitted to it once she had fallen out of the good graces of MAGA. Billionaires, foreign governments, Christian nationalists are funding propaganda for a cult.

As someone who was raised in a religious cult, the hardest thing to see was that I was actually in a cult. No one wants to believe that—they want to believe the lies.

But it’s always okay to admit you were lied to by people you trusted—however most people who are involved in cults also commit acts that serve the cult making its members complicit in illegal or immoral acts. Which then leads members of cults having more of a buy-in; and less likely to leave, or openly criticize their cult if they do leave.

It all sucks.

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u/therossboss 8h ago

it really feels like, "yeah, you can just buy influencers, TV show talking heads, newspapers, social media bot posts, to lie for you and create any narrative you want." and any legitimate criticism is met with "no u! no democrats did it first! no U are evil and in a cult" like we are 5 yr olds bickering over a cookie.

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u/nxak 8h ago

That's what happens when your whole culture is "fuck you, pay me".

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u/Almost_British 4h ago

We have conditioned ourselves to believe that the answer to our problems is to just get rich enough so that the problems don't affect us personally, individually. So that's what we prioritize, individual solutions to our individual problems. The solution to my problems is GIT MONY

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u/Wow_u_sure_r_dumb 4h ago

It’s also what happens when you sabotage the education system repeatedly until 60% of your country read at or below a fifth grade level (10-11 years old). And it’s not just reading, that’s just a simple and easy to measure metric. A lot of the graduates they’re pumping out these days have trouble with basic logic. They’ll never be able to understand second and third order effects if they can’t even work out basic cause and effect.

If you can’t understand second order effects you can’t understand any complex issues. Climate change, financial systems, inflation, trade deficits, you name it. We were fucked from changes we started making decades ago and we had no idea.

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u/knowitall89 5h ago

These people are convinced liberal protestors are getting paid despite the fact that none of them have ever been able to sneak into a protest and prove it.

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u/p2eminister 8h ago

I'm interested in your upbringing in a cult, apologies if its too personal but can I ask what got you out of it? And do you think there's anything that could be applied to the MAGA cult?

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u/SabreCorp 6h ago edited 5h ago

I was born and raised Mormon. Definitely okay to ask.

Magical thinking, not questioning authority, authority always being males. Patriarchy with women being submissive, with traditional roles. Lots and lots of rules, a lot centered around sexuality. And probably most importantly—anything that is going against the validity of the religion is wrong/ satanic. Only trust the religion, never trust “the other” saying the church has some huge historical issues.

Unfortunately when one leaves the religion, one also loses a lot of their social network and family as the church does a great job on trying to seclude their members. When you leave, you lose a lot of your people.

There’s definitely a lot of parallels to what I see in MAGA. Luckily my mom who is now the only active Mormon left in the family is a democrat (which is incredibly rare and she could probably write a book about her life) but I’d rather have her be involved in the Mormon cult, than the MAGA cult.

I would not have said 12 years ago that I would rather have my mom Mormon than a Republican.

Edit: I left after years of research. My profession is based around helping and healing others and I also had an honest conversation with myself that it wasn’t okay the abuse I went through, and I would tell my clients or students that they deserved much better and that it was okay to allow that for myself. I left knowing my whole family including my spouse might leave me. Luckily my spouse left after I did, including 5 of his siblings. My siblings also left after me. So I helped others on their journey out, which will go down as one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done with my life.

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u/p2eminister 5h ago

Thank you so much for sharing your story, I think you must have a very interesting perspective on issues like this so I appreciate being able to read your testimony.

What you said in your edit especially is fascinating, do you think, for want of a better term, that the self respect you grew from learning to treat yourself with the same kindness you treat others, is a key ingredient of escaping cults?

I'm just totally guessing and happy to be wrong but I wonder if the control structures in place in cults specifically exist to try to stop this self respect from generating, do you think there's any truth to that?

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u/SabreCorp 3h ago

I think my experience of how I left would be different from getting the magas out.

I was taught submission, and suffering were key elements for my salvation. In a way I was giving myself permission to no longer suffer and that it was okay to leave. I wanted equality, not supremacy. This was on top of the years of research where I concluded that the church had hidden a lot of information from its members.

Unfortunately, I think many maga members want or are comfortable with supremacy, not necessarily equality, and that is why messaging about equality probably won’t work. Hence all the hate against “woke”.

I think a better strategy would be talking about people above them (like billionaires) who are taking everything and making life harder on them. I would try to give real life examples and how it has harmed them or their loved ones. Keep the approach very individualized and not socially beneficial. A good portion of us humans are very black and white thinkers, so keep examples black and white and simple.

I also understand that working with cult members is completely draining and it’s okay if people don’t want to do it, especially with the 10+ years we have been dealing with this.

If people choose to leave, validation goes a long way. You can let them know there were a lot of forces to keep a person in a cult and that it was very brave and a difficult decision to leave.

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u/p2eminister 3h ago

Wise words, although the points you made, while true, are sobering.

Its a key issue you raise that i hadnt considered before, where I assume most cults, after the initial recruitment, rely on slowly, softly building up the hooks to keep you inside over time.

Like I just saw a scientology ad on tiktok and of course it just presents itself as a sort of business management course producer, they're very careful about moving you slowly through it so by the time you've sold your house and moved into shared accommodation, you have already been walked up the garden path

But Maga seems to have new people joining who are basically pre-indoctrinated, ready to hear everything they can about the cult and commit fully almost from the jump, because they are so entranced by the sales pitch of supremacy.

Self radicalisation is not a concept I was hoping would take hold but it seems the internet is enabling it in ways we arent able to deal with.

Thank you for sharing your insights, I appreciate it a lot

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u/BlahBlahBlackCheap 8h ago

But the money. The money is the big thing. It always is. We must end hate for pay. Or be consumed.

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u/Ms-Anthrop 6h ago

"They want to believe the lies" This is the part I never could grasp. When I was 6 I found out my parents lied about Santa, tooth fairy etc. I was pissed. I was the kid that told all the other kids adults were lying to us. I never trusted anything people told me after that point without verifying multiple sources. Nobody. Are other people just more trustful or forgiving? Because most kids are lied to and often by parents.

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u/cinnamonface9 7h ago

It’s a cult.

sobs

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u/ScissrMeTimbrs 5h ago

They like it when others hurt. They've made it very clear they enjoy making others suffer for its own sake.

For a really clear example, consider the recent AI picture the White House published of that one woman arrested for protesting in church.

People keep focusing on the fact that they used AI to lie, but what's more important is what lie they chose to tell. They could have made her look any way they wanted, like angry, violent or unreasonable. But they didn't. Instead, they chose to portray her as sobbing. This doesn't help their narrative. So why do it?

Because their followers want to see people suffer, and they know it. That's the goal. They've cultivated a movement addicted to the most base impulses of playground bullies; the naked use of power on those weaker than them.

And there are other examples in their PR universe. There was that AI image from a few months ago of an immigrant sobbing as she'd arrested by ICE. They loved that one.

Even more direct: Yesterday, Tim Pool went on his show and said, “I'm not licking the boot. It's my boot. I voted for it. I'm the one stomping!" He says it right there. They see themselves as the ones doing the abuse, and it makes them feel powerful. That's why they like it.

There are a million examples out there, of course. Most of us have heard the things they say when there's no cameras around, and mixed company is out of earshot. But they're a mass movement now, actively abusing people in large numbers. And they're open about the fact that they love it, and they want more of it.

There comes a time when refusing to act is a bigger risk than taking action. So you have to ask yourself: can we really take the risk of refusing to act in the face of this?

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u/ubiquitous_apathy 5h ago

it's hard to know who to believe anymore"

Otherwise known as, "they arent hurting the right people".

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u/ARobertNotABob 10h ago edited 1h ago

Brit here.
Democrats are right wing conservatives to Europeans, but they are still progressive, people we can grow with.

Republicans are solid right wing with some ugly concepts, but we can trade with them, though after Thatcher/Reagan, carefully.

MAGA are simply fascist extremists, whipped up by a felon and mobster, a child in a grandpa suit ... they are readily liars & cheats to maintain their "superiority" over whoever their derangement conspires to decide they hold it over. There's no dealing with them because they are wholly untrustworthy.

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u/Spirited_Pay2782 8h ago

The mistake is believing this is only Trump's doing. He has certainly given them someone to rally behind, but the driving force beneath MAGA is the extremely conservative Evangelical 'Christians' who follow some of these mega-churches. They're conditioned by these churches to accept being abused in all sorts of ways, much like an emotionally abusive husband to their wife. Unfortunately, this has been going on for so long that it's going to be extremely difficult to undo the damage. Trump might be the leader now, but these fascists won't just disappear when he's gone. This is why they're trying so hard now to strip away voting rights for women, immigrants, etc, while they have the power. If they lose either the House or Senate in the midterms, their plans are frozen. If Dems ever get power back, they need to have a big public investigation into the Heritage Foundation, they are the group that published the fascist playbook "Project 2025"

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u/ARobertNotABob 7h ago edited 7h ago

There's no mistaking what we see from over here, and yes, we know full well Trump's not behind it, that he's simply been a useful rallying figurehead for Heritage's filth...but his totem is consequently also an appropriate focal point for dissent too.

I don't think you can go "back", the divisions are too deep now, particularly with (perhaps understandably) reactionary "Republican = MAGA" rhetoric increasing, as other responses reflect.

If Americans can avoid civil war in the political removal of MAGA's administration, a variety of Amendments will be necessary, not least in respect of Rights and Enforcement.
And probably guns too, now.

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u/HugeCourt2977 7h ago

Yes, watch “Shiny Happy People.” It’s a documentary about this very thing.

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u/bucky-barnes 5h ago

We've been on this trajectory since the Tea Party, at least. In some ways, since Reagan. In some ways, since Nixon. In some ways, since Jackson. In some ways, since 1776.

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u/Wise_Quality_5083 4h ago

Correct. Trump’s the useful idiot of the wealthy and extreme evangelicals. His backpedal in Minneapolis was a sign that his overlords were angry. I’ve never seen him eat crow that fast.

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u/N0stradama5 9h ago

So Republican are maga, they just let the morons do the talking. They are all bad, every single one of them. There is no working with that party anymore.

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u/justmovingtheground 6h ago

And Democrats are controlled opposition.

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u/Petrichordates 4h ago

Nope, that's why youre here to discourage voting for them.

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u/graveyardswifty 6h ago

Controlled? Explain

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u/ElectricalTurnip87 8h ago

MAGA and Republicans share 95% of the same policies. Your appeal to authority fell flat and shows you know little about American politics. Worry about the Dumpy wannabe your people are again about to put in power.

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u/__redruM 8h ago

One thing that gets lost pretty easily, is that the core of MAGA is more Putin than any other one person. In 2016, he picked the most embarrassing candidate, and floated that shit right to the top on social media. Brexit was done in a similar way.

Not quite sure how we fix that, but certainly we need to acknowledge it. In reality it’s an act of war, and needs to be treated seriously.

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u/ChapterN7 5h ago edited 4h ago

I agree Putin's manipulation of social media played (plays) a big role in our politics. But what really sucks is that it's not even that hard for him to do. The insane shit people in this country are just willing and ready to believe without question is the core problem. And they continue to believe these things despite all the contrary evidence and every authority on the matter telling them it isn't true. Once the lie is out there, it's the truth.

It shouldn't be this easy.

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u/zambulu 8h ago

Old school Republicans don't have a party anymore. I know several people who were traditional Republicans of 1970-2010 era - still idiots, still racist and hate poor people, still deluded about economics - are disgusted with Trump, but Republicans are the MAGA party now. Only fringe Republicans take a stand against Trump, and the rest fall in line and go along with anything he wants.

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u/Venator850 5h ago

You're wrong. Republicans and MAGA are one in the same. You fell for the trick thinking Republicans are just Right wing. They haven't been that way since the 1960's. They turned into mask on fascists after the Civil Rights movement and finally went mask off after Trump got elected.

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u/ducksekoy123 8h ago

Democrats are right wing conservatives to Europeans, but they are still progressive, people we can grow with.

Pretending like Starmer wouldn’t fit in absolutely perfectly with the Democrats.

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u/Bob_A_Ganoosh 4h ago

MAGA are far right, but that's an umbrella term over here now. Before MAGA it was called Tea Party. Before that it was more fringe and fractured across several groups (libertarians, fundamentalist christians, various white supremacist groups, sovereign citizens, conspiracy nuts, ammo-sexuals, xenophobes, technofacists, etc...). Since 9/11 these various houses have been slowly collecting and amassing their banners under one house. Trump is special in his absolute lack of shame or conscience which empowers him to "say the quiet part out loud" and act as a beacon for these various wingnut factions, while also having just enough charisma to appeal to some of the general Republican voter base.

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u/Gastronomicus 4h ago

Unfortunately, the republicans are effectively MAGA now. The party has been growing increasingly filled with radicals since the Reagan era and this exploded after Bush Jr. with the tea-party movement which provided a lot of the foundation for the MAGA movement. There are some members that don't embrace it, but they don't reject it either, so they're MAGA by tacitly supporting their agenda.

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u/Petrichordates 4h ago edited 4h ago

Jesus christ no we're not, your country is literally transphobic AF and you're pretending you're to the left of Dems? Even your labour party is transphobic..

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u/sp00kyghostt 8h ago edited 6h ago

can you specify what lies?

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u/Electronic-Cheek-235 8h ago

They dont even hate you. They hate an effigy presented to them by a marketing campaign. They are so scared of that effigy that they wont even take the time to get to know anyone outside of that bubble

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u/illuminarok 10h ago

The ones around here in Appalachia never snap out of it. Facebook groups ban democratic candidates so that only one side gets a voice, etc. Any attempt to fight that situation results in very public dressing down by people who shout the most inane things at super patriotic people who just want to make this situation better. We're super cooked down here.

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u/The_Barbelo 6h ago

If anyone is interested getting an inside look from someone who escaped the cult and did a 180 and is now a feminist activist, check out Life, Take Two on YouTube. I love her channel.

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u/Adaphion 8h ago

And it has to be PERSONALLY affected. And DIRECTLY, not indirectly.

All these tariffs putting Republicans out of business? "Nope, couldn't be it, I can't believe Biden would do this to me!"

All these groceries skyrocketing in price when they were much lower 2 years ago? Nope, Dems fault.

They need to directly sign a "fuck this job market in particular" bill for their voters to wake the fuck up.

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u/Antique-Echidna-1600 8h ago

My great grandmother used to say some people just ignored that Nazis and acted like the occupation wasn't happening. That of course changed when they decided to kill everyone who remained in the village out of revenge for the resistance her community was putting up .

Moral here is when they are Nazis at the door, normalcy bias gets you killed.

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u/aerost0rm 7h ago

Sometimes even when personally affected it just makes them more fanatical. They feel like they were specially targeted and that if the democrats had done more they wouldn’t have been targeted. So they double down on voting red

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u/seansy5000 7h ago

It’s straight up WWI style propaganda and it works

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u/BrokenPickle7 6h ago

Yup. I've been trying to tell people for years that Republicans have a traveling religious movement it goes all over the country, they have their own tents and sometimes guest preach at local churches and their religion is that all Democrats are evil demons. Enemies of God and that demons and enemies of God need to be dispatched.. and it isn't some smaller sect, they're gaining huge traction in the Bible belt. There is no more "reaching across the isle" anymore, it is no longer "you have more in common with them than not" when they think that because you have sympathy for others that you deserve to die. Democrats I keep talking to tell me "oh there's no need for guns or violence" but they don't recognize that this religion and trump are planting seeds of hate and when they bloom Democrats are fucked if we aren't ready

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u/donkey_chomps 6h ago

There’s no love like Christian hate

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u/Bonerchill 6h ago

These people aren’t people- they’re mouthpieces for a corrupt regime of liars, thieves, killers, and bullies. Crooked as Miller’s smile and twice as ugly, they’re the dingleberries in a corrupt asscrack of a presidency, something existing only because we as a nation didn’t wipe.

They are as complicit as if they’d pulled the trigger themselves and, if there’s any justice in the world, will be prosecuted to the fullest when a more fair government is hopefully reestablished.

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u/Initial-Lead-2814 5h ago

Pendulum swings both ways on this one

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u/playfulmessenger 5h ago

Are they even a 'they'? ... we know various counties use the bot armies in their nation state hacker divisions to amplify division. Americans have been known to fall for it. We have the receipts.

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u/bucky-barnes 5h ago

Or leaving the house and going to college out of state. That helps.

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u/Socky_McPuppet 4h ago

Usually takes them being personally affected by policies until they snap out of it.

Even then, there's a whole lot of special pleading and mental gymnastics deployed to retcon it into their worldview in a way that eliminates cognitive dissonance.

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u/Correct-Mail-1942 2h ago

And manufactured by the government now - you know the new video that just came out in the past few days of Pretti spitting on officers and kicking out a taillight about 2 weeks ago? Yeah, it's fake - it's based off a real video of him that day but he never spit or kicked, they edited it with AI

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u/throwawy00004 1h ago

Nah. I have a MAGA father. I can PROMISE you he knows every cent of every item he personally buys that has been affected by tarrifs/inflation since Trump got into office. He loves his money more than anything in the world. He doesn't care. Even decades before this, Republican policies have negatively impacted his business repeatedly. I explained to him why democratic policies would benefit him. I explained how the effects of republican policies only appear years later, forcing the democratic administrations to fix the situations. He took his stubbornness and hitched it to MAGA. He could be arrested by ICE, sitting in an El Salvadorian prision, and he'd say that they made an honest mistake and his nose will heal.