I've mostly stayed away from DU and news for nearly a week. After that time - my current thoughts

[NewHendoLib]

Also please keep in mind I don't watch TV - so keep away from the endless postmortems. My news source is just my peeks at DU.

In no particular order, my current feelings on things.

Do ads - or signs - REALLY change people's minds or decide things for them? I think of that as very sad. Our TV is used for streaming movies - and I do follow a few sports teams on Sling (the Celtics primarily). Ads ads ads. Watching Hulu or Netflix - Ads Ads Ads. Rather than giving me ideas or changing my minds, we head for the mute button. They make us sick. I assume that pretty much any ad is a distortion or a lie. We as humans are in a really bad place being so constantly bombarded by bullshit. The ONLY social networking tool I use is Instagram - and I follow hardly anyone. I hide or ignore all ads. Can you tell that I hate ads? It simply shocked me that anyone takes any of them seriously.

I totally resonate with EarlG's assessment after the election in terms of the right wing noise machine, vs the pretty much non-existent left wing noise machine. They don't - they can't compare. It is the power of propaganda clearly exhibited. So my view is that NOTHING Kamala - - or Joe - could do or say would make a difference. MAGA is a cult - tfg is the golden idol that they worshiped. Period. Why is that red shift shown on a few websites happening? Propaganda.

Another thought - yes, the horrendous electoral college sets who wins, so a fraction of the population decides who wins. How sick is that? But there are red voters in blue states, and blue voters in red states. In any other measuring stick, this was a pretty close election. But we have to see it as the winner eclipses anything else that happens - 50-48 in any other parts of our lives would be close, but in elections it may as well be 95-5.

That's all I have. I've no idea what happens next, but the Dems better the hell be the dirt in the gears of right wing "progress". Obstruct. Stop everything you can.

But please, please - the left wing needs to find a way to counter the monstrous propaganda machine of the right. It will take time, it will be expensive - but it has to happen. Our messages are drowned out.

I won't even talk about the disgusting always both-sides-do-it, monster normalizing media. Turning it all off 15 years ago saved my sanity (arguable as that is).

OK - back into my short - or longer - term posting black out. Just had to get that out of my fingers.

Oh yea - very last word - that fake tan (orange), combover asshole IS NOT MY PRESIDENT.

[LakeArenal]

1. I have watched nothing and don't plan to for the near future.

You wonder if sign etc work….

I wonder if endless, endless, begging for donations and giving beyond what you can afford works.

Harris got a billion dollars in donations and still begged us endlessly for more.

The end result was less than my moneys worth for sure.

[Maru Kitteh]

7. That's where I am too. I gave until it caused pain. I won't do that again. nt

[LakeArenal]

12. Depending on the next four years, I may be done forever.

If they cut SS benefits I won’t be able to anyway.

[erronis]

22. Haven't had a t.v. for 10-15 years. That solves one problem.

Don't get on FB, use the xitter (except when referenced here on DU), don't have any other social media accounts that I know of.

Of course our beloved DU and other liberal sites do have a bunch of stories that give me despair. I'm going to be very careful about spending too much time or getting too involved. I'm looking at end-of-life in any case so I don't have a lot of spare energy to get upset about the crise-du-jour.

[yardwork]

2. Pretty much my thoughts as well.

I feel most discouraged because I can't think of a better strategy. This choice was so incredibly stark, and yet most voters chose the monster. For no good reason whatsoever.

How do we counter that. I don't know.

[CrispyQ]

3. Someone posted this yesterday. It's obscene.

Source: https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaire-clans-spend-nearly-2-billion-2024-elections/

Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nsUJbTHDK4nnHqDLVkK9sk26ShoFWpi2bWLkK8W5LHE/edit?pli=1&gid=1760967502#gid=1760967502

[underpants]

5. The top 6 (all red) total $690M by my math.

Crazy.

[underpants]

4. Ads do work.

Like you I rarely see ads other than now on football games. When I’m streaming football on Peacock Prime or Paramount I don’t think they are the same ads as watching it on cable or antennae. As you probably know, Sling will have a screen filler sometimes during ad breaks because they clearly didn’t sell the ad space.

Ads work. There’s an old saying in sales that if you can put a product (or a counter ad against another product) in front of a potential buyer 12-16 times the odds of them buying/trying it increase exponentially. Think of Snuggies and how ridiculous they seemed. They sold 4 million of those as of December 2009.

[NewHendoLib]

6. I don't doubt that they do (but it still boggles my mind). we turn off the sound and look away.

They actually work opposite on my wife and I - if we see something advertised, we will NOT buy it.

But I've always known I am weird!

[underpants]

9. Back in the 90's I saw a survey that said something like at least 10%...

and maybe even 20% considered “Entertainment Tonight” the news.

We are surrounded by people who watch reality shows as the prime entertainment. They never ever watch the news. You referenced EarlG’s post - these are the people who get one or a couple pieces of disinformation via the algorithms and figure that’s enough for them to know. It boggles the mind.

[consider_this]

24. I'm as weird as you...

and in the same way. (NOT to be confused with TSF/JSV weird - that is something entirely else)

[Xavier Breath]

10. Yeah, people are cattle.

(sheepishly puts Snuggie back in closet).

[underpants]

21. 😀

[markodochartaigh]

13. And I think that social media

is a type of ad. When people see very similar messages bombarding their social media feeds I think it is like five year old being shown a shiny new toy over and over.

[Tumbulu]

15. Political adds obviously do not

work when pitted against the RW hate media’s multigenerational grasp on the electorate.

Unless something is done to create liberal media content that resonates with regular people- as the hate media clearly does- it is pointless.

And don’t for a minute dismiss the misogyny.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

8. "Do ads - or signs - REALLY change people's minds or decide things for them?" GOP spent massively on simple messages

such as "Dems are for they/them, Trump is for YOU" and "you don't want your daughter playing football with a man "

We should have had simple ads that showed a chart: Unemployment when Trump left office vs unemployment now.

[Polly Hennessey]

11. I agree about the constant bombardment of ads, political commentary (not news),

endless Right Wing propaganda, Democrats unable to counter anything thrown at them by Republicans, and the unbelievable lack of understanding in what elections truly mean.

I come to DU for snippets of what is going on. I stay close to the Forums of pets/food/fiction, a few posters that I enjoy. Are you listening Deb55, Alla10Bear, Koz, IrisBlue, NJCher, Emile, PCIntern, Aristus, Hermetic, and others.

[Shipwack]

14. "Do ads - or signs - REALLY change people's minds..." No, however...

They do let other people around us know that they are not alone.

[ancianita]

16. "So my view is that NOTHING Kamala - - or Joe - could do or say would make a difference. MAGA is a cult -

tfg is the golden idol that they worshiped. Period. Why is that red shift shown on a few websites happening? Propaganda..."

If your view of the electorate's popular vote doesn't change because of new "reads" (below) about how the electorate changed to give Trump a win, then you've silo'd yourself by choice, you're not helping the Democratic Party win the next time.

Check these out.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016389424

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016389404

[NewHendoLib]

17. All opinions - yours, mine and theirs.

I am sure the truth, and solutions are in there somewhere.

But if we don't deal with the media, propaganda and acceptance of lies, good luck to us all

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

18. This is the most important issue.

Anyone who says otherwise is in deep denial.

[ancianita]

19. "But if we don't deal with the media, propaganda and acceptance of lies, good luck to us all"

SO... how do we "deal." I say we compete with media/propaganda/acceptance through resistance at every turn. We have to BE Buttigieg -- in back hearts and minds of the working class who believed Bernie and then later stopped believing our snobbish view of them.

AI? Deal with humans only and AI trolling will be seen for what it is -- what comes out of corporate media that sign up for it.... that right there is something to keep track of to discredit any media that do it.

But anyone who throws up their hands/hearts/minds because they're afraid of any "power" of AI, is giving up on humans.
Keep the faith. We humans gotta look out for our fellow humans and help them know their enemy.

[Littlered]

20. I believe signs matter.

When I worked for Hillary’s campaign they chose to not canvas and put up yard signs instead they made us pay. There were trump signs everywhere and only a few Clinton signs. It has a psychological effect.

[pat_k]

23. A couple thoughts

Unions
My step-father was a union steward at Boeing for decades. In his opinion, the Dems have done a lousy job with unions -- starting with NAFTA.
I don't want to argue how great we are for union people, or how we are comparatively better. The breach exists and we've got to repair that breach somehow.

Student loan forgiveness
Ties into the above and same source. Big problem. Ties right into our "brand" as elitist. Once again, I don't want to argue, but the forgiveness program just opened wounds with non-college educated working people. As step-father put it. "I can't tell you how many truly qualified people lost promotions to some unqualified asshole with a degree. And now they get that degree at no cost? Fuck them."

Elitist brand.
Yes, it is part of the far right propaganda machine, but some of it sticks because there are grains of truth. One person -- can't remember who -- captured some of this pointing out that you can't reach working people by hammering on offering "them" the opportunity for education to become one of "us."

Stop ignoring what we are being told.
Anoiting an incumbent with a 40% approval is a death sentence. In the name of party unity we got behind very unpopular candidates (including Hillary) without a real contest. Let's not do that again. We've got a deep bench and when we are up against a "throw the bums out" mentality, we need a truly open primary to hammer things out."

Far-right brainwashing.
This is not a political propaganda war. It is a social problem. Some ideas here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19612951