I was never a Trump fan, I've been inclined to be left-wing politically, but this phenomenon is one of many that made me reconsider my political leanings and beliefs. Nowadays I see "media" and "tech" to be essentially one and the same in many ways. So many people have dumped cable and subscription newspapers that mainstream media outlets that advertise online have more pull.
I'm going to sperge, sorry. Haven't figured out how to make a "spoiler" yet. I'm not going into why I was historically left leaning as I don't want to identify myself. My thoughts to explain my change in attitude and my current distrust in the left and the institutions that have it in their pockets:
So many Trump fans I've known were normal people, many of them far from the "white rich male" stereotype. The character assassination of any and all Trump fans seemed like hyperbole. Character smears of Melania seemed cruel, as she wasn't actively doing anything political, and she was an immigrant who came from a war-torn country. She didn't choose to be First Lady. I can see people's aversion to things he said, his personality, the fact he didn't denounce certain groups, etc., but to claim he was the first president to have racist inclinations, have deviant sexual proclivities, have endless golfing trips and to allow his kids to profit off his political seat are delusional. Bush 2 had a way of fumbling and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and he had numerous skeletons in the family closet, Clinton also had bad habits. Trump wasn't the first problematic president. As far as family grift is concerned, US politics has been rife with bi-partisan nepotism and depravity for as long as I can remember.
While I felt there was foreign involvement in the 2016 election, I also felt tech companies were complicit in that they didn't safeguard against trolls. Micro-targeting Russia as "the bad guy" seemed bizarre to me.. if they managed to sway the election, who's fault was that? US technology and media companies allowed it to happen. I also felt that there was no reason to believe the Democrats were "above" utilizing foreign companies to push their own agenda. Why pay US citizens minimum wage to troll online if you can pay foreigners pennies on the dollar? I also felt all the endless legal wrangling and impeachment aimed at Trump was hot air, just a circus show to keep people preoccupied. Nobody actually accomplished anything by constantly attacking him. I imagine they never managed to oust Trump in part because so many politicians are already "dirty". Many of the politicians who wanted him impeached probably have their own skeletons, so nothing ever materialized from their efforts.
In hindsight, I believe US social media backed Obama in 08 and 12, Trump in 2016. I remember facebook pushing Obama hard, putting out conspiracy theories about McCain and Romney. In 2016, they must have realized a Republican administration would give tech companies more freedom and leeway for a few years, as Republicans normally vote pro-business no matter what the long term repercussions are. Now they got what they wanted, so they dumped Trump like a hot rock. It was Trump's administration that made it legal for cable, telephone and internet companies to harvest users' data and use that data for their own purposes. (Now I try to look up this legislation, but of course internet search engines bury it). Hopefully some people here remember that. I wonder if the Republicans who voted to pass this legislation a few years back knew that this was going to bite them back, and hard.
The bizarre social media pogroms that happened around July 1st of this year (the first of the fiscal year) made me open my eyes. It seemed as if social media and tech backed Biden with all their might, and this struck me as biased, immoral and dangerous. I also felt it would hurt Biden in the long run, as it would give Trump a legitimate argument to attack "mainstream media". As much as I was always left-leaning, I smelled a rat with these developments. I already knew cable news largely turned their backs on Trump. Social media and tech started pushing the transhumanist talking points, too, censoring people who spoke out against pedophilia, censoring people who questioned transitioning children without parental consent, censoring women who didn't want to be redefined by the trans lobby. Just try to google topics like "pedophilia" and "domestic violence", and you'll get endless hits of pedo-apologism and articles about transwomen. The internet is SO different than it was 20-25 years ago, I can't even begin to tell younger people how different it was. It was so much easier to communicate without censorship, to find things you wanted, to price-compare, to get legit info about any given topic. Now you can't even trust online dictionaries-- words are being redefined every day to suit the Woke narrative. News sources that promoted right wing ideas and conservative ideas are now buried. Contacting social media administrators about the flagrant hate hurled at certain populations and biased search results are met with deafening silence.
The way in which flagrant violence and destruction was (and still is) perpetuated by BLM and ANTIFA was hidden from public was ominous to me. I had no problem with either until it seemed they were just out to destroy things for the sake of destruction. The infiltration of trans-extremists in both groups made them seem less credible to me. I had to dig to find coverage of the destruction of storefronts and buildings in many cities. Don't people realize it's often immigrants and "people of color" who own and operate urban businesses? Where was the outrage in these storefronts being smashed? How was attacking a mom-and-pop a way of "getting back at the man"? None of these "activists" are going after those mega conglomerates who are really responsible for reducing the well being of so many people. Why is the media hiding this? Why is the media supporting the destruction of churches and government buildings? Why are popular figures promoting this as "peaceful"? Why are they supporting "Defund the police!"? Why are corporations promoting this ideology in lockstep? There has to be a profit motive behind it, as racial strife has been going on for decades. One article I read suggested that powers that be want to make "police" virtual, as in using our own technology to spy and report on us. Makes sense as surveillance technology would be a huge profit motive for many corporations. There are already calls in places like Scotland for people to be persecuted for "hate speech" at home, and politicians are suggesting that technology like Alexa should be used for those purposes. Talk to some people online in Scotland. This is happening right now. It could happen in the US.
I can't understand how people on the left side of the political spectrum can't see the danger in allowing tech and media to back one horse over the other. Technological interference in voting has to be stopped. Elections have to be valid, or calling ourselves a democracy is a joke. Don't they remember the 2000 elections? Don't they understand that next election, it could easily be their least-favored candidate who will win via propaganda and trickery? I've seen so many elections, and never in my life have I seen counts being "stopped" in battleground and large leads by one candidate being erased in lockstep in such a small time period in the dead hours of the morning.
While I believe Covid should be taken seriously, people who suffer the most from Covid the most usually have pre-existing conditions, are men over 50, have diabetes and heart disease. I bite my lip and won't power level here, but this is reality. While I believe safeguards are needed against pandemics, the safeguards now seem over-the-top for most people, and countless people are suffering because of them. There are massive lockdowns in Europe, and people are getting fined like crazy for simply having dinner with their small families. If this happens in other "first world countries", it could happen here. Now there's some vaccine being pushed by Pfizer, and any criticism or caution against it is being censored on platforms like Twitter. Ominous. Anyone with any knowledge about history in terms of pharmaceuticals knows that caution is necessary. Has anyone heard of Thalidomide babies? I'm definitely not "anti-vaxx", but I'm not lining up for this inoculation unless I'm threatened with unemployment.
Does anyone know what the main reason was behind tech dumping Trump? Platforms like Reddit and Facebook pushed him hard in 2016. Was it his criticism of China? Was it his aversion to the trans agenda? Was it his criticism of pharmaceuticals, who have been deeply involved in tech for some time? Did tech see COVID as a way to push candidates that would allow complete destruction of privacy for citizens, and who would push total invasion of people's lives by intrusive technology? Did they see that Republicans would be averse to eradication of privacy for citizens? If you look up "the Great Reset", it seems the "great minds" who are behind it predicted just that. This is what they wanted. The Great Reset isn't an invention of conspiracy theorists, as it's a real thing.