Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill.

“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance posted Saturday on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

Vance has claimed, falsely, in recent days that Haitians — who are not Africans — living in Springfield — a town of 58,000 which is not Dayton — were stealing, killing, and consuming their neighbors’ pets.

  • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism

    Stochastic terrorism is political violence that has been instigated by hostile public rhetoric which is directed at a group or an individual. Unlike incitement to terrorism, stochastic terrorism is accomplished by using indirect, vague, or coded language that allows the instigator to plausibly disclaim responsibility for the resulting violence.[1] A key element is the use of social media and other distributed forms of communications where the person who carries out the violence has no direct connection to the users of violent rhetoric.[2]

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      3 months ago

      They’re also purposefully leaning into this to keep the conversation about immigration, because it’s pretty much the only issue they have had an advantage on. Without Trump talking about eating pets, we’d all be talking about his abortion stance right now, which is deeply unpopular.

        • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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          That bill was a super republican bill, I honestly do not know why the Democrats keep bragging about this as if every “bipartisan” bill has merit. The Overton Window continues to shift right. Just because the vociferous Republicans spouted incorrect information about the bill, that doesn’t make the quality of actual bill have any merit. I’m ashamed that any democrat thought this"immigration" reform bill was something worth fighting for. It is an anti immigration package that gives significantly more money and power to homeland security. It focused on funding border walls, detention centers, increasing the burden of proof required for asylum seekers, among others. It is a horrendous bill that cares little for immigrants.

          • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            That only underscores the point of advertising their refusal to pass it: it should have fully satisfied Republicans and given them most of what they want, but the Orange Shit Stain said not to pass it so they could complain about immigration during the election.

            Democrats should use it as a loud and constant example of how Republicans are not leaders and have no solutions for America.

            • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Yeah, you shouldn’t work with them on such heinous human rights abusing packages. That is what it underscores to me. If anyone actually read the bill, we might critically push back on the Democrats and make positive change instead of this bipartisan rivalry nonsense. It serves the status quo, not any of us. If the bill had any merit , I’d be totally with you on that point.

              • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                You’re not understanding me. Yes, the bill was awful and should not have had their support.

                So given that, what exactly is the Republican justification for not supporting it? That needs to be highlighted so that perhaps enough GOP voters just stay home on election day - especially in swing states.

                Like it or not, Republicans must not win this election so that our democracy survives. We will have lots of work to do after the election to push the Democrats back to supporting the average person and not the rich, but that’s the next fight and not this one!

                Hold your nose and vote for democracy.

                • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Oh I understand you. I don’t think you understand that voting for Democratics and criticizing them is more than OK, it is necessary.

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Yeah, because advertising that you used a social murder bill to bluff with makes you sound SUPER sympathetic to the people who would have died if fascists had called your bluff 🙄

              • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                I don’t think it was a bluff, unfortunately. Neither do I think they should not criticize the Republicans for their behavior.

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            3 months ago

            The point is that it was agreed to by both parties and Trump still had it killed so the mere concept of cooperatively working with the other party got thrown out the window.

            It is important to keep reminding people that Trump refuses to do anything (or even allow things to be done) that doesn’t serve his own personal goals . He will actively prevent things from happening if that serves him better, regardless of the consequences to anyone else.

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            3 months ago

            I honestly do not know why the Democrats keep bragging about this as if every “bipartisan” bill has merit

            Because it’s what they do. To the Dem leadership, bipartisanship is the highest achievement in politics, no matter how awful the actual content.

            If you could demonstrate bipartisan backing, they’d gladly declare this flag from Community the new national flag of the United States:

            In fact, both that flag and the “Human Being” mascot (pictured below, middle) of the school’s football team are parodies of the way Dem leadership operates.

      • ashok36@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        This is it. If were talking about immigrants not eating pets, we’re not talking about how Harris whooped trumps ass.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Baffling to think that such blatant and easily disproven lies can be beneficial to their cause.

  • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Offering a $5000 bounty for video proof is the same as paying $5000 for someone to manufacture the proof. This is like a Cobra bounty in India only results in Cobra farms.

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    3 months ago

    JFC, the person who started all this on Facebook says it’s false and these freaks are like “NOPE, THIS IS ALL WE CARE ABOUT NOW”

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    3 months ago

    People, remember how Trump presidency went! Bad news for Trump? Float a batshiit crazy thing to get the media to play with that shiny ball instead. This is a fucking distraction, Trump lost the debate, he is courting fascists, he is old and weird and people leave his rallys bored, he had to throw a stink bomb

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Wow. They are really going over the deep end on this. How could this possibly help them win votes?

    • themadcodger@kbin.earth
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      3 months ago

      Backtracking equals flip-flopping, and then it’s a slippery slope to learning and growing and admitting you were wrong.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        You’re probably right. And if they’re going to keep swimming towards the bottom of the pool, I really want journalists to start asking them why Haitians are eating pets. Because that’s the part that they haven’t actually made clear.

        Haitians don’t eat dogs and cats in Haiti. The Haitians in Springfield aren’t starving, most of them have jobs. So why are they eating them, JD?

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          It gets them angry and supporting Republican anti-immigrant positions, instead of thinking about the issues that actually affect them, like why Steward Health Care was allowed to buy hospitals, squeeze as much money out of them as possible, give the CEO $250m, and then go bankrupt, leaving hundreds of people without healthcare.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            You think people don’t think about the dire financial straits they are in because Trump and Vance are being racists? And somehow that helps Trump get elected?

            None of that makes any sense.

            • catloaf@lemm.ee
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              3 months ago

              When someone is out of work, and the media tells them it’s because of immigrants stealing their jobs, and not because of private equity squeezing companies to death for profit, yes, it helps Trump and the Republicans get elected.

        • futatorius@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          His dithering, weak, incoherent performance in the debate? Or is that already forgotten?

        • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The topic does not matter.

          The assertion at hand does not matter.

          Whether anyone believes the assertion does not matter.

          The only thing that matters is: Are you playing offense or defense?

          Cuz attacking looks like winning. And explaining looks like losing.

          https://youtu.be/wmVkJvieaOA

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              3 months ago

              Who is defending? Not them, they are doubling down. Everyone else is calling the mayor and asking for a statement, or doing some vox pop with Haitians on the ground.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Yes, and all of those statements essentially are “Donald Trump and JD Vance are racist liars.”

                Which you seem to think people shouldn’t say.

        • barsquid@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Overt, disgusting racism is what his voters support, so it is a good distraction if there was news about something they don’t support. They support everything, as long as it is evil, though, so do not ask me what that could be.

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      They are too used to the typical news cycle where they bombard the public with lies to the point where everyone starts believing those are real. They’ve grown complacent.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Given most of the stuff right wingers complain about is projection, maybe we need to check this guy’s myfitnesspal

  • NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    JDV is like a toddler trying to trick you by hiding behind the curtains, but you can still see his Scooby Doo Velcro shoes and he’s back there giggling.

    • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I was thinking more like an Ivy League graduate from a Lawyering the Dark Arts School of Deceptive Loopholes and Twisting, but I see your point.

      Edit: added a word

  • rsuri@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

    This is the most infuriating thing they do. They assume that any developing story is actually the most extreme version that favors their side. Then they ignore all evidence to the contrary and fish for any evidence that they can claim as confirmation, even if it doesn’t pass the laugh test. But they assert “It was confirmed!” with such confidence and shamelessness that it becomes easier for people to believe them, and eventually the media stops trying to debunk them.

    Definitely not the first time this happened. If you wanna find other examples, look at anything where experts on the topic believe one thing but a majority of the American people believe the other. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the thing the American people believe originated as GOP propaganda.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      I wish I had told myself that from 25 years ago before I went online and was exposed to these people with all the naivety of the socially underdeveloped autistic 17 year old that I was at the time. I often have to learn things in the hardest way imaginable.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      A nutjob conservative on Lemmy has been telling me that babies are being executed in post-birth abortions using these same tactics.

  • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Swift, the crazy cat lady, gives endorsement, distract with crazy cat news. This is a distraction, Trump does this

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Being super racist as a distraction is not a very good distraction. It also doesn’t distract from the Swift endorsement at all.

      • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Nobody is talking about anything right now except the memes around cats and dogs. You and I, we agree it’s racist, but independents may buy this hook without thinking it’s racist. We agree that everything coming out of his mouth is lies and garbage, but independents are much more neutral and are willing to give him, the former president, the benefit of the doubt. They probably are thinking, wow, things have gotten bad in Springfield, instead of haha what a crazy old man who lost the debate. They aren’t thinking about swift because this cat thing has completely flooded the zone. This is what Trump did all for years

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          That “may” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

          They “may” see it as the extremely racist thing that is so racist that even Republicans are saying “stop with the racism.”

          • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Or they may like the little tickle of racism,or any number of other explanations… The point is we are in a bubble and have no freaking idea what they actually think, so plausible statements aren’t that heavy of a lift. They may do as you say as well, but your may is no lighter of a lift

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      That, at least, had a vague air of plausibility. People do come to the U.S. illegally and people do have faked identification documents. It also only attacked one person. This is attacking a whole group of people with a ludicrous (and very obviously racist) charge. I realize there are a lot of idiots in this country, but I have a feeling this is going beyond the pale for some people who were going to vote for Trump. I don’t know that they’ll vote for Harris, but they might sit this one out.

  • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    it would be so much work to stalk, kill, prep and eat someone’s dog or cat. people don’t even keep their pets outside much anymore. If people had pigs or some larger, meatier pets kept outside all hours at least it’d be a more realistic lie but like c’mon… who’s out there with fuggen ninja cat hunting skills? What are they using to quietly and efficiently kill these pets? Who even got that kinda time?

    If this dumb cluck had any sense he’d say they were buying pups from PetSmart or breeding them themselves to eat or something. That lie would at least be in the realm of possibility! Nobody’s pets would have to disappear before an idiot believed it!

    Fucking loser can’t even stoke hate properly

    • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Stalking a cat would be hard, but trapping one is easy.

      The reason people don’t eat their neighbors’ cats isn’t because it’d be difficult, it’s because most people aren’t absolute psychopaths like JD Vance

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      They don’t CARE about the facts or how absurd their claims are. Also pet eating is something that, in times past, was a racist slur foisted onto Asians, like Chinese restaurants who cooked cat instead of beef or chicken, and more specifically Koreans, who did consume dog meat sparingly, but that was something that happened historically it was never common and dog meat consumption is actually illegal now in South Korea, and eating dog meat has been in rapid decline for decades anyway.

      Seeing Haitians get called pet eaters is actually a very new thing.

    • SilverCode@lemm.ee
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      Eating a dog or cat you have bred yourself would make PETA angry. Eating a beloved family pet of a true blooded hard working American would make a lot more people angry.

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      Uhm, a raccoon trap is also a cat trap. Easy enough to setup. Hell even the wile-e-coyote style trap with a stick and a rope will work if you use proper bait.

      Edit: Haitians don’t eat pets people! I was just responding to the guy with his cat hunt.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Grilling chicken in Ohio, eh? Hmm, I hear there’s a huge orange chicken who is scared to have a second debate because he got so badly humiliated in the first one. He might want to stay away from Ohio since they are grilling his kind.