I was curious how common it is to be, say, a leftist in a very conservative area.

My county, family, and school are all very conservative. It makes it a bit intimidating to engage in any political discussion. I also rarely get to hear leftist opinion anywhere in person, which means i need to devote a lot of time to considering and thinking about arguments that are probably already solved.

Are you, or have you been, in a similar situation?

    • iatenine@piefed.social
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      22 hours ago

      It’s an open secret the fedi is swimming in it, especially the ml instances but there are several categories of varying severity used by people of all political persuasions:

      • Simple political ads
      • “Memes” designed to skew one’s perception of the world
      • Misleading headlines or posting articles from unreliable or uncorroborated sources
      • “Bumper sticker” logic
      • What aboutisms
      • Calls for politically motivated violence

      I won’t give specific examples because (even when I agree with their end goals) people get defensive but if you look, you’ll find them

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        I think most of what you’re encountering and labeling as propaganda is more likely tongue in cheek skewering of the right. If you look at the motivations behind these posts, it’s usually to bring attention and awareness to real issues. The right lies about stolen elections and voter fraud because they seek to disenfranchise voters and gain power. The left appeals to emotion sometimes too much, but their end goals are things like universal healthcare, less government spying, and more education.

        The right similarly stokes fear and panic by demonizing vulnerable minority and immigrant populations, with the end goal of further entrenching their political power, so they can lower taxes on the rich, and raise them for the poor.

        The right and left may both engage in sensationalized headlines and appeals to emotion, but they are not the same, you can tell by their end goals.

        Who was in power when epstien “killed himself”? Why is ghislaine maxwell in a cushy minimum security prison? I’ll give you a hint, the answer ain’t the left.