The Tim Walz Saga Shows Why Debunking Conspiracy Theories Doesn’t Work – The Minnesota governor abandoned his reelection campaign due to the thinnest of right-wing stories about fraudulent childcare centers.
Source: Quirkie
The Tim Walz Saga Shows Why Debunking Conspiracy Theories Doesn’t Work – The Minnesota governor abandoned his reelection campaign due to the thinnest of right-wing stories about fraudulent childcare centers.
Source: Quirkie
38 Comments
Such a shame, he’s one of the good guys.
Debunking conspiracy theories doesn’t work because the people who spout them use them as justifications. They don’t really believe them, they know they can do whatever they want if they make up a reason.
Media kept repeating the lies as usual.
It shows Democrats don’t have what it takes to be cutthroat. Walz wasn’t getting rich off of the scam, yet we have evidence of Republicans who made money off of scams and went on to other offices of power. The problem is that Democrats sat idly by as conservatives kept buying up all forms of media and didn’t do anywhere near enough to keep it balanced. So how can they combat it when the Republicans control so much of the media?
The misinformation machine is strong because its not just backed by useful idiots who lap up any opportunity to demonize people they hate BUT networks of bots, complicit media, and lots of very rich people.
The problem with conspiracy theories taking hold like this is that the burden of proof has been shifted and no amount of proof will counter their fee-fee’s
Edit: We really need to start fighting fire with fire, and spin up some bot networks ourselves. Honestly with how powerful you can make a single computer now, you could run multiple virtual machines from one that are just xitter bots or reddit bots.
Republican elected also live in fear of their own base, but they’re too craven to give up the luxury and power that comes with it. Decent men like Walz will leave public life to protect their families from MAGA violence. Republicans hope they can ride it out and come out on the winning side in fascism.
they saw a shadow near a swing set and now democracy’s on life support… y’all good?
if the media was concerned with facts, it would work. the issue is the media.
Walz is actually a real person. Actually a decent human being and not some weird soulless generationally wealthy ethically compromised ghoul.
I think it’s rare to get that as a state Governor in there last couple decades.
If I, as a real person, were in his shoes, I might just say “fuck it.” Be with your family, go on vacation, and not to try to fight what is, ostensibly, a *losing war* for media outrage and attention.
I mean, we can talk about the mainstream media failing to debunk all this shit, or do some actual investigative journalism here. . . but it shouldn’t even be something a state governor should HAVE to deal with . . . and even if he survive this, they’ll just be another fight. And another one. And uh. . . I’d quit too.
The problem with debunking conspiracy theories is that people didn’t logic their way into the belief and they’re not going to logic their way out of it. To them a “debunk” just looks defensive and desperate.
I also think he realized the potential threat of the political harassment to himself and his family. We have plenty of evidence that this is becoming unsafe for democratic lawmakers due to a segment of the public that is persuaded to act on violent rhetoric. I would not offer myself and my family up to that. These are dangerous times and republicans have a proven method for neutralizing real and perceived political rivals. Democrats need to unify and be very clear about where we are at as a nation when people are being driven from politics through a multi-front effort by those in power. We are in a bad, bad spot.
Not much to be done when the entire media ecosystem is run by right wing oligarchs.
The story was run nonstop, and they knew exactly what they were doing.
His family was under constant threat. Let’s not forget – MAGA literally tried to kill a VP, kidnap Gov. Whitmer, kill Nancy Pelosi, has killed state reps in Minnesota already, attempted to overthrow democracy, and all of it cheered on or tacitly endorsed by MAGA leaders.
His kids were getting death threats…
He seems like a normal guy who may just be done with this bullshit.
Its easy to arm chair quarterback politics when we ain’t running for shit.
I would never do what hes already done because it seems like a fucking nightmare.
I wish his family the best of luck and hope somebody progressive fills his spot
Based on him and his daughters reaction on TikTok, I think they couldn’t handle the personal threats. And that’s the sad truth, if you aren’t wealthy, you can’t afford to live public life.
I mean, framing this as “he dropped out because of the disinformation campaign” is itself disinformation.
He dropped out because of how intense the threats and harassment of his family has been over the past few weeks, according to his daughter who gave an interview yesterday.
The problem with good people is they aren’t willing tell bad people to go fck themselves sideways.
Democrats, until the current president resigns for all of the crimes he’s committed, STOP TAKING THE HIGH ROAD.
I saw a decent assessment on this yesterday. The persons’ take was that Minnesota is a tighter state than most realize (Rs actually control a portion of the legislature/only went Dem by 5 last year) and Walz had a front row to the problems created by Biden not successfully reading the tea leaves. So he likely did this because he sensed politics were not on his side and it could bring problems in other races.
The big question is can Dems be similarly successful with R fraud- judging by the orange stain we know the answer is no.
Didn’t Al Franken crumble under nothingburger accusations, too? He was from Minnesota also.
Minnesota should try exporting their great shame to the rest of us, honestly. All politicians could use that.
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Minnesota was assassinated by an anti-LGBTQ anti-abortion conservative and Republican *politicians* were making sick “jokes” about it or giving their silent approval. Trump took the target off of their graves and placed it squarely on Governor Walz when he floated his involvement in the murder of the Hortmans and their dog. Before that, his daughter was already receiving death threats from Republicans. You can bet that the surviving children of the Hortmans have likewise received death threats for asking Trump to take that post down. Within 24 hours of Trump posting that insane conservative conspiracy theory Walz stepped down. I can’t see that timing as a coincidence, but rather an attempt to not to cause alarm by listing these new death threats as the primary reason for stepping down. At this point, I don’t know that it really makes any difference, since social media was full of conservatives running with that conspiracy theory and calling for Walz to be jailed.
You can’t debunk conspiracy theories because believing in them is what makes those people think they are smarter and more aware than the rest of us.
It makes them feel powerful like they have an advantage over you.
Why would they give that up over facts? They didn’t use facts or logic to believe in the conspiracy. Facts and logic most assuredly won’t make them change their mind.
He’s probably just sick of this shit and wants to quit. I would be.
then maybe he should’ve channeled some testicular fortitude and not give up? it doesn’t look good
That’s a really well written article.
Republicans would have blasted right past any similar allegations against a sitting red state governor. Why do Democrats continue to try to act honorably, especially when the scandal is so thin? Maybe because the GOP has a 24 hour political wing broadcasting bombast all day?
He should not have folded. This was a loss for everyone.
Are we going to discuss the fact that he and his family are facing credible death threats, especially his disabled son? Or the fact that one of his fellow Minnesota politicians and her family members were shot dead in their home less than six months ago?
The daycare thing might be thin and easily debunked but it’s not relevant to his decision if he was worried about his family due to the threats. Multiple things are going on here and this analysis seems to be ignoring some pretty big ones.
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”-mark twain
Walz legitimately has a big scandal on his hands. The right have gone absolutely insane with it, and blew it up, but a giant scam occurred under his governing. Sometimes multiple things are true. Walz will beat some responsibility for what was a giant fraud.
Tim walz shouldnt have dropped. Not like he trafficked child sex slaves unlike our president.
Kind of a disingenuous title that ignores the threats he and his family are getting because of this.
Weren’t a bunch of people indicted and convicted? I recognize the recent lunacy over the story but crimes were committed defrauding the state and feds
The DNC is a fucking joke. They keep making all the same mistakes and refuse to ever learn anything.
I think he left to protect his family.
Not because of that itself, but the harassment of his family that followed. Not everybody can productively work when constantly worrying if your family is ok.
I think this has a lot more to do with Tim feeling the need to protect his family than it is that he’s bowing out due to the bullshit conspiracy theories.
We’ve also not had any governor on for three consecutive terms since we moved to 4 year terms back in 63.
He’s done a ton for his state and his country already. While I do wish he’d reconsider and continue to lead our state — I completely understand why he feels the need to step aside.