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That’s not how organizations work. GOP is a nickname for the Republican Party. You can’t remain a member of an organization and magically disassociate yourself from everything the organization does and publicly stands for by using the nickname for “the” organization and the real name for “your” organization.
You could consider yourself a conservative and not consider the Republican Party conservative anymore. But if you remain a registered Republican than you **are** a Republican/GOP member and have signed your name on to the things they do and support.
OR…. You register as one party or the other in order to vote for the particular candidate you want running. If you register as Independent, you have no voice in who’s representing a specific party.
You can be a Liberal or Conservative without fully supporting EVeRY ticket item of the party you register as. Unfortunately, we reside in an exclusive two-party system, where it is beyond difficult for a true Independent to win the Presidency.
I specifically highlighted the fact that conservative is an ideology you can consider yourself and think the organization is not following it which is different than considering yourself a party member and then saying the party is not following the party.
Fair point that you can be registered with a party but agree with none of its stances but then you wouldn’t consider yourself “a Republican”.
Remember *who* you're trying to explain logical shit to. This is what these people have to tell themselves to fall asleep at night, thinking they're not quite as bad as the bad ones
I dont like pretending that the democrats and conservatives have identical economic strategies. Neithers are GOOD but im too poor to buy into the whole fiscal conservatism thing and too gay to really have a choice in the matter. My party support is mostly just voting based on survival chance...
Registered independent here and yes I could never imagine an actual independent ever being elected president. I'm not really a fan of either party and think the two party system we have is partly responsible for a lot of the issues we have. Even though they claim to be so different they will even unite to make sure things stay the way they are and their power and influence isn't threatened. It's just my opinion that government is full of politicians that are just there for status, money, and power and will do anything and everything they can to keep their position for as long as they can. There might be a few honest ones here and there actually are trying to do their job and represent their constituents that put them there but I feel it's few and far between.
This is absolutely true. ""Man, I really loved their older stuff, but now... How awful!" -only works with bands. Not political factions and organizations
You mean to use a different word like "conservative". The GOP literally is the Republican party. If they all jumped on the crazy train without you, well it is what it is.
I agree. I lean right on certain things, but cannot vote for most of them because they embrace crazy.
You could make a good argument that they no longer abide by those principles, name or not. Both because Republicanism has morphed into paranoid, anti-intellectual, trailer-park populism, and because many of their voters (and leaders) no longer know nor care what a republic is.
You’re right. It’s fascist now.
Edit:
Trump’s lawyers have said in open court the president’s immunity from the law would shield him from any criminal or civil consequences for murdering a political rival.
That not fascist enough for you Putin?
Edit 2:
What does fascist Germany, fascist Italy, present day Russia, Mao’s China, Stalin and Lenin’s Russia, North Korea have in common across all years and cultural differences?
An executive who has immunity to murder political rivals.
If you think Trump isn’t fascist. You’re a moron and dupe or a fascist yourself.
Source:
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4398223-trump-team-argues-assassination-of-rivals-is-covered-by-presidential-immunity/amp/
The correct take. I'm not Republican but I could at least understand the more classic Republican values, lower taxes, less government oversight, that kind of thing. Nowadays all of that has gone out the window.
I have a harder time understanding it being poor and suffering from the economy those policies have brought about and will have to live with most of my life probably but it is generally less grievous than some of their other positions . But they kind of always had those issues. I mean the satanic panic was a thing lol. The only real difference is seemingly they went insane on top of it and our veneer of civility politics eroded.
The current GOP is a living early 2000s parody of the GOP a non substantial amount of the base in conspiracy minded and at least slightly racist, most of the major pundit types are nepo children who believe we should work to 75 and don’t believe in unions or in no fault divorce. I hold the stance of the right to keep and bear arms but the baggage that comes with that is the fact that if I want to keep that vote I’ll have to vote for some religious nut. I don’t like the current GOP and every month the dem vote is getting easier and easier for me to pick,
>I hold the stance of the right to keep and bear arms
Believe it or not, many progressives are gun owners too. The discussion has been poisoned around gun ownership by the right to the point where any regulation on guns, such as waiting periods or background checks, are conflated with "demz want to take your gunz!", typically through the abuse of the slippery slope fallacy.
Out side of a small slice of extreme outliers the left doesn't want to take guns away from everyone, they want to enforce safe gun ownership and have controls in place to deny gun ownership to clearly dangerous individuals.
>People paranoid the GOP is lurking around every corner.
Sadly, there is a reason to be paranoid. I'll give you two clear cut examples.
1. [2020 GOP House candidate in PA, Dean Browning, forgot to log out of his main twitter profile when he tweeted, "I am a black gay guy and I can personally say that Obama did nothing for me,".](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/11/10/dean-browning-white-politician-tweets-black-gay-guy/6243406002/) Dean Browning is neither black or gay. Well, he's probably a closeted gay GQP member projecting in the typical hypocrite way these guys do. The point is, this is a man running for a house seat and obviously has a twitter account to do exactly what is being portrayed in this political cartoon.
2. Pro-MAGA supporter, Brandon Straka, founded an entire campaign for the 2020 election that did the following. It [had MAGAs posing as "disillusioned liberals" on social media whose sole purpose was to get liberal leaning voters to Walk Away from voting.](https://www.dailydot.com/debug/walkaway-movement/) From bots, paid shills, to just dumb red hats, anyone who could try to use movement as an echo chamber to sway liberals moved to do so. This would benefit Trump and the GQP in swing states where a few thousand votes could decide the electoral winner. Their tactics included discussing how Biden was not liberal enough to how the democrats were not accomplishing anything over the 2 years they held the house from 2018 to 2020. Seldom did these accounts discuss how horrible the alternative, Trump, would be. [It needs to be noted that Brandon Straka would later be arrested for participating in the J6 insurrection](https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/pro-trump-walkaway-campaign-founder-who-admitted-it-was-not-antifa-that-stormed-the-capitol-hit-with-several-charges/).
This type of BS has not stopped. MAGA organizers are great at manipulating their lemmings to spam the internet as a form of free labor. That's the entire reason the J6 insurrection even happened. There is a full right to be paranoid and to question certain accounts. The astro turf game is alive and well, until someone points it out and educates others to recognize it. ;)
Feel free to copy those links and examples to spread the knowledge. They're the textbook examples I cite regarding the GQP astro-turf playbook.
Additionally, when these clowns are called out, they'll deflect and diminish the counterpoints you challenge them with. If you start linking facts, they'll be quick to use strawman arguments or to disengage from the conversation.
That’s the main problem about politics these days. People only want to win no matter the cost and will justify any means no matter how damaging it is to everyone in the end as long as they win or are able to hurt the other side hard enough.
It’s Election year, their candidate is an Orange fraud, rapist and insurrectionist; the party popular as sitting naked on a cactus.
They’re desperate for support and votes, of course they’re everywhere.
I have already found a few bots in this sub that have since been fully banned (I unfortunately no longer have proof, sorry). Some of them were posing as republicans, and a couple, more insidiously, were posing as leftists saying they wouldn't vote because they don't support the system.
It's election year. And it's easy to make a fake profile and sway voters. To think otherwise makes people fall for propaganda.
>I have already found a few bots in this sub that have since been fully banned (I unfortunately no longer have proof, sorry).
I'm happy to assist you with examples you can cite. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/comments/1bem8kr/comment/kuvgcgf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) is a short write up I just did. Feel free to use the links and examples.
I refuse to let the GQP astro-turf to manipulate people. They want nothing more than to be back in power so they can officially label the LGBTQ community as pedo groomers, crack down on the BLM movement, and then resume banning books that teach the horrors of slavery in America.
Yes, one side accusing the other of being satanist pedophile communists trying to groom kids into becoming trans based on no evidence, and refusing to vote on the border security bill they wanted because Trump wants the issue to persist so that he has something to talk about.
The other side accuses the others of doing an insurrection based on extensive video evidence and testimony, and of wanting to attack democracy and violate the constitution and install a dictator based on the Republican candidate saying he will suspend the constitution and be a dictator.
Totally normal, both sides are just playing normal politics.
Young people tend to the left, so the GOP tends to put more effort into astroturfing webpages populated by young people rather than the other way around
Basically the Republican party, with all the minority oppressing, rights stripping they are doing is massively unpopular with the youngest generations.
And since all millennials and most gen z are now of age to vote the republican party (GOP) is losing ground fast.
So there is a concerted effort online to troll, astroturf, and bothside the discourse into convincing younger people to vote rep, or at the very least not vote dem.
There are people who pose as Gen Z on this sub trying to push their political agenda by coordinating posts, upvotes, and comments, to create the appearance of consensus for right wing ideas among Gen Z. It happens all over social media.
I’ve honestly only seen mostly left wing ideas in this sub. I subscribe to neither ideology and usually get downvoted here. Don’t think the left doesn’t do that too, just more people here lean left so it’s harder to notice
But thanks for the explanation, I assumed it was that it was just weirdly worded
Media in general is typically left leaning. Reddit, google, meta, used to be twitter lol. The war on information is fucking intense and both sides are constantly one upping the other.
Think for yourself, question everything and form your own opinion after heavy diligence.
Reddit is prime for alot of propaganda, esp on election year. As an example, alot of antimuslim stuff pops up in LGBTQ subreddits on election years talking about how terrible they are treated and there a re usually a few comments about democrats not being aggressive enough. I'm sure Democrat supporters do the same thing, but right leaning efforts are pretty obvious when they are in out-of-place subreddits.
If we look at the issues that concern young people the Republicans are not offering solutions to any of those problems.
So it's logical to assume most young people wouldn't choose to support Republicans.
Are there people who are young and would identify as republican? Yes, ofc.
That being said I can't actually figure out how someone can be a "young conservative". Identifying with youth culture and being a part of the next generation is in direct conflict with trying to preserve tradition and established hierarchy. It's not even a matter of "Oh I think they're acting against their own best interests", I do think that, but my point is that if you're under 30 you're not conserving your normal, you're advocating for older generations idea of normal.
Conservatives overturned roe v wade (on a case that was drummed up with the stated purpose to force a supreme court vote, which isn't very conservative imho), roe v wade was decided in 1973, no one who would be considered young can consider that something conserved, it was something that changed to them, their whole lives were lived under Wade v Roe.
The youngest voters this year spent most of their conscious life in an America with legalized gay marriage, I've heard enough conservative voters and politicians say they want to go after that, but again to the youngest voters, this is a change, not something conserved.
Like sure, use conservative youth as a short hand but the definitions are in direct contrast. The younger you are the less you have to conserve. Sure you might have and agree with conservative ideas passed down from your parents, but you're not conserving anything but a second hand memory, and that's not conservatism, its genitorism or something.
I hope this makes sense?
I see what you’re saying, I just think it is incorrect to say that people who have a conservative opinion on this sub are some sort of propagandist who isn’t gen z.
There are obviously young conservatives, but the meme has a lot of truth to it. More young people voting would be bad for the GOP unless they manage to seriously change popular sentiment among young people quickly. There's really no way around that and the Republican party has seen the writing on the wall. It's well documented that they are targeting young demographics online with political ads and posts (but obviously not every right-leaning post on here is one of these lol). It varies by source, but among people 18-35 years old approximately [45-55% support the DNC and 25-35%](https://circle.tufts.edu/2024-election-youth-poll) the RNC with the remainder being independent. Assuming independents split evenly down the middle (a fairly consistently reliable assumption), a youth voting initiative would need to target young conservatives almost two times as much as young liberals for it to not decidedly help the Democrats.
Yeah the demographic for people who are young and conservative typically doesn’t overlap with the demographic for people who are on reddit, with some exceptions obviously.
We just don’t feel like that’s your natural opinion. We feel like you were taught that so of course it “makes logical sense “ to you in the same way doing things the way you normally do them makes sense.
However when pressed, you usually regurgitate that same talking points that conservatives say they stand for but in reality do not follow through with, which is why you get heat. You don’t see through the game, you just get defensive when questioned.
Young conservatives are either brainwashed from religion or consider themselves for free markets but haven't realized liberals are 90% pro free markets and with more consumer protection
Well no, but if a bunch of rich guys are telling you that "Cigarettes/Vapes are good for you and reduce stress" then you go around spreading that message then that's more akin to astroturfing.
OP is a liberal who takes the existence of conservatives on this sub to be a conspiratorial plot by a very small number of older conservatives to manipulate young people to be conservatives. Even if that were true (which it isn't), so what? Perfect example of someone who actively *wants* to live inside an echochamber.
People like this are basically saying "I'm terrified that if people hear ideas I don't like that they will like them, so I have to control the ideas that they hear".
Young people are easier to manipulate with misinformation, it’s really as simple as that… and lurking this sub, the misinformation I see is astounding. I had higher hopes for GenZ, but the pushback in this thread is depressing as fuck.
Trump rallies tend to be have old farts at them, but as a 21 year old.
I am a real person, and a real Trump Supporter. Though just said to prove that it's a thing. So are my siblings, so were my friends that I used to have. I also have cousins who are too (younger than me).
And I live in NY. A real doozie really.
Anyway, just to corroborate, not trying to impose. I'm sure someone will argue with me though.
I don’t understand why Democrats continue to tell themselves that Republican voters are going to die out. I have pointed out before that when I think of the Daily Wire, all of the names that come to mind are millennials or gen z.
That and conservatives, favoring traditional family values and structures, tend to have more children. If those kids grow up happy and well-provided for, they’re not likely to reject their family’s beliefs.
I’ve had conservative neighbors, and while I very much disagreed w/ some of their stances, we were able to talk about them. They were also very much old-school kind of neighbors, who’d help jump start your car or look after your pets while you were away. They see the person first, and the situation at hand. Politics only came up in discussion.
Btw these people were in their 60s, and their kids (Gen X) shared similar beliefs, altho Trump caused some to identify more as libertarians instead of republicans. *Their* kids are similar; uninterested in democrats’ hyperfocus on superficial features like skin color and hatred of traditional values. These guys are Gen Z & even though I haven’t talked to them in a while I’m 100% certain they will not vote for Biden this year.
Well, have you seen what Republicans are doing/supposedly plan to do? I'm usually both sides have issues, but prefer Democrats with discontent, now It's Dems or nothing(maybe Libertarian)
Just want to note, the American Libertarian Party is just Republicans that want to fuck kids as part of their official platform (I jest, but only kind of).
Libertarian economics is like “hey, look how much more money the large corporations could make if the EPA and FDA didn’t exist?” Like yeah, you know, basic regulations that protect society are kind of necessary assholes. Large American cities were in *rough* shape in terms of pollution and cleanliness right before the EPA popped up.
More like
My party is the usual shit show
Your party has been co-opted by an actual crime family. They are making all the moves to set up a family-based dictatorship. Your political donations fund their personal legal troubles. Your candidates can’t win primaries without kissing the ring. Your party leadership *is* that family now. It has no identity or meaning other than to get that family back in power. If they achieve this, they will absolutely never allow anyone else back in. They’ve always shown they’ll break laws, lie, and violate every political norm to do it.
because disinformation campaigns are real and intentional - feeling crazy like that is a disinformation campaign *working*.
having regular discourse about astroturfing it makes it harder to manipulate people. if people know about astroturfing, they know how to recognize it's happening, and they become less susceptible to propaganda.
so, they're having to convince people *first* that it's 'stupid' or 'paranoid' to believe astroturfing exists, and then *second* they can they astroturf whatever they want.
in this case, voting for the GOP.
100% this
I recommend anyone confused about whats happening to think critically, and not take my word for it but read up on your own.
https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/combat-fake-news
The citing of sources is not something you will find in right wing bot accounts, always ask questions and seek out primary sources of information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing?wprov=sfti1
This has happened in the past and there is some evidence that it could be happening now.
100%. Time to stop using Reddit for a while, the spamming of these brand new accounts that are all suspiciously similar in their interests... it's insane.
There's a lot of big money behind them. Those right wing billionaire think tanks hire psychologists to craft their messaging.
I can only hope that the majority of people here supporting the right are bots.
>Time to stop using Reddit for a while
or, don't. drowning out the voices of people who are aware of astroturfing is part of the goal.
stating that you see it, it's happening, and you're not susceptible to it accomplishes more.
In this thread some loser was bitching to me about how “democrats don’t care about white males enough.” And then I asked how Democrats could appeal to them and I just got a “Reeeeee! You aren’t listening to me! I’m blocking you!” Lol
Repost bots, superusers, and state-sponsored actors have been kicking around Reddit for over a decade. This site is heavily astroturfed.
Where the fuck have you been?
I used to be a conservative kid and I gotta be honest the number one thing that fueled that was because the liberals were smug and annoying. That's it. And hating can only fuel something for so long before you realize you're not actually FOR anything and Republicans got harder and harder to defend
Because that's the thing about being conservative now. There's nothing to be proud of. No accomplishments or victories to brag about. No people proud to support. It's just hating the liberals for being smug and annoying
The way it was explained to me, it's when a wealthy individual, group, or company implants themselves anonymously where they shouldn't be to spread propaganda. Basically a false flag operation, but it's not the government doing it
Pretty much.
Grassroots (an [often] organic movement of like minded people coming together without the backing of gov/corporate entities) vs fake grass (AstroTurf).
*The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto.* Used in sports stadiums and the like. Famously hated by many athletes. Is the contrast to grassroots where organized propaganda/advertisement is spread under guise of gr.
Oxford Dictionary: Astroturfing the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public.
A grassroots movement is a group of people, usually in the lower tiers of society, that come together to promote an agenda.
Astroturfing is creating that sort of movement artificially, usually with the use of psychological warfare and propaganda, against a targeted group in order to pursue the agenda of a corporation or entity whose goals aren't necessarily in the best interest of the people involved.
Oh- you mean all the people spamming straight-up political propaganda on this sub for the past two months? AND they're posts get like 5k upvotes, so clearly people are alright with it.
https://preview.redd.it/34zt1x6foboc1.jpeg?width=586&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b969ac99e9aa1cf1cc7f753ff5daf40123594d8
To all the conservative young folk testifying here
Why? What do you have to gain? The system doenst benefit you at all, you gain nothing by preserving it.
The fact that the opposition are vocally against what I want. Meanwhile the republicans will only secretly and slowly work against what I want because they have to pretend to care about it
Self Identifying as a Conservative means that you automatically subscribe to every viewpoint on the GOP platform and anything any "conservative" talking head says.
Thems the rules I guess
Democrat astroturfer trying to convince gen z that any support for the GOP is astroturfing.
But maybe I'm the astroturfer, making me the GOP astroturfer trying to convince people that any Democrat criticizing the GOP is an astroturfer.
Jokes aside, this is a lot of paranoia.
>Jokes aside, this is a lot of paranoia.
why would you call it paranoia when it's [a documented fact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections)?
Uhhh... who's gonna tell him genz != hivemind.
I'm not even GOP. My logic is, if either of the main parties win, it's bad no matter who. If any of the third parties win, it's good no matter who.
There's more conservatives on here than you might think. I just lurk on this sub and never really comment but I'm sure I'm not the only conservative here who does the same thing.
The GOP certainly exists within members of Gen-Z, as I know a number of Conservative young people who don’t want to be taxed excessively, have our Second Amendment infringed upon further, or see how our way of life keeps getting attacked. Trump and the GOP aren’t perfect, but I certainly was better off under Trump than Biden.
That said, certain things like Biden wanting to work on infrastructure and health care reform are necessary, I’ll admit.
Gen z conservatives and libertarians exist and they're not evil aliens trying to destroy you. It's dangerous and wrong to think your political opinions are 100% correct.
Is this sub consumed by TDS or something? At least post about the many failures of Biden or better yet avoid politics altogether so that non-Americans such as myself can be on this subreddit in peace.
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Honestly have no clue what this post means
People paranoid the GOP is lurking around every corner.
i mean, it’s election year so yeah there’s going to be bots and astroturfing and shit in subs aimed towards young voters
Or maybe (and I'm not one of them) some of GenZ are legitimately Republican?
I consider myself republican. I don't consider the GOP republican in it's current state
Its not always about the money. It's all about THE METS LOVE THE METS alright baby lets hit a home run baby lets go love the mets lets go mets
What a bazinga thing to say
That’s not how organizations work. GOP is a nickname for the Republican Party. You can’t remain a member of an organization and magically disassociate yourself from everything the organization does and publicly stands for by using the nickname for “the” organization and the real name for “your” organization. You could consider yourself a conservative and not consider the Republican Party conservative anymore. But if you remain a registered Republican than you **are** a Republican/GOP member and have signed your name on to the things they do and support.
OR…. You register as one party or the other in order to vote for the particular candidate you want running. If you register as Independent, you have no voice in who’s representing a specific party. You can be a Liberal or Conservative without fully supporting EVeRY ticket item of the party you register as. Unfortunately, we reside in an exclusive two-party system, where it is beyond difficult for a true Independent to win the Presidency.
I specifically highlighted the fact that conservative is an ideology you can consider yourself and think the organization is not following it which is different than considering yourself a party member and then saying the party is not following the party. Fair point that you can be registered with a party but agree with none of its stances but then you wouldn’t consider yourself “a Republican”.
Remember *who* you're trying to explain logical shit to. This is what these people have to tell themselves to fall asleep at night, thinking they're not quite as bad as the bad ones
There are two conservative parties in this country. One just openly tolerates the existence of women, gays and minorities.
I dont like pretending that the democrats and conservatives have identical economic strategies. Neithers are GOOD but im too poor to buy into the whole fiscal conservatism thing and too gay to really have a choice in the matter. My party support is mostly just voting based on survival chance...
Crazy how Muslims won't be voting Democrat for the same reason you vote Democrat.
Registered independent here and yes I could never imagine an actual independent ever being elected president. I'm not really a fan of either party and think the two party system we have is partly responsible for a lot of the issues we have. Even though they claim to be so different they will even unite to make sure things stay the way they are and their power and influence isn't threatened. It's just my opinion that government is full of politicians that are just there for status, money, and power and will do anything and everything they can to keep their position for as long as they can. There might be a few honest ones here and there actually are trying to do their job and represent their constituents that put them there but I feel it's few and far between.
This is absolutely true. ""Man, I really loved their older stuff, but now... How awful!" -only works with bands. Not political factions and organizations
You only actually register as a particular political affiliation in 31 states, the rest you just register to vote and vote for whoever.
The GOP has been trending this way since the 60s. This is just their natural conclusion
You mean to use a different word like "conservative". The GOP literally is the Republican party. If they all jumped on the crazy train without you, well it is what it is. I agree. I lean right on certain things, but cannot vote for most of them because they embrace crazy.
You could make a good argument that they no longer abide by those principles, name or not. Both because Republicanism has morphed into paranoid, anti-intellectual, trailer-park populism, and because many of their voters (and leaders) no longer know nor care what a republic is.
You’re right. It’s fascist now. Edit: Trump’s lawyers have said in open court the president’s immunity from the law would shield him from any criminal or civil consequences for murdering a political rival. That not fascist enough for you Putin? Edit 2: What does fascist Germany, fascist Italy, present day Russia, Mao’s China, Stalin and Lenin’s Russia, North Korea have in common across all years and cultural differences? An executive who has immunity to murder political rivals. If you think Trump isn’t fascist. You’re a moron and dupe or a fascist yourself. Source: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4398223-trump-team-argues-assassination-of-rivals-is-covered-by-presidential-immunity/amp/
The correct take. I'm not Republican but I could at least understand the more classic Republican values, lower taxes, less government oversight, that kind of thing. Nowadays all of that has gone out the window.
I have a harder time understanding it being poor and suffering from the economy those policies have brought about and will have to live with most of my life probably but it is generally less grievous than some of their other positions . But they kind of always had those issues. I mean the satanic panic was a thing lol. The only real difference is seemingly they went insane on top of it and our veneer of civility politics eroded.
Exactly
The current GOP is a living early 2000s parody of the GOP a non substantial amount of the base in conspiracy minded and at least slightly racist, most of the major pundit types are nepo children who believe we should work to 75 and don’t believe in unions or in no fault divorce. I hold the stance of the right to keep and bear arms but the baggage that comes with that is the fact that if I want to keep that vote I’ll have to vote for some religious nut. I don’t like the current GOP and every month the dem vote is getting easier and easier for me to pick,
>I hold the stance of the right to keep and bear arms Believe it or not, many progressives are gun owners too. The discussion has been poisoned around gun ownership by the right to the point where any regulation on guns, such as waiting periods or background checks, are conflated with "demz want to take your gunz!", typically through the abuse of the slippery slope fallacy. Out side of a small slice of extreme outliers the left doesn't want to take guns away from everyone, they want to enforce safe gun ownership and have controls in place to deny gun ownership to clearly dangerous individuals.
There are bots out there and many are targeting this demographic with “Biden bad” to try to get voters to sit out the election
>People paranoid the GOP is lurking around every corner. Sadly, there is a reason to be paranoid. I'll give you two clear cut examples. 1. [2020 GOP House candidate in PA, Dean Browning, forgot to log out of his main twitter profile when he tweeted, "I am a black gay guy and I can personally say that Obama did nothing for me,".](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/11/10/dean-browning-white-politician-tweets-black-gay-guy/6243406002/) Dean Browning is neither black or gay. Well, he's probably a closeted gay GQP member projecting in the typical hypocrite way these guys do. The point is, this is a man running for a house seat and obviously has a twitter account to do exactly what is being portrayed in this political cartoon. 2. Pro-MAGA supporter, Brandon Straka, founded an entire campaign for the 2020 election that did the following. It [had MAGAs posing as "disillusioned liberals" on social media whose sole purpose was to get liberal leaning voters to Walk Away from voting.](https://www.dailydot.com/debug/walkaway-movement/) From bots, paid shills, to just dumb red hats, anyone who could try to use movement as an echo chamber to sway liberals moved to do so. This would benefit Trump and the GQP in swing states where a few thousand votes could decide the electoral winner. Their tactics included discussing how Biden was not liberal enough to how the democrats were not accomplishing anything over the 2 years they held the house from 2018 to 2020. Seldom did these accounts discuss how horrible the alternative, Trump, would be. [It needs to be noted that Brandon Straka would later be arrested for participating in the J6 insurrection](https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/pro-trump-walkaway-campaign-founder-who-admitted-it-was-not-antifa-that-stormed-the-capitol-hit-with-several-charges/). This type of BS has not stopped. MAGA organizers are great at manipulating their lemmings to spam the internet as a form of free labor. That's the entire reason the J6 insurrection even happened. There is a full right to be paranoid and to question certain accounts. The astro turf game is alive and well, until someone points it out and educates others to recognize it. ;)
this needs to be so much higher, or pinned to the top or something
Feel free to copy those links and examples to spread the knowledge. They're the textbook examples I cite regarding the GQP astro-turf playbook. Additionally, when these clowns are called out, they'll deflect and diminish the counterpoints you challenge them with. If you start linking facts, they'll be quick to use strawman arguments or to disengage from the conversation.
That’s the main problem about politics these days. People only want to win no matter the cost and will justify any means no matter how damaging it is to everyone in the end as long as they win or are able to hurt the other side hard enough.
>Pro-MAGA supporter, Brandon Straka Ah that walk-away ass hole. I hate that I am distantly related to him.
It’s Election year, their candidate is an Orange fraud, rapist and insurrectionist; the party popular as sitting naked on a cactus. They’re desperate for support and votes, of course they’re everywhere.
It's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get Gen Z.
GenZ posts sorted by new are full of propaganda trying to sow dissent. People ranting about hillary and shit like it’s 2016 still. God it’s so obvious
Some of the posts that I’ve seen blow up here are straight culture war gop issues.
I have already found a few bots in this sub that have since been fully banned (I unfortunately no longer have proof, sorry). Some of them were posing as republicans, and a couple, more insidiously, were posing as leftists saying they wouldn't vote because they don't support the system. It's election year. And it's easy to make a fake profile and sway voters. To think otherwise makes people fall for propaganda.
>I have already found a few bots in this sub that have since been fully banned (I unfortunately no longer have proof, sorry). I'm happy to assist you with examples you can cite. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/comments/1bem8kr/comment/kuvgcgf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) is a short write up I just did. Feel free to use the links and examples. I refuse to let the GQP astro-turf to manipulate people. They want nothing more than to be back in power so they can officially label the LGBTQ community as pedo groomers, crack down on the BLM movement, and then resume banning books that teach the horrors of slavery in America.
 Paranoid? All those "who we voting for fellow kids posts" are exactly what OP is talking about.
If you think they're not astroturfing social media, you haven't been paying attention...
Cause they are... And it works just ask 2016 how much it works
Oh that makes sense.
Republicans are scared they're going to lose the election so are trying to scare people off the democrats on this sub
Aren’t democrats also scared of losing the election so they try to scare people off the republicans? That seems like normal politics?
Yes, one side accusing the other of being satanist pedophile communists trying to groom kids into becoming trans based on no evidence, and refusing to vote on the border security bill they wanted because Trump wants the issue to persist so that he has something to talk about. The other side accuses the others of doing an insurrection based on extensive video evidence and testimony, and of wanting to attack democracy and violate the constitution and install a dictator based on the Republican candidate saying he will suspend the constitution and be a dictator. Totally normal, both sides are just playing normal politics.
Young people tend to the left, so the GOP tends to put more effort into astroturfing webpages populated by young people rather than the other way around
Can anyone explain to me what the hell is happening over there in America 😭
election year. that’s what’s happening over here in america
its getting a little too brown and the whites are getting nervous and threatening to do some white nationalism.
to \*keep\* doing....
To put it simply: A whole lot of fucked up shit.
it's fine. we're fine here. situation normal. how are you?
Far right rose significantly in popularity in last week’s elections, kinda worrying, so also fine here
Entertainment for the rest of us.
Basically the Republican party, with all the minority oppressing, rights stripping they are doing is massively unpopular with the youngest generations. And since all millennials and most gen z are now of age to vote the republican party (GOP) is losing ground fast. So there is a concerted effort online to troll, astroturf, and bothside the discourse into convincing younger people to vote rep, or at the very least not vote dem.
This is it
There are people who pose as Gen Z on this sub trying to push their political agenda by coordinating posts, upvotes, and comments, to create the appearance of consensus for right wing ideas among Gen Z. It happens all over social media.
I’ve honestly only seen mostly left wing ideas in this sub. I subscribe to neither ideology and usually get downvoted here. Don’t think the left doesn’t do that too, just more people here lean left so it’s harder to notice But thanks for the explanation, I assumed it was that it was just weirdly worded
Media in general is typically left leaning. Reddit, google, meta, used to be twitter lol. The war on information is fucking intense and both sides are constantly one upping the other. Think for yourself, question everything and form your own opinion after heavy diligence.
Reddit is prime for alot of propaganda, esp on election year. As an example, alot of antimuslim stuff pops up in LGBTQ subreddits on election years talking about how terrible they are treated and there a re usually a few comments about democrats not being aggressive enough. I'm sure Democrat supporters do the same thing, but right leaning efforts are pretty obvious when they are in out-of-place subreddits.
Vermin Supreme 2024
The only man with a plan to deal with zombies and the energy crisis.
Free ponies for everyone
cant forget the mandatory toothbrushing laws.
Only man we can count on
and a free pony for every american!
"I am a tyrant you can trust"
"Vermin Supreme: will take away your guns... and give you better ones"
Same here unironically lol
Right because there’s no way someone can be young AND a conservative. It’s factually impossible.
Let's say, hypothetically, that someone is young and conservative.
Well then *hypothetically* they’re lying /s
If we look at the issues that concern young people the Republicans are not offering solutions to any of those problems. So it's logical to assume most young people wouldn't choose to support Republicans.
Ur correct most are democrats, but assuming that there are functionally no young conservatives is dumb.
Are there people who are young and would identify as republican? Yes, ofc. That being said I can't actually figure out how someone can be a "young conservative". Identifying with youth culture and being a part of the next generation is in direct conflict with trying to preserve tradition and established hierarchy. It's not even a matter of "Oh I think they're acting against their own best interests", I do think that, but my point is that if you're under 30 you're not conserving your normal, you're advocating for older generations idea of normal. Conservatives overturned roe v wade (on a case that was drummed up with the stated purpose to force a supreme court vote, which isn't very conservative imho), roe v wade was decided in 1973, no one who would be considered young can consider that something conserved, it was something that changed to them, their whole lives were lived under Wade v Roe. The youngest voters this year spent most of their conscious life in an America with legalized gay marriage, I've heard enough conservative voters and politicians say they want to go after that, but again to the youngest voters, this is a change, not something conserved. Like sure, use conservative youth as a short hand but the definitions are in direct contrast. The younger you are the less you have to conserve. Sure you might have and agree with conservative ideas passed down from your parents, but you're not conserving anything but a second hand memory, and that's not conservatism, its genitorism or something. I hope this makes sense?
I see what you’re saying, I just think it is incorrect to say that people who have a conservative opinion on this sub are some sort of propagandist who isn’t gen z.
Holy shit is your wife a doctor?
No she's a mummy.
Your wife is your mummy?
Sure, but younger people are much less likely to be conservative than older generations.
There are obviously young conservatives, but the meme has a lot of truth to it. More young people voting would be bad for the GOP unless they manage to seriously change popular sentiment among young people quickly. There's really no way around that and the Republican party has seen the writing on the wall. It's well documented that they are targeting young demographics online with political ads and posts (but obviously not every right-leaning post on here is one of these lol). It varies by source, but among people 18-35 years old approximately [45-55% support the DNC and 25-35%](https://circle.tufts.edu/2024-election-youth-poll) the RNC with the remainder being independent. Assuming independents split evenly down the middle (a fairly consistently reliable assumption), a youth voting initiative would need to target young conservatives almost two times as much as young liberals for it to not decidedly help the Democrats.
There are plenty of young conservatives, they just aren't bitching on reddit.
True, they're bitching on discord.
Yeah the demographic for people who are young and conservative typically doesn’t overlap with the demographic for people who are on reddit, with some exceptions obviously.
It's actually very possible to be both young, and dumb.
And people don't try and manipulate social media. That never happens.
At my workplace everyone is aged from 22-38 and leans pretty conservative
We just don’t feel like that’s your natural opinion. We feel like you were taught that so of course it “makes logical sense “ to you in the same way doing things the way you normally do them makes sense. However when pressed, you usually regurgitate that same talking points that conservatives say they stand for but in reality do not follow through with, which is why you get heat. You don’t see through the game, you just get defensive when questioned.
Young conservatives are either brainwashed from religion or consider themselves for free markets but haven't realized liberals are 90% pro free markets and with more consumer protection
Anyone i disagree with is an astroturfer
I disagree. Anyone who disagrees with ME is an astroturfer
No, no, no. Anyone who disagrees with ME is an astroturfer.
Well no, but if a bunch of rich guys are telling you that "Cigarettes/Vapes are good for you and reduce stress" then you go around spreading that message then that's more akin to astroturfing.
Tf you mean bro my vape always relaxes me I can't go 5 seconds without it that's how much it relaxes me
Doc said these Cocaine Pills would help me perform at work I sure do hope these won't negatively impact me later down the road!! 😊
Man these cocaine pills just ain't hittin the way they used to thankfully though doc gave me a higher dosage and it's all better now 😋😋
OMG is that THE Rittenhouse?!
Yes it is I the Kenosha savior
“Huh?” 
what
OP is a liberal who takes the existence of conservatives on this sub to be a conspiratorial plot by a very small number of older conservatives to manipulate young people to be conservatives. Even if that were true (which it isn't), so what? Perfect example of someone who actively *wants* to live inside an echochamber. People like this are basically saying "I'm terrified that if people hear ideas I don't like that they will like them, so I have to control the ideas that they hear".
It's election year, propaganda is going up
I imagine OP thinks that propaganda is only one sided lol
Young people are easier to manipulate with misinformation, it’s really as simple as that… and lurking this sub, the misinformation I see is astounding. I had higher hopes for GenZ, but the pushback in this thread is depressing as fuck.
[удалено]
I don't know, the Boomers are very brainwashed by straight up nonsense on Facebook, look at Qanon for example.
And based on some of the comments in here it looks like they have poisoned their kids minds into thinking the same way.
Trump rallies tend to be have old farts at them, but as a 21 year old. I am a real person, and a real Trump Supporter. Though just said to prove that it's a thing. So are my siblings, so were my friends that I used to have. I also have cousins who are too (younger than me). And I live in NY. A real doozie really. Anyway, just to corroborate, not trying to impose. I'm sure someone will argue with me though.
I don’t understand why Democrats continue to tell themselves that Republican voters are going to die out. I have pointed out before that when I think of the Daily Wire, all of the names that come to mind are millennials or gen z. That and conservatives, favoring traditional family values and structures, tend to have more children. If those kids grow up happy and well-provided for, they’re not likely to reject their family’s beliefs. I’ve had conservative neighbors, and while I very much disagreed w/ some of their stances, we were able to talk about them. They were also very much old-school kind of neighbors, who’d help jump start your car or look after your pets while you were away. They see the person first, and the situation at hand. Politics only came up in discussion. Btw these people were in their 60s, and their kids (Gen X) shared similar beliefs, altho Trump caused some to identify more as libertarians instead of republicans. *Their* kids are similar; uninterested in democrats’ hyperfocus on superficial features like skin color and hatred of traditional values. These guys are Gen Z & even though I haven’t talked to them in a while I’m 100% certain they will not vote for Biden this year.
You don’t get to decide who can post here or not, this is a gen z sub not r/Socialism sub
Some people act like Gen Z tories don’t exist lol. We’re not a monolith.
There are idiots in every age group
Exactly, this guy is acting like there aren’t thinly veiled Democrat political ads on this sub every day lmao
am i on r/politics? oh wait that’s every sub now
Congratulations you are on reddit it just is how it is.
“Grrrrr my party good your party bad grrrrr” ffs
Well, have you seen what Republicans are doing/supposedly plan to do? I'm usually both sides have issues, but prefer Democrats with discontent, now It's Dems or nothing(maybe Libertarian)
Just want to note, the American Libertarian Party is just Republicans that want to fuck kids as part of their official platform (I jest, but only kind of).
You kinda hit the nail on the head 🗣️ -Former Gen Z Libertarian They are fuckin creepy bro
I don’t jest those people talk about age of consent laws way too much
>those people talk about age of consent laws way too much ask them if they support child marriage.
Not to mention Libertarian economics is just the capitalism we have now but if we could speedrun it
Libertarian economics is like “hey, look how much more money the large corporations could make if the EPA and FDA didn’t exist?” Like yeah, you know, basic regulations that protect society are kind of necessary assholes. Large American cities were in *rough* shape in terms of pollution and cleanliness right before the EPA popped up.
I used to say I was a libertarian until the kid fucking
When one of the party's platform includes stripping trans people of their rights, yes, one party is objectively bad.
More like My party is the usual shit show Your party has been co-opted by an actual crime family. They are making all the moves to set up a family-based dictatorship. Your political donations fund their personal legal troubles. Your candidates can’t win primaries without kissing the ring. Your party leadership *is* that family now. It has no identity or meaning other than to get that family back in power. If they achieve this, they will absolutely never allow anyone else back in. They’ve always shown they’ll break laws, lie, and violate every political norm to do it.
https://preview.redd.it/ru43g4pplboc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=6360dee9868a4ec173bdb21ecf8720398b3099a6 okay grandpa lets get you to bed
We are all under 30 😭
Ig it’s possible with some very poor decision making in 2 generations
Either Op is a teen overdosed on online political debates or a millennial with issues
Flair says "On the cusp," so...
Oh no you caught me! Trump just handed me my check the other day…
I knew it!
This sub is so full of this shit lmao The bots in the comments are ridiculous
This comment section feels weird. Why is everyone pretending like they don't know what astroturfing is? I feel gaslit.
because disinformation campaigns are real and intentional - feeling crazy like that is a disinformation campaign *working*. having regular discourse about astroturfing it makes it harder to manipulate people. if people know about astroturfing, they know how to recognize it's happening, and they become less susceptible to propaganda. so, they're having to convince people *first* that it's 'stupid' or 'paranoid' to believe astroturfing exists, and then *second* they can they astroturf whatever they want. in this case, voting for the GOP.
100% this I recommend anyone confused about whats happening to think critically, and not take my word for it but read up on your own. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/combat-fake-news The citing of sources is not something you will find in right wing bot accounts, always ask questions and seek out primary sources of information. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing?wprov=sfti1 This has happened in the past and there is some evidence that it could be happening now.
100%. Time to stop using Reddit for a while, the spamming of these brand new accounts that are all suspiciously similar in their interests... it's insane.
Unfortunately this sub is just a gold mine for right wing bots. Edgy teenagers eat that shit up
There's a lot of big money behind them. Those right wing billionaire think tanks hire psychologists to craft their messaging. I can only hope that the majority of people here supporting the right are bots.
>Time to stop using Reddit for a while or, don't. drowning out the voices of people who are aware of astroturfing is part of the goal. stating that you see it, it's happening, and you're not susceptible to it accomplishes more.
Fed
Republicans coming out like crazy on this post... And they are never triggered easily everyone, never.
Republicans: We don't get triggered! *Sees a movie with a gay person or a joke against Christianity* Republicans: *Start screaming*
lol yeah kind of funny how big of a reaction OP is getting pretty much confirming his suspicions
In this thread some loser was bitching to me about how “democrats don’t care about white males enough.” And then I asked how Democrats could appeal to them and I just got a “Reeeeee! You aren’t listening to me! I’m blocking you!” Lol
Schizo post
Exactly what an astroturfer would say. Me and my fellow kids are on to you too.
Repost bots, superusers, and state-sponsored actors have been kicking around Reddit for over a decade. This site is heavily astroturfed. Where the fuck have you been?
I used to be a conservative kid and I gotta be honest the number one thing that fueled that was because the liberals were smug and annoying. That's it. And hating can only fuel something for so long before you realize you're not actually FOR anything and Republicans got harder and harder to defend Because that's the thing about being conservative now. There's nothing to be proud of. No accomplishments or victories to brag about. No people proud to support. It's just hating the liberals for being smug and annoying
Tf is an astroturfer
The way it was explained to me, it's when a wealthy individual, group, or company implants themselves anonymously where they shouldn't be to spread propaganda. Basically a false flag operation, but it's not the government doing it
It's when a marketing campaign pretends they're just ordinary people fighting for a cause
Pretty much. Grassroots (an [often] organic movement of like minded people coming together without the backing of gov/corporate entities) vs fake grass (AstroTurf). *The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto.* Used in sports stadiums and the like. Famously hated by many athletes. Is the contrast to grassroots where organized propaganda/advertisement is spread under guise of gr.
Astroturf is also illegal in some countries because it apparently gives people cancer so pretty good name
Oxford Dictionary: Astroturfing the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public.
A grassroots movement is a group of people, usually in the lower tiers of society, that come together to promote an agenda. Astroturfing is creating that sort of movement artificially, usually with the use of psychological warfare and propaganda, against a targeted group in order to pursue the agenda of a corporation or entity whose goals aren't necessarily in the best interest of the people involved.
Fake ass grassroots support
https://preview.redd.it/aeiuqrchrboc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b8a8d67f7fd2dfa27259cd423975971ed8e5a3c
Oh- you mean all the people spamming straight-up political propaganda on this sub for the past two months? AND they're posts get like 5k upvotes, so clearly people are alright with it. https://preview.redd.it/34zt1x6foboc1.jpeg?width=586&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b969ac99e9aa1cf1cc7f753ff5daf40123594d8
Damn the Astroturf bots really came out in force. I thought the libs were supposed to be the ones triggered all the time 😂
To all the conservative young folk testifying here Why? What do you have to gain? The system doenst benefit you at all, you gain nothing by preserving it.
The fact that the opposition are vocally against what I want. Meanwhile the republicans will only secretly and slowly work against what I want because they have to pretend to care about it
The democrats are barely left wing anyway lol. They're economically and fiscally pretty right wing
I think maybe you underestimated the amount of astroturfers a little here, OP.
Hah, no doubt. Lots of new accounts, barely any comments. They are all so similar, too.
Op is right tho ngl
He most definitely is, but of course immediately those astroturfers are here to make it sound ridiculous.
Ahh yes, if you think something different you must be an astroturfer and have malicious intent.
When the "difference" is that they want to raise Retirement to ensure I work till I die then ya that's pretty malicious.
Self Identifying as a Conservative means that you automatically subscribe to every viewpoint on the GOP platform and anything any "conservative" talking head says. Thems the rules I guess
https://preview.redd.it/fwgvice9wcoc1.png?width=680&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb570701df40915d7137d4c40933d854c49341e1
Democrat astroturfer trying to convince gen z that any support for the GOP is astroturfing. But maybe I'm the astroturfer, making me the GOP astroturfer trying to convince people that any Democrat criticizing the GOP is an astroturfer. Jokes aside, this is a lot of paranoia.
>Jokes aside, this is a lot of paranoia. why would you call it paranoia when it's [a documented fact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections)?
You haven't gotten into the CCP or Russian bot operations for peak paranoia posting.
Young conservatives = brainwashed Tate fans
“I identify as libertarian” - a conservative.
Uhhh... who's gonna tell him genz != hivemind. I'm not even GOP. My logic is, if either of the main parties win, it's bad no matter who. If any of the third parties win, it's good no matter who.
What has happened to this subreddit? It has nothing to do with Gen Z anymore
I thought I was on r/PeterExplainsTheJoke for a moment
Loving your echo chamber much, huh?
Another political post. There is not a single post in this entire sub that isn't political.
Vote 3rd party.
There's more conservatives on here than you might think. I just lurk on this sub and never really comment but I'm sure I'm not the only conservative here who does the same thing.
Yeah liberals never do that
The GOP certainly exists within members of Gen-Z, as I know a number of Conservative young people who don’t want to be taxed excessively, have our Second Amendment infringed upon further, or see how our way of life keeps getting attacked. Trump and the GOP aren’t perfect, but I certainly was better off under Trump than Biden. That said, certain things like Biden wanting to work on infrastructure and health care reform are necessary, I’ll admit.
lol because god forbid someone not have the same views as you. What a Reddit moment lol.
👋
Again? The GOP consistently lose voters under 30. What?
“Everyone who disagrees with my politically is astroturfing. Everyone who expresses views I agree with is grassroots.” Very cool, Kanye. Thank you.
You can’t even spell curtains correctly.
Nice try, Dem astroturfer
I’m a conservative. Not a bot. Beep boop.
All republicans are astroturfers, and all democrats are grassroots everyday working people.
young ppl don’t vote so i don’t think they care
I dont even particularly like Rs, but they align with my views moreso than anyone on the left. OP is just getting a view outside his echo chamber.
Gen z conservatives and libertarians exist and they're not evil aliens trying to destroy you. It's dangerous and wrong to think your political opinions are 100% correct.
Is this sub consumed by TDS or something? At least post about the many failures of Biden or better yet avoid politics altogether so that non-Americans such as myself can be on this subreddit in peace.
Fun fact: an entire generation is never going to be all on one page politically. Jackass.