The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the presidential contest.
“Extremely concerning,” X owner Elon Musk replied twice to the post this past week.
“Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former President Donald Trump, asked on Instagram, using the acronym for Social Security number.
Trump himself posted to his own social platform within hours to ask, “Who are all those voters registering without a Photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona??? What is going on???”
…
Yet by the time they tried to correct the record, the false claim had spread widely. In three days, the pseudonymous user’s claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. A thorough explanation from Richer attracted a fraction of that, reaching 2.4 million users.
The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.
Thanks for the cordial response. At the end of the day, this is why my number one issue in America is pushing for Campaign Finance / Election Reform, so that anyone can vote for whom they like without necessarily compromising the “back-up plan” while getting ensnared in the Spoiler Effect of our terrible system. The electoral college system sucks; the FPTP system sucks. So much is on the line that stress is high. We are faced between pressuring the Democratic president too much and risking forfeiting the election to the guy with zero moral decency and who wants to level Gaza and will be stuck there for 4 years without. In a properly-running system, these things can occur in tandem without necessarily risking a loss to the greater of two evils, but alas…
In the meantime, my suggestion for everyone is to focus not so much criticizing Biden directly, but I think it would be more fruitful to hold discussions with Pro-Israeli crowds and those who in polling show undecided on Israel’s actions. E.g.,:
Because at the end of the day, the President during an election year is going to mirror the polls and not risk trying to influence or get ahead of them — especially when he’s already at best matching Trump’s polling. The more the polls shift, the more Biden will shift. It’s win-win because it doesn’t target Biden himself and cause resentment to the individual, risking people to not vote for him — but it also targets those who actually hold the views that are slowing Biden’s departure from Israeli ass-kissing. Otherwise it puts Biden in a bind because both polarized groups are effectively threatening to cease support to Biden; thus the bigger group will win that risk-assessment.
I anticipate Biden to continue distancing himself from Israel; and hopefully that comes with a ceasefire and conditional aid to Israel, which should hopefully satisfy many.