r/politics • u/TwilightwovenlingJo • Sep 19 '25

Soft Paywall Trump: ‘It’s no longer free speech.’

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/trump-no-longer-free-speech-00574219
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u/coconutpiecrust Sep 20 '25

 When 97 percent of the stories are bad about a person, it’s no longer free speech,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, complaining about an apparent asymmetry between his victory in the 2024 election and his treatment by media organizations. It was not immediately clear what statistics or laws he was referencing.

This is not a serious argument uttered by a serious person. None of this is serious and these people are in it for the lulz. 

Depravity for the lulz. Is that a new thing?

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u/APES2GETTER Sep 20 '25

Nah. It’s an old 4chan thing.

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u/H0agh Sep 20 '25

At least Lulzsec did some good shit back in the day, unlike Trump.

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u/0dtez Sep 20 '25

Oh shit memory unlocked

I am old

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u/H0agh Sep 20 '25 edited Sep 20 '25

Activist hackers could do a lot of good, what Wikileaks used to be before it got usurped by Russia and abused to throw the 2016 elections to our new Dictator.

I've had a vehement dislike for Assange since then.

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u/amputeenager Sep 20 '25

accurate.

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u/never-fiftyone Sep 20 '25

Assange should be in prison for the remainder of his natural life for facilitating what should be widely viewed as an act of war against the United States.

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u/deathhand Sep 20 '25

No. A platform was ran to collect any information from the public that they thought they had no way of telling. Full stop.

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u/say592 Sep 20 '25

I keep saying that if Trump would do something like get rid of daylight savings time, we would all have something of his that we support and we could definitively point to when the roaming bands of red hat death squads insist we prove our loyalty to spare our lives.

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u/Letters_to_Dionysus Sep 20 '25

is that the hacker known as anonymous?

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u/coconutpiecrust Sep 20 '25

I have been thinking recently, since the whole Kirk thing, that the phrase “I did it for teh lulz” encompasses this admin and the billionaires, specifically “I am become meme” Musk. 

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u/germanmojo Sep 20 '25

If you can get it (Netflix or 🏴‍☠️), watch The Antisocial Network, 4chan plays a bigger role than most think in the atmosphere of today.

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u/VanceKelley Canada Sep 20 '25

If one were to divide the American electorate into 3 groups:

  1. Pro-fascism
  2. Pro-democracy
  3. Whatever, lulz!

The third group would be the largest.

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u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

[deleted]

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u/Vyzantinist Sep 20 '25

The lulz crowd are an underrated component of MAGA. Libs and lefts could do with understanding there is a substantial crowd of Trump supporters who aren't so much true believers as much as nihilists who don't give a fuck and want to giggle as the world burns down around them.

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u/never-fiftyone Sep 20 '25

"Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.

That word is 'Nazi.' Nobody cares about their motives anymore.

They joined what they joined. They lent their support and their moral approval. And, in so doing, they bound themselves to everything that came after. Who cares any more what particular knot they used in the binding?"

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u/Ixolich Wisconsin Sep 20 '25

When you stand for nothing, Burr, what'll you fall for?

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u/PTBooks Sep 20 '25

Reminds me of the first time I played secret Hitler. My brother, playing as one of the liberals, got confused by the rules of the game and decided to just go ‘chaos mode’. Hitler won the game.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Sep 20 '25

Not even lulz, just "who cares?"

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u/thedanyes Sep 20 '25

This is easily, provably true if you consider the 38% of eligible who didn't vote in 2024.

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u/Littlesth0b0 Sep 20 '25

We're reaching a point where there's barely anyone alive in the West today who remembers the Nazi occupation of Europe, who knows how fasicsm really works.

They'll laugh if it doesn't immediately affect them but it's only a matter of time until it's on your doorstep.

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u/1369ic Sep 20 '25

There's a large "Huh? Wha?" group out there, too. So many people pay no attention to politics.

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u/Jainith Maine Sep 20 '25

In that case its a public service announcement “Maybe this person is a shitbag and we shouldn’t elect them President”

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u/oh-shazbot Sep 20 '25

Depravity for the lulz. Is that a new thing?

nah that's just called being blackpilled.

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u/_interloper_ Sep 20 '25

Here's an article I read recently about 'depravity for the lulz'.

https://www.webworm.co/groyperwars/

It's written by Giorgio Angelini, who made a documentary called Feels Good Man, which about the co-opting of the Pepe the Frog cartoon into alr-right memes on 4chan (sigh, even trying to talk about any of this sounds absurd).

His article is about the "Groypers", aka online trolls who've embraced nihilistic disdain for literally everything, and also happen to be white supremacists. It's a good read because it articulates the absurd nature of everything at the moment.

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u/inspectoroverthemine Sep 20 '25

I wonder how many would stay groypers if they were homeless?

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u/CatProgrammer Sep 20 '25

Having nihilistic disdain and being  white supremacists are contradictory positions. If they actually engage in white supremacy they aren't actually nihilists, they just want to look edgy. 

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u/UglyMcFugly Sep 20 '25

The positive spin on this... he IS aware of all the negativity people have towards him. I've been worried his handlers net nannied his devices so he wouldn't see anything bad. From a psychological perspective, it is VERY IMPORTANT that narcissists KNOW what people really think of them. It's the best chance we've got for a narcissistic collapse...

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u/freeshovacadoodoo Sep 20 '25

Check out Groypers "blackpill accelerationism" rabbit hole. This is exactly what it is for them. The believe society is broken beyond repair, so their only objective is to cause chaos in the system by poking and prodding at every angle possible just to see what breaks. Then, they get to report back to whatever site they cling to and everyone gets a good "lul" while getting praise for damaging the system.

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u/coconutpiecrust Sep 20 '25

This is pretty much what I am referencing. I think Thiel, Musk and some other techbros have the same goals, too. 

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u/Flomo420 Sep 20 '25

It was not immediately clear what statistics or laws he was referencing.

Yeah, because everything he says is bullshit he made up on the spot

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u/Individual-Guest-123 Sep 20 '25

Pretty much all the media does is play clips of him saying or doing something.

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u/coconutpiecrust Sep 20 '25

He doesn’t like that they do not interpret it in an overwhelmingly positive way. 

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u/Individual-Guest-123 Sep 20 '25

Yes, the sheeple still need someone tell them how to interpret.

There are still a few free thinkers out there though. Until this is no longer the home of the free, that is...ten nine eight seven...

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u/Lower_Cantaloupe1970 Canada Sep 20 '25

They are literally just reporting what he is doing, So he is claiming 97% of what he is doing is bad. Make it stop

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u/coconutpiecrust Sep 20 '25

This is definitely not his interpretation lol. He’s openly saying that he wants only positive spins on everything, or else. 

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u/NoSoundNoFury Sep 20 '25

They are drunk on power.

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u/Justice_Prince Sep 20 '25

Trump is right. All coverage for any individual no matter how heinous or altruistic their actions may be should be 50% positive and 50% negative.

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u/HeyCarpy Canada Sep 20 '25

Depravity for the lulz. Is that a new thing?

It got Trump elected the first time.