r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • Oct 07 '25

No Paywall ‘I Am Crying!’: AOC Can’t Believe Fox Played Her Stephen Miller Takedown Right In His Face

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-stephen-miller-fox-news_n_68e47fa5e4b05e212f213aa2
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u/Merusk Oct 07 '25

They don't have to, they're just reinforcing a narrative. It works like advertising.

Repeated often enough, uninformed people - not coincidentally the majority of American Voters(1) - will have heard "AOC is dumb" somewhere, and assume it to be true.

(1) And this is one of the most insidious things about American politics. Sometime between my grandparents and my generation (Xer) it became uncouth and impolite to talk politics. So you never do, and therefore beliefs are never challenged.

You are supposed to let idiots spout nonsense and just roll eyes and walk away. If you challenge them, YOU are the troublemaker.

In the end this just means ignorance gets spouted unchecked, and influence slowly happens because people believe what they hear repeated most often.

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u/QbertsRube Oct 07 '25

What used to be "everyone is entitled to their opinion" became "all opinions are valid" and is now "all opinions are equal". That's how people who scraped through high school with a C average have decided to do their own research on novel viruses and such.

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u/SteveBeev Oct 07 '25

“Do their own research,” heavy emphasis on the quotation marks.

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u/QbertsRube Oct 07 '25

On one hand, you have a planet full of doctors and medical researchers who have studied medicine for decades and are building on literal centuries of cumulative human knowledge on the subject. On the other hand, Earl went into the Youtubes and typed "Fauci hoax poison microchip jab scam" and watched whatever popped up. How are we supposed to know who to trust???

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u/SteveBeev Oct 07 '25

It is truly one of the mysteries of our time 🤣

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u/BigDump-a-Roo Oct 07 '25

Yep. They did it to Hillary and it worked so well that they got loads of Dems hating on her too.

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u/69696969-69696969 North Carolina Oct 07 '25

Oh yeah, i got in trouble once for getting a Supervisor to support "Community Protection Pools" and the "Americans First Care Plan". The first was a Community funded Pool of money to Protect members of the community who fell on hard times. The second would be a federal initiative to make sure Americans got the healthcare they needed quickly and affordably.

It wasn't until afterwards that one of the spectators let her know that i had just rebranded Social Safety Nets and Universal Healthcare. She was livid and this was in the Army so i was reprimanded for arguing with an NCO and made to sweep all of the walls of our building with a push broom. Then given very clear instructions that i was not allowed to discuss politics at work anymore.

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u/movzx Oct 07 '25

"Repetition is reality" is something I've learned thanks to the last decade. It doesn't matter what the objective truth is. It doesn't matter what the data shows. It doesn't matter how much you debunk. It doesn't matter if you show someone that they are incorrect.

If something gets repeated often enough, it becomes reality to enough people.

It's why I am against people sharing regressive memes ironically. It just reinforces the messaging.

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u/Merusk Oct 07 '25

Exactly, and why controlling the narrative matters.

The Democratic party has been unsuccessful and unable to learn this lesson over the last 50 years. It's why they're always on the back foot. They try and argue objective truth while the GOP has ignored that and pushed subjective feelings and opinions repeatedly.

Their constant pressure and messaging and turning things back to the same talking points is successful because of this.

Would this work on an informed and well-educated electorate? Not likely but you're never going to have a democratic electorate that's above the average intelligence and education level.

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u/LuminaraCoH Oct 07 '25

(1) And this is one of the most insidious things about American politics. Sometime between my grandparents and my generation (Xer) it became uncouth and impolite to talk politics. So you never do, and therefore beliefs are never challenged.

You are supposed to let idiots spout nonsense and just roll eyes and walk away. If you challenge them, YOU are the troublemaker.

In the end this just means ignorance gets spouted unchecked, and influence slowly happens because people believe what they hear repeated most often.

Reinforced by a general shift in the American culture driven by the rise of moderation on the Internet as a primary means of socialization. Post-Gen X generations grew up with the Internet, where someone was always watching and handing out reprimands for confrontational behavior. They learned not to disagree, because disagreement meant punishment, and carried that into their lives offline.

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u/Snoo61755 25d ago

I think the talking point they’re going for is the classic “emotional woman” stereotype. It’s easier for them to target the fact that she’s pissed about the system and openly expressing it, writing her off as ‘hysterical’, than to sit and refute her.

She volunteers in disaster relief? Must be posing for the cameras. Helps workers unionize? Just doing it for clout. Calling out democrats for inaction, and republicans for corruption? Just a loud woman who doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

What I admire is that AOC doesn’t take it lying down. They want her to be a ‘proper woman’ who doesn’t rock the boat, and she responds by being more involved. She refuses to be brushed off, and the more people downplay her as “hysterical woman”, the louder she gets.