06-13-2024, 12:47 PM
(06-13-2024, 12:33 PM)hollodero Wrote: So, not all that plausible :)
Exactly.
Quote:Sure, I would bet on the same thing. But I don't know it for a fact. There's the issue that the overall concern expressed was far from made up and far from moot. Russia is still meddling in elections in many ways. If I were to blame folks, I would also blame Giuliani for having a well-earned reputation of being a blatant liar (or Trump for being so unsettling that folks retort to these means, but that's sure disputable), and in the end I'm still more angry at him than at these people. And though surprisingly no one asked me despite all my experience as an internet user, I might even have signed off on such a letter too (just to regret it later, of course). Nothing said in it is untrue. They even state that "we want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement -- just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role" - and I get that sentiment.
That being said, it was still a mistake and most likely their intentions were partisan ones, it's just that I can not be all that mad about it really. In general, as stated I consider the laptop to be a tad blown out of proportion by right-wing pundits by now.
All true. I do feel another factor needs to be considered here as well. You correctly mentioned that people have made the Biden is a pedophile "earmark" argument in the past. One of the major differences in these two claims is that the laptop deniers had a very willing and complicit media just aching to help disseminate their plausibly deniable Russian disinformation claim. And it's fairly obvious to anyone who paid even a little attention that the media was all in on nailing Trump, and still is.
Given all the above I don't have a lot of patience with left leaning people trying to explain this away. I am not including yourself, you certainly acknowledge the very real possibility this was done intentionally. For most this is yet another claim they have to scramble and backtrack on, all the while claiming they never claimed what they claimed in the first place. And that's a lot of claims.
