From their tone, it doesn’t seem as though they object to the character itself, just to it’s choice of accessory, as indicated in their recent letter to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa:
Dear Mr. Furukawa:
Greetings! I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). PETA entities have more than 10 million members and supporters globally. We herd there’s a new star in Mario Kart World: Cow! She is already winning hearts everywhere—including ours. But one detail has us hitting the brakes: The brass ring in Cow’s nose. Would you please show empathy towards bovines and remove the nose ring? Here’s why this is so important:
Nose rings are used by the meat and dairy industries to exploit, control, and even drag animals to their deaths. These brass rings are crudely stabbed through the sensitive septum of cows and bulls, which can cause lasting pain and discomfort. The dairy industry will also clip spiked nose rings on baby cows so that the comforting act of nursing from their mother causes her pain and the baby is rejected and kicked away. To control bulls, a chain might be fastened from the nose ring to the bull’s horn for even more pain-driven control.
The brass ring in Cow’s nose glosses over real world violence and cruelty to animals. That’s why we’re asking you to give this beloved bovine a small but meaningful upgrade: Remove the nose ring and let Cow race freely- without any painful reminders of the industries that treat animals like profit-making machines.
Every animal is someone. So leave the rings to Sonic and let Cow breathe free!
They also made a graphic:
While we’re banning nose rings, let’s ban having women wear nose rings, as well. I’m kidding. Women are free to make themselves as unattractive as they wish.
But on that note, has PETA considered the opinion of the Cow on this matter? Maybe the Cow wanted to wear a nose ring. Maybe it considers nose rings fashionable. Or maybe it likes them.
For that matter, has PETA considered that the Cow in MKW is just a made-up character, and therefore can’t actually suffer? Besides, the Cow looks like it’s having the time of it’s life, riding around on motorcycles with a big smile on its face.
Personally, I doubt that Furukawa will even see PETA’s letter. But if he did, it would probably come off to him as another attempt by someone outside of Japan to influence Japanese media. And I suspect that the Japanese are getting sick of this.
When it comes to PETA and groups like it, you can’t give, even a little bit. Because if you do, that’s just going to encourage them to keep going with this kind of stuff. What you do is ignore them.
Or you ridicule them. That would definitely be a correct way to answer them.
It’s no secret that much of the internet is about influencing other people to do things. Because of this, it shouldn’t be a surprise that foreign actors can use social media to influence Joe and Jane Q. Public.
Now, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) has determined that foreign actors are attempting to infiltrate the MAGA movement with the intent of dividing it against itself. The infiltraters have been aptly termed, “Fake MAGA”, and because these bots and fake accounts are sophisticated, they might not give the same kind of “hello fellow children” vibe as you might sense from your usual imposter.
It’s evident that leftists are also being infiltrated, but I’ll come back to that.
Because the report gets really specific and even names the names of some prominent figures in the fringe of the MAGA movement, the NCRI had better have been really careful in crossing its “i”s and dotting its “t”s (or however it’s supposed to go). Because if they muffed some things up, the NCRI might face some totes cereal defamation lawsuits.
The report alleges that foreign actors have created bot accounts on the social media platform we now know as X (formerly Twitter), creating accounts well in advance of events that they might comment on to give them the appearance of authenticity, and farming engagement for fringe MAGA personalities most likely to propagate messages sympathetic to Russia and Iran, increasing the likelihood that the greater MAGA movement will change their perspective given the peer pressure.
I strongly recommend reading the report for yourself. While some aspects can be questioned, it’s still an eye-opening report, and does a great job of explaining why we saw a recent spike in pro-Iranian MAGA chuds in recent days.
Among the names that were named in the report as carrying water for Fake MAGA are Nick Fuentes, Jake Shields, and Jackson Hinkle, as well as Draven Noctis, Megatron_Ron, and Adam eMedia. About half these names are ones I’ve heard of, and I’ve probably muted at least a couple because I got sick of their bullshit.
Among the allegations made by NCRI are that some of these personalities are in league with foreign actors, and benefitted from engagement farming.
From my perspective, Jake Shields and his ilk look like the kind of guys who would say anything if it were to net them engagement, and it’s hard to imagine them with any kind of sincere principle. As for me, if I were to wake up one morning next to five million dollars then discover that I got it by acting like Jake Shields, I’d probably set fire to the money, then jump into it.
As for the alleged bot accounts, the report alleges that a high volume of them were started around two specific dates: April 26 and October 28, both in the year 2022. These dates are approximate to, but not precisely on, the initiation and completion of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (April 14 and October 27th, respectively). To be fair, this would be about the time that many with sincerely-held right wing opinions may have started accounts, determining that the platform may become less hostile. However, the sudden influx in accounts would have made excellent cover for the influx of bots.
How does an ordinary user identify the bots? Before we get carried away and point to accounts created on those dates, remember that many sincere MAGA people were joining at around the dates mentioned above. The stronger giveaway is a sudden influx of so-called MAGA accounts posting sympathetically towards foreign adversaries.
Many of the accounts in question were so-called “groypers”, with heavily on-the-nose nationalistic sentiments, and they suspiciously drop “false flag” conspiracy theories in tandem with one another, particularly immediately after a significant event. Interestingly, many of these bots have had blue checkmarks purchased for them, adding to the illusion of authenticity.
When enough of these bots are acting in tandem, they can manipulate the algorithm to create the effect of a flood of their posts in the feeds of those on the right. The goal is to influence the opinions of right wingers through the illusion of peer pressure.
If you were on X immediately following the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by US forces, then you’ve probably seen a flood of Fake MAGA bot posts. And they seem to have continued until about mid-day yesterday, as though someone noticed that something was amiss, and pulled the plug on them.
Interestingly, other social media platforms didn’t have the same bot problem. YouTube didn’t have to put up with any Fake MAGA crap. Even Minds seemed unaffected. It was basically just X which was targeted.
Until the time that the party was over, the community did find a few Fake MAGA accounts on their own. At least one of them, which was subsequently deleted, was found by CatTurd. Another was outed by Community Notes:
A Fake MAGA proclaiming that he won’t die for a foreign country conjures the mental image of an overweight groyper sitting on his couch being handed conscription papers.
No one expects him to die for a foreign country. No one expects him to die for his own country. It’s more realistic to expect him to die from complications related to his own diet.
If you’re wondering whether bots and other Fake MAGA accounts can participate in surveys, yes, they can. It’s not a new thing, but here’s a recent example:
The Twitter survey, and all its famous scientific accuracy.
If you’ve never heard of Felix Rex, he’s a somewhat obscure YouTuber who sounded insightful back in 2016, but has since taken to schizo-posting. It’s gotten to the point that he believes that red-haired people are the descendents of an ancient race of genetically engineered humans.
June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, by the way.
While matters are relatively back to normal for the time being, there have been casualties in the recent bot insurgency. On the bright side, we now have a better idea of who the grifters are. In that sense, the Fake MAGA bots did us a favor.
But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that it’s over. The fact is, America’s adversaries have found a new way to demoralize America, and it’s on us to remain true to ourselves, regardless of what an apparent majority may think. We saw what happens when a fake majority attempts to bandwagon Americans into thinking that Iran should be left to develop nukes.
I like to say, stand up for what’s right, even if you’re standing alone.
I said earlier that I’d come back to how leftists are probably handling it. Yes, leftists are being influenced by foreigners. And they don’t seem to have a defense. Stands to reason considering that they have an unhealthy amount of outgroup empathy, which the foreign adversaries can easily exploit.
I think the following cartoon illustrates how easily they can be influenced:
One way or another, the left is going to set cars on fire, throw molotov cocktails, and loot Apple stores. For what cause? Our foreign adversaries will decide.
It doesn’t happen consistently, but we now have another instance of someone being caught in the process of doing something incredibly stupid being saved from herself. In this case, we have the picture above, that of Greta Thunberg having lived to see the day that an Israeli soldier handed her a turkey sandwich.
What preceded this: In a publicity stunt, Greta set out on a yacht for the Gaza strip with a negligible aid package, all in an effort to show solidarity with Palestinians.
What nearly happened: Greta wasn’t wearing a burka, so she likely could have lost some blood and became the focal point in another case study in the tragedy of thinking that certain values are universal. Her best hope of surviving or avoiding being held hostage would have come with Hamas having already informed the Palestinians who would have found her that her stunt was way too valuable as propaganda.
What’s currently happening: Israel is to show Greta unedited video footage of the Oct. 7 2023 terror attack on Israel, effectively showing Greta what already happened to other people, and what nearly happened to her.
What’s going to happen: I don’t know. I can’t see the future. The best I could do is guess. If Greta is sufficiently intelligent, she’ll learn a few things about what she’s been defending. There’d probably still be some copycat out for a cynic’s quest.
But as for Greta, the right people aren’t always going to be around to save her from herself, so it’s probably just a matter of time before she ends her career of bullshittery. How it happens is anyone’s guess.
When I first heard about the “free money glitch” that was trending, I had questions. The first was, “How’s that working out?” And it turns out that the answer is, “Not well.” My next question was, “Is TikTok somehow involved?” And you could probably guess the answer.
I’m not going to share how it’s done, partly because I don’t want to catch the ire of the financial institution involved. Picking a fight with teams of billionaires is usually not a great idea, as a bunch of TikTokers are starting to find out.
While it’s sad enough that people are uploading videos of themselves committing check fraud to social media, having no idea what could possibly go wrong, it’s sadder still that enough people are falling for this to line up around city blocks for their turn to do the same.
You could probably guess what comes next. The same people ended up with their bank accounts frozen, with negative balances in the tens of thousands of dollars. And possibly also face arrest, because, you know, check fraud.
If you’re wondering whether so many people could be so stupid, then you probably never worked retail. When you work retail, you’re going to see upwards of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people in a day.
As for me, ten years of my life went to waste on that bullshit, which is ten years too many. Afterwards, I went to school for Electronics, reasoning that if something is difficult to learn, the payoff must be great. So, I really applied myself and studied hard, and as most other students in my major dropped out or switched to something else, I got great grades and eventually graduated with honors. After that, I spent about a year in an electronics repair job where I made a dollar more per hour than someone stocking shelves at a nearby grocery store. I did get out of that place, but I was there long enough to see some circuit boards come back for repair again, because the customers did the same thing with it that they did before.
So, at that point, I still hadn’t quite managed to completely get away from stupid people. And I learned a sobering lesson about correlating effort and hard work to better outcomes.
But yeah, stupid people exist. And if you’ve worked retail, the memories of them that you haven’t successfully suppressed will be quite vivid. Sure, most people will be completely ordinary, and therefore, not memorable. However, 10% of the population are on the leftmost 10% of the area of the bell curve, and your experience with them might stick with you.
I still remember the guy who wasted ten minutes of time I could’ve spent on something else searching for some mystery product that he insisted that we regularly stocked. Eventually, I found out that he wanted onion rolls, except he was pronouncing “onion” in his own bullshit way, and I didn’t find out until he finally said “onion” normally. No, he didn’t end up getting jackslapped, because it just wasn’t worth it.
Or the one who was on a program that required her to only redeem her voucher for specific products of a specific size, but she tried redeeming for a box of breakfast cereal that was the wrong size. After finding out this wouldn’t work, she just threw the box down the cereal aisle. The program that gave her the voucher was intended to assist single women with children, so I had to contemplate that someone like her procreated.
There’s more, but I’ll just get to the point: stupid people exist, and they exist in great numbers. If you can avoid working with the general public for a living, then you’re going to be happier than people who do.
It’s no surprise to me that there are enough stupid people out there to line up around a city block to get what they believe to be free money from an ATM, entirely unaware of the crime that they’re committing, and that they’d be expected to pay back the money that they’d steal.
They’re no longer my problem, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t laugh when they do stupid shit, and face the obvious consequences.
I’ll leave this with some food for thought: Much of the internet is tricking people into doing things. Also, TikTok is corrosive bullshit.
Magnetricity 