Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill.

“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance posted Saturday on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

Vance has claimed, falsely, in recent days that Haitians — who are not Africans — living in Springfield — a town of 58,000 which is not Dayton — were stealing, killing, and consuming their neighbors’ pets.

  • rsuri@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

    This is the most infuriating thing they do. They assume that any developing story is actually the most extreme version that favors their side. Then they ignore all evidence to the contrary and fish for any evidence that they can claim as confirmation, even if it doesn’t pass the laugh test. But they assert “It was confirmed!” with such confidence and shamelessness that it becomes easier for people to believe them, and eventually the media stops trying to debunk them.

    Definitely not the first time this happened. If you wanna find other examples, look at anything where experts on the topic believe one thing but a majority of the American people believe the other. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the thing the American people believe originated as GOP propaganda.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      A nutjob conservative on Lemmy has been telling me that babies are being executed in post-birth abortions using these same tactics.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      I wish I had told myself that from 25 years ago before I went online and was exposed to these people with all the naivety of the socially underdeveloped autistic 17 year old that I was at the time. I often have to learn things in the hardest way imaginable.

  • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Swift, the crazy cat lady, gives endorsement, distract with crazy cat news. This is a distraction, Trump does this

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Being super racist as a distraction is not a very good distraction. It also doesn’t distract from the Swift endorsement at all.

      • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Nobody is talking about anything right now except the memes around cats and dogs. You and I, we agree it’s racist, but independents may buy this hook without thinking it’s racist. We agree that everything coming out of his mouth is lies and garbage, but independents are much more neutral and are willing to give him, the former president, the benefit of the doubt. They probably are thinking, wow, things have gotten bad in Springfield, instead of haha what a crazy old man who lost the debate. They aren’t thinking about swift because this cat thing has completely flooded the zone. This is what Trump did all for years

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          That “may” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

          They “may” see it as the extremely racist thing that is so racist that even Republicans are saying “stop with the racism.”

          • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Or they may like the little tickle of racism,or any number of other explanations… The point is we are in a bubble and have no freaking idea what they actually think, so plausible statements aren’t that heavy of a lift. They may do as you say as well, but your may is no lighter of a lift

  • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Offering a $5000 bounty for video proof is the same as paying $5000 for someone to manufacture the proof. This is like a Cobra bounty in India only results in Cobra farms.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Given most of the stuff right wingers complain about is projection, maybe we need to check this guy’s myfitnesspal

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    JFC, the person who started all this on Facebook says it’s false and these freaks are like “NOPE, THIS IS ALL WE CARE ABOUT NOW”

  • _bcron@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    JD has a really weird fixation on cats. Cat ladies, grilling cats, cats cats cats. Has JD ever bummed a cat? We’ll never know but it makes me wonder

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    3 days ago

    it would be so much work to stalk, kill, prep and eat someone’s dog or cat. people don’t even keep their pets outside much anymore. If people had pigs or some larger, meatier pets kept outside all hours at least it’d be a more realistic lie but like c’mon… who’s out there with fuggen ninja cat hunting skills? What are they using to quietly and efficiently kill these pets? Who even got that kinda time?

    If this dumb cluck had any sense he’d say they were buying pups from PetSmart or breeding them themselves to eat or something. That lie would at least be in the realm of possibility! Nobody’s pets would have to disappear before an idiot believed it!

    Fucking loser can’t even stoke hate properly

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      They don’t CARE about the facts or how absurd their claims are. Also pet eating is something that, in times past, was a racist slur foisted onto Asians, like Chinese restaurants who cooked cat instead of beef or chicken, and more specifically Koreans, who did consume dog meat sparingly, but that was something that happened historically it was never common and dog meat consumption is actually illegal now in South Korea, and eating dog meat has been in rapid decline for decades anyway.

      Seeing Haitians get called pet eaters is actually a very new thing.

    • SilverCode@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      Eating a dog or cat you have bred yourself would make PETA angry. Eating a beloved family pet of a true blooded hard working American would make a lot more people angry.

    • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      Stalking a cat would be hard, but trapping one is easy.

      The reason people don’t eat their neighbors’ cats isn’t because it’d be difficult, it’s because most people aren’t absolute psychopaths like JD Vance

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Uhm, a raccoon trap is also a cat trap. Easy enough to setup. Hell even the wile-e-coyote style trap with a stick and a rope will work if you use proper bait.

      Edit: Haitians don’t eat pets people! I was just responding to the guy with his cat hunt.

  • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    I don’t know if your unnecessary backhanded attacks help your argument, or just make you sound really cool. Can’t make up my mind on that one! Why don’t you tell me what you googled and maybe throw in a few quips about how unreasonable and nonsensical my responses are and then I’m sure the discussion will resolve itself in a constructive way.

  • NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    JDV is like a toddler trying to trick you by hiding behind the curtains, but you can still see his Scooby Doo Velcro shoes and he’s back there giggling.

    • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I was thinking more like an Ivy League graduate from a Lawyering the Dark Arts School of Deceptive Loopholes and Twisting, but I see your point.

      Edit: added a word

  • elrik@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    You know what would be great, would be to hold these weirdos liable for the time and expense that public agencies have incurred to deal with the bomb threats and idiots they’ve directly incited.

    Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.