The basis of the ad was a pair of speeches by Donald Trump, one from July of 2022 and another from just last month, in which he outlined his ideas for what he would do if given another chance. Those speeches focused on how our cities have become “unlivable, unsanitary nightmares.” Trump plans to arrest and confine the homeless to camps on vacant land outside the cities. Trump wants to build new cities on 3.2 million acres of public land.
Trump also wants to build flying cars and pay people to have babies. Those parts didn’t make the video because even for a fake ad, they seemed too unrealistic.
What did get in was Trump’s proposal that since America “is going to hell very fast,” there would be executions based on “a very quick trial” for those involved in drug crimes. He also called for combining the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to create a new policing force that would include hiring the largest number of police in history. “It sounds horrible, doesn’t it,” said Trump, before explaining again how necessary it is to have more racist “stop and frisk” and more executions.
In any case, the point of this ad isn’t really to make a detailed criticism of Trump’s frankly sickening proposals. It was created more as a warning: The floodgates are fully open.
There are already going to be people who believe the scenes of zombie-like invading immigrants and the orcish inhabitants of San Francisco from the GOP ad are real, despite the warnings it includes. Which is exactly why the Republicans made it.
To call that ad the tip of the iceberg for what’s coming doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like a pebble on top of Everest. This season is going to be rife with fake images, fake videos, fake speeches. Most of those won’t come with any kind of warning that they are fake. They’ll be pushed as if they are the absolute truth.
Think about how quickly the most ridiculous conspiracy theories spread in the last cycle. Think about how persistent and how corrosive some of the most outrageous lies about Biden, Anthony Fauci, the COVID-19 vaccine, Ukraine, and everything else in the public space have become. Think about how bold politicians like Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene have become in spreading those lies, even when their statements run counter to every ounce of evidence.
Now think of those lies backed up with convincing clips of video, “secret recordings” of computer generated audio, and startlingly realistic images of “the true contents of Hunter Biden’s notebook” or “the secret tunnels beneath Ping Pong Pizza.”
Sure, it may be possible to detect which of these visuals are fake with the trained eye of an expert, or the use of other software tools, at least for now. However, 99.9% of people are not going to use any sort of test before passing these things on. Conspiracies are going to launch that make QAnon seem like a page from Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia.
This video is a warning about Donald Trump and his abhorrent proposals. Even more, it’s a warning about what any idiot can do, right now, with a few hours and free tools. Those tools are getting better. This is the shape of things to come.
Can we have fairer, more representative elections in the U.S.? Absolutely, says Deb Otis on this week’s episode of “The Downballot.” Otis, the director of research at FairVote, tells us about her organization’s efforts to advocate for two major reforms—ranked-choice voting and proportional representation—and the prospects for both. RCV, which is growing in popularity, not only helps ensure candidates win with majorities but can lower the temperature by encouraging cross-endorsements. PR, meanwhile, would give voters a stronger voice, especially when they’re a minority in a dark red or dark blue area.
