Falsehoods swirling on X and other platforms undermine trust and create potential for violence, critics warn

Summary

Donald Trump and allies, including Elon Musk, are pushing baseless claims of election fraud, portraying Democrats as intent on “stealing” the election.

Trump has accused Democrats of cheating without evidence, repeating tactics from 2020 to undermine trust in the electoral process. Musk, who owns the social media platform X and has supported Trump financially, has amplified these narratives to millions, leading to concern among election experts.

Experts warn that this misinformation could spur violence, increase distrust in voting, and endanger election workers. The spread of these claims threatens long-term harm to democratic institutions by normalizing election-related conspiracy theories.

  • ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world
    65·
    2 months ago

    They’re not baseless! The last election saw several fake ballots cast by republicans, for republicans!

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
    29·
    2 months ago

    It’s so idiotic to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the electoral system when there is still a chance that he might win. If you convince people the vote is rigged, and then you win, won’t that mean that you won by cheating? I know his supporters don’t care, either because they lack the critical thinking skills to understand how this is illogical, or they don’t care if Trump wins by cheating, but it’s just so god damn frustrating.

    • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      2 months ago

      He did the same thing in 2016, though, then won anyway, and still complained that we would have won the popular vote, too, if it weren’t for all the “illegals” voting. All the man does is complain. Fucking snowflake.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      17·
      2 months ago

      If you convince people the vote is rigged, and then you win, won’t that mean that you won by cheating?

      Nope. They’ll claim that they won despite the cheating (against them) and that Trump had so much support from voters that he will have a mandate to do all the horrible things he has said he was going to do while campaigning. This is just part of the plan because we already know that Trump and company are planning on winning by cheating.

  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
    22·
    2 months ago

    Legal Eagle (and many others) did a great video on this.

    In a nutshell? They did this last time. They make baseless accusations so that, later, they can reference those accusations as “evidence” of fraud.

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      2 months ago

      Maybe they picked it up from Alex Jones. Certainly one of his favorite straps, and he sucks up heavily to both. He was praising Elon’s jizz in the end of a bizarre knife ad he did recently.

  • minibyte
    15·
    2 months ago
    • there’s no way I lose this election if it’s a fair fight
    • you see, Dems are already cheating!
    • January 6th 2.0

    This is a rerun.

  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    The good news is that if Elon says a Republican will win today, we have at least 5-10 years until the next Republican President is in beta and will burst into flames after mistaking an elementary school crossing guard for a 2001 Buick LeSabre and driving into a wall.

  • imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee
    5·
    2 months ago

    This just in: liars lie, pushing the lie with even more lying right before they start the big lie again like they did 4 years ago and continued to do over those 4 years; lying. I’m Larry Lyar and this is Larry’s lair

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 months ago

    I saw an interview with Rogan my buddy showed me of Elon saying if Trump doesn’t win, democracy will be dead as we know it. I know I don’t need to say anymore than that but the guy looked really strung out. I’ve never seen him look so jumpy