I don't really know a lot of right wing people.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@Tattie @riley

I mean... if we reported on every instance of Steven crime I bet people would start wondering about the millions of normal Stevens.

That's what happened to Florida in a way. For a variety of reasons strange petty crimes were easier to report on if they occurred in Florida. More news stations picked them up since it was "amusing." Now there is this notion that there is something wrong with the "Florida Man."

[tattie@eldritch.cafe]

@futurebird you don't even need to find actual Steven crime, just pick random crimes and speculate that the person might be called Steven, we don't know yet but we've heard reports...

Sad trans woman noises
@riley

[lufthans@mastodon.social]

@futurebird @Tattie @riley Steven crime is so bad they called it Steven's Universe

Re Florida: supposedly they have public disclosure laws that result in easier access to incident information. Also, Florida.

[faithisleaping@anarres.family]

@Tattie And when it turns out his name was Bob, you just edit the article a week later, after it's fallen out of all the search engines and no one will ever notice the edit. Then you report on the next "Steven" and claim there's a pattern.

Cries in sad trans girl noises

@futurebird @riley

[madengineering@mastodon.cloud]

@futurebird @Tattie @riley Florida specifically has a "sunshine law" that enables journalists to read police files any time they like and can report on them so long as they do not reveal personally identifying information.
The same nonsense largely happens in other states too, but it gets locked up in police files, never to be heard from again.

[lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net]

@futurebird

The first question would be "do they think" ?

And smugness apart, French situationnists used to say "ils ne pensent pas, ils sont pensés".
It's not necessarily useful to view them to be deplorables; it's certainly important to understand the degree to which they are constantly brainwashed.
(cue also the Arendt's quote about the goal of perpetual lies in totalitarian societies)

[danyarelkhodari@mastodon.social]

@futurebird Hello, how are you, my friend? I'm Dania from Gaza. I live in very difficult circumstances, and I'm an engineering student. Please help me so we can learn and rebuild Gaza. Your donation would be greatly appreciated; any donation makes a big difference to us.

[riley@toot.cat]

@madengineering Why, they need that law because so many of Florida Cops are Florida Men doing strange evil things when not being sunshined upon.

@futurebird @Tattie

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@riley @madengineering @Tattie

I had a bizzare dream where newspapers had headlines like "Another Steve Strikes"

[rjblaskiewicz@mstdn.social]

@faithisleaping @Tattie @futurebird @riley

Oi!

[tattie@eldritch.cafe]

@futurebird had enough of this Stevegoating
@riley @madengineering