It’s very that. So much so that the person who wrote the headline obviously knew exactly what they were doing.

Headline misrepresents what their acting President said. From their own article:

“After the devastation of the Korean war . . . the United States gave us aid, technology transfer, investments and security assurances,” which helped make South Korea “a very comfortable investment environment for foreigners”, Han told the Financial Times in an interview.

“Our industrial prowess and our financial development and our culture and growth and wealth are very heavily due to the help from the United States,” he added.

In light of this debt of gratitude, Seoul — one of Washington’s closest security allies and economic partners in Asia — would enter negotiations with Trump seeking to find “solutions which are more win-win for both, rather than taking their actions as the objective against which we should fight back”, Han said.

Don’t worry. They changed some visa requirements, but it looks like the “deporting 500 Americans” part is disinfo meant to rile up the internet. The President had to put out a press release denying it, asking people to only use info from the government before sharing.

Exactly. It’ll rile up the “eating dogs and cats” nazis, for sure. But just like here, it’ll get amplified as well by people who love the idea of Namibia kicking Yankees out of the country, or who are just excited to contribute commentary about Namibia’s awesome, stylin’ Pres.

And anyone deliberately amplifying it can easily post a link to Namibia’s visa requirement changes, knowing hardly anyone’s going to click through, much less check the details. Sucks that she had to take time out of her workday to issue the denial. It’s so frigging frustrating. I’d like to post her press release everywhere as a heads-up, but I know the accelerationists want that as well (they don’t care about sides, just making the talking point louder).

Not trying to preach to the choir or educate here; just venting.

np!

btw, didn’t mean to imply you were a bad actor (apologies if it came across that way). I replied because you were the only person here to post anything that looked like a source. No harm to you intended.

I did a quick lookup of the quote you posted. Except for facebook and insta reposts, I found nothing. otoh, from yesterday’s news:

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has slammed circulating claims that Namibia is planning to deport 500 American citizens, calling the allegations false and urging the public to be vigilant of fake social media posts.

A press release issued by the Presidency on Wednesday said it has noted with concern the circulation of social media posts and online articles alleging that Nandi-Ndaitwah ordered the deportation of the American nationals on the grounds of visa reciprocity.

The statement pointed out that various social media accounts circulated this fabrication attributed to the president. “These posts feature fabricated quotes and images containing misinformation and disinformation intended to tarnish the image of the president, the Namibian government and to create potential diplomatic embarrassment,” it read.

Not to be a party pooper, but where tf are you folk hearing about this? I can’t get a fact check on this story anywhere. msn.com “reporting” what people are sharing on social media doesn’t count, as Yankee mass media cannot be trusted any more than Russian.

This feels very disinfo to me - using the black female president of another country to accelerate the race war in the USA. Just because it’s something I like to hear, or something I agree with, doesn’t mean it’s legit.

What I have found, from The Namibian today,

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has slammed circulating claims that Namibia is planning to deport 500 American citizens, calling the allegations false and urging the public to be vigilant of fake social media posts.

A press release issued by the Presidency on Wednesday said it has noted with concern the circulation of social media posts and online articles alleging that Nandi-Ndaitwah ordered the deportation of the American nationals on the grounds of visa reciprocity.

The statement pointed out that various social media accounts circulated this fabrication attributed to the president. “These posts feature fabricated quotes and images containing misinformation and disinformation intended to tarnish the image of the president, the Namibian government and to create potential diplomatic embarrassment,” it read.

I hope everyone holds off sharing this “story” til a reliable site backs it up. There’s a reason it’s posted as a text image in a humour community, and not on worldnews or something.

[There’s no indication any of the officers or jailers at any of the detention locations were women. Every reference gives male pronouns (unless I missed something).]

Moved her to 4 different states in 1 night, kept her awake and hungry after fasting all day for Ramadan, 4 o’clock in the morning, made a point of letting her know they saw pics of her without her hijab. Then someone taking the scarf off her head without asking (to cure her asthma! who knew it was so easy! /s), while she’s protesting. Absolutely, I’d assume cruel sarcasm on the part of both these people.

[Commenting instead of editing the post]

The only reason we know this is happening, is because Lyft fucked up once by sending her the transcript. Assume it’s happening in every vehicle.

The personal responsibility/choice narrative silicon valley loves so much when it comes to deregulation of labour standards and constant aggressive privacy violations is not useful irl. Any gig worker for lyft/uber/fuckworkers.com isn’t going to feel free to say no (if they have any choice at all) and putting the onus on riders doesn’t make sense here at all.

Canada has privacy laws that techbro companies from the USA simply ignore. Now is the best time to start enforcing them.

During their reunion in E.’s hometown, the first time they’d been together since the summer, the friends looked up know-your-rights tutorials and discussed whether Öztürk should cut short her doctoral program. They spent their last day together filling out intake forms for legal aid groups — just in case.

Right up until their last minutes together at the train station, they wrestled with how cautious Öztürk should be when she returned to Massachusetts. Öztürk wondered if she should avoid communal dinners, a feature of Muslim social life during the holy month of Ramadan.

“I told her to keep going out, to be with her community. I wanted her to live her life,” E. recalled, her voice breaking.

“And then she got abducted in broad daylight.”

…

“What broke me was her screaming. And knowing that the same thing had just happened to almost 400 people in the Boston area the week before,” said [Fatema Ahmad of the Muslim Justice League], referring to a recent six-day ICE operation.

…

Her last stop [after they moved her over 4 states in one night] was a detention center in Basile about an hour away, where she remains, one of two dozen women in a damp, mouse-infested cell built to hold 14, according to court filings.

Whole thing’s a fucking brutal read, but worth it.

Heard it on my morning news program here in Canada. “I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir,” he chuckled. Sounded like he was making fun of an abuse victim. Like that time he mocked the disabled. Filthy predator.

That any media outlet is featuring his latest truth claim in an uncontested headline is wild. Look at the amount of commentary already produced that assumes his version of events is what’s actually happening.

When everyone knows all you need to heal all wounds is to ingest 1 cup of school glue. You have to dry it on your hands and peel it off before eating it though - a lot of people get that wrong.

Already bad enough here in Ontario with Doug “I’m a big Republican” Ford’s Ministerial Zoning Order addiction, gutting environmental protection agencies, trying to sell off the Greenbelt, using covid recovery bills to get his dirt done, etc.

Any rein we’ve been able to keep on the timbit would dissolve into nada if we allowed the US govt to run their game here. I can’t even conceive of much worse they’d make the tar sands in Alberta. 90% of the fisheries would just be trawlers digging up seabeds. Plus the dizzying amount of toxic waste they’re already legally dumping here and in Mexico?

Elbows up.

March '23 Trump gave a soundbite for his billionaire bosses about building “Freedom Cities.” Clear-cutting national forests, then signing an order that makes the area exempt from regulation? Sounds about right.

If they’re coming for all federally governed land, indigenous reservations will be on the menu as well (always are).

Not just nationwide either. Absolutely beautiful. Solidarity from Canada <3

Maybe OT, but there’s comfort knowing most online accounts minimizing irl resistance (saying this is nothing, or not enough, or they’re not doing it right, or I can do 6-7pm on Wednesday lmk, omg people have jobs, why aren’t they angry at this other thing, and on and on) are working overtime.

Remember learning about the work that went into de-legitimizing the Women’s Marches?

More than 4,000 miles away, organizations linked to the Russian government had assigned teams to the Women’s March. At desks in bland offices in St. Petersburg, using models derived from advertising and public relations, copywriters were testing out social media messages critical of the Women’s March movement, adopting the personas of fictional Americans.

They posted as Black women critical of white feminism, conservative women who felt excluded, and men who mocked participants as hairy-legged whiners. - NYT, Sept 22

The day after the World Said No to War, news article after article sold the story back to us that we didn’t really DO anything because the USA was still bombing people. But everyone who was there remembers looking around and realizing no matter what the news tells us about our activism, we still care enough to show up for each other, and We Are Everywhere. With oppositional media framing everything as hopeless, depressing, alienating, etc, physically being with other people who give a fuck is not just good for politics, it’s good for our mental health (or soul, if you’re into that).

Reading some comments here, I want to leave a gentle reminder to my fellow redditfugees: the block user option is your friend. Curate your feed or get fed.

When you see an aggressively oppositional account dropping shittastic hot takes, of course you can always engage and Have The Conversation if you want. You know what happens after you reply: the person likely leaves a bot to mess with your good intentions, raise your blood pressure, make you depressed and waste your time. Or maybe you successfully Prove Them Wrong and they change the goalposts, or wander off to needle someone else.

We know by now, the more we engage, the more online space they get to fill with accelerationist Content.

So just click the account name, then click the block button, and you’ll never see their viral brainrot again. Nobody needs to know; no need to announce it. If your freezepeach philosophy prevents that, maybe just upvote one of the replies you agree with and move on. If you’re on mobile, you can tag the account through Voyager etc instead of blocking, if you prefer.

However you manage it, removing doomscroller ragebait from your Feed is worth doing.

Could be she set it to private. It’s what I did when I left my last gig.

Probably trying to make a buck off blighted fetid fowl.

[T]he U.S. discards nearly 60 million tons—or 120 billion pounds—of food annually, amounting to about 40% of the national food supply. This equates to 325 pounds of waste per person, or the equivalent of each American throwing away 975 average-sized apples every year. Alarmingly, food waste is the largest component of municipal solid waste in landfills, making up 22% of the total. The environmental cost is staggering, with food waste generating methane emissions that significantly contribute to climate change. - forbes link from jan '25

In case anyone was wondering, signs of avian flu at the market: bloody legs; slimy, filmy meat.

I don’t buy that Trump has anything to do with the logic behind this world-destabalizing shock and awe spectacle.

The conversation would be different if people stopped attributing authorship to him and acknowledged the massive decades-old machine using him as a mouthpiece.

But it sure makes people feel smart though. Gives them something to meme about while the people who planned this get the real dirt done. Maybe he’ll misspell a country name next… Do another ad for Leon’s dinkeys, Israeli beans or something. Stoopid Donald got poopy pance. lol.

Yesterday, former President Donald Trump told a group of supporters that they won’t have to vote again if they elect him to the presidency. “You won’t have to do it anymore,” Trump said at the Turning Point Believers’ Summit in Florida. “It’ll be fixed; it’ll be fine; you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” - The Atlantic, July '24

‘When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.’ - Maya Angelou