WHAT WOULD DONALD Trump have to do for the U.S. media to frame what he is doing in Venezuela as an act of war?

This isn’t a rhetorical question. It’s an actual inquiry, the pursuit of which can reveal a lot about how U.S. media’s default posture is state subservience and stenography. In the past few months, President Trump has committed several clear acts of war against Venezuela, including: murdering — in cold blood — scores of its citizens, hijacking its ships, stealing its resources, issuing a naval blockade, and attacking its ports. Then in a stunning escalation on early Saturday morning, the administration invaded Venezuela’s sovereign territory, bombing several buildings, killing at least 40 more of its citizens, kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their bed, and announcing they will, henceforth, “run” the country.

This episode seems to indicate that the president can do almost anything in the context of foreign policy, and the media will still overwhelmingly adopt language that is flattering and sanitizing to the administration when describing what has unfolded. This dynamic reached a new low Saturday morning, when the U.S. media rushed to frame the administration’s unprovoked attack as, at worst, a “ratcheted up” (CBS News) “pressure campaign” (Wall Street Journal) and, as was more often the case, some type of limited narcotics police “operation” (CNN).

    • SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Seriously, the US isn’t going to be the only country looking to put their finger on the scale in Venezuela. Heck, there’s plenty who will do so just to further entangle the US.

  • Naevermix@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    It is an act of war, the “capture” of Maduro is a kidnapping, and the deaths of ~80 cuban and venezuelan security and civilians is murder.

    USA is a rogue state.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    12 hours ago

    The subscription billionaire media companies are all complicit, and have been for quite a while.

    • melfie@lemy.lol
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      3 hours ago

      As written by General Buttler in 1935, War is a Racket. The billionaire cabal benefits from war immensely, and the media they own and control will always sing the praises of war.

  • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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    5 hours ago

    International law is very clear that the seizing of ships is not a casus bellum. Claiming it is a “clear act of war” suggests the author is more interested in rabble-rousing and news-as-a-team-sport than answering the question, which is disappointing.

    It’s churnalism like this that landed us with Trump, Bolsonaro, Johnson, and all the other crap.

        • Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com
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          4 hours ago

          I’m aware the US has seized ships, the act of war would be the invasion of the country, bombing of civilians, and kidnapping of the president

            • schuelermine@leminal.space
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              3 hours ago

              I think this is not necessarily the case, the article could be interpreted as calling these “acts of war” from a colloquial standpoint, which is a judgement informed by the fact that we know now that the USA performed the kidnapping. It’s not necessarily saying that these acts should’ve already been called acts of war back then.

    • SillyGooseQuacked@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      If you told me ten days ago the US would capture Maduro, bomb the shit out of a variety of military sites, and kill a bunch of civilians in the process, I would ask which American navy vessel was attacked to start the war.

      But, uh.

    • Naevermix@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Who actually believed that justification? Not even the MAGA crowd believe it, they just straight up say its about oil. Back in 2016 they called neocons “rhinos”, now MAGA is neocon, cheering for the very same things they previously hated Bush Jr. for.

    • CircaV@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      As IF he gets anything close to a fair trial. Everything about this kidnapping was illegal to begin with. All world leaders can now be kidnapped in their beds by US Special Forces. What happened to Noriega will happen to Maduro.

      Why haven’t they captured genocider Netanyahu?? Oh right…….

      • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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        2 hours ago

        There’s a longstanding law which says a court can disregard how the defendant ended up in the courtroom, regardless of the legality of the means used to get them there.

  • ameancow@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    USA Nukes Poland

    “The president took another eyebrow-raising strategy today, let’s talk to a panel of assorted youtube streamers to analyze what he meant with this action…”

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      Friggin RIGHT?!?!?!

      The semantics at play indicate the media “watchdogs” have put their tails between their legs and pissed themselves.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Media is just bought and controlled by the corporate donor class who have installed this administration to begin with. Every major outlet is compromised.

        Every time you see media making the administration angry or they have spats, it’s just performance. I think if everyone realized how much of what we are experiencing is kayfabe people would have a mental breakdown.

        • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          23 hours ago

          I keep trying to point this out to my mother, who keeps overreacting to one news story after another. She agrees in the moment that it’s all theater, then goes right back to being outraged by every obvious bait story.

          • ameancow@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            My parents were also people whom I would make great efforts to explain things to them with reason and logic and they would understand it and act logical when presented with logical arguments, but the moment an emotion rose up in them again it would all go out the window.

            Some people can’t deal with emotions, they never worked out the basic concept that emotions are not the same as factual reality, they just respond to a feeling and let their brains write whatever story fits immediately to explain and validate those feelings, even if the story doesn’t make sense. The only way you can get people like that to stay aligned on a particular idea is to present them a constant narrative that provokes their emotions.

            Unfortunately, this is a known technique now for capturing large segments of the population. Fear and anger are much stronger emotions than any others so as long as you can keep people scared or paranoid or angry at some other group, you can tell them anything and they won’t bother trying to reason it out.

            • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              8 hours ago

              You’re not a mean cow at all! As someone that’s about to start therapy with a spouse with a similar issue, you just handed me the beginning of the proverbial thread I need to start pulling on. So serendipitous!

              • ameancow@lemmy.world
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                8 hours ago

                I’m very glad to hear that you’re taking the right steps to working something out with your partner.

                I guess if I were to pass on any measure of aged wisdom on the issue, it would be that having an emotional/reactionary state of mind is not entirely bad. If you’re a logical thinker who defaults to reason first before reacting to an emotion, that will serve you well in life making decisions and figuring out problems, but it’s not necessarily “better” than being someone emotional.

                Just like an emotional/reactionary person needs to learn that their system isn’t the only valid way to deal with the world, a logical minded person isn’t necessarily having a “better” experience in life. We are all deeply emotional creatures and trying to squash that can be just as damaging as letting our feelings run away with us and falling down some conspiracy hole. A feeling person has more potential for healthier emotions and emotional intelligence than someone who just sticks to systems and “policy” about life.

                Making this concession is key to reaching out and bridging that gap. We all have things to work on in ourselves, the key to good relationships is deciding together, as a team, what traits or values you’re going to share and what you need to work on improving, and acceptance that you’re never going to “get there” and be the best version of yourself, you can only keep trying for someone who you decide is worth it, and hopefully that person will share that same perspective.

  • rylock@piefed.zip
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    1 day ago

    ABC was covering it like it was a football game. “Incredible performance from the US military”, “Flawless victory over the Venezuelans”, “Impressive display of professionalism from the troops”

    Makes me sick.

    • 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it
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      17 hours ago

      DAE all the Lemmings saying that the good men in the military would refuse to carry out unlawful orders because they swore an oath to the Costitution?

      • Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com
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        1 day ago

        Unfortunately, those 80 human lives are almost nothing compared to the 38 million the US and EU have murdered over the past 50 years through economic sanctioning (still murdering half a million per year).

  • xenomor@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    If China decided that trump had violated some domestic law of theirs, and sent their military into Florida, dragged him and his third wife out of their beds, flew them back to their territory, and put them in prison, would these assholes consider that an act of war?

    • tooLikeTheNope@lemmy.ml
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      13 hours ago

      Now, that would definitely feel like one of those ultimately rare and rarer “Nature is healing” moments, and everyone would live happily ever after.

    • Lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      MAGA would be screaming about it until the end of time if that happened. Because it’s different. Somehow.

      • ikt@aussie.zone
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        2 days ago

        lmao the lemmy replies showing exactly why no one has declared it war, literally no one gives a shit about an oppressive dictator who clung to power using the military post being voted out

        • Mountainaire@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          That’s not the point. The point is, who made specifically the US the World Police? This kind of forced intervention is how you create the Taliban, ISIS, etc. What is your response to that?

          • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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            2 hours ago

            The world made the US the world police. Where were Venuzuela’s neighbours when dictatorship set in? Why weren’t they parking their tanks on the president’s lawn? Why has the UN Army been repeatedly rejected by members?

            The usual disinterest, apathy and self interest governs all countries.

      • EldritchFemininity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        12 hours ago

        No no no, you’ve got it backwards. It’s .ml users who’d get mad at you for comparing China and the US. “It’s a false equivalency!”

        Like I had happen to me just the other day when I compared the US regime’s invasion to the invasion of Ukraine and the lack of any real response from world leaders.

  • Sarah@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,”

    Or the support of the press !

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Major news organisations in general are really scared when it comes to pointing out things which are extreme, because they believe describing those things as extreme will lead to accusations of sensationalism. The reason they think that is because sensationalist outlets are indeed more likely to describe everything as extreme and make unjustified comparisons to extremities, so major media outlets often think that to be “unbiased” is to refuse to acknowledge that an action is extreme.

      Vox described this as the “this is fine” bias.

      • Mrkawfee@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Major “news” organisations are owned by oligarchs who support Trump so they have abandoned any pretence of accountability

      • Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com
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        1 day ago

        This is bullshit, though, legacy media have no problem using sensationalist headlines when it suits their ideology. Example from New York Crimes on Oct 7th:

        Death to America, death to “Israel”

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Once you have replaced the press leadership with lackeys then yes. They had a very very productive 2025 for doing things to eliminate resistance

    • Random_Character_A@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Dipshits are gonna be greedy, fuck it up and turn it in to an another Afganistan. This time really close to home.

      Nobody likes Maduro. They should play with that, take their successful 30min and exit.

      • Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com
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        1 day ago

        If nobody likes Maduro, why is the USA placing Venezuela under extreme economic sanctioning?

        Maduro is not an illegitimate or unpopular leader. The Bolivarian revolution was widely supported among the people of Venezuela and freed millions from poverty, until USA sanctions demolished their economy. The express purpose of USA sanctioning, according to the US government is to, and I quote, “bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government”. USA+EU sanctions additionally murder half a million innocents per year according to recent serious sociologic and medical studies.

        By defending regime change under extreme economic sanctioning, you’re approving the murders of 38 million people over the past 50 years of economic sanctions, and directly supporting the CIA strategy of “impoverish them until they change their minds”.

        • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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          2 hours ago

          Maduro has been declared illegitimate by nearly every other nation, and the UN and EU. The election was a farce.