General Discussion

think his message of wanting Trump to live long enough to be prosecuted and shamed is a great one.

But I also think he undercut his own message using that AI slop image, which I suspect someone else had created earlier. It made it too easy for the WH and MAGA to attack him.

Look, there isn't anyone here on DU who would have been perfectly okay with a celebrity opposed to Biden posting, during his term, an image of Biden lying on what was supposed to be his own grave, with the headstone showing 2020 as the date of his death - and the words "If only" as the caption.

When Trump posted video on Truth Social in March 2024 that included an image of Biden hog-tied in the back of a pickup, some DUers said Trump and/or the creator of that image (which was being sold as a vinyl decal) should be arrested for threatening President Biden. Here are just a couple of the threads that had comments from DUers who considered that image a threat:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218822702

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016375206

And yes, Trump's a hypocrite, as are his followers, for objecting to what Mark posted while being okay with what Trump posted on Truth Social.

But the WH and MAGA reaction was completely predictable, and Mark did undermine his own message about Trump needing to face justice, and ended up deleting that AI image and posting a clarification.

Posting AI slop does NOT help our side. It's meaningless, because anyone can generate it in seconds. And generating it is pretty meaningless, because no effort or talent and barely any thought are required. The internet is drowning in AI slop, much of it generated by money-grubbing individuals and content farms, many of them foreign, who don't care at all about the message sent by what they post as long as it gets clicks and likes and makes them a bit of money.

And that AI slop is generated by AI tools trained on all the images, video, text and music the robber barons at the AI companies could steal. Robber barons who are supporting and bribing Trump.

Those robber barons include people who not only have little use for democracy, but are opposed to it. Who are opposed to regulations. Who don't care about workers.

As a member of SAG-AFTRA, which has fought the use of AI, Mark really shouldn't be posting any AI slop.

And the same goes for all liberals opposed to those AI robber barons and the harm done by AI.

The amount of AI slop getting posted and liked on DU will offend a lot of AI-opposing liberals. As it offends liberal AI opponents on Bluesky, a mostly liberal platform. The president of the American Federation of Teachers was criticized very sharply on Bluesky last winter, especially by teachers and union members, for posting AI slop as "fun." I know, and know of, a lot of Blueskyers who will automatically block anyone there who posts AI slop.

Trump and MAGA love AI slop, and what that says about them is damning. They don't care about reality, and they don't care about the theft of intellectual property that's the foundation of generative AI. In fact, I couldn't count all the posts I saw on X from rightwingers who were absolutely gleeful about the prospect of AI destroying the careers of all the liberal creatives they hate, including actors.

Liberals don't need AI slop to criticize Trump. Real photos, video and quotes show what a stupid, repulsive, corrupt monster he is. And Trump keeps adding to all the photos, video and quotes that can be used against him, almost every day.