Dark forces have tainted social media and turned optimistic, hopeful, Americans into unhappy voters, Nancy Pelosi has conveniently claimed. The House Speaker’s explanation for the current political mood did not impress Twitter.

The senior Democratic lawmaker told a crowd in Iowa on Saturday that any negative or ambivalent feelings about US politics likely stems from actors “inside and outside” the country who have “poisoned” social media.

[They use social media to] undermine the mindset of what is America. America is optimistic, entrepreneurial, about the American dream and things can be better. And what they do with their poison is discourage – ‘nobody is paying attention to you, it’s no use for you to vote.’

Paraphrasing Pelosi’s rather disjointed remarks, journalist Michael Tracey noted: “So if social media makes you pessimistic, you are the victim of ‘interference’ rather than a critical thinker.”

Pelosi warns that the "poisoning" of social media is undermining "the mindset of what is America," which is "optimistic and entrepreneurial." So if social media makes you pessimistic, you are the victim of "interference" rather than a critical thinker https://t.co/SQc38imzRZ — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 26, 2019

Her comments elicited considerable internet heckling, with Twitter users accusing Pelosi of deflecting criticism of her party.

A millionaire telling us peons it's an outside force's fault, not her billionaire bosses. — Reeve Barker (@SFReeve) October 26, 2019

Translation: I work for my donors. Shut up and vote Blue. — Bukerbabe 🌻🕊️🦄 (@Athens7316) October 26, 2019

Others suggested that Pelosi was just bitter that social media users don’t take orders from her “oligarch masters” – making the platforms far harder to control than traditional news outlets.

Translation:My oligarch masters set out to control all media so we could propagandize you while robbing you blind and screwing you over.And we would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling citizens, using social media for journalism! — Michael J Taylor (@MichaelJTaylo18) October 26, 2019

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