I really think it would be a mistake to allow Trump back on any social media site. Ever.
6 Likes
My sweet summer child hot take: Today will be relatively quiet. Looking at yesterday’s videos, most of the insurrection people looked like the dog who caught the car. Overnight, most of them tossed and turned and realized that they took things waaaaay too far. Many of them will pack up and go home. There will be greatly reduced crowd today.
3 Likes
I agree with this. That was also evident in the lack of overnight issues.
1 Like
Was “stop the steal” billed as anything more than a one-day thing? This was a planned thing, not an organic response like the BLM protests. So yeah, today is business as usual.
1 Like
Good point. I didn’t realize it was billed as a one day thing. I was thinking more along the lines of a MAGA Woodstock type of deal. 3 days of insurrection, yelling at clouds, and Viking cosplay, or something.
Honestly, I don’t know if the plan is more than one day. Just asking. That said, I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything close to a repeat. Not today in Washington. Somewhere else though? Who knows?
1 Like
If Congress has no time or desire to impeach, or do the 25th Amendment, or even censure, then I’d propose a law banning all Presidents (and former Presidents) from speaking through social media. Silencing Trump may be the most effective way of getting society back under control. If he has something to say, make it be through media channels.
1 Like
This is now how they will react to everything they don’t like. Assemble a crowd and hope they have a critical mass for herd mentality to enable a coalition of the dumb to act.
Prolonged mask mandates, lockdowns, and compulsory vaccination.
1 Like
That is simply not constitutional. Not just because of free speech but because of separation of powers. And elections have consequences. People should not be spared seeing what they have wrought.
1 Like
IANAL. Just trying to brainstorm answers. He’d still have free speech. Just not on that platform.
That works if the platforms themselves bar him. I (neither lawyer nor American) think it’s prima facie unconstitutional for there to be a law prohibiting him/them from accessing a given platform or class of platforms.
Like, forget the specificity of social media. Imagine a law that former Presidents couldn’t appear on the radio or the TV.
A good chunk of those people are LARPers who were in for the selfies and social media bullshit. They believe the stuff but weren’t genuinely serious about an overthrow. Their lives are too comfortable to want one.
Among that group, there definitely is a contingent that was dead serious about it. But are there enough to actually do anything, especially with the police alerted to the danger?
Glad my vote could help.
5 Likes
The answers to the deep structural and material problems that beset the heart of the American psyche probably aren’t going to be solved via social media tbh.
7 Likes
Not really clear what was elided from the quote. The remaining material does not actually make sense (it’s not actually a sentence). The clarification is pretty fucking clear though:
https://twitter.com/tough_schmidt_/status/1347013049576796160?s=21
The police collapsed immediately at the first hint of aggression. They were in no way ready to stop any serious acts of violence.
3 Likes
Many/most police are Trumpkins. So…
Yesterday started with the Senate flipping.
1 Like
To be blunt, it would have been much better for the police to gun down 30 or 40 or 100 people than to let them take over Congress. Doubtless there were many mistakes that were made to get to a situation where you’d need to use that kind of force to protect the building, but with those mistakes having already been made, shooting any of those people was just fine IMO.
6 Likes