Quote (Black XistenZ @ Jan 10 2021 08:32pm)
I'm convinced that you and people who think alike have it wrong: ramping up the censorship of conservatives unnecessarily adds fuel to an already burning fire. The right-wing extremist threat is about to fizzle out and revert back to its (still too high) pre-2016 level once the Trump era ends.
Yes, we should improve safety measures and precautions in DC and statehouses around the country. Should insist that Republican lawmakers denounce the Capitol storming. Should prosecute, arrest and charge those who committed the violence on Wednesday. Censor those tweets or posts on social media who call for politicians to be beheaded. I'm all for that. But a blanket censorship of major conservative figures is a huge mistake (from the pov of preventing further violence and allowing the country to heal).
First off, these people are not conservatives. Conservatives don't completely reject democracy and gin up insurrectionists. They are members of the right-wing.
Next, I don't accept that removing the craziest voices from these platforms will somehow make things worse. Allowing them to remain has enabled the poisoning of so many minds in America. If people want to seek out these voices, they can do so. But institutions like Facebook and Twitter shouldn't remain part of the problem. As Tim Alberta said in a recent piece of his, the fringe is no longer on the fringe. People who called for beheading the FBI Director used to be nuts who had little to no audience... now that person was the Chief Strategist for the President of the United States.
The fact that you think this craziness and extremism is going to fizzle out just confirms to me that you aren't taking it seriously. After insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, 140 House Republicans still objected to the election hours later. It's time for reasonable people on the right to accept the reality that their side has a significant problem with extremists. The most prominent voices on the right are enabling this extremism, and they won't suddenly sober up in 9 days. It will continue to get worse.
So to be honest, the people who are freaking out over Big Tech clamping down on some of this extremism, to me, seem completely out of touch with what's happening in this country. You're majoring in the minors, as Widowmaker used to say.
This post was edited by IceMage on Jan 11 2021 09:14am