The crazy intensifies

benfell

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt


Fig. 1. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Oh, Marjorie Taylor Greene was “joking” now, when she said she’d have succeeded and have been armed where the January 6 coup plotters failed.[1] Where have we heard that before?

More seriously, it feels like the crazy is only accelerating[2] since I wrote a blog post revisiting[3] Philip Slater’s caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly metaphor for social transformation[4] in the post-Donald Trump era. I have my reasons for my skepticism about Slater’s metaphor, as I explained in that blog post, but that metaphor only looks better the crazier Donald Trump, his loyalists, and other right-wing illiberals get.[5]

Of course, as I warned earlier, it’s a mistake to assume that all who would commit violence to advance their cause are as stupid and inept as we’ve seen so far.[6] Whether you think this paranoid or prudent, consider that these clowns could be a way of getting us to let our guard down. I doubt that’s the case, but I can’t promise you it isn’t.

Chris McGreal, “Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?” Guardian, December 11, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/11/rupert-murdoch-fox-dominion-lawsuit-deposition

Eugene Scott, “White House condemns Greene over claim she would have ‘won’ Jan. 6 insurrection,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/12/greene-jan6-white-house-armed-insurrection/

Chris Walker, “DOJ Is ‘On a Path to Charge’ Trump, Former U.S. Attorney Says,” Truthout, December 12, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/doj-is-on-path-to-charge-trump-former-us-attorney-says/

Twitter


Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[7] fair use.

By disbanding [Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council], we got fired instead of quit. Elon doesn’t want criticism, and he really doesn’t want the kind of advice he would very likely get from a safety advisory council, which would likely tell him to rehire some of the staff he got rid of, and reinstate some of the rules he got rid of, and turn the company in another direction from where he is turning it.[8]

It is, of course, more than this. Elon Musk is using his platform to unfairly attack members of the now-defunct Trust and Safety Council in his usual style.[9]

Laura Forman, “Twitter’s Advertising Truth Hurts,” Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitters-advertising-truth-hurts-11670706720

Keith Olbermann, “Hey look what they found in the ‘Twitter Files&rsquo,;” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1601983506070081536

Elon Musk, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601894132573605888

Charlie Warzel, “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist,” Atlantic, December 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/

Joseph Menn, “Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-child-porn-qanon/

Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513

Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, and Naomi Nix, “Twitter dissolves Trust and Safety Council,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-twitter-harass-yoel-roth/

  1. [1]Eugene Scott, “White House condemns Greene over claim she would have ‘won’ Jan. 6 insurrection,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/12/greene-jan6-white-house-armed-insurrection/↩
  2. [2]Kate Connolly and Philip Oltermann, “German police raids target group accused of far-right plot to overthrow state,” Guardian, December 7, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/07/german-police-raids-target-far-right-reich-citizens-movement; Matthew Karnitschnig, “Germans on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” Politico, December 8, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-republic-monarchy-rechsburger-michael-gotschenberg-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdow/; Jacob Magid, “Trump berates disloyal US ‘Jewish leaders,’ ignoring calls to condemn Kanye, Fuentes,” Times of Israel, December 9, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-lays-into-jewish-leaders-ignoring-calls-to-condemn-kanye-fuentes/; Eugene Scott, “White House condemns Greene over claim she would have ‘won’ Jan. 6 insurrection,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/12/greene-jan6-white-house-armed-insurrection/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Revisiting Philip Slater’s Chrysalis Effect in the post-Donald Trump era,” Not Housebroken, December 9, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/12/08/revisiting-philip-slaters-chrysalis-effect-in-the-post-donald-trump-era/↩
  4. [4]Philip Slater, The Chrysalis Effect (Brighton, UK: Sussex, 2009).↩
  5. [5]David Benfell, “Revisiting Philip Slater’s Chrysalis Effect in the post-Donald Trump era,” Not Housebroken, December 9, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/12/08/revisiting-philip-slaters-chrysalis-effect-in-the-post-donald-trump-era/↩
  6. [6]David Benfell, “Revisiting Philip Slater’s Chrysalis Effect in the post-Donald Trump era,” Not Housebroken, December 9, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/12/08/revisiting-philip-slaters-chrysalis-effect-in-the-post-donald-trump-era/↩
  7. [7]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
  8. [8]Larry Magid, quoted in Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, and Naomi Nix, “Twitter dissolves Trust and Safety Council,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-twitter-harass-yoel-roth/↩
  9. [9]Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, and Naomi Nix, “Twitter dissolves Trust and Safety Council,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-twitter-harass-yoel-roth/↩

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.