Woozle/2021/10/23

Note

This is a crosspost from Nextdoor.

Post

Subject: Cursing, civility, and stochastic terrorism: a case in point

CW: The audio clip attached to this tweet contains *extreme* cursing and offensive language. I think we can all agree, no matter where we are in political-space, that this audio-clip is deeply offensive.

https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1451347945069154307

I'm posting this both because my friends and I found it deeply upsetting (representative as it is of a growing sentiment in some quarters of the country) and also because it's a pretty clear illustration of how the "civil" (no cursing) words of one guy with a big platform -- Lord Tucker Carlson the Uncæring -- can lead to not just cursing and baseless insults but also threats of violence (not to mention actual violence in other cases).

This is what this kind of "civil" speech is leading to: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/13/2057922/-Black-American-flags-at-right-wing-protests-on-front-porches-vow-no-quarter-against-liberals

People believe these lies. People take it seriously. I can blame them for trusting the untrustworthy, I can blame them for their actions, but I can't blame them for feeling strongly, given what they believe -- and those beliefs are directly attributable to the lies they're hearing on right-wing plutocrat-owned platforms like Fox, OANN, Newsmax, and countless others.

If you still find cursing more offensive than bad-faith argumentation and dishonest news media, I think maybe we should discuss that.