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At issue is that Steve Bannon used the Facebook platform to call for the execution and public display of the corpses of two public officials, NIAID Director Dr.

At issue is that Steve Bannon used the Facebook platform to call for the execution and public display of the corpses of two public officials, NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Chris Wray. This is unambiguously true, Steve Bannon's Facebook page reiterated the claims the same day, and may this cursed, bad-faith argument about whether he meant what he said be over and done with. Steve Bannon knows what words he said, he used the Facebook platform to repeat those words, and he is not a nobody but an individual who rose to prominence and is a former senior White House official, in fact, he was among the most senior one can be, on par with the chief of staff with privileged access to the President and the National Security Council. Whatever you think of him and how he may have fallen, he has a platform and he speaks to many millions of people and his words carry weight. I am reminded yet again of a Jean-Paul Sartre quote from Anti-Semite and Jew: "Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. "They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past." Here are the receipts: Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 archive.org snapshot here: https://web.archive.org/web/20201106185230/https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 https://web.archive.org/web/20201106185230/https://www.faceb... Here's the text of that post in case it is removed: [BREAKING] On www [dot] PopulistPress [dot] com - *Steve Bannon Under Massive Attack* - Steve Bannon Under Attack - Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray Get your news NOW - Bookmark www [dot] PopulistPress [dot] com

jonstewart 6y ago
Yes, the right to play, great point. That’s similar to yesterday when Pompeo made the “joke” that there’d be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. “Just joking” for me but not for thee.
- peteretep 6y ago
  America’s big problem is lack of consequences for stuff like this. The First Amendment has long outlived its utility when you compare the US to any other well-established democracy, and yet Americans take it on faith that it’s somehow the key to everything good about America. Edit: and 30s later this comment is at -2. It’s bizarre to me that so many Americans simply cannot entertain that the First Amendment might not be a net positive for the country.
  - AaronFriel 6y ago
    We don't need to tear down the First Amendment, but our society does somewhat depend on civil society rejecting and not amplifying dangerous, uncivil, undemocratic ideas. I think the freedom of speech Bannon has is fine. He's welcome to make whatever calls he wants - though I do wonder if he may have strayed from merely "uncivil" into "incitement". But Facebook, Twitter, the New York Times... they don't need to amplify it. He is not entitled to their audiences too.
    - peteretep 6y ago
      > but our society does somewhat depend on civil society rejecting and not amplifying dangerous, uncivil, undemocratic ideas I would argue that this is exactly what legal and democratic systems that work but that don’t give such primacy to 1FA offer.
      - loopz 6y ago
        Other democratic countries are not that far behind in ideology. There is however more wiggle room with more parties in play.
    - wolco2 6y ago
      The amplifying point has been spreading in discussions. Facebook, twitter must not amplify one content over another or it loses it's neutral status. If it begins make decisions based on what it prefers content wise it would lose a common carrier status and should be regulated like those other entities and not be treated as neutrual platform. The New York Times is a newspaper and doesn't belong.
jjones2 6y ago
Lol!! The laughter is painful.
vlunkr 6y ago
That Sartre quote is great. He totally nailed Internet trolls before they ever existed.
amadeuspagel 6y ago
> I am reminded yet again of a Jean-Paul Sartre quote from Anti-Semite and Jew. Yeah, I'm also reminded of this quote whenever someone on the internet disagrees with me. Clearly they must be aware of "the absurdity of their replies". Edit: Getting downvoted just reminds of that quote again. Clearly people are trying to "intimidate and disconcert me".
- hoka-one-one 6y ago
  Sorry, just to clarify, you're antisemitic?
  - amadeuspagel 6y ago
    When I read a comment starting with "just to clarify" I'm already mentally prepared to read something with no relation whatsoever to anything I said, but even so I was caught off guard this time. No, I'm not an anti-semite. What the fuck about my comment is anti-semitic?
    - jjones2 6y ago
      When idiots lose an argument, and they have absolutely no fact to back up what they are spewing, pull the "anti semite" or "racist" card! Issued at birth.
      - dang 6y ago
        Could you please stop using HN for political and ideological battle? It's not what this site is for, and we ban that sort of account. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - dang 6y ago
    Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? You've been doing it quite a bit and we ban that sort of account because we're trying for something different here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
oh_sigh 6y ago
Your archive.org link is elided FYI
- AaronFriel 6y ago
  Thanks, fixed!
isoskeles 6y ago
Judge for yourself, everyone, whether this is a "call" for execution, etc: https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/1324485819042705408 https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/13244858190427054... > I actually want to go a step farther, but I realize the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man. I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I'd put the heads on pikes, I'd put them on the two corners of the White House, as a warning to Federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program, or you're gone.
- awb 6y ago
  If the conversation ended there, in it's most favorable light Bannon could be assumed to be using "heads on pikes" as a euphemism for "getting tough / serious". However, immediately after this quote, the other speaker and Bannon discuss historical political hangings and how the death penalty for treason is necessary during a civil war. And Bannon appears to double down in his own FB post: https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 > Steve Bannon Under Massive Attack > - Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray Regardless of where you come down on the free speech side of calling for a public figure's execution, Bannon seems to concede that he meant what he said.
  - mistermann 6y ago
    > And Bannon appears to double down in his own FB post: https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 An alternative interpretation of his Facebook post is that he was quoting this: https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspended-after-calling-for-execution-of-dr-fauci-and-fbi-director-wray/ https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspend... >> "Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray" Considering Bannon claimed: "Steve Bannon Under Massive Attack", and the next line (...After Calling for Execution...) is identical to that used on populist.press, and he included a link to the site (which seems to be broken), this interpretation (that he is quoting populist.press, as opposed to doubling down) doesn't seem too far fetched to me. If, for the sake of argument (and I mean that very literally), he was actually quoting them (and therefore not doubling down), could Bannon, as you said, "...be assumed to be using "heads on pikes" as a euphemism for "getting tough / serious"? For more clarity on what actually occurred, here is the link to the full story, and the relevant text and quotes: https://www.thewrap.com/steve-bannon-suspended-by-twitter-after-calling-for-execution-of-dr-fauci-and-fbi-director-wray/ https://www.thewrap.com/steve-bannon-suspended-by-twitter-af... >> In the episode, posted Thursday morning, Bannon was discussing a hypothetical second Trump term. After advocating that among Trump’s first second term orders of business should be firing both Wray and Fauci, Bannon said, “I actually want to go a step farther but the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man. I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes, right? I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats, you either get with the program or you’re gone.” >> Shortly after, Steve Bannon and his co-host Jack Maxey offered some additional thoughts on the matter that certainly suggested they might actually be serious. >> “Just yesterday, there was the anniversary of the hanging of two Tories in Philadelphia,” Maxey said. “These were Quaker businessmen who had cohabitated, if you will, with the British while they were occupying Philadelphia. These people were hung. This is what we used to do to traitors.” >> “That’s how you won the revolution. No one wants to talk about it. The revolution wasn’t some sort of garden party, right? It was a civil war. It was a civil war,” Bannon replied.
heresie-dabord 6y ago
> But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. [...] "They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert." This is exactly the mechanism of people who don't _really_ want to discuss anything. They throw badly compiled thoughts at you, and laugh at you if you struggle to explain why they are foolish.
- mistermann 6y ago
  I particularly like the irony of: -- the claim that "Steve Bannon used the Facebook platform to call for the execution and public display of the corpses of two public officials" and "This is unambiguously true, Steve Bannon's Facebook page reiterated the claims the same day..." ...combined with... -- "...for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play." ...when what Bannon wrote on Facebook was a direct quotation of what was said about him, here: https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspended-after-calling-for-execution-of-dr-fauci-and-fbi-director-wray/ https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspend... He even linked to the site where it was said. I'm not supporting what Bannon has said here by any means, but it boggles my mind why there seems to be this recurring pattern over the last several years where rather than simply using the actual, already more than bad enough words of Trump and his gang to criticize him, instead people seem to need to hyperbole-it-up for added effect. Claiming that Bannon was unambiguously not using a provocative/hyperbolic figure of speech, but rather was literally calling for someone's execution...seems a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face (note: I am using that expression figuratively - I do not mean that people here or elsewhere are literally cutting their noses off). To me, much of Western civilization seems like the Movie Lord of the Flies [1]. Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves. Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality. Except in our case, I don't think there are going to be any adults showing up on the scene to stop us from killing each other. Sadly, real life is often not rescued at the last moment as it often is in the movies, as anyone who has read history would well know. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies
friedxenon 6y ago
It's rhetoric man, get a handle on yourself.
dilap 6y ago
You seem to be writing in good faith, but it is mind-boggling to me how anyone could take what Bannon said as anything other than a metaphor. Ironically, to me the Sartre quote better applies to your own comment than Bannon's bit. Perhaps this is the rhetorical version of "the dress". (We seem to be stuck in general in some sort of political version of the dress.)
- AaronFriel 6y ago
  Why is it mind-boggling?
  - dilap 6y ago
    So I'm going off of this clip: https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/1324485819042705408 https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/13244858190427054... It's hard for me to believe that someone can watch that and think that Bannon is literally suggesting we put Fauci's head on a pike, when it's clearly intended to be a metaphor. If I get exasperated with this conversation and say something like "kill me now," I guess you'd call the suicide hotline?
    - Paradigma11 6y ago
      But for many people it's a metaphor for taking their AR15 and paying Dr Fauci a visit.
- ouid 6y ago
  It was not a metaphor, it was hyperbole. “I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put their heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats, you either get with the program or you’re gone.” It is a call to violence. He is saying that these people deserved to be killed for what they have done to Trump. That in his estimation, the world would be a better place if someone were to kill Fauci and Wray as examples to the rest of Washington. Sure, he's not really suggesting that he would actually do it, but he is certainly asking someone to.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
amadeuspagel 6y ago
> Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray For god's sake just look at that post. It's obviously something generated by a bot. This is what you take as the basis of accusing anyone who interprets Bannon's words differently then you of bad faith?
- ZeteticElench 6y ago
  Why are you defending Bannon?
throwaway829 6y ago
You do know that "heads on a pike" is a figure of speech? Colbert depicts Stephen Miller's head on pike in one of his shows[0]. Are you going to have the speech police cancel him too? I doubt it. You just don't like ideas you disagree with and you're just looking for an excuse to get rid of them. 0: https://youtu.be/IXUMbz3U920?t=70 https://youtu.be/IXUMbz3U920?t=70
- mansion7 6y ago
  This is exactly correct. I've seen as nauseum posts accusing Drumpf and his cohorts of treason, for which the penalty is death, not to mention more recently scads of Twitterers gleefully posting photos of the mutilated corpse of Mussolini and expressing desire for the same to happen to the president and his "collaborators". It's getting to the point where AOC's recent calls for lists of said collaborators be compiled for harassment and ostracization seem reasonable, as at least she's not calling for their execution. We could have seen this coming several years ago with calls for violence against "Nazis" (and btw a Nazi is anyone who disagrees with me politically) but big tech looked the other way because they support it. I'd expect more cogent analysis from the top intellects if HN, but apparently the stereotype is true: "It's acceptable when our side does it".
- henrypasta 6y ago
  > You just don't like ideas you disagree with and you're just looking for an excuse to get rid of them. False. You should be thinking about the Solovian view to this (trigger warning advised): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bIwVIx5pp88 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bIwVIx5pp88
- amf12 6y ago
  You do know that "heads on a pike" is a figure of speech? The phrase can be used in two contexts, one as a figure of speech. The figure of speech context does NOT have any threats involved. Now, here is Bannon's statement: "I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you’re gone – time to stop playing games." In this context, Bannon does not seem to use it as a figure of speech, it is a threat - maybe not literally - but a threat nonetheless. That's what's wrong, and why people are angry. Not because they don't like his "ideas".

jonstewart 6y ago

Yes, the right to play, great point. That’s similar to yesterday when Pompeo made the “joke” that there’d be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. “Just joking” for me but not for thee.

peteretep 6y ago
America’s big problem is lack of consequences for stuff like this. The First Amendment has long outlived its utility when you compare the US to any other well-established democracy, and yet Americans take it on faith that it’s somehow the key to everything good about America. Edit: and 30s later this comment is at -2. It’s bizarre to me that so many Americans simply cannot entertain that the First Amendment might not be a net positive for the country.
- AaronFriel 6y ago
  We don't need to tear down the First Amendment, but our society does somewhat depend on civil society rejecting and not amplifying dangerous, uncivil, undemocratic ideas. I think the freedom of speech Bannon has is fine. He's welcome to make whatever calls he wants - though I do wonder if he may have strayed from merely "uncivil" into "incitement". But Facebook, Twitter, the New York Times... they don't need to amplify it. He is not entitled to their audiences too.
  - peteretep 6y ago
    > but our society does somewhat depend on civil society rejecting and not amplifying dangerous, uncivil, undemocratic ideas I would argue that this is exactly what legal and democratic systems that work but that don’t give such primacy to 1FA offer.
    - loopz 6y ago
      Other democratic countries are not that far behind in ideology. There is however more wiggle room with more parties in play.
  - wolco2 6y ago
    The amplifying point has been spreading in discussions. Facebook, twitter must not amplify one content over another or it loses it's neutral status. If it begins make decisions based on what it prefers content wise it would lose a common carrier status and should be regulated like those other entities and not be treated as neutrual platform. The New York Times is a newspaper and doesn't belong.

jjones2 6y ago

Lol!! The laughter is painful.

vlunkr 6y ago

That Sartre quote is great. He totally nailed Internet trolls before they ever existed.

amadeuspagel 6y ago

> I am reminded yet again of a Jean-Paul Sartre quote from Anti-Semite and Jew. Yeah, I'm also reminded of this quote whenever someone on the internet disagrees with me. Clearly they must be aware of "the absurdity of their replies". Edit: Getting downvoted just reminds of that quote again. Clearly people are trying to "intimidate and disconcert me".

hoka-one-one 6y ago
Sorry, just to clarify, you're antisemitic?
- amadeuspagel 6y ago
  When I read a comment starting with "just to clarify" I'm already mentally prepared to read something with no relation whatsoever to anything I said, but even so I was caught off guard this time. No, I'm not an anti-semite. What the fuck about my comment is anti-semitic?
  - jjones2 6y ago
    When idiots lose an argument, and they have absolutely no fact to back up what they are spewing, pull the "anti semite" or "racist" card! Issued at birth.
    - dang 6y ago
      Could you please stop using HN for political and ideological battle? It's not what this site is for, and we ban that sort of account. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dang 6y ago
  Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? You've been doing it quite a bit and we ban that sort of account because we're trying for something different here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

oh_sigh 6y ago

Your archive.org link is elided FYI

AaronFriel 6y ago
Thanks, fixed!

isoskeles 6y ago

Judge for yourself, everyone, whether this is a "call" for execution, etc: https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/1324485819042705408 https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/13244858190427054... > I actually want to go a step farther, but I realize the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man. I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I'd put the heads on pikes, I'd put them on the two corners of the White House, as a warning to Federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program, or you're gone.

awb 6y ago
If the conversation ended there, in it's most favorable light Bannon could be assumed to be using "heads on pikes" as a euphemism for "getting tough / serious". However, immediately after this quote, the other speaker and Bannon discuss historical political hangings and how the death penalty for treason is necessary during a civil war. And Bannon appears to double down in his own FB post: https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 > Steve Bannon Under Massive Attack > - Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray Regardless of where you come down on the free speech side of calling for a public figure's execution, Bannon seems to concede that he meant what he said.
- mistermann 6y ago
  > And Bannon appears to double down in his own FB post: https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776 An alternative interpretation of his Facebook post is that he was quoting this: https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspended-after-calling-for-execution-of-dr-fauci-and-fbi-director-wray/ https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspend... >> "Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray" Considering Bannon claimed: "Steve Bannon Under Massive Attack", and the next line (...After Calling for Execution...) is identical to that used on populist.press, and he included a link to the site (which seems to be broken), this interpretation (that he is quoting populist.press, as opposed to doubling down) doesn't seem too far fetched to me. If, for the sake of argument (and I mean that very literally), he was actually quoting them (and therefore not doubling down), could Bannon, as you said, "...be assumed to be using "heads on pikes" as a euphemism for "getting tough / serious"? For more clarity on what actually occurred, here is the link to the full story, and the relevant text and quotes: https://www.thewrap.com/steve-bannon-suspended-by-twitter-after-calling-for-execution-of-dr-fauci-and-fbi-director-wray/ https://www.thewrap.com/steve-bannon-suspended-by-twitter-af... >> In the episode, posted Thursday morning, Bannon was discussing a hypothetical second Trump term. After advocating that among Trump’s first second term orders of business should be firing both Wray and Fauci, Bannon said, “I actually want to go a step farther but the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man. I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes, right? I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats, you either get with the program or you’re gone.” >> Shortly after, Steve Bannon and his co-host Jack Maxey offered some additional thoughts on the matter that certainly suggested they might actually be serious. >> “Just yesterday, there was the anniversary of the hanging of two Tories in Philadelphia,” Maxey said. “These were Quaker businessmen who had cohabitated, if you will, with the British while they were occupying Philadelphia. These people were hung. This is what we used to do to traitors.” >> “That’s how you won the revolution. No one wants to talk about it. The revolution wasn’t some sort of garden party, right? It was a civil war. It was a civil war,” Bannon replied.

heresie-dabord 6y ago

> But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. [...] "They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert." This is exactly the mechanism of people who don't _really_ want to discuss anything. They throw badly compiled thoughts at you, and laugh at you if you struggle to explain why they are foolish.

mistermann 6y ago
I particularly like the irony of: -- the claim that "Steve Bannon used the Facebook platform to call for the execution and public display of the corpses of two public officials" and "This is unambiguously true, Steve Bannon's Facebook page reiterated the claims the same day..." ...combined with... -- "...for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play." ...when what Bannon wrote on Facebook was a direct quotation of what was said about him, here: https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspended-after-calling-for-execution-of-dr-fauci-and-fbi-director-wray/ https://populist.press/steve-bannons-twitter-account-suspend... He even linked to the site where it was said. I'm not supporting what Bannon has said here by any means, but it boggles my mind why there seems to be this recurring pattern over the last several years where rather than simply using the actual, already more than bad enough words of Trump and his gang to criticize him, instead people seem to need to hyperbole-it-up for added effect. Claiming that Bannon was unambiguously not using a provocative/hyperbolic figure of speech, but rather was literally calling for someone's execution...seems a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face (note: I am using that expression figuratively - I do not mean that people here or elsewhere are literally cutting their noses off). To me, much of Western civilization seems like the Movie Lord of the Flies [1]. Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves. Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality. Except in our case, I don't think there are going to be any adults showing up on the scene to stop us from killing each other. Sadly, real life is often not rescued at the last moment as it often is in the movies, as anyone who has read history would well know. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies

friedxenon 6y ago

It's rhetoric man, get a handle on yourself.

dilap 6y ago

You seem to be writing in good faith, but it is mind-boggling to me how anyone could take what Bannon said as anything other than a metaphor. Ironically, to me the Sartre quote better applies to your own comment than Bannon's bit. Perhaps this is the rhetorical version of "the dress". (We seem to be stuck in general in some sort of political version of the dress.)

AaronFriel 6y ago
Why is it mind-boggling?
- dilap 6y ago
  So I'm going off of this clip: https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/1324485819042705408 https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/13244858190427054... It's hard for me to believe that someone can watch that and think that Bannon is literally suggesting we put Fauci's head on a pike, when it's clearly intended to be a metaphor. If I get exasperated with this conversation and say something like "kill me now," I guess you'd call the suicide hotline?
  - Paradigma11 6y ago
    But for many people it's a metaphor for taking their AR15 and paying Dr Fauci a visit.
ouid 6y ago
It was not a metaphor, it was hyperbole. “I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put their heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats, you either get with the program or you’re gone.” It is a call to violence. He is saying that these people deserved to be killed for what they have done to Trump. That in his estimation, the world would be a better place if someone were to kill Fauci and Wray as examples to the rest of Washington. Sure, he's not really suggesting that he would actually do it, but he is certainly asking someone to.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

amadeuspagel 6y ago

> Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray For god's sake just look at that post. It's obviously something generated by a bot. This is what you take as the basis of accusing anyone who interprets Bannon's words differently then you of bad faith?

ZeteticElench 6y ago
Why are you defending Bannon?

throwaway829 6y ago

You do know that "heads on a pike" is a figure of speech? Colbert depicts Stephen Miller's head on pike in one of his shows[0]. Are you going to have the speech police cancel him too? I doubt it. You just don't like ideas you disagree with and you're just looking for an excuse to get rid of them. 0: https://youtu.be/IXUMbz3U920?t=70 https://youtu.be/IXUMbz3U920?t=70

mansion7 6y ago
This is exactly correct. I've seen as nauseum posts accusing Drumpf and his cohorts of treason, for which the penalty is death, not to mention more recently scads of Twitterers gleefully posting photos of the mutilated corpse of Mussolini and expressing desire for the same to happen to the president and his "collaborators". It's getting to the point where AOC's recent calls for lists of said collaborators be compiled for harassment and ostracization seem reasonable, as at least she's not calling for their execution. We could have seen this coming several years ago with calls for violence against "Nazis" (and btw a Nazi is anyone who disagrees with me politically) but big tech looked the other way because they support it. I'd expect more cogent analysis from the top intellects if HN, but apparently the stereotype is true: "It's acceptable when our side does it".
henrypasta 6y ago
> You just don't like ideas you disagree with and you're just looking for an excuse to get rid of them. False. You should be thinking about the Solovian view to this (trigger warning advised): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bIwVIx5pp88 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bIwVIx5pp88
amf12 6y ago
You do know that "heads on a pike" is a figure of speech? The phrase can be used in two contexts, one as a figure of speech. The figure of speech context does NOT have any threats involved. Now, here is Bannon's statement: "I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you’re gone – time to stop playing games." In this context, Bannon does not seem to use it as a figure of speech, it is a threat - maybe not literally - but a threat nonetheless. That's what's wrong, and why people are angry. Not because they don't like his "ideas".