3 ms·
As someone who supported Biden at the time of his withdrawal from Afghanistan, I think it's unreasonable to equate criticism of his Afghanistan withdrawal (one
by kvathupo 4y ago
As someone who supported Biden at the time of his withdrawal from Afghanistan, I think it's unreasonable to equate criticism of his Afghanistan withdrawal (one area of "inaccurate information" DHS was targeting) to the promotion of cults and political violence. Even so, if an individual goes so far as to ignore Occam's razor as to ascribe to QAnon, then I'm certain that such a nut-job would flock to other, equally ridiculous, conspiracy theories. Furthermore, our government can be wrong, e.g. Powell's disastrous UN speech that ignored the State Department's own intelligence [1].
At a fundamental level, one must ask why people are attacking 5G towers, storming the Capitol, and calling for violence against politicians: they believe their voices are not being heard. Censorship and banishment to alt-tech platforms only reinforces that belief.
To use the words of Scalia in "R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul", I believe the government "has sufficient means at its disposal to prevent such behavior without adding the First Amendment to the fire" [2].
[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/18/colin-powell-un-security-council-iraq https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/18/colin-powell...
[2] - [PDF] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/377/case.pdf https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/377/case.pdf
- pclmulqdq 4y agoThis is the idea of the "boxes of freedom." The soapbox, the ballot box, the jury box, and the ammo box. Depriving people of one encourages them to turn to the others. There is a part of the US population that feels deprived of all but the last box currently: big tech censorship of their ideas, beliefs in a stolen election, and belief in a rigged justice system (thanks in no small part to Merrick Garland's actions). It doesn't matter if they are right. All that matters is how they feel about it. If you combine that with the rising cost of food and shelter, you get the recipe for a violent revolution.
- x86_64Ubuntu 4y ago
- Amezarak 4y agoThe "demographic window" created by policies that none of said people voted for?