2 ms·

10% of US presidents were assassinated and 20% of them had assassination attempts. Congressmen have been assassinated, judges, state politicians, mayors. If you

10% of US presidents were assassinated and 20% of them had assassination attempts. Congressmen have been assassinated, judges, state politicians, mayors. If you go into politics, getting made fun of on the internet is the least of your worries, you're going to need a thick skin. If someone is making fun of you on Twitter, at least you've got name recognition.

roenxi 3y ago
In my opinion that is underestimating the tidal wave of coordinated hate that seems to be on display in the era of twitter. Everyone dies eventually and a lot of us make peace with that, but human minds aren't built to be able to deal with being continuously insulted and abused publicly.
arp242 3y ago
"US President" is of course not synonymous with "politician"; even if we look at just the US, minor politicians that are only of limited local interest can now run the risk of becoming a target of a sea of vitriol, in Twitter or elsewhere. If I look at Dutch Twitter then it's basically a small army of extremely motivated trolls with a lot of spare time who will comment on what seems like every single political tweet so that basically any engagement in any way has become all but impossible. These are people who call the Dutch equivalent of the Tories "extreme left" and consider anyone on the "extreme left" a traitor and fair target for seemingly anything. Imagine every single comment you make on HN having several hundred replies ranging from calling you an asshole, to accusing you of all sorts of "crimes", to threatening to literally cut your throat. These things really do wear you down, especially if you're not really looking for the limelight, which most politicians aren't really (for every MP you can name there are a dozen more backbenchers).