civility or sarcasm: we haz that

I just got another notice that one of my tweets was asking for violence so would be limited.(but not removed) WTF? 

What happened is that someone said Iran was the good guy, and I commented that  Iran should just nuke Tel Aviv. This was sarcasm of course. I should have written the thought more clear: That it looks like they thought it would be fine if Iran nuked Tel Aviv.

 but I forgot to add the sarcasm to it so the computers tagged it as I was suggesting violence instead of that I was being sarcastic in telling someone that their tweet was approving of a regime that would do such things if allowed to continue to process uranium etc.

The tweet was limited and since I don't know how to remove it or change it I guess I will have to let things go. But that shows that I really really shouldn't tweet early in the morning before my second cup of coffee.

But accidental sarcasm is not the problem:

 The paranoid media narrative is out there, but it is being pushed not just by the fringe types but by the media, and by those who are leaders in the Democratic party, which is my party.

How bad is it?

It is so bad the Barney Frank, who represented an area that included Brookline where I used to live, is now in hospice, and is publishing a book saying the Democratic party lost it's way: 

From Politico

The former Massachusetts lawmaker says progressives in his party have “embraced an agenda that goes beyond what’s politically acceptable.”...                   

He’s hoping “to use my reputation and my record of being on the left to give courage to many of my colleagues who I know agree with me but are inhibited from saying so.”

this is good: Someone is able to push back on the radicals because he is dying. 

He insists some of their policies against the police etc are not popular so should not be pushed because it is not a good policy and might lose them votes. But what he doesn't say is that some of what the party is pushing is venomous.

Frank knows about such venom since he was a  target of aa lot of criticism when he came out as gay years ago. But that criticism was a lot less than what I read every day from his party.

And until the dehumanization stops, the spiral into violence will not be stopped.

Here is the  Body Language guy who brings it up:

I think this might have been inspired by people mocking her because when she evacuated the meeting that was attacked, that she looked upset.

WTF?

She should look upset. So why are they mocking her?

Not my party, but the personal attacks on her seem almost diabolical. Why?

The murder of Charlie Kirk is similarly being distorted far beyond a criticism of his opinions. Again diabolical.

what was his sin? That he dared to bring conservative opinions to college campuses, openly debating those who disagreed with him.

and beyond politics: He dared to promote Christianity and emphasized the need to take responsibility, and emphasized the importance of marriage.

One wishes a couple of the PC bishops would do such things, which they won't (with one or two exceptions).

You know what would happen:

  Jordan Peterson's talks were openly attacked by mobs trying to shut him down, and nearly every day one reads about other conservative voices who discuss traditional values who are openly attacked by mobs, and no one says anything. 

Mocking and dehumanization.

the social media makes these voices louder, and this goes beyond politics.

My sister in law refused to let her daughter from using facebook because she was on a skating team and was getting people mocking her for being fat posted on her facebook page (she wasn't fat: She was wearing a back brace for her scoliosis). 

I stopped Facebook because nearly every day I received posts on my page mocking Christians and Christianity.

And that was 15 years ago: I understand things are now worse.

Twitter is in danger of becoming another pest hole full of people tweeting talking points that are lies or distortions.

Sigh.

One is reminded of Yeat's poem:

Come let us mock at the great

Come let us mock at the great

That had such burdens on the mind

And toiled so hard and late

To leave some monument behind,

Nor thought of the levelling wind.

 

Come let us mock at the wise;

With all those calendars whereon

They fixed old aching eyes,

They never saw how seasons run,

And now but gape at the sun.

 

Come let us mock at the good

That fancied goodness might be gay,

And sick of solitude

Might proclaim a holiday:

Wind shrieked—and where are they?

 

Mock mockers after that

That would not lift a hand maybe

To help good, wise or great

To bar that foul storm out, for we

Traffic in mockery.