I think there is a good fucking reason why JOSH HAWLEY has been pushing the fairness doctrine but for social media. How can anyone propose government intervention into what kind of politics gets oxygen when the majority of the House GOP voted the way they did yesterday? https://twitter.com/omershapira/status/1347189222927716353

He knows what he is proposing. He knows it is a backdoor. He knows it can entrench and promote white supremacist fascist propaganda forever. He is counting on there being a backdoor when he takes the presidency.

Look at all the calls to police the social media companies for “bias” against conservatives. Look how it propped up the kind of speech that took us to yesterday. “Fairness” and “political neutrality” were euphemisms for forcing platforms to carry propaganda and incitement.

CDA 230 is a sideshow but it’s not an empty one.

There’s a lot of good-hearted and intelligent people who are going to fall for this shit in the coming days. Do not forget where Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz have stood on 230, fairness doctrine, and the like. Do not forget who they were when they took their masks off yesterday.

I do not know how to break the cycle of politics—>media—>internet bullshit—>extremism—>politics. I do know we are so far gone that these proposals are poison.

Finally, as much as I chalk our societal ills to deeply systemic problems, I have to wonder how much of the handwringing about what the toxic information bubble has done to us is denial about the people who live among us.

I do not believe the people spouting it actually think antifa was the real cause of yesterday’s insurrection. I do not believe they are actually thinking. This is not the same as stupidity. Their ignorance and denial was not the result of a blank canvas. There was a choice.

And on perfect schedule? One of these exact people I’m talking about posts a literally fake quote (that’s been addressed on Snopes!)

Longtime* followers (*a few months ago) will remember that this is the same batch of false quotes that got a pastor to send me that e-mail fantasizing about cutting my clit off.

When presented with proof that it was fake, he said he had still been responding to the gist of what I had said (despite knowing I never said it!) and then sent me a non-apology apology about how he would always fight for racial justice [for white people].

Yes, it is sad when people get sucked into a cult. But still, a cult member is not the same thing as a scam victim.

Actually, scratch that about not knowing how to break the cycle.

There have to be consequences. For yesterday. For the people who stormed into the Capitol. For the senators and representatives who voted alongside the very aims and goals of the insurrection. For the president.

If there are no consequences, it’s over.