@emptywheel.bsky.social
Coverage of American authoritarianism with a focus on legal cases. An American-Irish in Limerick, Ireland. Legendary potty mouth!
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@emptywheel.bsky.socialIn 2016 literal Nazis gamed out how to get dumbass lefties to disseminate their messages & in the process let Nazis set the public agenda. Trump's tweets are all part of same effort. Trump's power--the power you claim he does not have--is attentional. It's about sucking up air. As he did again.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialHere's the last tweet from Pirro.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialThis was the first announcement I saw that DOJ was dismissing the Davey Hearn case (DC Superior is harder to track).
@emptywheel.bsky.socialRupar ALWAYS disseminates transparently. He does what everyone else falsely claims to be doing. It's when 100 other people decide they're disseminating when you've got added virality.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialAnd so the POINT is that merely disseminating Trump's packaged up spectacle, without doing something to break the screen of the spectacle (to repackage the visuality of it), is doing for him precisely what all this is designed to do. Serving as postman for his fascist communication.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialSorry. You don't understand the difference between language and spectacle. I've given a slew of suggestions in this thread. But the most basic step is to understand that Trump--and therefore most of the political world--does not communicate with words. They do so with spectacle and emotion.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialIs there no way around the fact? Did he disseminate Trump's propaganda, willingly, with no filter (that is, w/o doing anything to disrupt the spectacle)? Yes. He did. That is PRECISELY what Trump's propaganda is designed to do.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialBecause the POST ITSELF is packaged up to be fascist spectacle. THAT's the entire point. It's not a truth claim. Debunking the not-a-truth-claim while disseminating the fascist spectacle is still disseminating the fascist spectacle. And also participating in polarization w/Trump as center.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialDid he do ANYTHING to disrupt the spectacle, to break up the visual structure? Nope. He just RTed. He Simply Disseminated Trump's Propaganda As Trump Designed It
@emptywheel.bsky.socialLOL. What I did was raise a legitimate criticism. I GET to people really addicted to Trump's virality, noting that that's what he designs his tweets to do may seem hostile. I get that. But it is a simple observation about Trump's exploitation of people who claim to know better.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialTell me what was hostile. Tell me. Do it.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialToldya Trump should not have pulled this bullshit when Norm Eisen was involved.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialTell me what was hostile.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialYes. It so happens I believe self-imagined Trump opponents should not adopt a fascist style of communication. Crazy thought but a lot of those lefties are VERY defensive about the dopamine they get from them.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialYou didn't know that already? From videos? Really?
@emptywheel.bsky.socialYup. But they're your guns. These are not. This is the equivalent of us turning Trump's guns on our own selves.
@emptywheel.bsky.social"the hostility is unnecessary," I've been recently told.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialIt's interesting that you view repeating the logic of your post back to you as hostility.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialOne alternative is to discuss Trump's tweet EITHER by disrupting the spectacle he packages it up in (which is a big reason it goes viral) OR just quote him. Stop hitching virality to Trump's fascism, letting him be assignment editor.
@emptywheel.bsky.socialSo you need to see the post to understand it, even tho you're savvy enough to not need any other context?