Thread by @conspirator0

We decided to pair the subjective assessment with an attempt at an objective assessment. We began by downloading tweets containing various phrases likely to be associated with violence against one’s fellow citizens.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

https://twitter.com/ZellaQuixote/status/1187535306246852608

@ZellaQuixote After removing some off-topic search terms, we wound up with 483647 tweets containing “my guns”, “our guns”, “take guns”, “civil war”, or “guillotine(s)” from 285593 accounts between 9/15 and 10/24. How are the accounts posting them distributed in terms of political stance?

@ZellaQuixote We classified the 200 most frequently seen hashtags in the profiles of the accounts tweeting possible violent rhetoric into three categories: #maga (red), #resist/#bluewave (blue), and “other” (green.) Overall, they lean strongly right - 52.3% #maga vs 29.9% #resist/#bluewave.

@ZellaQuixote The political breakdown varies somewhat by search phrase. “My guns”/“our guns”/“take guns” skews strongly rightward, with “civil war” being more evenly distributed although still #maga-dominated, and “guillotine(s)” showing a slightly larger left-wing than right-wing presence.

@ZellaQuixote What do the tweets actually contain? The phrases most frequently repeated provide some insight as to the themes. Examples:

“try to take our guns”
“will never take our guns”
“[civil] war if he is impeached”
“will not hesitate to guillotine”