Drew Holden Profile picture
Sep 12, 2020 11 tweets 2 min read Read on X
I think a libertarian world would be enormously comfortable with parents pimping out their children insofar as they can find a way to stay within the letter of the law.
Which, as we’ve seen, Cuties does.
The reason we’ve gotten to a Republican Party so neutered of moral courage that ‘Cuties’ can exist is because of the influence of libertarians and their compunction that government can be amoral. Full stop.
Think lots of people - largely in bad faith - didn’t understand what I was saying so let me try again.

I don’t think the libertarians would ignore the laws on the books. My point is that both current law & the predisposition of many to interpret the law in an amoral way are bad.
My problem with libertarianism is - has been, will continue to be - that assuming the state has no power to affirm morality is intellectually lazy and morally suspect.

The grey area between law and morality is where Cuties comes in.
Perhaps it proves to be wrong but, from all indications, Netflix was within bounds to air Cuties. That may be legally true. But it’s morally reprehensible.

Libertarianism, as a theory, cannot address things within that category. The framework doesn’t fit.
Law and policy are complicated and provide lots and lots of this type of gray area. From my humble perspective, that’s a deliberate feature of a liberal democracy.

But it means that, all other things being equal, the system favors immorality and those who would defend it.
That’s why having a moral framework beyond the permissive structure of case law is important and worth fighting for.

Adopting a worldview that, instead, amplifies that permissive structure is precisely the sort of thing that will allow something like Cuties.
And, yes, it isn’t lost on me that cultural liberals are at the forefront of Cuties and it’s defense. Sure. Of course they are. But I’m taking that as a given.

I’m not waiting on the party that embraced Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton to find its moral footing any time soon.
What I’m concerned about are the elements of the party that is meant to hold the line that are hamstringing our ability to do so.

That element is the libertarians.

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More from @DrewHolden360

Feb 5
I know it’s been a few days, but the entire legacy media ran with the claim that Don Lemon was arrested for doing journalism, when he was actually indicted because a grand jury found he violated worshippers’ freedom of expression.

Quick live🧵thread🧵, starting with @nytimes. ⤵️ Image
Same thing at @NBCNews.

Omitted from the headline is what the actual charges are: interfering with these churchgoers rights. Image
Predictably, @CNN has gone to bat for Lemon.

What’s at issue isn’t “reporting” of a “protest,” and claiming to the contrary is pretty obviously misleading. Image
Read 15 tweets
Jan 22
🧵THREAD🧵

There’s another media hoax from Minnesota. Legacy outlets churned out headlines about a 5-year-old child used as “bait” by ICE.

The reality? The kid’s father, an illegal immigrant, abandoned him when he saw the agents. As even these outlets later concede.

Look ⤵️
Here’s how these hoaxes start. @washingtonpost alleges ICE used a 5-year-old kid as “bait” to arrest his father.

Not until five paragraphs into the piece do they acknowledge what really happened: the child’s father, an illegal immigrant, abandoned him when he saw ICE. Image
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But this allegation was everywhere. We saw the same thing from @AP.

Explosive claim in the headline: “used as ‘bait’” (from the school, no less)

Reality: six paragraphs down, father abandoned child. Image
Image
Read 15 tweets
Jan 21
🧵Thread🧵

This is insane. Remember the story of an innocent family hit with tear gas by ICE amid violent protests in Minnesota, with their baby hospitalized?

Turns out, the parents went to the riot…and may have left the baby in the car.

Media-induced conspiracy theory ⤵️
The legacy media ran with this fake story.

Here’s @nytimes — the family was “trying to escape a clash” when “ICE agents gassed them.” Image
@nytimes Same from @CNN — “gassed after they were caught in clash” when in reality they took their baby to a violent protest.

Insane reporting. Image
Read 19 tweets
Jan 20
🧵Thread🧵

Do you remember, all of four weeks ago, when democracy was imperiled by CBS News, under new management, delaying a 60 Minutes segment about a prison in El Salvador?

The segment aired last weekend.

Democracy survived. The takes haven’t.

Just look. Screenshots ⤵️
I usually start with the media but I’ve gotta flip that here, because the dumbest voices came from the halls of Congress.

@ChrisMurphyCT, as someone “warning about democracy’s potential disintegration” (his words) called it proof that the media has been “coopted by the regime.” Image
For @SenMarkey, delaying a segment was “what government censorship looks like.”

I mean. Cmon. Image
Read 26 tweets
Jan 16
With an ambitious new health care plan proposed by the Trump administration, you should read some of the recent pieces on the subject at @commonplc. Quick 🧵👇

First, @oren_cass explains how our system of health care got so bad: commonplace.org/p/oren-cass-ho…
And out this week is @Chris_Griz on why market concentration looms over the health care industry, undercutting more a more hands-off approach: commonplace.org/p/chris-griswo…
For a real and much-needed alternative to Obamacare, dive into @ChrisEmper’s explanation of community health centers, and why they could unlock better outcomes for patients: commonplace.org/p/chris-emper-…
Read 4 tweets
Jan 5
Quick 🧵thread🧵

With the news that Walz’s reelection campaign won’t survive the spiraling child care center fraud scandal in his state, I wanted to reup some of the worst legacy media efforts to put lipstick on this particular pig.

Follow along: ⤵️
I have to start with @nytimes, who seemed positively incensed that a video from @nickshirleyy caught fire, accusing him of being “in search of politically charged footage,” while burying whether there were any kids at these child care centers in the first place. Image
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This from the same @nytimes who a few weeks ago wrote an extensive piece about “how fraud swamped Minnesota’s social services system on Tim Walz’s watch.”

But now, it was just the video that caused this?

C’mon. Image
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Read 16 tweets

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