Will Stancil Profile picture
Sep 14, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Media, hot off years of self-flagellation over supposedly missing the story of 2016 election, is missing the story of the 2020 election, which is not about any horse race, but the rapid turn towards violent conspiratorial totalitarianism in Trump's millions-strong base.
Journalists are so addicted to the "Who's up in Florida? What's fundraising look like?" style of coverage, that they're continuing to obsess over it while prominent allies of the president call for violent purges and the seizing of ballot boxes.
Trump himself is echoing this rhetoric, saying he can't lose without fraud, talking about "insurrection." It's dismissed as unserious chatter because it doesn't fit into the horse-race frame. If you reduce all of politics to a 538 poll model, this stuff looks like so much noise.
America's political punditry industrial complex has been a dead weight on journalism for many years, slowly taking over newsrooms.

But now, its inability to comprehend any information that doesn't affect swing-state polling is actively blinding us to an impending disaster.
To put it very bluntly, here's how our media works right now:

Trump: "I can't legitimately lose the election. Anyone who opposes this is an insurrectionist. Retribution killings are necessary. "

Media: "Is this important? That depends on how Florida swing voters react to it."
The election does not supersede all other questions of law or morality or society. It's just a process conducted by our government, as one part of that government. It's totally backwards to ignore attacks on the whole system in favor of focusing on the minutiae of the election.
There is no rational justification for the journalistic primacy of election coverage.

What's happening is that a lot of our pundits are, essentially, sports fans. And the sport they are fans of is "elections." And like a lot of sports fans, they've totally lost perspective.

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More from @whstancil

Jun 23
I am increasingly convinced that the thing that has driven politics insane is the growing ability of people to find ways to validate their beliefs, no matter how incorrect and irrational. It started in right-wing media but has become central to all political discussion.
Anyone can believe whatever they like and for the most part will never be confronted or challenged. Instead they’re likely to be funneled into or self-select into a social environment where those views are supported, treated as obvious, new facts are invented to support them.
You are encouraged to lie to yourself and endless resources will be provided to ensure that you can. Challenging other people’s false beliefs is deemed elitist. As a result everyone’s politics ends up mirroring whatever assumptions or resentments are lurking in their heart.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 1
It’s clear that if the Holocaust happened today in America huge swaths of MAGA would describe it as “based,” say “this is what we voted for,” and do the “oh are you gonna cry, lib?” routine.
There’s zero reason their gleeful celebration of brutal deportations wouldn’t extend to actual extermination. The psychological mechanism is identical: they tell themselves morals are for suckers and empathy is for losers, so immortality and cruelty become a proactive good.
It’s the politics of sadism - hurting people for pleasure. Do we truly believe that they’d draw the line at killing? Frankly they’ve ALREADY killed and didn’t care at all.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 20
The craziest thing that is actually true is that a relatively small group of very literal Nazis has completely seized control of the US government
They have accomplished by building a tight-knit community in the dark corners of the internet, then establishing a lot of influence over the inner circle of MAGA, especially Musk and Vance
Musk empowered them massively by taking over Twitter and then removing almost all restrictions on them, while promoting many of their most notable figures. Musk seems extremely taken with them personally and spends a lot of time trying to impress them
Read 12 tweets
Feb 18
"I wonder what this relatively small account that Elon Musk follows is?"

"Oh I see, it just posts porn and Nazism only." Image
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It's not subtle. This account tweets and retweets constantly about things like "not wanting to hear retarded blacks and their retarded opinions," the need to "make America blonde again," how America should be a "white nation," and celebrates Trump as the second coming of Hitler. Image
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This account is followed by the most powerful man in America, who is running the government, who spends all of his time on Twitter, who gave a Nazi salute at the inauguration and who has espoused anti-Jewish replacement theory, whose underlings keep getting outed as Nazis.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 9
People are delusional about what happens if Musk and Trump ignore the law, the Constitution, and court orders. Everyone is acting like this is a standoff over USAID and a few other programs, and then we'll go back to politics as normal.
But THERE CAN BE NO POLITICS AS NORMAL IF THERE IS NO LAW. Musk can cut anything. He can eliminate any part of the government. He can punish anyone. Who could stop him? Congress will be pointless theater. Why do laws matter if they can be ignored?
Your vote won't matter. You can elect someone to Congress, but he or she will be powerless. Trump can simply ignore what they say.

Your rights won't matter. The courts can say they've been violated, but the president can ignore them.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 8
You need to take a step back, take stock of what's happening.
Trump took office and abruptly gave the richest guy on earth free rein to unmake the US government without any White House oversight or coordination. That guy has been publicly radicalized into an increasingly open white supremacist and conspiracy theorist.
Trump's plan here was concealed during his campaign and is historically unprecedented. No president has ever handed the US government over to his richest supporter before. It is also extremely far removed from the constitutional system: there's no role for someone like Musk.
Read 16 tweets

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