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Matthew Chapman Profile picture
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15 Dec, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Nobody who advocates for repealing Section 230 seems to be able to answer this most basic question: how would making it easier to sue tech platforms for the content they publish make them MORE willing to publish content they don't agree with?
People like @rachelbovard seem to have Section 230 entirely backwards — they think without it, they could sue tech platforms for *not* allowing them to publish content.

But Section 230 isn't what prohibits that. The First Amendment is.
In reality, Section 230 *protects* free expression on the internet. Without it, tech platforms would have to police the you post for language that could get them sued, and they would err on the side of assuming anything could get them sued.
And it wouldn't just be Twitter and Facebook. ANY website that lets its users post their own content would have to shut down or create onerous new moderation rules.

Wikipedia couldn't exist. GitHub couldn't exist. eBay couldn't exist. Messaging apps like Slack couldn't exist.
The mindless crusade against Section 230 is an example of how Donald Trump dumbed down the GOP.

Republicans generally support laws to protect people and businesses from frivolous litigation. Except here, because Dear Leader loves lawsuits and they obey anything Dear Leader says.

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Matthew Chapman Profile picture
13 Dec
The U.S. is definitely the less competent democracy.

I'd argue the U.K. has a more fractured and less progressive left than the U.S. does, but the U.S. fails the basic test of even having a system of government where the political majority can enact and be judged on its agenda.
The U.S. political system has among the most "veto points" of any system of government in the world. Political parties exploit power divisions between House-Senate, Congress-President, President-Courts, Congress-Courts, Federal-State, and others to basically shut down everything.
It is good for a political system to have some level of checks and balances, but when you have *too* many, as in the U.S., the result is no politician has a mandate, majorities can't pass their agenda, and the public doesn't know who to hold accountable for anything.
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
6 Dec
It's incredible to see the whole conservative movement crucify Bill Barr, who has arguably done more than any other person alive to shield Trump from legal harm and weaponize the law against his enemies, solely because he said, there's nothing I can do to overturn this election.
It's pretty chilling when you think about the implications of it.

We've reached the point where the GOP zeitgeist views anything short of actively overthrowing democracy as treachery and disloyalty to the cause.
Let's say that Bill Barr HAD overturned the election. That still wouldn't have been enough. Republicans would call him an establishment swamp creature because he refused to arrest Joe Biden.

Or let's say he did arrest Joe Biden. Then it would be, he refused to execute him.
Read 5 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
6 Dec
The reason smart conservatives attack the media for their reporting on Trump that they KNOW is accurate and damning is pretty simple: if they didn't, they'd have to admit that everything liberals have been saying about the Republican Party for decades is right.
The GOP has become a hollowed-out vessel for plutocrats that made a devil's bargain with neo-Nazis and theocrats to pull up the ladder of democracy behind them.

For years these "serious" conservatives called us hysterical for warning that's where it was heading. Well, it was.
Beyond the group of Never Trump conservatives who had the guts to admit we were right and leave the GOP, there's another group of cowards like Rich Lowry and Hugh Hewitt, who know what Trump is doing to their party but are too invested in the power they've won to admit any of it.
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
5 Dec
Off the top of my head, the electoral result of such a map would be *at least* 396 electors for Democrats.

They'd win every state won by Obama 2008 and Biden 2020, plus Missouri. Maybe Montana and Texas too, but I think they'd still be red, just REALLY close.
One of the crazier things that would stand out on this map would be, West Virginia is within 5 points!

Essentially, it would just be Biden's result in Monongalia County, and Gore's result in every other county.
Oklahoma would also be interesting. While it consistently votes GOP by over 20 points, the *areas* Dems get their votes has shifted a lot. Combining Gore's vote in the tribal areas and Little Dixie with Biden's in OKC/Tulsa would make it much closer, but still probably like R+10.
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
28 Nov
I want #COVID19 relief passed immediately.

But I also think that Democrats have nothing to apologize for by blocking Mitch McConnell's proposal, because it's literally worse than nothing.
First, McConnell's refusal to offer a penny of debt relief to municipal governments — when their budget shortfall is specifically because businesses that make up the tax base are shut down by COVID — is reprehensible and is explicitly intended to cripple Democratic areas.
Second, McConnell is demanding unconditional reauthorization of PPP, which was a jungle gym of fraud and abuse and funneled billions into corporate executives' pockets while doing little to actually maintain jobs.

But the REAL dealbreaker is his so-called "liability" provisions.
Read 7 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
28 Nov
It would be profoundly stupid to abandon a state that has voted Democratic in 2 of the last 4 elections, has been single digits in all four races, has a Democratic senator, had a closely contested gubernatorial race in 2018, and where Democrats have won 3 row election since 2016.
It is true that Donald Trump was a uniquely suited politician for Ohio — his trade rhetoric appealed to white union voters.

It is also true that Ohio votes to the right of the nation, and that it is changing at the regional level in ways that helped Republicans in 2016 and 2020.
None of this means that Ohio is no longer a competitive state, though.

I feel like many people are basing their doomcasts about Ohio solely because Obama gave them unrealistic expectations about how it normally votes, when 2016 and 2020 are closer to its historical norm.
Read 4 tweets

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