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Kmele Profile picture
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7 Jan, 4 tweets, 1 min read
We must be honest about this:
We've endured yrs of escalating polarization and political violence. Full Stop.

Past 4 Years: Mass shootings targeting lawmakers. Scores dead amid waves of mass demonstrations + riots. Municipal bldgs torched. Fed outposts under months-long siege...
Appropriate to highlight Trump's degeneracy, but it mustn't come at the expense of acknowledging the dangerous context we need to be grappling with.

"Escalating crescendo" is redundant, confusing, and misleading. How can anyone be confident we're on the other side of ALL THIS!?
I'm afraid I see myopia + euphemism debasing media coverage in systematic ways.

Highlighting the virtue or deviance of different actors engaged in political violence. Taking great pains to frame one circumstance as 'mostly peaceful,' offering sweeping denunciations in another.
Something is dreadfully wrong with this situation. I hope things improve, and quickly, but I'm increasingly nervous about what comes next.

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More from @kmele

Kmele Profile picture
1 Oct 20
"Our past is one of slavery, racism, and injustice. Our systems were built to oppress people of color."

The history of humankind is a dense catalog of inhumanity, subjugation. The American project isn't the apogee of that awfulness; it's part of a sharp deviation from the mean.
Only a deep, lamentable ignorance explains @GavinNewsom's myopia.

America had a host of imperfections at her founding. Vestiges of what preceded it, not cruel innovations of the framers. In fact, it's the American vantage point that helps bring those defects into focus at all.
America's founding helped provide for the innovation + steady improvement of human liberty everywhere. A constitution that: limits govt, imperfectly balanced power among its parts, established a baseline for safeguarding minority rights, allows for its own 'perfecting' over time.
Read 7 tweets
Kmele Profile picture
24 Sep 20
Competing interpretations of this clip making the rounds. Both make some assumptions:

1) Get rid of the [mail-in] ballots, they're a problem. Then there won't be a transfer of power [because I'd win at the polls].

2) Get rid of the ballots [and cancel the election]. [I'm king.]
Trump talks like he has marbles in his mouth. It's not good.

Still, much easier for me to believe he's (inelegantly + inarticulately) saying the first (less insane) thing; especially since he's made nearly this same claim on many occasions.

But the frenzy is in full bloom...
Could also mean: “More mail-in-ballots are gonna be a problem. I keep warning you about this [rightly or wrongly]. We must encourage people to vote in person.”

Trump’s word salad is genuinely hard to parse. Journalists kinda have to form narrower questions + ask him to clarify.
Read 4 tweets
Kmele Profile picture
23 Sep 20
'stoking?'

@chrislhayes — worth paying attention to what your own network is up to today.

The clip in this @MSNBC post is both factually inaccurate and dangerously sensationalist.

It’s been months. Why can’t a primetime anchor + team get the facts right?

Was Taylor killed in her bed? Did cops storm in + just start shooting? They were not looking for *someone else*. No civilian was prosecuted for defending themselves.

This is 50%+ wrong, @JoyAnnReid.
Law enforcement made avoidable + ultimately fatal errors. Bad policy. Incompetence. Human error.

America’s failed war on drugs is an under-discussed factor too.

But there is zero evidence racial bias played any material roll in this outcome.

STOKING fear + outrage is a choice.
Read 7 tweets
Kmele Profile picture
29 Aug 20
I have many questions about Jacob Blake’s death. It must be thoroughly investigated. People must be held accountable for any wrongdoing.

Demanding justice is appropriate. It’s also vital that we get the context + history right.

There will NEVER be "Another Emmett Till"... (1/6)
First: Conclusions absent facts — this isn’t justice. The Blake investigation is ongoing.

Second: There will NEVER be another Emmett Till.

To say otherwise diminishes the importance of Till’s death. The immense progress made since. And the enormous sum paid to get HERE... (2/6)
Imperfect though it may be, we live in a far more equitable + just world than any of our predecessors. We owe that privilege to legions of activist + martyrs of every color & creed. King, Lovejoy, Till, Liuzzo...

Ahistorical embellishment dishonors our rich inheritance... (3/6)
Read 7 tweets
Kmele Profile picture
16 Jul 20
"You love to see it."

"It" -- An ostensibly well-intentioned sentiment, muddied by *racial essentialism* and a *directive that I MUST perform some ambiguously defined action(s), because -- you say so?

No, I don't 'love to see it'. Especially from the @LPNational, @JoshGuckert.
This seems philosophically sloppy, opportunistic. It seems like a crass attempt to glom onto a meme w/ pernicious, established imputations -- in hopes it *maybe* produces a political advantage.

Could this gambit work? And Is it a betrayal of principle?

thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our…
What's the probability that yet-another-undifferentiated-corporate-display -of-solidarity manages to punch thru?

And IF someone does see it, considering this commandment has no context of it’s own, do they buy Ibram Kendi's deluded text for instruction?

city-journal.org/how-to-be-an-a…
Read 13 tweets
Kmele Profile picture
24 Jun 20
"....we're just giving it away for free."

No.

We get access to these sites; it usually costs us nothing. If that weren't valuable, we'd never log on. Yes, our attention is a commodity for tech firms, but tailored ads are also a benefit we receive. "Wow, I was looking for that!"
The claim that tech firms pay no taxes isn't new; it's also never been entirely accurate. And even if a firm's tax bill is near zero (perhaps they're reinvesting* profits), tax is paid on wages + purchases.

@AndrewYang wants them to pay more? Fine -- make that case.
As with UBI, the cost + downside risk of this proposal are hard to tease out. "Pay People for Their Data," could well mean:

- Less Innovation Overall
- Fewer Free Services
- More Expensive Subscription Fees
- Bigger Market Advantage for Huge Tech Companies i.e., Facebook, Google
Read 4 tweets

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