1/ This is probably one of the few times that @joshrogin and I will agree on something, but Twitter banning US politicians is a bad idea if you care about American political stability
2/ In a political system where political capital is as media-dependent as the US, cutting off social media accounts can shift the political balance of power
3/ It can shift that power in a way that is just as effective as reallocating electoral votes or congressional representation
4/ However, rules on social media access don't really exist, and social media moderation itself is governed by a mere federal statute that could be legislatively changed at any time
5/ 2, 3, and 4 create a positive feedback loop between political power and social media access where half of the loop occurs in an extralegal fashion
6/ That loop tends to amplify political shocks rather than tamping them down, which is what I predict will happen over the next few years
7/ And in any political system, democratic or not, once shocks get amplified beyond a certain bound, they devolve into civil conflict
8/ Indeed, the US has gone through this before, when the question of slavery in the Western territories coupled with congressional power hinging on representation from newly formed states creating a feedback loop to the Civil War
End/ So if you care about American stability - which even China does, since China would like to grow at 5% through 2030 instead of 3% - you shouldn't be a fan of Trump getting deplatformed. It's 2021, not 2020. Let's work together to make the world a better place.

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More from @TheDailyMao

10 Jan
1/ US tech's ban of Trump gives China a once-in-a-decade opportunity to reset the global tech ecosystem in its favor. China should pay its tech firms to package and release an open source social media app, open source app store and mobile stack, and an open source cloud stack
2/ The blowback from bigtech doing this is going to be the balkanization of the internet. Every country + the EU is going to go for their own social media / mobile / cloud stack now @passluo Image
3/ China obviously has a trust deficit with other major tech ecosystems, so Chinese apps will have trouble winning worldwide, but it can get around that by making it so that *no one* can dominate the global commons in the way that Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple currently do
Read 15 tweets
10 Jan
The background image for Kurt Campbell's consulting firm is hilarious.

Gigantic Mt Fuji overlooking Asia's cities, with a tiny Washington Monument right in the middle. I wonder what country he's going to orient his entire Asia policy around? 🤔

@suea_thornton Image
And if Campbell does make it through as NSC Asia Czar, expect no resolution on probably the only US trade policy issue that China actually cares about Image
Which means that China and the US are exceedingly unlikely to have any sort of productive relationship over the next 4 years - or even the next 40
Read 9 tweets
9 Jan
After two months, I've finally managed to categorize the accounts I follow or am interested in into a series of lists. I'd like to share all of them with you

1/ ImageImage
2/ In alphabetical order, first is the "1 million followers / pundit / politician" list, which are predominantly bluechecks and/or politicians with large follower counts. This list lost a notable member last night 😉 twitter.com/i/lists/132831…
3/ Next is 46 Admin, an evolving list of individuals who either work in or will be affiliated with the incoming Biden administration
twitter.com/i/lists/132893…
Read 18 tweets
8 Jan
It's time for the #IRS to investigate Falun Gong for violating its 501(c)(3) status

1/
501(c)(3) organizations "are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office"

2/
irs.gov/charities-non-…
However, the Falun Gong has used religious donations - both monetary and in-kind - to aggressively fund a media empire

3/
nytimes.com/2020/10/24/tec…
Read 8 tweets
7 Jan
I would caution folks not to overestimate the relative decline of the US / ascent of China

1/
Instead of saying China has taken primacy over the US in 2020 - or even started that process - it's more accurate to say that 2020 marks the start of multipolarity's return to global politics

2/
The US still has a plurality of the world's "critical bottleneck" technologies, supremacy in the maritime and orbital commons, financial centrality, and a global media nexus

3/
Read 7 tweets
6 Jan
How it started How it's going ImageImage
How it started How it's going ImageImage
How it started How it's going ImageImage
Read 5 tweets

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