I realize this isn't exactly what is going on here, but I'm watching for precedent-setting behavior as well as everything else
So I made a dreadful choice with my phrasing here. I meant society-wide precedent for how lawyers behave in high profile cases (disinformation, hectoring etc.) rather than legal precedent, a concept I understand but not well enough to casually throw around terms lol
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Well no shit, look at the sort of pro-violence propaganda inflicted on our whole culture, particularly after 9/11 and Iraq. People we now know despise women shat up our entertainment until we started treating violence like it was sex appeal and sex appeal like it was a weapon.
For example, I hate all those “procedure” shows about criminal investigations that always seem to start with the camera lingering over some beautiful dead young woman, artfully arranged in a pool of her blood etc. It’s been like this for decades, very Welcome to the Monkey House
It used to be that pointing this out got women branded “sensitive” or “hysterical,” but the #MeToo movement has removed a lot of plausible deniability. Toxic masculinity has weakened and corrupted our national culture.
Roger Stone's old business partner was Paul Manafort. They were practitioners of what is sometimes called "black ops" for corrupt politicians. One of their first clients, in 1980, was Donald Trump.
Roger Stone organized the "Brooks Brothers riots" in 2000 to swing the election in favor of the GOP, with the help of Joel Kaplan (now at Facebook) and Republican strategist and Backpfeifengesicht poster boy Matt Schlapp
That's the whole reason we have freedom of speech laws though, so that we -- civil society -- decide what our limits are, rather than any government. It was never intended to be limitless.
And it also means that everybody gets to speak. It doesn't mean that a few exceptionally loud, shrill people get to speak over everybody else or intimidate others into silence with threats or smears. That's not freedom of speech, that's impunity for some.
That's why we should constantly be having this discussion, openly and honestly, and why we should support those testing its limits without letting them shit all over our societal boundaries. It's not an easy balance, it's a huge responsibility, but it's worth it.
I remember this particular piece of disinformation from when it was used against Heather Heyer, and again when it was used to downplay COVID-19's true death toll. It was bullshit those times, too.
This was also Tom Metzger's strategy back in the 1980s. Like Tanton, he was fixated on the border. Tanton started FAIR the year after Metzger and David Duke started getting a lot of media attention for stunting at the border
"FAIR is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and was founded in 1979 by Michigan surgeon, eugenics supporter, and former president of Zero Population Growth John Tanton...."