Thread by @corbinkbarthold

Amusing things I saw in Josh Hawley's latest WSJ piece, a thread . . .

2/ The first thing you must do, as a good populist, is define your narrow faction as "us," or "we," or "Americans."

Then you need a "they" who is screwing all of "us," preferably for some totally made up ad hominem reason like "because they're *bored*!"

3/ Trump has not been "silenced." He's got a website and everything.

Nor has the book in question been "banned." Google the title, and you'll immediately see like five outlets where you can buy it. For goodness sake.

As for the "threat" to be the nation's "censor" . . . huh?

4/ I mean, yeah, if you're saying insane racist or paranoid stuff here, you might get the boot.

But here's Hawley himself, *on this site*, promoting *this op-ed*, as well as his new book.

https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1388245545727184898?s=19

5/ It's pretty late in the damn day for the GOP to be talking about the limits of colonial corporate charters. Ahem, Citizens United?

And actually, all the Founders opposed was literal, born-to-rule, fifth duke of wherever aristocracy. By modern standards, they were "an elite."

6/ Holy cow, did Josh freakin Hawley just say we need to "protect our democracy"?

7/ FWIW, *local* concentration has been *dropping*.

The prime culprit, when it comes to bank and airline consolidation, is the government. (And the riskiness of banking.)

Google and FB innovated their way to success.

More broadly, Hawley does not know what "monopoly" means.

8/ What Hawley fails to get here is that bigger firms aren't *screwing* small businesses. They're just *outperforming* them.

Bigger firms are more productive, they pay more, they donate more, they're more diverse, etc. That's a good thing. Hurray for big business.

9/ Yes, corporations have free speech rights. (See, e.g., the GOP-celebrated Citizens United.) Hawley is just hopping mad that they're using that right to say things *he* doesn't like.

Also, internet speech is so much more than FB and Twitter.

Also, how can Nike "cancel" me?

10/ Josh 👏 Hawley 👏 does 👏 not 👏 know 👏 what 👏 "monopoly" 👏 means 👏.

11/ Hawley can "propose" anything he wants. Dems won't work with him, bc of his conduct before and on January 6.

BTW, does he think citizens have no agency whatsoever? If they can't read, think, and speak for themselves, we've got bigger problems than big tech.

12/ Now's a good time to note that breaking up big tech wouldn't produce firms Hawley likes. The problem is not size. It's Hawley and his ilk. You'd just get smaller tech firms, all of whom still don't like bigotry, backwardness, or insurrection.

Also, WF delivery is great.

13/ Hawley is deliberately obfuscating here. He knows perfectly well that the consumer-welfare standard is about more than price.

/14 Hawley closes by exhorting Republicans to take a principled stand against corporations.

Sure. The day before his op-ed went up, the Fla. GOP inserted a carve-out for woke-ass Disney in their social-media bill.

A Trumpist party will *always* be an unfocused, craven mess.