The GOP is dominated by a minority of far-right activists and wealthy donors who have views that their own voters don't support.
Thread: Conservative Policy and the Trump Presidency
On the last full day of the Trump administration, I think it's useful to examine why he accomplished so little legislatively. TLDR version: American conservatism has almost no policy program.
The GOP is dominated by a minority of far-right activists and wealthy donors who have views that their own voters don't support.
This is not, however, how things used to be in the GOP.
Next, with Trump's encouragement, it began trying to consume the brains of marginally attached Republicans and other low-info citizens.
This is why it's so extremely critical that media, businesses, and educators publicly reject these toxic lies.
Republican politicians condemning the #TrumpCoupAttempt who are also not calling for his immediate removal and irrevocable prohibition from holding any federal office are nothing more than rats leaving a sinking ship.
— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) January 7, 2021
The GOP will have no political future unless it does this.
To them, a dolt who ruins things is their fantasy because he makes it easier for the public to hate government like they do. https://t.co/hhVg8KjExc
Thread for those interested: https://t.co/wztIp5PZUz
Thread: Meaning and loss in American conservatism
— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) January 12, 2021
I've written a lot about how Christian supremacism (expressed and implicit) is the underlying objective of most Trump supporters but the psychology of American conservatism is very important in its descent into madness.
More from Matthew Sheffield
great job, everyone pic.twitter.com/22gooTH4sl
— crash override (@donk_enby) January 11, 2021
In slightly more technical terms, it seems as though Parler never closed some of their developer-friendly security holes (sort of the programming equivalent of game cheat codes made by devs) and as a result, their anyone with the right knowledge could have admin access.
Parler never actually deleted anything its users posted. And, stupidly, they also kept it accessible to admin users.
This meant that anyone with admin access could still download it.
Once Parler's two factor authentication feature was disabled, because it was designed for developer convenience rather than security, anyone with the knowledge could become an administrator. And that's how Parler just got owned.
People have been downloading the raw videos, photos, and text posts by the gigabyte and archiving it for later public distribution.
All that perfect, totally harmless free speech will still be searchable, even now that Amazon locked out Parler from its servers.
More from Trump
Inside: Stop saying "it's not censorship if it's not the government"; Trump's swamp gators find corporate refuge; and more!
Archived at: https://t.co/7JMcAbaULj
#Pluralistic
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Monday night, I'll be helping William Gibson launch the paperback edition of his novel AGENCY at a Strand Bookstore videoconference. Come say hi!
https://t.co/k3fvBdqOK0
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Stop saying "it's not censorship if it's not the government": I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.
https://t.co/7I0MpCTez5
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If you think "It's not censorship unless the government does it," I want to change your mind.
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 24, 2021
It's absolutely true that the First Amendment only prohibits government action to suppress speech based on its content, but the First Amendment is not the last word on censorship.
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Trump's swamp gators find corporate refuge: The Swamped project.
https://t.co/MUJyIOr2iw
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Have you seen the stories about how Trump administration officials and staffers for Ted Cruz are finding that no one in the private sector will hire them because they are forever tainted by their former bosses' disgraceful behavior?
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 24, 2021
They're bullshit.https://t.co/XvYDPpR9yd
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#15yrsago A-Hole bill would make a secret technology into the law of the land https://t.co/57bJaM1Byr
#15yrsago Hollywood’s MP loses the election — hit the road, Sam! https://t.co/12ssYpV46B
#15yrsago How William Gibson discovered science fiction https://t.co/MYR0go37nW
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