I have some wild updates on yesterday's thread about @mattgaetz's floor speech about "antifa agitators" that may end up with the facial recognition company suing the Washington Times, which would be funny...

This morning, Buzzfeed interviewed XRVision, the facial recognition company mentioned in the Washington Times article who supposedly identified antifa at the capitol. They’re mad, because as I discussed yesterday, they actually identified neo-nazis.

https://t.co/DY4IRi3ReP
And now there are attorneys issuing a demand for correction and apology, which is the first step in a defamation lawsuit.
But the Washington Times didn’t issue a correction or apology. Instead, this morning it first tried to change the headline from “antifa” to “extremists.”

https://t.co/wjlAjUhfHz
By noon, the Washington Times just deleted the article.
But remember @RoScarborough, the author of that embarrassing article? Well now he is retweeting a NY Post story repeating the same lies about “two antifa infiltrators.”

https://t.co/uO2kaXXoHn
These people are shameless. This is worm behavior.
And as these shameless worms keep the misinformation churning, we now have the biggest clods in Congress talking about sleeping on the floor of their office and citing the rumors they tell each other as “evidence.”

https://t.co/MhaFSdlb2Y
Keep your fingers crossed that a lawsuit comes out of this, because at least that would be entertaining. But when it comes to misinformation and its pernicious use by people like Matt Gaetz, things are going to get worse before they get better.
Because there is still no institutional penalty in media and politics for this kind of behavior. And in desperation, somebody is going to try to create a top-down system of regulation that ultimately neutralizes the only positive and democratizing aspects of online information.

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This is partly what makes it impossible to have a constructive conversation nowadays. The stubborn refusal to accept that opposition to Trumpism and GOP nationalism is about more than simply holding different beliefs about things in and of itself. 👇


It's fine for people to hold different beliefs. But that doesn't mean all beliefs deserve equal treatment or tolerance and it doesn't mean intolerance of some beliefs makes a person intolerant of every belief which they don't share.

So if I said I don't think Trumpism deserves to be tolerated because it's just a fresh 21st century coat of cheap paint on a failed, dangerous 20th century ideology (fascism) that doesn't mean I'm intolerant of all beliefs with which I disagree. You'd think this would be obvious.

Another important facet. People who support fascist movements tend to give what they think are valid reasons for supporting them. That doesn't mean anyone is obliged to tolerate fascism or accept their proffered excuse.


Say you joined a neighborhood group that sets up community gardens and does roadside beautification projects. All good, right? Say one day you're having a meeting and you notice the President and exec board of this group are saying some bizarre things about certain neighbors.

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