Saturday, February 6, 2021

Bad Day for Propagandists

It's quite a distinction, though an ignoble one, to garner the title The Stupidest Man on the Internet, but Jim Hoft, the right wing propagandist knon by the nom de plume 'Gateway Pundit', has managed to earn the moniker. Perhaps his greatest achievement was his publishing of minion Lucian Wintrich's warning that millions of 'antifa supersoldiers would behead 'all white parents' on 11/4/2017. Hoft has finally been booted from Twitter, uspended for repeated violations of Twitter's 'civic integrity policy': Connoisseurs of bad right-wing takes will now have to seek out Hoft in his own internet lair, now that he cannot use Twitter to amplify his outré fabulism. Another right-wing conspiracy theorist, Wayne Allyn Root, was also booted from Twitter: Root isn't quite the troglodyte as Hoft is, but he peddles in the sort of conspiracy theories that inspired the MAGA raid on the Capitol... no sci-fi stories about leftwing commandos wielding deadly soup cans, though. I don't know why Twitter is going after high profile right-wing conspiracy theorists, possibly because of fears of lawsuits, or, less likely, a genuine civic virtue that eschews outright falsehoods. It's a welcome change of policy, after so many years of disinformation from one particular source that I don't even hsve to name.

4 comments:

  1. I'm sorry, it's your blog so you should be able to say what you like, but I beg you to not torture the English language. Wayne Allen Root does not "peddle in" that sort of conspiracies, he "peddles" them. "Peddle" means to sell, especially from a wagon. Many peddlers in colonial America carries their goods in a rucksack.

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  2. The beauty of colloquial English is that there is variation in local usage. Thanks for the free editorial work, but the construction remains.

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  3. It's easier in Kriol Mexicano. Mi mochila tiene palabras. Se venda palabras! Se venda palabras! Aqui en la mochila hay palabras! Mori el rey! Mori el presidente!
    Se venda palabras!
    Viva mochilas!

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  4. Pienso que español es mas fácil porque no tiene las ambigüedades de inglés.

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