Some of Robert’s stuff was very, very good. Unfortunately, he didn’t contribute as much as I would have liked (he probably felt it was inappropriate as our Fearless Leader).

But thanks anyway.

You have a gift for words.

Strange. The hair product alone is a crime.

Yes, had action been taken earlier they simply would have gone elsewhere. From what I can tell TB and SteveS went to the comments sections of right wing blogs where they simply preached to the choir- little chance of them finding new converts to their ideology there. The late member of the cabal whom I am apparently not allowed to name retreated to facebook, and his family was able to witness his increasingly virulent decline into white nationalist rhetoric, when the pandemic hit he jumped into white nationalist conspiracy theory with both feet and joined a group calling for secession and genocide of the African-American population.
(I tried to get the group shut down, BUT apparently calls for violent overthrow of the government, genocide and return to slavery isn’t far enough over the line for Facebook- I DID succeed in making them change to a private group, invitation only- so hopefully it slowed their recruitment).

SDAI went silent, at least under that moniker, only posting his moronic masturbatory musings on his personal blogs.

During the pandemic I spent a little time peeking at the uglier corners of the web- watching the radicalization industry… watching posters on 4-chan, r/thedonald, Gab etc fantasize about the violence they wish to commit- egging each other on and sometimes actually committing it, watching childhood friends succumb to conspiracy theory and bigotry

It IS an industry- and sometimes there is very conscious organization to it- other times the coordination is just a manifestation of independent players all sharing the same goal- taking what one group does and adding onto it to ratchet up the outrage and fear of their audience and keep pushing them into a frenzy.

Facebook, twitter, and youtube facilitate all this with their algorithms- if you reveal any interest in a fringe conspiracy theory the algorithms will make sure you are exposed to a dozen more. It happened to me- Facebook algorithms noticed I was engaging in a lot of threads about vaccines when I was correcting conspiracy theory lies on various facebook pages- the algorithms could see I was posting copiously on vaccines, but they were not clever enough to determine what side of the issue I was on- they simply calculated that since I was engaging with vaccine threads, it was probable I was an anti-vaxxer, and therefore would be receptive to anti-vax messaging and pro-Trump content- so that is what started showing up in my feed.

Social media platforms are supercharging radicalization – I don’t think that was their conscious intent- it was just a business plan that was profitable… but they have long been aware of the problem and keep doing it BECAUSE it so profitable. They simply don’t care, or they tell themselves their prime moral obligation is to the shareholders….

The pandemic created a captive audience with plenty of time on their hands and the right wing conspiracy factory took advantage of it immediately- and that is why we have had the disorienting acceleration into madness… like just last week a House hearing featured the claim that DC streetlights are powered by aborted fetuses….

So yeah- it probably is too late, taking a stand won’t change anything… but in 5 years I promise you- it will do your soul some good to be able to say ‘I stood up against this’- you will be able to look in the mirror and not wince. Looking out the window or at the news, however, will be another matter- but at least you will get the satisfaction of saying ‘I told you so’, even if it’s only muttered quietly under your breath.

RobVG, Jody, TB, SteveS, they won’t have that luxury when they see what they wrought does to those they care for. At some level they will all know they are culpable for what they have done- the degree that they care, however, depends on how much of a soul they still have, and how much the blowback affects them- or those they care for- personally.

I doubt any of them will have the luxury of feeling PRIDE in the part they played in all this.

The question that will plague US however will be ‘Did we do ENOUGH?’- I doubt any of us ‘libs’ will regret having taken a stand in 5 years, but I am pretty sure we will all regret not having done more… even if we have no idea what ‘more’ we could have done. I already regret that while I protested, I was not at the protests where I would have been tear-gassed… the ones I told myself were counterproductive at the time… I will probably regret that more in 5 years.

I am pretty sure there will be time and opportunities for tear-gas in the years to come.