Ordinary political rhetoric
The Senators are part of cancel culture. Impeaching Trump is exactly like petitioning the university to cancel a talk by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers put up a pugnacious if brief defense presentation in his impeachment trial Friday, saying his rally speech before the Capitol riot was “ordinary political rhetoric” and blasting the proceedings as a “sham” fueled by Democrats’ “political hatred” for the ex-president.
If it’s true that Trump’s rally speech before the riot was ordinary political rhetoric, then why did all those people storm up Pennsylvania Avenue and batter their way into the Capitol? Why did they beat people with flagpoles, smash windows, storm along corridors shouting threats, walk the halls yodeling “Naaaaaaaaaancy, where arrrrrrrrrrre you?” Why did they erect a gallows, yell “Hang Mike Pence!”, chase Eugene Goodman up the stairs? Why did they force their way into offices and conference rooms? Why were so many of them armed? Why were bombs found in the cars of some of them? Why are there so many videos of them screaming threats?
Parts of the attorneys’ presentation invoked the former president’s language and arguments, with his lawyers charging that Trump’s second impeachment trial is “constitutional cancel culture” while making numerous false claims.
He lost the election. That’s not “cancel culture,” it’s losing an election. He’s already “canceled,” the point is that what he did on January 6 was criminal and a violation of his oath of office.
Speaking of political rhetoric
https://imgbox.com/LEI55OgP
Why all that was just boisterous enthusiasm, light-hearted hijinx, and Good Clean Fun. That’s our Donald! He’s such a kidder! Always good for a laugh!
I’ve been following Will Wilkinson a lot recently. This article sums up a lot of my thoughts about “cancel culture.” Basically (and this is me, not Wilkinson, though I think he’s on the same page), it’s hopeless to try to have a coherent definition of “cancel culture” about which one can declare any clear rules or principles. There’s a lot of judgment calls involved. Hardly anyone seriously claims that nobody should ever be fired or suffer any other (non-governmental) consequences for anything they say, because that’s an indefensible proposition. There are justifiable firings/consequences and unjustifiable ones, and it’s a case by case thing. (It’s possible of course to observe some general points about how social media has made it more common for people to spout things publicly where other people will take offense, and easier to mobilize critics and go after someone who has allegedly offended.)
Wilkinson’s background is useful here. He was a libertarian blogger back in the day, though more of a… moderate? libertarian. Not sure how to characterize it, my point is he was not an Ayn Rand-worshipping, who-needs-driver’s-licenses anarcho-libertarian type. Always struck me as a decent guy even when I didn’t agree with him. He ended up at the Niskanen Institute, which is sort of a liberal-libertarian fusion project of sorts. But he got fired from there recently when he made a possibly dumb but not ill-intended joke about how the one way Biden could unify everyone is by hanging Mike Pence. Nobody seriously believed that Wilkinson, who is hardly a flamethrower, was seriously calling for the death of Pence, but of course conservatives pretended to believe it, and Niskanen caved.
So of course, all the usual suspects then demanded to know if Wilkinson was finally willing to admit that cancel culture was a problem. And much to his credit, he said nope, hasn’t really changed my view.
Off-topic again, but I have yet to see a man of grampa age with an Olympus camera…
I was there Holms, I was there. Just got home and looking at my photos now.
I was early, chatted to the old guy with the cross until he asked, via the Police, not to photograph him. Police were good, they were not concerned about either him or me, but very concerned about the bloke with the camera set up next to him. Apparently, he goes to a lot of demos and stirs up trouble.
I was disappointed to hear one of the speakers use the phrase “Women and pregnant people” and will be taking that up with the organisers next week.
I was also interviewed by 7 news, but don’t know if I’ll “make the cut”.
/OT
Dude with a cross, at a pro abortion rally, asking Police to ask me to stop taking photos.
https://i.postimg.cc/SRB7Jj41/Cross.jpg
And here I was thinking he’d like to have his message spread ….
I rolled my eyes at that, but at least it was brief.
@Screechy Monkey #3
But he got fired from there recently when he made a possibly dumb but not ill-intended joke about how the one way Biden could unify everyone is by hanging Mike Pence.
Was this before or after Trump tried to hang Mike Pence?
Colin,
Pretty sure it was after. The joke being that Democrats have always hated Pence, and now apparently Republicans do, too. Not the greatest joke in the world, and possibly in poor taste, but hardly a firing offense in my opinion. I don’t think anyone honestly believed that Wilkinson was calling for violence, though I’m sure some people pretended to believe that for the purposes of collecting a scalp.
“Cancel culture” is very much one of those “I have an independent mind/they are fanatics” things. That’s why I don’t use the phrase except ironically. The first sentence of the post used it ironically.
Well, I don’t think it was a bad joke at all. Rather on the mark!
I’m referring of course to Will Wilkinson’s joke.