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Trump removal – by fiat
Twitter went from changing rules as it went, to removing Donald Trump by executive fiat – in violation of long-established custom.
Yesterday afternoon, beginning at 10:06 a.m. PST, reporter Bari Weiss released the last thread describing the removal of Donald Trump. By every indication, the Twitter Trust and Safety Team acted by fiat, not by any rule then in effect. Worse, on that last day, we saw a mass formation psychotic episode, coupled with power intoxication, among Twitter staff. World leaders everywhere reacted in shock and surprise. But only until November of this year did anyone correct this slight.
The final Trump removal thread
Before we begin, here are the two tweets on the Donald Trump account that appeared on January 8, 2021:
As CNAV said on the Monday before Thanksgiving, Donald Trump has not used the account since then. But more to the point, nothing in the Trump account can possibly so construe as to incite violence. Bear this in mind as Bari Weiss’ thread begins. As ever, CNAV lists every other tweet, because each is a reply to one before it:
Analysis
As CNAV observed above, this is a textbook example of mass formation psychosis. Which is what you get when a single person, or event, strikes such terror in so many hearts that a mass of people act without thinking. Doctor Robert Malone has alleged that this phenomenon persuaded people to accept COVID lockdowns – except in the State of South Dakota, whose Governor disclaimed any authority to do any such thing, or the Republic of Sweden, whose leaders simply decided not to exercise any such authority.
In the Twitter case, we see people already suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, multiplying that many-fold in response to what they convinced themselves was the near-overthrow of the government. The “ecstasy” that Bari Weiss documents in her various screencaps is more than any sense of relief. Those messages do not say “We dodged a bullet.” They say, “DING, DONG, THE WARLOCK’S DEAD!” (Meaning Trump, not Rafael Warnock, Senator from Georgia.) Furthermore, this experience emboldened them to make themselves arbiters of truth. They boast of this specifically in reference to SARS-CoV-2. This is the power intoxication component.
And though Twitter staff threw all their civic lessons to the winds, many outside the country did not. The French, German, Mexican, and Russian voices speak volumes. Since when do non-Americans care more about freedom of speech than Americans? Since January 8, 2021, that’s when.
Reaction
Reaction has so far been mostly positive. One user quoted his earlier sharing of a video making clear that present staff “err on the side of freedom of speech.”
The Daily Mail has the best reportage outside of Twitter. Their headline, which speaks of activist staff, says it all.
On Twitter itself, Charlie Kirk shared, at 4:58 p.m. PST, an email dissolving the Twitter Trust and Safety Council.
This came after three members of that Council resigned in bitter protest last week.
But it also comes on the very day of the release of the fifth installment of the Twitter Files. The Post Millennial reported the full particulars of the dissolution and the protest resignations.
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and the third time it’s enemy action.
Ian Fleming
In any case, the removal of Trump was only the first such instance. After that, Twitter removed several conservative accounts – in a manner one can only describe as arbitrary and capricious.
Today the Medical Misinformation Policy is no longer in force, and banned accounts continue to come back. But the next question is whether President Trump has a cause of legal action, for breach of contract. Thus far he has announced no such action. Only time will tell.
Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.
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