Don’t tell me what my intent is. My intent was to point out that using charged language for some people and selecting more neutral language when the influential do parallel acton is itself a bias toward the rich and powerful. I was using the socratic method to highlight the hitch in your reasoning. I was being fairly neutral in that my focus was to inform you that your reasoning had a gaping hole in it.
Now I shall use somewhat more emotional language because I’m now more actively attempting to persuade
“Reserve judgement and let the system work” is only a valid stance if there’s reason to believe the system will work. After multiple impeachments and numerous more lawsuits (and we’re barely touching on this sleasebag’s career before they got into office; a lifetime of profiting on misery and broken promises, getting away with it solely by being rich as fuck and cultivating a persona of playing dumb in court while hiring the most ruthless lawyers in the industry to whitewash his crimes in a legal…) That got away from me - my point is I don’t know why we’re giving a convicted rapist and suspected pedophile the benefit of the doubt.
Much more to the heart of the matter is Project 2025 by the Heritage Foundation. Within it’s pages, it spells out a plan to functionally blitz the landscape with so many regressive policies enacted at once that they effectively cover for each other. With that frame in mind it’s entirely unsurprising that the Epstein files issue, the planned military extraction of Maduro, and the ICE shooting in Minneapolis all share airspace within the same week. The media position of ‘wait to see what plays out before using judgemental language’ is being deliberately exploited as a stalling tactic.
So let me offer an olive branch: If it were anybody but Trump and his cadre of enablers, I normally am all for the media acting with reserve before throwing their influence around before the facts are in, but that norm is being weaponized against us. So, do you believe that the violation of Venezuelan sovereignty and coup of their leadership is justified? Please note - I did not call it a kidnapping or abduction and all parties agree that the President’s stated intent is to directly influence Venezuelan policy. Do you believe the President should be conducting similar operations in Columbia and Cuba as stated and Greenland as leaked? And when does it become appropriate for journalism to push back against government overreach?
No, I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. I think people are theorizing that X is very likely to respond to pressure from Google and Apple threatening to deplatform them, and loudly complaining about them not applying their own rules equally is a great way to remind their internal lawyers to put pressure on them (insulting the CEOs is just a nice bonus).
Frankly, if the fallot here is a relaxed adult policy, that’s still a win. LGBTQIA advocacy groups tend to get lumped in as ‘adult’, which is a problem for trans-affirming suicide prevention hotlines trying to save lives.
As for your slippery slope question, that Pandora’s box is already open. Just half a year ago Mastercard and VISA put the strongarm on Valve and itch.io to let the payment processors ban any game they choose under the guise of pornography censorship. Pressuring a platform to censure an app ‘for the sake of the children’ just isn’t the virgin ground you seem to think it is.