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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   31395 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 30, 2024

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I do think it’s likely that such a conspirator exists. Do you have any evidence this guy, in particular, is in that category?

It’s a genuine question, because I don’t have a Twitter account and can’t peruse his posting history. But I think a “steelman” should never look so much like straw.

But I think a “steelman” should never look so much like straw.

Well for starters, I'd like to point out that your interpretation of this person's motivation for expressing this sentiment (advocating for life in prison without parole instead of capital punishment, and hence knowingly lying about this criminal's virtues for tactical reasons) is only marginally more sympathetic than mine (conspiratorially deluded about the state of the American criminal justice system), which was in turn only marginally more sympathetic than the OP's (straight up expressing admiration for a violent criminal).

As to whether any evidence exists that this specific tweeter is conspiratorial in the way I described, he recently retweeted (I believe in reference to Marcellus Williams):

Nothing more American than executing innocent Black men who were denied due process under the law.

and

This Black August, we remember past and present freedom fighters and political prisoners. Our FLM team recently connected with the African American Cultural Group at Joseph Harp Correctional Center, drawing strength from their stories and commitment to justice.

and:

10 years ago, Ferguson sparked a national reckoning on race and policing after the tragic death of Michael Brown. Today, we reflect on the progress made and the work still ahead to build a just society for all.

[a photo of Michael Brown with the caption "Rest in Power"]

After scrolling through about four months of tweets and retweets, I have not been able to find a single example of this specific tweeter claiming that a non-black person was wrongfully executed (despite several men meeting that description having been executed this year) or unjustly shot by police officers (although I will concede it's possible that this person is trapped in an echo chamber/media bubble in which he genuinely never hears about white or Native American men who've been executed). This strengthens my opinion that the tweeter's outrage over the executions of Williams and Littlejohn has more to do with BLM than with principled opposition to capital punishment in general.

Yeah, @gattsuru had a pretty damning quote, too.

My interpretation of the original quote was not “knowingly lying.” It was “genuine preference for LWOP over death.” Given the rest of the statements, it’s clear I was being too charitable. I concur with your interpretation that he is culture warring first and foremost.

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