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Notes -
There were two comments elsewhere on this topic that I found particularly insightful. The first noted that when this sort of scandal hits someone on the Left, they frequently aren't fired straight away, but are instead "suspended" or "put on leave" pending "further determinations." Then, after a month or two, if the story has died down in the press, those "further determinations" are quietly bringing them back to work. The commenter argued that the right should have taken a page from the left and handled this in a similar manner, rather than openly and fully firing then rehiring.
But the second provided a counter-argument as to why the open rehiring — as opposed to quietly returning from a not-quite-fired status — serves an important purpose. While many people (including on here) have debated just how racist some of the "problem" tweets from Elez were, the vast majority appear to agree that the "normalize Indian hate" one qualifies. And yet, who is one of the key figures, in the timeline above, calling for forgiving and rehiring Elez?
Vice President Vance, whose wife, I remind you, is Indian. Whose children are half-Indian. And yet, he stands on the position that personal tweets, whatever he might think of them, should not cost Elez his job.
What the second commenter pointed out is that this makes this event a clear stand on the part of the Trump administration — with, as you note, plenty of popular support — against cancel culture. A statement in support of that old free speech line (usually misattributed to Voltaire) about how "I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
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