Comment by zahlman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zahlman | Hacker News Reader

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> for 10 years democratic lawmakers and media figures are disavowing violence on both sides, while republican lawmakers and media figures are doing the opposite

It was not a Republican media figure who made that video of herself holding "a mask styled to look like the severed, bloody head" of the POTUS.

Among the biggest-name political Twitch streamers, it's not the right-wingers who are being shown to have all sorts of clips calling for political violence, making threats that include brandishing firearms on stream, doxxing people etc. — all of which are blatant TOS violations, but which never seem to get them banned. From the evidence available to me, the CEO of Twitch seems to be quite friendly with the most egregious of those streamers.

> So when one side keeps constantly disavowing, and the other side keeps constantly attacking, at some point disavowing becomes literally the wrong thing to do. You can't lay down your weapon while the other person just keeps hitting, and expect the hitting to stop.

I can assure you the other side feels the same way. There are even supercuts out there of Trump repeatedly disavowing violence that he was still accused of not disavowing.

> Twitch

There are only 2 sides on twitch right now, both illiberal. One side has the political philosophy that amounts to "if Trump does it, we support it". The other side is a fringe far left (e.g. tankies).

Except the former "philosophy" is supported by 90% of republicans, and the latter is ostracized by democrats. Even AOC (the once symbol of far leftism) shifted towards more mainstream liberal democratic values. These twitch lefties don't vote. They are politically nowhere in this country.

And you are comparing president of the country to twitch streamers. President is not supposed to be an edgy instigator and influencer, he's supposed to be president for everyone.

And yet, every disavowal that Trump made, he ended up blaming democrats in the same breath. He constantly berates everyone on the left, sues, destroys politically, or otherwise silences anyone who criticizes him. I'm supposed to feel like he's my president even if I didn't vote for him, but I cannot, because he makes that distinction very clear.

> One side has the political philosophy that amounts to "if Trump does it, we support it".

I disagree that this is an accurate characterization of the side that isn't the "fringe far left".

> and the latter is ostracized by democrats.

It looks to me like, far from being ostracized, Hasan Piker is getting to do another round of puff pieces in sympathetic outlets.

> And you are comparing president of the country to twitch streamers.

No; you are the one who spoke of "lawmakers and media figures", so I am comparing media figures to media figures.

> I disagree that this is an accurate characterization of the side that isn't the "fringe far left".

The evidence is there. Trump has been thrashing back and forth on tariffs, explaining 2 mutually-exclusive reasons to have them, and they justify it each time. Trump has been infringing on free speech and due process at levels beyond anything democrats have ever done (if you don't count republican conspiracy theories), and they justify it. I have listened to a lot of debates, and nobody can answer a question "what would Trump do that would make me vote for democrats instead".

> Hasan Piker is getting to do another round

Again, these people are not voters.

> I am comparing media figures to media figures.

I'm sorry, I should've been clearer. You said "It was not a Republican media figure who made that video […]" and "it's not the right-wingers who are being shown to have all sorts of clips". I understood that as you making a point that democrats are worse than republicans in general because of these examples. Which cannot be true because the entire Trump cabinet and most republican lawmakers are now doing the most heated and divisive rhetoric constantly and unapologetically, as though they are influencers and agitators, not government of a 2-party nation. Their actions speak even louder than words. So what you're pointing out in totality pales in comparison to what republicans are doing. And I'm saying: you cannot point to leftie twitch streamers that don't have any political power, and compare them to the literal White House and republican lawmakers, to judge the magnitude of the problem on each side.

However, even if we single out just the media figures, it's absolutely insane how much conspiracy, lies, and divisive rhetoric has been fed into right wing minds. And it's almost awe-inspiring how lockstep all republican pundits are with each other. Nothing like that exists on the left.

Do you live under a fucking rock? Right wingers are all mindlessly screaming about antifa and transgenders online, and calling out for civil war.

Not just random right-wing accounts either, prominent conservative media figures[0] and the President[1] himself are stoking the flames by blaming the "radical left" and transgenders while Democrats in both Congress and the media have disavowed political violence.

You can always find anonymous Twitter/Bluesky posts and go "see they're violent!!" but the situation on the left is clearly much different than the right.

0: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/charlie-...

  > The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh is, like Kirk, a high-profile right-wing media influencer and podcaster. He wrote a provocative post on X on Wednesday calling for “the entire Right” to “band together” because “we are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell.” Walsh called the struggle “existential” and “a fight for our own existence and the existence of our country.” Today, he added: “I woke up even angrier.” Walsh rejected calls for reconciliation and characterized the coming struggle as self-defense: “They want us dead. They’re killing us. Now is not the time for kumbaya stuff. This is real.”

1: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-could-not-...

  > “They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming here. And we don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street,’” Trump added, appearing to nod to instances of right-wing vigilantism in recent years.


  > “The radicals on the left are the problem. They’re vicious, and they’re horrible,” Trump said. “And they’re politically savvy, although they want men in women’s sports. They want transgender for every one. They want open borders.”

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