Comment by jpadkins
5 years ago
> essentially calling for violence
Ironic that a microblogging service leads to lack of nuance. who would of thought?
My first read of trump's tweet was explaining the national guard has to move in because 'looting leads to shooting'. As in, we have to restore order to avoid more people getting shot. At the time Trump tweeted this, there was already one death from a pawn store owner shooting a looter.
So depending on your priors, your PoV, Trump was either promoting violence or trying to quell violence.
culture of 140 characters = more confusion, more division, more tribalism. If we valued well written, long form writing from our leaders we wouldn't be in this mess. Instead, we value twitter and leaders who make great slogans and can push people's buttons in 140 characters.
Don't be so disingenuous. The phrase is famous and it obviously is obviously not intent on trying to quell violence. I know to be contrarian and radically 'rational' is popular among tech types but it doesn't mean you have to bury your head in the sand when what is being said is so clear.
"The phrase is famous"? I don't recall ever hearing it before. Could you stop assuming that we all know what it is intended to mean, and that we are therefore burying our heads in the sand, and actually explain what you think it means and why it means that?
[Edit: Reading further down the discussion gives some context. That's... disturbing. Still, you are also assuming bad faith on the part of others, and that's not how things are supposed to be done on HN.]
yes the phrase is famous, but the tweet was not clear at all. Trump was talking about bringing in the national guard, and who is doing the shooting is totally up to interpretation. You can reasonably read that tweet as "we need to establish order before the shooting starts" That does not imply the national guard will be doing the shooting.