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Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
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Except that his assessment fails to prove that Musk was retweeting GRT. Saying that Jews supported open immigration isn’t saying they unwittingly support GRT.
That’s an example of a tactic that the right and left (and I’m surprised Yglesias would do it) frequently use to create strawman. You take the statement made, then affix it to the most extreme position nearest it. Example: If a person says he’s pro-Palestinian but fails to articulate the breadth of his position, you make him pro-Hamas, and if you’re really ambitious, you make him pro-Jihadist. Voila! You’ve made an anodyne statement into something atrocious and bigoted. Or, if the statement is potentially impolitic, like Musk’s, you’ve dialed it up from controversial to repugnant!
Musk’s position in that retweet is at best opaque. He’s also an insomniac whacko who frequently tweets incoherently. But hey… why view it in that light, or the less controversial light we ought, when instead we can ascribe the most extreme meaning to it.
Because it’s all about the gotcha. About signaling that someone is not virtuous. Scoring points using words out of context, or in a made up context.
This is why no one reads or trusts most media these days. And again, I’m surprised Yglesias did this. But then, journalism today is all about the clicks, and the man needs to dance for his dollars.
