misguided support for 'horseshoe theory" and incremental over rapid and equitable bold structural change on twitter

 

 

 

  This post was inspired by the following twitter account interaction. 

 

  

  The later-suspended account 2mooks6 posted this tweet, deleted with the suspension,

 https://twitter.com/2mooks6/status/1350105999563227136?s=21

 posted this simply deplorable and vile "horseshoe theory" meme below in January 2021.

 

The interaction was an argument for a slower, incremental pace of policy change at the start of a new presidency instead of a faster, bolder and more radical, pace of change. 

 The compromises that resulted watering down the two 'build back better" bills into the Bipartisan Infrastructure Funding bill (November 2021) and the Inflation Reduction Act of August 2022 left people behind.  2024 electoral messaging must focus on bad centrist Democratic compromises forced by Republican extremism to avoid more issue discouragement lowering voter turnout.  

 The Inflation Reduction Act of August 2022 cut out $150 Billion of caregiving funds for home care for people with severe disabilities to avoid nursing homes.  That money would have incrementally expanded Medicaid waivers to overcome the institutional bias in Medicaid funding in favor of nursing homes.  It was the fourth time the disability rights (terminology change to disability justice) movement/constituency has lost a legislative fight for funding for real homes not nursing homes.  The lost fights were MiCassa/Community Choice Act in 2009 that was originally part of the Affordable Care Act. MiCassa/Community Choice Act was renamed the CLASS Act but was stripped out by October 2011 after the July 2011 debt ceiling raise fight that extended through the 2012 election cycle as the 'fiscal cliff' (must pass bill pressure) of Republican extremism to make W Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent.  The debt ceiling fight of 2023 is a repeat to keep parts of the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent.   Money is still available for more wars for democracy (Ukraine with no 'exit strategy' or postwar rebuilding plans that were in political discourse while Iraq and Afghanistan wars were being fought).  Annual "must-pass" appropriations bills for DOD, DHS and the 'intelligence community" ('military intelligence is a contradiction in terms' old anti-war bumper sticker the old version of social media memes) will be used as a 'wedge issue" to 'peel off' Democratic general election votes for Democratic candidates in Nov 2024.  The challenge is to persuade people to blame the Republican extremism about 'too much spending and debt' that forced the bad Democratic fiscal compromises. 

 

  The issue discouragement will be amplified by social media content sharing by algorithms built by free-market-biased coders, hired by equally biased corporate owners of social media companies, to keep people using the platforms longer (user engagement) and seeing more ads in individual user 'feeds' or 'streams' similar to 'legacy' corporate broadcast and cable news TV. TV, whether delivered over the air, by internet service provider streaming or cable wire, seeks to keep people 'engaged' (watching) for 'one more segment' to see more ads.  Keeping people angry and wanting to vote against someone instead of inspired wanting to vote for someone is tragically better for user or viewer engagement.  

update Dec 8, 2023

The vile and deplorable horseshoe theory was posted again by the new account 8141920Meema6 on twitter with new name x in 2023 after Elon Musk bought the platform from its founder Jack Dorsey for $47 Billion.  Dorsey took that money and continued to invest it in "blue sky" a similar microblog site with the same TOS/rules that Musk dropped for twitter/x.    Elon Musk changed the terms of service/rules to allow more polarized discourse that kept engagement at the cost of many users' mental health. Competitors like tribel, counter.social, mastodon and its 'fediverse' of user controlled nonprofit decentralized instances/servers, spoutible and post.news were formed quickly to attract the users, whose mental health was harmed by new twitter rule enforcement, retain the 'civility' or 'comity' of discourse about difficult subjects like religion, politics, sex or money between both strangers and friends. 

 

                       

                        

 

 

 The 8141920Meema6 account, named for state ratification day of the 19th amendment that let women vote,  replaced 2Mooks6.  The newer 8141920Meema6 account continued the foolish mission to move the center of political discourse, at least on social media, rightward for no significant change in Israeli government conflict management policy regarding its conflict with Palestinians while attempting to move the center of political discourse left on other issues. It would be better to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict rather than continuing to 'stand with Israel' wherever one stands in the Israeli governments' failed conflict management policy that only leads to more death on both sides and make the homeland security/military industrial complex contractors (merchants of death) rich.

 

Breaking the Silence

November 22 [2023] at 10:08 AM  ·

The Israeli right has a focus right now. The goal? Resettle the Gaza Strip.

Their way to establish it in the hearts and minds of Israelis: to aggressively push the false notion that the 2005 disengagement was the main failure that led to this moment. This lie must be debunked.

Their claims ignore Netanyahu's cynical support of Hamas, meant to prevent a Palestinian state; They also unsurprisingly choose to ignore how a majority of IDF units were deployed to guard settlements and outposts in the West Bank before and during the October 7th Hamas massacre.

The disengagement was led by Ariel Sharon and other rightwing politicians. D.Weisglass, Sharon's advisor, spoke about its aim: "the disengagement plan means freezing the political process. When you freeze a political process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state."

While the evacuation of the Gaza settlements was a necessary step, the pullout also had an ulterior motive: by placing the focus on dismantling settlements in Gaza, international attention could be distracted from the continuous building of settlements in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Hamas existed even when Israel had settlements in the Gaza Strip - as we strengthened Hamas to weaken Fatah.

Not just that, Hamas were already building tunnels in the 80’s. They even used them during the second intifada in order to place explosives under IDF posts.

Mortar fire on Israelis increased from about 500 incidents in 2001 to around 880 in 2004, with around 270 rocket attacks on Israel that year - before the disengagement. All this to say that ongoing Israeli policy played a significant role in keeping us all unsafe.

Extremists like Minister Bezalel Smotrich are now dreaming of battalions of soldiers escorting buses of children to schools in isolated settlements, while others like Simcha Rothman fantasize about Jewish children walking down the main street in Gaza.

Some are even suggesting to forcibly transfer hundreds of thousands of Palesti[n]ans, if not millions. Some are literally drawing up operative plans to do so, thinking of the Sinai or other locations.

18 years of right-wing political rule since the disengagement. Their policy has been to “manage the conflict” while occasionally "mowing the lawn". Now, when it’s clear to all that this only leads to more blood being spilled, they want to sacrifice even more Israelis and Gazans.

Instead of accepting the messianic settler agenda being pushed, now is the time to courageously strive for peace - even amidst the pain and the grief. It’s worth remembering that Israel’s peace with Egypt and Jordan seemed impossible before it happened.

It won't be easy, but as former soldiers we know all too well there can be no military solution to this reality without a political resolution, one that will put an end to the occupation of the West Bank, end the siege on Gaza, and bring true freedom, and security to all.