A thread of statements addressing the closing arguments of the Trump campaign

@glitzersachen @Deixis9 Thank you for explaining. Yes, that makes sense. I do also think that stupidity and strategy are not necessarily opposites, and that arrogant people blinded by hubris frequently make very stupid decisions as they devise strategies, often taking many of the rest of us down with them when they fall.

@wdlindsy This is not really about electoral purity: I have no problem letting just about anyone short of the current fascist-tinged GOP express their support for the opposite side.

But I fail to see the point of platforming a man who has made ragingly rightwing takes his trademark, and whose left-demonising rhetoric of the 2000s certainly played a role in bringing us here. Plenty of others making the exact same point, with none of his intellectually-bankrupt positions on record.

@deivudesu I'm not sure I'd call citing an excerpt of current news commentary on social media "platforming." It goes without saying that when someone focuses on gathering commentary into threads on social media, that person isn't necessarily endorsing or promoting a particular commentator. She or he is simply excerpting something of value that person has said, regardless of her or his many shortcomings. If I took a purist approach to whom I'd cite here, there would be few citations.

@wdlindsy reposting for the purpose of analysing or critiquing might be citing, reposting for the purpose of amplifying a message feels a lot more like platforming to me.

Anyway, I wasn't trying to imply you supported Kristol's views: I do not know you and have no reason to assume so. But I still do think there is no good reason to give any inkling of attention to that person, regardless of how palatable his *current* views might be.

@deivudesu If I went through the list of people I read on a daily basis and ruled out those with whom I have either substantive or less substantive criticisms and created a purity list of only those worth excerpting, I'd end up with a very short list, indeed. Behaving and thinking that way has led the progressive wing of the Democratic party into a dead end and plays right into the hands of the right.