To: i-node who wrote (193203 ) 2/6/2021 10:51:43 AM From: Lane3 Read Replies (1) | Respond to Time Magazine explains how it was stolen today. I wonder, what do you think about the banding together of important social medial platforms in a coordinated effort to take down a president?......But Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories, the viral force of social media and the involvement of foreign meddlers made disinformation a broader, deeper threat to the 2020 vote.... First of all, the language you use in framing the question: "to take down a president." There is a difference between taking down a president, getting a sitting president out of office, and trying to avoid his re-election. One might reasonably frame impeachment as an attempt to take down a president. But when he's running for re-election, he's a candidate just like the opposition candidate. He's not the default. He has no special standing. One tries to defeat the opposition candidate, which is entirely different from taking down a president. The opposition candidate and the president may be the same person but they are wearing different hats and have different standing. You're acting like something was taken from him when that something, a second term, was as yet unearned. about the candidates . Candidates promote theirs and rebut those of their opponents. That's what's supposed to happen. The only thing that seems to me to be at issue here is rebuttal being potentially complemented by or extended into suppression. about the election . Again, please correct me if I'm wrong because this is something I've never actively considered before. It seems to me that in this election the bulk of the misinformation and disinformation was not about the candidates , any more than the usual back-and-forth puffery and trash talk, but what was new was disinformation about the election . It seems to me that said disinformation is out of bounds on its face and the niceties of dealing with it don't apply.
