PoppinKREAM

Trump pushed the big lie that the election was stolen. Trump lost in the courts^[1] including the Supreme Court.^[2] Then he tried to pressure state officials.^[3] He tried to pressure Pence.^[4]

So what does Trump do after exhausting all nonviolent methods of overturning the election? He turns to his supporters and lights them up making inflammatory statements such as;

• We are going to fight for the survival of the nation.

• Now is not the time to retreat, its to fight harder.

• We will never give in, never back down, never surrender.

• We will fight like hell.

• You have to get your people to fight.

He primed them for weeks.

State officials had started getting death threats weeks before the attempted insurrection following the general election.^[5] Trump saw first hand what violence was being created as his supporters rioted and vandalized black churches in Washington back in December.^[6]

Trump didn't stop his incitement after the initial violence, he got more specific. He told his supporters how, when, and where. He gave them 18 days notice inviting them to the rally telling them to be there, that it will be wild.^[7] And on the day of the insurrection Trump told his supporters to march on the Capitol and fight like hell.

Following the riot Trump continued to promote the big lie that had incited the insurrection. After the mob was dispersed, Trump praised and sympathized with the mob in a video he released, claiming once again that the election had been stolen.^[8] Then he praised the insurrection in a tweet after the mob had been dispersed. He told his mob to remember Jan. 6 forever. He said that he loved the insurrectionists and that the violent mob were special people.

1. New York Times - Over 30 Trump Campaign Lawsuits Have Failed. Some Rulings Are Scathing.

2. BBC - US Supreme Court rejects Trump-backed bid to overturn election

3. USA Today - Trump is heard on audiotape pressuring Georgia secretary of state to 'find' votes to overturn Biden's win

4. Politico - Trump pressures Pence to throw out election results — even though he can't

5. NPR - 'Someone's Going To Get Killed': Georgia Republican Official Blasts GOP Silence On Election Threats

6. Toronto Star - Black churches vandalized, four stabbed, dozens arrested at pro-Trump rallies in Washington

7. New York Times - 'Be There. Will Be Wild!’: Trump All but Circled the Date: Inside Trump supporters’ online echo chambers, the chaos of Jan. 6 could be seen coming. People posted their plans to come to Washington — and showed the weapons they would carry.

8. Wall Street Journal - Trump Tells Rioters, ‘I Know How You Feel,’ Draws Bipartisan Condemnation

The sequence of events from Elon Musk acquiring Twitter to now is an incredible journey.

• Elon Musk bought a social media company for tens of billions, attempted to back out of the deal but couldn't because of his ineptitude by signing away the ability to reneg on the deal.^[1]

• Then there was the freedom of speech advocacy from Musk where he ultimately unbanned racists and then began sharing bigoted Tweets. But it's only freedom of speech for his bigoted supporters, when authoritarian governments ask Musk to censor people/tweets he abides by their requests.^[2]

• The site becomes inundated with the alt right, it's become rife with bigotry.^[3]

• There was the whole verified blue check mark debacle where verification became something you could pay for, with people making fake "official" accounts. For example a fake account impersonating a pharmaceutical company caused their stock to drop abruptly following a satirical tweet.^[4]

• Twitter engages in mass layoffs and multiple things break on the site. There are also reports that they can't pay rent in certain locations across the globe. Twitter is hemorrhaging advertisors, as they record a 59% reduction in advertisement sales.^[5]

• Elon Musk posts tweets seemingly apologizing for some of the changes and says he will follow the will of the people by posting polls for users to vote on policy changes. Musk asks if he should step down, to which the majority vote in favour of his removal. He then goes on a tirade about bots after losing in the poll. He goes on to say that only paid subscribers will be permited to vote in future polls. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.^[6]

• The crème de la crème is Elon Musk implementing a new restriction where you have to be logged in to see tweets and restricting the number of tweets you can view. Inadvertently DDOSing his own site.

1. New York Times - Why Elon Musk Can’t Back Out of Buying Twitter, According to Twitter

2. Forbes - Twitter Has Complied With Almost Every Government Request For Censorship Since Musk Took Over, Report Finds

3. The Atlantic -Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network

4. Forbes - Fake Eli Lilly Twitter Account Claims Insulin Is Free, Stock Falls 4.37%

5. New York Times - Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue

6. The Guardian - Elon Musk breaks silence after 10 million Twitter users vote for him to step down

I'm a RiF refugee too. Used it for almost a decade, now that it's gone I find the official app to be very difficult to use.

The Fediverse has been really cool and I'm glad I took the jump. I was apprehensive at first, but I've found Lemmy to be pretty fun so far!