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1061 points danso | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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darkerside ◴[] No.23349412[source]
As President, or any public figure, you are responsible not only for the intention of your words, but also every feasible interpretation of your words, as well as the impacts of your words, regardless of intention.

I say this not to imply that Trump didn't know that this statement could be taken in multiple ways, but to remind people that even if it can it doesn't matter. It's tragic this has happened, and also tragic to have a leader who reacts to the situation in this way, and that a large swath of the country applauds him for it.

Vague and menacing threats are much more thuggish behavior than emotional reaction to the killing of an unarmed civilian.

As for what Twitter is doing, I'm curious whether they follow this path to it's logical conclusion, which is, eventually Trump being banned from Twitter. He's a huge driver of traffic for them, but perhaps they're thinking about life after Trump at this point, months away from the election.

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mc32 ◴[] No.23349449[source]
Every feasible interpretation? No way. That’s not gonna work. No one would be able to say anything. At best people would talk like ex Fed chair Greenspan. Undoable.
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darkerside ◴[] No.23352444[source]
Yes, every feasible interpretation. That doesn't mean you can't say anything without multiple interpretations, but it _does_ mean that, if you are called on another interpretation of your words, then you spoke unclearly. You need to clarify your meaning and apologize if it was flagrant.

Yes, that is a lot of overhead for communicating. That's what I believe we should expect of our elected leaders. Sadly, nearly half of voting Americans don't seem to agree with me.

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sfj ◴[] No.23357638[source]
You think people are going to vote for that?
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darkerside ◴[] No.23359757[source]
Obama embodied empathy. I wish we had more politicians like that on both sides of the aisle.
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1. verdverm ◴[] No.23383613[source]
As the first black president, what were the things Obama did to improve the situation?

(serious question, not educated on this matter, generally try to avoid politics)

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2. qqqwerty ◴[] No.23389479[source]
It is a complicated issue. And quite frankly, I think the policing issues are a flash point triggering unrest over the deeper seated inequality in our society. So it is hard to address the issue directly as the actual number of deaths are not very prevalent. But to answer your question, here is an article comparing DOJ activity under Obama and Trump:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/1/1949441/-Trump-s-J...