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I think politicians should be banned from Twitter

SonOfDaedalus

SonOfDaedalus

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What good has come from politicians tweeting crap on Twitter?

In the past, politicians released carefully worded statements that were prepared in collaboration with their assistance. Every word was spelled correctly and facts were checked. Today it's a mess of misspelled and factually incorrect statements. It's a mess of Twitter battles between POTUS and Lavar Ball or Meryl Streep.

Then you have all these politicians who retweet garbage or tweet garbage that they have to apologize for.

I wish Twitter would kick them all off the platform (but they won't. It makes them money). So voters should insist that they get off Twitter and leave us in peace.
 
SonOfDaedalus said:
What good has come from politicians tweeting crap on Twitter?

In the past, politicians released carefully worded statements that were prepared in collaboration with their assistance. Every word was spelled correctly and facts were checked. Today it's a mess of misspelled and factually incorrect statements. It's a mess of Twitter battles between POTUS and Lavar Ball or Meryl Streep.

Then you have all these politicians who retweet garbage or tweet garbage that they have to apologize for.

I wish Twitter would kick them all off the platform (but they won't. It makes them money). So voters should insist that they get off Twitter and leave us in peace.
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Ignore it, wirss have a nasty tendency to birey one inthet arse, Presidents are not except from that fact.
 
I disagree entirely. Yes, it's kind of annoying, and someone like Trump probably should be kept off it, but in general, the politicians being able to speak directly to their constituents, without the bias of the media should bee seen as a good thing.

It's not perfect, but nothing is.
 
Their tweets make money.
 
We are learning more about politicians by their tweets than ever in history. The more knee-jerk statements they throw up on Twitter the more we learn. It also is the first time that politicians can speak to people directly - people who want to listen.

What is absurd is claiming somehow you are FORCED to read Trump's Twitter thread - so addicted you can't stop. I have never looked at any Twitter and do not have a Twitter account. Even if I did that would not force me to read anything by anyone.
 
nekrodev said:
I disagree entirely. Yes, it's kind of annoying, and someone like Trump probably should be kept off it, but in general, the politicians being able to speak directly to their constituents, without the bias of the media should bee seen as a good thing.

It's not perfect, but nothing is.
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Do you realize how bizarre it is to claim the President of the United States should be uniquely banned from free speech rights? Seriously?
 
joko104 said:
Do you realize how bizarre it is to claim the President of the United States should be uniquely banned from free speech rights? Seriously?
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It has nothing to do with him being President, it has to do with this mental state and his tendency to abuse his "free speech rights". If he were not President, he'd have already been banned.
 
nekrodev said:
I disagree entirely. Yes, it's kind of annoying, and someone like Trump probably should be kept off it, but in general, the politicians being able to speak directly to their constituents, without the bias of the media should bee seen as a good thing.

It's not perfect, but nothing is.
Click to expand...

I haven't experienced a single benefit from politicians tweetings.

Politics has always, and I mean always, required being very careful with your words. Think Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake." Saying the wrong thing can cause a furor. So politicians tweeting while on the crapper is just not a good idea. I don't want to hear every thought they have. I want to hear their carefully considered thoughts and ideas.
 
SonOfDaedalus said:
I haven't experienced a single benefit from politicians tweetings.

Politics has always, and I mean always, required being very careful with your words. Think Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake." Saying the wrong thing can cause a furor. So politicians tweeting while on the crapper is just not a good idea. I don't want to hear every thought they have. I want to hear their carefully considered thoughts and ideas.
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Being careful with your words doesn't mean you can't use Twitter. It just means having self-control. That's not the platform's fault.
 
There are no constitutional grounds to prevent a President from using social media.

And I am sure Twitter (and every other platform) is sitting back enjoying all this.
 
nekrodev said:
Being careful with your words doesn't mean you can't use Twitter. It just means having self-control. That's not the platform's fault.
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True, but consider this entire Trump go back to your country mess. First you have all this uproar over things Omar tweeted. There was supposed to be a vote about condemning her tweets. Now we have Trump tweeting something offensive. It seems we're wasting too much time arguing about tweets.

Twitter has made politics worse not better.
 
SonOfDaedalus said:
What good has come from politicians tweeting crap on Twitter?

In the past, politicians released carefully worded statements that were prepared in collaboration with their assistance. Every word was spelled correctly and facts were checked. Today it's a mess of misspelled and factually incorrect statements. It's a mess of Twitter battles between POTUS and Lavar Ball or Meryl Streep.

Then you have all these politicians who retweet garbage or tweet garbage that they have to apologize for.

I wish Twitter would kick them all off the platform (but they won't. It makes them money). So voters should insist that they get off Twitter and leave us in peace.
Click to expand...

I disagree.

I'd rather have rhetoric that hasn't been massaged, focus-group tested and designed to look like it's saying something when it really isn't. That's what we had from Obama. That's what we had from all politicians.

Now, if a politician steps on his or her dick, it's on him or her. Perhaps they'll be more careful and tell us what they really feel.
 
OrphanSlug said:
There are no constitutional grounds to prevent a President from using social media.

And I am sure Twitter (and every other platform) is sitting back enjoying all this.
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I should clarify. I don't mean some law. I mean some agreement among politicians that they're not going to use twitter to communicate anymore. It's not good for the country.
 
SonOfDaedalus said:
True, but consider this entire Trump go back to your country mess. First you have all this uproar over things Omar tweeted. There was supposed to be a vote about condemning her tweets. Now we have Trump tweeting something offensive. It seems we're wasting too much time arguing about tweets.

Twitter has made politics worse not better.
Click to expand...


Imagine if Trump, instead of tweeting out whatever insane crap he's thinking, wrote something up and gave it to an intelligent individual - who erased all of the mean, hateful, probably racist or sexist things Trump actually said - and then they provided it as a written state from from the White House.

None of us would ever know how bad he actually is. That's why we didn't know how much we were getting ****ed by previous politicians, everything was carefully crafted and toned down before it ever reached the public.
 
Mycroft said:
I disagree.

I'd rather have rhetoric that hasn't been massaged, focus-group tested and designed to look like it's saying something when it really isn't. That's what we had from Obama. That's what we had from all politicians.

Now, if a politician steps on his or her dick, it's on him or her. Perhaps they'll be more careful and tell us what they really feel.
Click to expand...

But it's not making things better. It's dividing the country. Isn't the point of government to improve the lives of citizens? It's hard to deny that things are worse after Twitter. Getting unfiltered words from politicians just causes conflict and controversy while contributing nothing positive.
 
Tweets are not "dividing the country". Horrible politicians and bigots are dividing the country. And, by "horrible politicians", I'm including people like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden - not just Republicans.
 
SonOfDaedalus said:
What good has come from politicians tweeting crap on Twitter?

In the past, politicians released carefully worded statements that were prepared in collaboration with their assistance. Every word was spelled correctly and facts were checked. Today it's a mess of misspelled and factually incorrect statements. It's a mess of Twitter battles between POTUS and Lavar Ball or Meryl Streep.

Then you have all these politicians who retweet garbage or tweet garbage that they have to apologize for.

I wish Twitter would kick them all off the platform (but they won't. It makes them money). So voters should insist that they get off Twitter and leave us in peace.
Click to expand...

I agree to a point. I think a politician using technology to communicate with their constituents directly is a good thing. Even if those politicians use it to say stupid stuff. I would like our government to develop a "Twitter" like platform for officials to use while in office that would keep and preserve the communications in a more official capacity as part of the public record.
 
nekrodev said:
Imagine if Trump, instead of tweeting out whatever insane crap he's thinking, wrote something up and gave it to an intelligent individual - who erased all of the mean, hateful, probably racist or sexist things Trump actually said - and then they provided it as a written state from from the White House.

None of us would ever know how bad he actually is. That's why we didn't know how much we were getting ****ed by previous politicians, everything was carefully crafted and toned down before it ever reached the public.
Click to expand...

We were probably better off not getting tweets from LBJ who was known to be rather crass. I think we already knew what Trump was.

Imagine if we could hear everything a politician thinks. Sure, we would have more insight into the person but would it be good for the country to hear unfiltered thoughts? We filter our thoughts and words all the time. It's part of being a civilized person. This desire to get the "unfiltered" truth is not beneficial. We just end up insulting or being insulted. The social fabric is eroded.
 
SonOfDaedalus said:
But it's not making things better. It's dividing the country. Isn't the point of government to improve the lives of citizens? It's hard to deny that things are worse after Twitter. Getting unfiltered words from politicians just causes conflict and controversy while contributing nothing positive.
Click to expand...

The rhetoric is dividing the country. The Trump hatred that generates the rhetoric is dividing the country.

If the politicians let that hatred and rhetoric go and just did their jobs, there wouldn't be any division. There would just be politics.
 
Mycroft said:
The rhetoric is dividing the country. The Trump hatred that generates the rhetoric is dividing the country.

If the politicians let that hatred and rhetoric go and just did their jobs, there wouldn't be any division. There would just be politics.
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Again, in politics everything you say will be picked apart and possibly twisted. It has always been that way. Twitter now allows politicians to make statements without anyone reviewing them and carefully considering the impact. That's not a good thing.
 
SonOfDaedalus said:
Again, in politics everything you say will be picked apart and possibly twisted. It has always been that way. Twitter now allows politicians to make statements without anyone reviewing them and carefully considering the impact. That's not a good thing.
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So...you don't want them to say what is really on their minds. You'd RATHER they be more careful with their bull****.

I don't feel the same.
 
It's really annoying when I have to agree with Mycroft on something. That's how silly this is.
 
nekrodev said:
It has nothing to do with him being President, it has to do with this mental state and his tendency to abuse his "free speech rights". If he were not President, he'd have already been banned.
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So you oppose free speech in general?
 
I think politicians should make themselves as open to the public as possible so they can actually hear and see their constituents. The social media age has made it even easier for someone in public office to be reached far and wide. Blanket banning politicians from such a useful tool is a needless handicap against the people. Even if the most prominent twitter user in politics using the platform to bully others and spread racism.
 
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