Public officials from Congress to City Hall are now regularly subjected to threats of violence. It’s changing how they do their jobs.

There is little research on the political views of those behind the onslaught of abuse. Some surveys show that Republican officeholders are more likely to report being targeted, often from members of their own party. Research does show, however, that recent acts of political violence are more likely to be carried out by perpetrators aligned with right-wing causes and beliefs.

  • OpenStarsEnglish
    452·
    7 months ago

    McCarthyism predated social media, and when we fought against rather than for it, it retreated into the shadows - for a time. Now it’s back, and it won’t take less effort to stop it again.

    And imho, coming to the Fediverse is a great step towards that end - stepping out from the direct influence of Zuckerberg, Musk, and Huffman is an enormously crucial component. Thanks so much for the devs (backend, frontend, and apps), instance admins, community mods, and community builders/supporters that make that happen daily! And to the community members that promote kindness and acceptance even of newbie Fediverse converts who may require patience as they catch up.

    Maybe with continued efforts - that will be labeled “subversive” by the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene - we could vote such people out in local elections, and replace the trash with people willing to stand up for better laws that protect the People rather than enshrine protection for the police to crush moral people under their boot heels.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      11·
      7 months ago

      Someone needs to figure out how to make an open source tiktok. Probably would need to figure out a micro payment ecosystem, because otherwise no one will be able afford to store all that video.

      • thegreekgeek@midwest.socialEnglish
        14·
        7 months ago

        @dansup@mastodon.social is working on loops, a federated tiktok. According to THIS POST it looks he’s going for optimizing the uploaded video format over microtransactions for reducing overhead.

      • OpenStarsEnglish
        6·
        7 months ago

        They would need to afford lawyers too, from a constant barrage of frivolous attacks designed to drive the company out of business.

        Edit: that is actually how game console emulators written by third parties were driven into the dirt.