As IF Times

Source: Neighbors Of Harrisburg Teen Charged With Supporting ISIS Express Disbelief « CBS Philly

Why is Twitter even something that people do? Why do people Tweet?  How did the world get along without this stupid app?  I’m not even sure of how to use the word.  I guess it’s a verb, as in I twit you, or I twitter you.  If in a bar, do you tell someone to twitter you? Would they twitter you later, after dinner perhaps? Is it a noun, as in he’s a twitter, or they’re all twitters? If it’s singular, does that make someone a twit?

This useless app was invented on the heels of the success of all social media phenomenon beginning of course with Facebook.  In the case of Facebook, the app at least makes some sense as social voyeurs and exhibitionists alike could satisfy their particular needs.  In the case of Twitter, it appears that the utterances of a few celebrities or personalities are so compelling that subscribing to their timely bon mots is a must do.  It’s a bit of an evolution from the days of gathering around Moses while he reads pronouncements from a stone tablet.  But you’d think that based on the popularity of the app, that the pronouncements made by present day social deities are no less sage.

Why can’t people wait until the 6 pm news to know what Kim thinks? Why do we need to instantly know that she just bought a tennis bracelet for her cat? Why would any sane person need to be piped in to Al Gore’s recent verbal discharge?  According to Google, the accounts with the largest followings include Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Barack Obama.  Wait…Barack Obama?

Unless you’re a spy, the compunction to be a twitter user implies that someone else’s life is more interesting than your own. It actually accentuates the very human tendency to listen to those views that are already agreeable to their own.  The more people that are in that echo chamber, the more it reinforces and validates their own worldview.  As the top twitter personalities above indicate, this is the realm of 12 year old girls.  This is the constituency of those that wait breathlessly for every word from their idols.

It’s actually brilliant marketing, since they don’t stop making 12 year old girls which come with their natural need to be part of a popular mob.  It’s curious that some people never outgrow that though. That’s why they’re called followers.

Source: How, this time, Trump may actually have gone too far (+video) – CSMonitor.com

So this time, according to the article, Donald Trump may have gone too far…he’s crossed the rubicon.  Hmm.  Many will recall when Trump first announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination earlier this summer.  His stated advantage was that since he was more than financially secure, he was not beholden to anyone or any group’s influence.  This meant that he could say what he wanted without fear of antagonizing financial backers or satisfying the established status quo.

He proved that over the ensuing few months by insulting a broad spectrum of people starting with illegal immigrants from Latin America, notably Mexico which set off the Hispanic community.  He also cast the Chinese as, while being clever, also evil in their trade policies.  He crassly insulted Megyn Kelly when she posed a question to him after a debate.  He called Carly Fiorina not attractive.  He insulted a known war hero, John McCain and of course he calls out politicians  for being stupid and incompetent…and those are the ones on his side.   Oddly only his barber has been left unscathed by his biting remarks.

So in summary, he’s notionally offended Hispanics the world over, a few billion Chinese, all women, soldiers and most politicians, left and right.  But now, he’s insulted Muslims! Now the media gets mobilized with outrage to condemn him??  Therefore, while he’s heretofore ‘offended’ well over 80% of the world’s population up to now, it’s only when Muslims appear to be slighted that everyone gets all college student in their indignation.

Only now that the Muslim community is called out do we observe nations threatening to ban Trump from entry; his name being removed from commercial projects; his castigation as a first class racist and a cad to boot.   I think that if anything, this tells the other constituency of insulted groups that they have no pull.  Their PR machinery has nowhere near the kind of influence that Muslims do in protecting their brand.  While The Donald is certainly no slouch when it comes to media manipulation, apparently, neither are the Muslims.

Yet, none of this has really affected Trump’s appeal to his supporters, who presumably come from all sectors of the offended groups. If anything, he seems to grow in approval.  The appeal is not in the man.  It’s in his unvarnished attack on the crippling mentality of political correctness which has infected society at every level.  Whether you like him or not, ironically, Trump is the guy standing up for free speech…and free speech is about freedom to say what’s unpopular, not the ability to get Facebook likes.

UPDATE:  As if to prove Trump’s point, other nations are telling Americans how to behave: Saudi Prince weighs in