This is fascinating. Now I'm thinking through Watergate (not the break-in or the Post investigation or even the hearings but the entire sequence of events, starting with the earliest examples of "ratfucking") and trying to pin down what's actually illegal vs. what's merely "influencing" voters in a dishonest or unfair way.
I mean, when Donald Segretti stole Muskie stationery and send out a fake letter on it, was he breaking the law? When they "informed" voters in urban areas about polling places' locations and times, but lied about it, was that illegal? Six years before, when Nixon and Kissinger scuttled the Vietnam peace treaty in order to get Nixon elected, was THAT illegal?
The problem, as you say, is that if you (for example) flood Facebook with propaganda targeted at swing voters and using unprecedented technological tools in order to effectively persuade millions to vote for Trump — I'm firmly convinced that bored future history students will be made to study this period and will doggedly answer exam questions about how "Trump came to power thanks to social media" (meaning, as a very BAD cautionary narrative about evil and tyranny) — all those people would say, Sure, I voted for Trump, and sure, I read all that stuff on Facebook, but I made up my own mind! I wasn't "interfered with"! Just like all those people who saw the Muskie speech where he cried made up their own minds to give up on him whether they knew about Dwight Chapin and Ken Clawson and their ratfucking.
So yeah, "election interference" is a non-starter, I guess. This is very important and needs to be straightened out, whether by means of your suggested new terminology or some other way.
Thanks for the Joan Baez, world's Madonna. Both the song and the tape the song is a part of (her Plaisir d'Amour is so lovely and so very sad as if she is singing not of a young heart broken by a jilting, but like she is consoling a widow at the death of her husband of many years), everyone on the show feels so down to earth and yearning to be heard, and deserving of it. You kind of wish John Denver never got sweet or that haircut.
This is fascinating. Now I'm thinking through Watergate (not the break-in or the Post investigation or even the hearings but the entire sequence of events, starting with the earliest examples of "ratfucking") and trying to pin down what's actually illegal vs. what's merely "influencing" voters in a dishonest or unfair way.
I mean, when Donald Segretti stole Muskie stationery and send out a fake letter on it, was he breaking the law? When they "informed" voters in urban areas about polling places' locations and times, but lied about it, was that illegal? Six years before, when Nixon and Kissinger scuttled the Vietnam peace treaty in order to get Nixon elected, was THAT illegal?
The problem, as you say, is that if you (for example) flood Facebook with propaganda targeted at swing voters and using unprecedented technological tools in order to effectively persuade millions to vote for Trump — I'm firmly convinced that bored future history students will be made to study this period and will doggedly answer exam questions about how "Trump came to power thanks to social media" (meaning, as a very BAD cautionary narrative about evil and tyranny) — all those people would say, Sure, I voted for Trump, and sure, I read all that stuff on Facebook, but I made up my own mind! I wasn't "interfered with"! Just like all those people who saw the Muskie speech where he cried made up their own minds to give up on him whether they knew about Dwight Chapin and Ken Clawson and their ratfucking.
So yeah, "election interference" is a non-starter, I guess. This is very important and needs to be straightened out, whether by means of your suggested new terminology or some other way.
This seems relevant:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-114553988
The Dumpster Fire of Trumpster's Ire!
Thanks for the Joan Baez, world's Madonna. Both the song and the tape the song is a part of (her Plaisir d'Amour is so lovely and so very sad as if she is singing not of a young heart broken by a jilting, but like she is consoling a widow at the death of her husband of many years), everyone on the show feels so down to earth and yearning to be heard, and deserving of it. You kind of wish John Denver never got sweet or that haircut.