My frustration with @TwitterSupport was already pretty intense, but intensified further yesterday after red rose Twitter mass reported a pointed, but obviously tongue in cheek tweet I wrote in response to their attacks on @NancyPelosi and @HillaryClinton.
I was suspended.
The grounds for the suspension were ridiculous. They argued I was promoting self-harm.
Really?
Because,
1. No one is going to read that tweet & then punch themselves in face.
2. Find anywhere on my ten year long timeline where I've so blithely promoted violence.
I stand by the merit of the tweet and my intentions.
I was obviously not saying that Clinton and Pelosi could or should not be criticized, nor was I saying that men specifically should not be able to engage either critically.
This, of course, is what red rose read though.
3/
The tweet went viral and it went viral because a great many women read it and understood exactly what I was really saying. A great many men understood as well.
You should have read the comments I received which contained impressive levels of actual violence.
4/
The ways in which so many accounts claiming to represent liberal/progressive men have spoken about Democratic women leaders and to progressive women on Twitter has very often crossed the line from "possible or accidental" sexism" to undeniable full blown misogyny.
5/
It's gone on for three solid years & flare ups appear regularly.
This behavior was witnessed by so many, so often that the white guys who engaged in the behaviour came to be known as #DudeBros or #BernieBros.
And despite being called out on their behavior it continues.
6/
When you tweet about women using different standards and expectations than you apply to men, you are being sexist
When you refer to a woman using sex, sexuality, or appearance as a reference point you are being sexist.
When you use terms like bitch, cunt, or whore: SEXIST
When you resort to mocking feminism or feminists in order to make your point or counteract someone else's you are being sexist.
These are not, by and large, hard things to avoid doing.
At all.
8/
Overall, the responses were incredible for their level of faux outrage. Some said my made him realize the Democratic Party was evil and worse than the Republican Party!
Really?
The level of power ascribed to me and the tweet ranged from total to less than none.
9/
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For a few days when I'd sleep I was either having nightmares about #Kavanaugh or, and this was a first, having nightmares about having nightmares about #Kavanaugh.
My poor puppies didn't know what the hell was going on...
"IT'S A NEW DAY. "
1/
When people invoke platitudes like this it is usually done in order to being hope, to assert the positive aspects of what's ahead.
Not today.
There is nothing positive about this. We played the Super Bowl and we lost, but there is no rematch.
2/
Worse, one of the players for the other team is suddenly a fucking umpire and wants to review the tapes of all previous games and change some of the calls made by other, better umpires from games we had already won in the past.
I won't be lectured about majorities or electoral politics on the day #BrettKavanaugh was confirmed to #SCOTUS with the help of a goddamned Democrat.
I don't care where he's from or the demographics of his state. I don't care about any of that bullshit.
1/
He deserves some fire under his feet on the day he voted FOR a fucking lying racist rapist who is probably going to overturn ROE v. WADE and a host of other important pieces of legislation.
He could have called in sick.
He could have abstained.
2/
He could have stood on the Senate floor and said "I am casting this vote because my constituents have asked me to and I am their representative, but I personally strongly oppose this nominee, and support Professor Ford.
Let it be our promise to every future life that is destroyed, changed, or affected by a Justice #Kavanaugh that we will make it a priority to see Sasse, Manchin, and Collins suffer for their vote today.
They must lose their Senate seats, and be reminded everyday why.
1/
0
If we can't manage to focus long enough to carry through on our threats to our elected leaders who betray us then there will never be a reason to fear us. There will never be a reason to reconsider a decision or vote.
2/
And maybe no mistake, @SenatorCollins must be made an example of, if only because so much focus was placed on her and her decision making process.
But also because of that poisonous victim blaming/ shaming speech she delivered yesterday.
There is no way to sugarcoat how bad things just got, and if there was, we shouldn't. This is a loss that will haunt this nation for decades.
The confirmation of #BrettKavanaugh has managed to confirm more than just a man, for many, its confirmed our worst fears.
1/
It has confirmed that the @GOP is the most corrupt ruling party at the federal level in our nation's history. That they will do anything and everything to protect itself, including putting the survival of our Republic itself at risk.
2/
Its confirmed that the real decisions are made before the questions are even formally presented, and that they really do not care what our opinions of those decisions will be.
And it has also confirmed that Donald Trump has a lot more power than we imagined.
3/
If you want to live in a nation that is "led" by a man who would mock someone who was the victim of a violent sexual assault then we are very different people.
Trump's behavior today was that of a playground bully. They were the words that a bully utters and then laughs.
1/
The bully imagines, and may even hear, the world laughing with him, but the chuckles are only from his hangers-on and those hoping to impress the bully.
The rest of the world only turns its head to look away. They hope that someone, anyone, will intervene.
2/
They almost always get away with it, though, bullies.
And Trump will likely get away with this, like always.
#ChristineBlaseyFord passed a lie detector test on the day of her grandmother's funeral. No one non-partisan or credible has questioned her credibility.
3/
As the nation braces itself for the @GOP's latest betrayal in the runup to the #BrettKavanaugh confirmation vote, it is becoming clearer that even those we once believed retained some recognizably moral standards, simply don't.