Can an Andrew Yang Tweet ‘Red Pill’ MAGA Culture For Real?
Tags: Free Speech, Politics, Donald Trump, Andrew Yang

Welcome back to TaraElla Report Season 6. Today, I’m going to reflect on the generally broken state of affairs across the political landscape right now, where nobody cares about truth and accountability. I’m going to start with one of Andrew Yang’s most profound insights yet, which explains why many of us have been disappointed with MAGA culture, as for example seen in President Trump’s most controversial twitter drama episode yet. On a related point, I’m also going to talk about why Trump has set out on a dangerous course that may bring the end of internet free speech as we know it, and why the usual free speech warriors on the Right aren’t even concerned about it at all. I’ll end with why we should all take the real ‘Red Pill’, which is not the version that the conservatives are giving us. Before I continue, I have to warn any new viewers that, as someone who identifies with neither the Left nor the Right, I’m going to give harsh criticism to both sides. My show is not a safe space for people who can’t think independently, or can’t take criticism of their own side.

Recently, Andrew Yang made a profound tweet about accountability. He wrote that, ‘one reason things seems so bleak is that there is so little accountability. Crash the economy? Bonuses and bailouts. Kill a jogger? Walk free for weeks. Botch a pandemic? It’s politics. Kill a man arrested for a nonviolent crime? People are fed up.’ And I think people are surely fed up with those in positions of power having next to no accountability all the time. It’s something that unites conservatives, progressives and moderates alike. One of the reasons many people don’t like the establishment is that they believe the establishment shields vested interests from any demands of accountability, thereby perpetuating unfair situations everywhere in life. This is one major reason why many people voted for Trump in 2016. However, many of them now stand disappointed, because things just haven’t changed.

In fact, the MAGA culture that surrounds Trump has discouraged his better instincts, and encouraged his worse instincts. I suspect that it’s all a plot to use his character flaws to slowly push him towards the pro-war establishment neoconservative agenda, a topic I will leave for a future episode. And no, I certainly don’t have Trump Derangement Syndrome, as seen in the fact that I was never excited about impeachment, and I vigorously defended Tulsi Gabbard’s decision to not vote for it back in December. However, when things go wrong, people need to be accountable, and MAGA culture’s unconditional support for Trump is a harmful thing. For example, the cultures of the Yang Gang and the Tulsi Train are much better. Those people love Yang and Tulsi very much, but they still speak up about their disagreements all the time. In MAGA land, if you take Trump to task, you get the mob running over you, and you get downvoted into oblivion. What I’m concerned is that, there can be no accountability in that kind of culture.

Let’s start with the fact that the Right has many free speech warriors, and that’s one thing I like about them. They rightly point out the free speech crisis on college campuses, and give it the attention it needs, while many progressives often avoid the topic altogether. Things like de-platforming people and so-called safe speech really need to be called out for the dangerous censorship it is, and I congratulate the Right for doing that. But how about Trump’s recent executive order to water down Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, and his calls afterwards for the repeal of Section 230 altogether? You see, Section 230 shields companies from being responsible for the content of their users, and it is the thing that allows social media to operate without censoring its users. The existence of Section 230 has long guaranteed internet free speech, because without it, every platform would be aggressively policing its users in fear of legal liability. A president threatening to repeal Section 230 is thus a much bigger problem for free speech than all the college SJWs in the world combined. The even worse thing is that Trump did that simply in response to Twitter putting fact-checking statements on his tweets, which essentially represents ill considered policy on the run done for personal reasons. It is disappointing that none of the free speech warriors on the Right have even shown the slightest care about this. Some people have even defended Trump, saying that the executive order was about properly enforcing Section 230, by forcing social media to be platforms that allow free speech rather than publishers that curate their content. But if that were Trump’s real intentions, why would he be tweeting repeatedly calling for the complete repeal of Section 230? It just looks like some people really want Trump to be good for free speech, so they make up their own reality where this is the case. As people say, denial isn’t a river in Egypt.

Here’s another good example. Trump is known for his controversial tweets, but his most recent one is on another level altogether. Indeed, it led to some people interpreting it as calling for violence. Taylor Swift apparently saw it that way, among many others. Since then, Trump has come out and explained that he was only stating the fact, that ‘looting leads to shooting’. Well, it certainly didn’t sound like he was ‘just stating the fact’ to many people, including myself, no matter his intentions. I guess it’s fair to say that, even if it wasn’t his intention to stir up the tense mood, Trump should have apologized for the wording that led to the confusion, like a properly accountable politician would have, because it was his own words that started it all. Nobody likes to admit being wrong, but it’s what accountability is. But then, Trump just ain’t into saying sorry, it seems. Rather, he has taken up the victim mentality, painting a picture of people out to get him on social media. You know how much I hate victim mentality. I hate it when the critical theory and postmodernist Left encourage it in minorities, and I hate it equally when conservative politicians use it to deflect from being accountable. What I hate most about victim mentality is that, in every case, it leads to a cycle of cultural and political polarization. I’ve always believed that conservatives share my views on personal responsibility and victim mentality. But apparently, they don’t really, as seen in their rush to defend Trump once again.

I guess all this is because many conservatives are effectively living in a simulated reality, like the one in The Matrix. Now, I know many so-called progressives are living in a simulated reality too, but let’s focus on conservatives for now, especially since people on the Right like to talk about taking the Red Pill. You know, like taking the Red Pill in The Matrix, and getting to know the truth, breaking free from the lies the establishment tells you, and so on. It’s a really attractive idea, and as I said two years ago, it’s really a shame that people on the other side of politics don’t use it too, because such a profound idea shouldn’t only belong to one side of politics. But then, what the Right has prescribed is not the Red Pill, but just another Blue Pill. When you listen to right-leaning talking heads too much, you effectively enter a simulation like the one in the Matrix. It’s a different program than the Woke Establishment’s one, but it’s no less a simulation, it’s no less a blue pill. In the Right’s simulated reality, everything is the fault of the Democrats, and college SJWs are the only threat to free speech. Trump is here to solve all this, and he can do no wrong. Keep watching your favorite right-leaning talking heads on TV and on the internet, and you keep taking the blue pill, to stay in this simulated reality. The result is they won’t take Trump to account, even when his actions are literally dangerous to the free speech they say they cherish. It’s why I refuse to drink the Right-wing kool-aid, like how I also refuse to drink the Left-wing kool-aid. I think it’s time we all take the real Red Pill, and exit all simulations of reality set up to benefit partisan interests, left-wing or right-wing.