#GiftArticle
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#MAGA also offered an implicit bargain∶ Not only can you be a #bigot toward whatever group makes you mad by existing, but everyone will have to love & respect you anyway. This was an impossible promise to keep—not even #Trump has managed to bully comedians mocking him into silence—but politicians make impossible promises all the time. Many Americans are simply content to live vicariously through Trump’s #impunity, even if they cannot share it.
…The answer to why powerful people in some other parts of the world face consequences, while in the #US they rarely do, is that #elite #impunity is now an American national project. We might need to reframe “American exceptionalism.” Instead of a New Deal, we have a Great Society for #WhiteCollar #crime, a New Frontier of executive lawbreaking, a No Rich Crook Left Behind. Most of us probably don’t even realize it.
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…The answer to why powerful people in some other parts of the world face consequences, while in the #US they rarely do, is that #elite #impunity is now an American national project. We might need to reframe “American exceptionalism.” Instead of a New Deal, we have a Great Society for #WhiteCollar #crime, a New Frontier of executive lawbreaking, a No Rich Crook Left Behind. Most of us probably don’t even realize it.
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@Nonilex Excellent thread. Wish I read it *after* lunch though.
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“They voted for #impunity for themselves & #authoritarian #brutality directed at everyone they hated. Lesbian feminist bitches, dirty job-stealing immigrants, evil perverted trannies, on & on & on,” Katherine Alejandra Cross writes of Trump’s implicit bargain in *Liberal Currents*. “The brutality of #StateViolence was supposed to only ever be directed at their ideological foes. And in exchange, the #Trump voter would never again have to live with the mortifying ordeal of #responsibility.”
@Nonilex they would rather fight than think. The existence of people different from them, and of ideas that challenge what they already believe, make them think, so they choose to fight against those people and ideas instead.
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But #Epstein’s #crimes were taken seriously by authorities only after the #journalist #JulieBrown uncovered the extent of his crimes & the lenient response from law enforcement over decades.
They should have given Julie Brown what was in those storage lockers. DOJ will just hide it or destroy it. No one knows what it is in it. In fact, shouldn't Epstein's estate have gotten it first?
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@Nonilex might makes right
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#MAGA also offered an implicit bargain∶ Not only can you be a #bigot toward whatever group makes you mad by existing, but everyone will have to love & respect you anyway. This was an impossible promise to keep—not even #Trump has managed to bully comedians mocking him into silence—but politicians make impossible promises all the time. Many Americans are simply content to live vicariously through Trump’s #impunity, even if they cannot share it.
Canadians saw this in miniature in Crackmayor Rob Ford years ago.
He was a deeply flawed man in the throws of drug addiction; maternal types were soft on him on that score, but above all he was a cudgel, a proxy power acting against the enemy: vast societal change challenging 'norms' & privilege.
Trump has no redeeming weakness. His illness is that of the violent sex offender, the sociopath. But he's the same sort of cudgel, acting out the sick fantasies, feeding the rage.
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How America [The #US] Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account
Our national project of #elite #impunity
By Adam Serwer
Around the world, powerful men are facing consequences for their actions. Former Brazilian President Jair #Bolsonaro was convicted of trying to overthrow the government in a #Jan6 style #coup, as was his South Korean counterpart, #YoonSukYuol.
#law #accountability #power #plutocracy
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/elite-accountability-powerful-impunity/686134/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxYP6ztvC2RKlz2tQfl1JB90@Nonilex Let me guess, a certain actor, then later govenor and president who started the biggest financial scam in US history and really rocketed up the wealth inequality is responsible for this shift?
Trickle down was the biggest scam in modern US history. It's such a shame how much the US went backwards because of it, especially in the long run.
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@Nonilex Excellent thread. Wish I read it *after* lunch though.
@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
#PostOfTheWeek (season 3):
Around the world, powerful men are facing consequences for their actions. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of trying to overthrow the government in a January 6–style coup, as was his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yuol. Marcin Romanowski, the former deputy justice minister in the right-wing Polish government, is in hiding in Hungary, accused of misusing public funds.
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@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
#PostOfTheWeek (season 3):
Around the world, powerful men are facing consequences for their actions. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of trying to overthrow the government in a January 6–style coup, as was his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yuol. Marcin Romanowski, the former deputy justice minister in the right-wing Polish government, is in hiding in Hungary, accused of misusing public funds.@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
The former Prince Andrew—Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—became the first member of the British royal family in several centuries to be arrested; he’s been accused of crimes related to his relationship with the late sex-trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein.They’re all unfortunate not to be American. Otherwise they probably would have gotten away scot-free.
Helen Lewis: The former Prince Andrew never should have forwarded those emails
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@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
The former Prince Andrew—Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—became the first member of the British royal family in several centuries to be arrested; he’s been accused of crimes related to his relationship with the late sex-trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein.They’re all unfortunate not to be American. Otherwise they probably would have gotten away scot-free.
Helen Lewis: The former Prince Andrew never should have forwarded those emails
@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
One way to look at the rise of Donald Trump is as part of a decades-long backlash among the American leadership class to the idea of accountability. Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions. -
@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
One way to look at the rise of Donald Trump is as part of a decades-long backlash among the American leadership class to the idea of accountability. Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions.@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
Trump has evaded punishment for crimes both low (campaign-finance violations, for which he was convicted, though he will serve no time thanks to his 2024 victory) and high (his attempted overthrow of the federal government in the aftermath of his 2020 election loss, for which he was spared by the Supreme Court’s decision to grant him a kingly immunity). -
@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
Trump has evaded punishment for crimes both low (campaign-finance violations, for which he was convicted, though he will serve no time thanks to his 2024 victory) and high (his attempted overthrow of the federal government in the aftermath of his 2020 election loss, for which he was spared by the Supreme Court’s decision to grant him a kingly immunity).@WildEyedBoyFromFreecloud
This is not just about Trump; his impunity is the product of a society that has worked hard to help the rich and powerful elude punishment for criminal behavior. -
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