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Comment by cabaalis | Hacker News Reader

Uncool, but also political exaggeration. Burning an effigy of Donald Trump is an analogue. Nobody expects someone to catch Donald Trump on fire, and no one expects anyone to behead Anthony Fauci.

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Then why did Steve Bannon's verified Facebook Page reiterate that he called for their execution without any of those caveats or counterfactuals or even the defense that it was hyperbole or parody?

I am beyond tired of people making excuses for public threats of violence from authoritarian right-wing actors. It isn't helpful to any discourse to pretend words don't mean what they mean anymore.

Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/SteveKBannon/posts/376710023761776

archive.org snapshot here: https://web.archive.org/web/20201106185230/https://www.faceb...

Here's the text of that post in case it is removed:

    [BREAKING] On www [dot] PopulistPress [dot] com -
    *Steve Bannon Under Massive Attack*
    - Steve Bannon Under Attack
    - Steve Bannon’s Twitter Account Suspended After Calling for Execution of Dr Fauci and FBI Director Wray
    Get your news NOW - Bookmark www [dot] PopulistPress [dot] com

You keep posting this like it's a smoking gun but clearly whoever runs his Facebook page just copy posted some blurb from another website.

I think populist dot press might be Bannon's own site. It heavily promotes his content, his weekly live stream, and it ties in to his social media on other platforms.

Even if it's not his own, this is his official Facebook page from which Bannon hosts his weekly live stream.

Here, you can see his "War Room" video series in its entirety: https://populist.press/americas-voice-war-room/

I am also beyond tired about the nebulous interplay between word and deed when it comes to right-wing violence.

Bannon is "just joking" about beheading his opponents, Pompeo is "just joking" about Trump not stepping down, constant talk about jailing political opponents -- sorry, constant jokes -- and constant talk about lynching journalists (e.g. "rope, tree, journalist" t-shirts that you see at MAGA rallies, not at any others).

And the FBI eventually breaks up a ring of people who are planning to kidnap and ??? the sitting governor of Michigan, but all of the violent-yet-it's-a-joke speech continues unabated. Was the kidnapping plot a joke, too? Where does all this end?

Serious question, what's the end-game for increasingly violent, increasingly authoritarian jokes?

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