Hacker News Reader

Comment by blisterpeanuts | Hacker News Reader

And should Maxine Waters have been banned after she exhorted her followers to harass Republicans?

"Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere."

What kind of civilized person would advocate this type of behavior, much less a member of Congress? And why is this acceptable when Bannon's (admittedly nasty) comment isn't?

View on HN

probably deserves at least some degree of moderation but still qualitatively different from calling for someone's 'head on a spike' in particular given that Bannon is speaking to an audience that has members who would likely take that literally.

But sure in general you're right, calls for harassment shouldn't be tolerated either.

Can you not tell the difference between talking to someone and cutting off their head?

Organizing an unruly mob to target people in every aspect of their life will inevitably result in death just as much as cutting off their head will.

one of the two is still an explicit call to murder tho.

And the other is an implicit call for murder. Are you daft?

As they say: "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"

Otherwise, you have to take this "are you daft" comment as assault

This isn't about calling people names. It's about inciting a mob.

It's extremely dangerous, usually deadly, and that's why it's a crime.

Perhaps because there's a long-term pattern to Bannon's behavior?

If you think there was an implied threat of violence, then yes.

The context for Maxine Waters comment was that a Trump Administration official had a bad experience at a restaurant, while that administration was in the process of separating children from families resulting in over 500 still being separated today. That administration official lied to the American public about this policy, and Waters felt that it was our civic duty to tell officials like them that in the administration wherever they go they should feel bad.

Note that at no point were these administration officials threatened with violence, just people telling them they're bad people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com