Congressman Eric Swalwell outs "radicalized" man who allegedly threatened him and his family
Before commenting, I strongly advise you read the article and tweeter exchange in question, the context on this is important.
So, so ome random guy DM'd a "death threat" to a US congressmen, Eric Swalwell, and I put the quote marks in there because the actual threat was "Traitor hopefully u get hung one day", which is at arguably not "I'm going to kill you" and more "you should be executed because of what you did". But still, that's not something you should text to a sitting US congressman.
Eric wanted to ID the guy "for his [eric's] family's safety", because of course it's well known that when randos send you threats on the internet that's absolutely a huge deal and a clear example of a serious threat, and not at all empty talk that will never in a million years happen. Twitter/law enforcement was apparently unable to help (or more likely, they took one look at the "threat" and told Sawlwell to stop wasting thier time). So, Eric struck up a conversion with the guy, who, after having a conversion with Eric, sincerely apologized for his previous comments and admitted he was in the wrong, and his reasons for labeling Eric a traitor were ill founded
Very heartwarming story of reaching past hate to connect with people......so far.
Shortly after this happened, Eric posted the conversion, where he got the guy to give him his name, occupation, and city of residence to his twitter page, and capped off that doxing with a rant about how "the lies from Tucker and others are radicalizing people across not just America but the world. And the lies are inspiring people to make threats of violence against lawmakers. Tucker & Co. know this. And that’s why they tell their lies. They want to incite the mob." He also said not to harrass the guy, since he was apparently just being brought up as an example of how evil Tucker is (Why Eric then released his full name, occupation, and city of residence, information that has no value to the general public other than to allow people to hunt down and harrass the guy.....I guess we'll never know), and that this would be a matter for law enforcement.
I will reiterate that sending threats, or something that even sounds like a threat, to a US government offical is a bad idea and the guy here should not have done it. However, Eric's behavior here was utterly reprehensible in this case.
1. Eric Swalwell, as a well know public figure, no doubts get's a great deal of hateful comments and actual death threats all the time. Something he enjoys broadcasting to the world so that he can...I don't know, impress the tiny number of people that have, presumably, never been on the internet and so still think getting a death threat is remotely serious.
2. After this conversion (and to a large extent before it as well, but afterwards irrefutably so), Eric had no reason to believe that this guy seriously intended him harm in the first place, or was in a sort of position to do him harm if he wished. Meaning those threats were not credible under the law, nor did Eric, despite his claims otherwise, seem even remotely concerned about those threats.
3. Even if he thought there was any sort of real threat (which he did not), it's completely inexcusably to public broadcast all of that on twitter, particularly not if the punchline is "Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan are bad", something everyone who votes for Eric already thinks. The only possible result of this incident is that some hotheaded guy in Canada, who never intended nor was able to threaten Eric Swalwell, suffers a grossly out of proportion harm as a result of those empty non-threats. Leftists already hate Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, there's no one going "well, I think Tucker's pretty bad, but I can't support deplatforming him unless he does something really henious, like inspiring some random guy in canada to say mean things to Eric Swalwell".
Before commenting, I strongly advise you read the article and tweeter exchange in question, the context on this is important.
So, so ome random guy DM'd a "death threat" to a US congressmen, Eric Swalwell, and I put the quote marks in there because the actual threat was "Traitor hopefully u get hung one day", which is at arguably not "I'm going to kill you" and more "you should be executed because of what you did". But still, that's not something you should text to a sitting US congressman.
Eric wanted to ID the guy "for his [eric's] family's safety", because of course it's well known that when randos send you threats on the internet that's absolutely a huge deal and a clear example of a serious threat, and not at all empty talk that will never in a million years happen. Twitter/law enforcement was apparently unable to help (or more likely, they took one look at the "threat" and told Sawlwell to stop wasting thier time). So, Eric struck up a conversion with the guy, who, after having a conversion with Eric, sincerely apologized for his previous comments and admitted he was in the wrong, and his reasons for labeling Eric a traitor were ill founded
Very heartwarming story of reaching past hate to connect with people......so far.
Shortly after this happened, Eric posted the conversion, where he got the guy to give him his name, occupation, and city of residence to his twitter page, and capped off that doxing with a rant about how "the lies from Tucker and others are radicalizing people across not just America but the world. And the lies are inspiring people to make threats of violence against lawmakers. Tucker & Co. know this. And that’s why they tell their lies. They want to incite the mob." He also said not to harrass the guy, since he was apparently just being brought up as an example of how evil Tucker is (Why Eric then released his full name, occupation, and city of residence, information that has no value to the general public other than to allow people to hunt down and harrass the guy.....I guess we'll never know), and that this would be a matter for law enforcement.
I will reiterate that sending threats, or something that even sounds like a threat, to a US government offical is a bad idea and the guy here should not have done it. However, Eric's behavior here was utterly reprehensible in this case.
1. Eric Swalwell, as a well know public figure, no doubts get's a great deal of hateful comments and actual death threats all the time. Something he enjoys broadcasting to the world so that he can...I don't know, impress the tiny number of people that have, presumably, never been on the internet and so still think getting a death threat is remotely serious.
2. After this conversion (and to a large extent before it as well, but afterwards irrefutably so), Eric had no reason to believe that this guy seriously intended him harm in the first place, or was in a sort of position to do him harm if he wished. Meaning those threats were not credible under the law, nor did Eric, despite his claims otherwise, seem even remotely concerned about those threats.
3. Even if he thought there was any sort of real threat (which he did not), it's completely inexcusably to public broadcast all of that on twitter, particularly not if the punchline is "Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan are bad", something everyone who votes for Eric already thinks. The only possible result of this incident is that some hotheaded guy in Canada, who never intended nor was able to threaten Eric Swalwell, suffers a grossly out of proportion harm as a result of those empty non-threats. Leftists already hate Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, there's no one going "well, I think Tucker's pretty bad, but I can't support deplatforming him unless he does something really henious, like inspiring some random guy in canada to say mean things to Eric Swalwell".
