Headline

AJ Rice: Is OJ Simpson's Twitter Vengeance More Acceptable Than Conservative Speech?

O.J. Simpson tweeted this month that he has a "little gettin' even to do." Lara Loomer didn't tweet it. Candace Owens didn't tweet it. Milo didn't tweet it. O.J. Simpson tweeted it.

This might be construed as threatening, given that OJ has already been found "responsible" for the grisly deaths of two people, his ex-wife Nicole and a young man — the unlucky Ron Goldman — who happened to be in the wrong place at the very wrong time.

And convicted of felony armed robbery and kidnapping.

But O.J. hasn't been banned from tweeting — as scores of conservatives who haven't been found responsible for killing or robbing or kidnapping anyone have been, over comments deemed "hurtful" or "offensive" by the indignant overlords at Twitter.

The cognitive disconnect is startling — and ought to be alarming.

Contrast the non-action taken against TheRealOJ32 — O.J.'s Twitter handle — with the action taken against conservative journalist Meghan Murphy for "misgendering" a "trans woman" who is in fact a man.

Murphy — who never killed anyone — was permanently banned from using the platform for refusing to refer to he as she.

Then we have New York Times technology writer Sarah Jeong — who in very O.J.-esque fashion urged the "cancelation" of white people and tweeted, "Oh man it's kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men" — and went on to denounce those who doubted the veracity of the Duke University hoax rape-accuser.

A pattern begins to coalesce.

It's not really what's tweeted — it's who tweets it.

If you aren't a lockstep leftist, you had better be careful about everything you tweet. Anything that can be used against you will be used against you — to shame and silence you, cost you your job or your livelihood. To unperson you, if possible — which is easy enough to do when modern economic existence is effectively contingent on social media presence, especially if you're a writer or commentator or otherwise in the public eye.

This includes actors, too — who are also not allowed to have incorrect opinions, no matter whether they've ever sliced anyone's throat. James Woods, for example, has also been un-tweeted by Twitter.

Meanwhile, leftish actors are free to tweet as they like.

John Cusack, for instance. Just the other day, the star of Grosse Pointe Blank (about a murderer for hire attending his high school reunion) let fly with a tweet that could have come from David Duke — but didn't result in Cusack being de-tweeted.

Cribbing from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion — or perhaps it was Der Sturmer — he sent out a picture of a meaty arm emblazoned with the Star of David crushing a group of bedraggled paupers. The caption accompanying the picture comes from a quotation attributed to Voltaire: to learn who rules over you, simply find out whom you are not allowed to criticize."

Hint, hint.

And, irony.

Cusack — like O.J. — not only is forgiven for outrageous criticism, but isn't punished for it. Put another way, Cusack and other lefties know they are immune to being criticized for what they tweet.

But it takes a cognitively not-dissonant mind to grasp the distinction, and the hystericized Left has lost the capacity for such objective self-analysis. An example is the mind of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who had the effrontery to state before Congress earlier this year that "Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules. We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially."

In fact — as has become embarrassingly plain to all fair-minded people — the Left has weaponized disagreement — characterizing it as hate — while at the same time shown itself unable to grasp how actually hateful its own ideology has become.

Jerry Seinfeld is worried about brickbats — electronic and actual. He's decided to stop doing stand-up appearances on college campuses.

His jokes killed — but he never did.

Meanwhile, O.J. tweets without trouble. And not just O.J., either. Copycat O.J.s have been tweeting about "killing" cheeseburgers — and they're not banned. This isn't "gettin' even."

A.J. Rice

A.J. Rice is CEO of Publius PR, a premier communications firm in Washington D.C. Rice is a brand manager, star-whisperer and auteur media influencer, who has produced or promoted Laura Ingraham, Donald Trump Jr., Judge Jeanine Pirro, Monica Crowley, Charles Krauthammer, Alan Dershowitz, Roger L. Simon, Steve Hilton, Victor Davis Hanson, and many others. Find out more at publiuspr.com

Previous/Next Posts

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button