In the name of fairness and truth, Twitter has started fact-checking tweets to protect the public from lies, calls for violence or destruction, and other contemptible content. That is, of course, except for when the message teaches rioters how to destroy public property – like the University of Alabama at Birmingham archaeology professor’s tutorial on how to take down monuments. That’s still up – free of any label, tag, or fact-checking – several days after being posted. Perhaps it’s considered valuable educational material?
The social media giant made worldwide news on May 26 when it attached a fact-check label to two of President Trump's tweets criticizing mail-in voting. A Twitter spokesperson said Trump’s tweets contained "potentially misleading information." Clicking on the label led to a slew of biased left-leaning sources rebutting the president, including The Washington Post, CNN, and NBC News.
On June 1, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tweeted in response to rioting that has rocked America in the wake of the George Floyd killing, "Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" Twitter promptly slapped a warning label on the congressman's tweet. "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible," the ominous message read. One had to click a "View" button attached to this message in order to see Gaetz's post.
'Chains Not Rope'
Yet when UAB archaeology professor Sarah Parcak tweeted out a "PSA For ANYONE who might be interested in how to pull down an obelisk safely from an Egyptologist" on May 31, Twitter ignored or shrugged off the clear call for wanton destruction of public property. Parcak provided detailed information on how to tear down an obelisk, noting organized hoodlums would want to use "chains not rope" and that "[f]or every 10 ft of monument, you'll need 40+ people." Conservatives were outraged by Parcak's wildly irresponsible missive, observing that rioting was embroiling the nation's capital, home of America's most famous obelisk, the Washington Monument, at the same time it was sent out.
Parcak had another memorial in mind, however. The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument has stood in Birmingham’s Linn Park for 115 years. It is coming down now. Violent protesters lost no time in taking up Parcak's challenge and attempted to pull down the 52-foot obelisk as per her instructions.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin implored the rioters to desist from their actions – so the city could act in their stead. "Allow me to finish the job for you," a shameless Woodfin told protesters. Official city dismantling of the monument was well underway by the evening of June 2.
Woodfin's act is a violation of state law, Alabama Daily reports. "The 2017 Alabama Memorial Preservation Act currently prohibits relocating, removing, altering or renaming public buildings, streets and memorials that have been standing for more than 40 years," the website notes.
'More and More Are Dead and Dying'
But none of that matters amid the emotion-driven maelstrom engulfing leftist agitators today. Lawlessness is excused in the name of "righteous anger" and hate condemned only when targeted at the wrong set of people. Parcak herself is a rather excellent hater. She admits to despising what she sees as an old and red Alabama that gets better each day as more elderly Alabamans die.
"From space, I can see Alabama’s dense trees, lakes, rolling hills, and gorgeous ocean shoreline," Parcak wrote in a lurid screed posing as an op-ed for the major Alabama newspaper website Al.com in 2019. "Underneath those trees and surrounding its wildlife paradise lurks a sinister past pervading every present aspect of the lives of the humans that call it home. Can you see it or feel it? Knowing it is there, calling it what it is, respecting the depth of the infection and that it is virtually incurable for nearly half the state is a first step. You know what it is: racism."
Having diagnosed half the state's residents as being intransigent racists, Parcak sees their deaths as the only way forward. "Yearning for a better future is what drives us ahead, the 670,000 of you that voted for [Sen.] Doug Jones [D-AL], the countless tens of thousands working to make this state better, knowing that more and more racists are dead and dying, that this state may someday emerge from the depths of its past to rise and have its moral beauty match the landscapes I see from space."
Parcak's Twitter page is filled with similar antagonistic prose. "Anyone who tweets at me to 'stick to archaeology' will be blocked," she lashed out at critics in a May 26 post. "My research covers ancient climate change, systems collapse, the ethics of using new technology, dismantling colonialism, and broadening access to archaeology. Archaeology is inherently political."
Do non-progressive Americans understand the house rules in the social justice game yet? Hatred and calls to destruction of property are all perfectly acceptable in the name of building the leftist vision of a better tomorrow. Twitter certainly has no problem with it, and a major university in Alabama employs a woman who admits in writing to openly loathing "half the state" population to such an extent that she happily cheers when these people die. How thrilling for the wish-you-were-dead 50% that it gets to pay Parcak's salary via taxpayer funding of her public university.
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