Sunday School: Tweet and Sour

Social media firestorms agogo in this week's scorching Sunday School. Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell take a sideways look at how socials are starting to go wrong for Trump, thanks partly to Gavin Newsom and Jeffrey Epstein, plus the fallout from the release of UK Twitter criminal Lucy Connolly. And, yes, all the latest madness from the court of King Trump (or as much as we can fit in) and, by way of light relief, an actual discussion about art. Yes, art. ***SPONSOR US AT ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠*** “I am fully prepared for the number of wars Trump has resolved to go up again next week, in order to include the great Empire-Ewok Accord, the Armistice with the Cylons, and finally sorting out the Gondor/Mordor situation. Perhaps that's why Trump is patchy. He's midway through his transformation from Gandalf the Dusty Rose to Gandalf the Ecru.” “The White House launched its TikTok account this week, put out a couple of posts, but they didn't turn off comments. There is a lot of MAGA presence on TikTok. But the responses under these two posts were off the scale hating on Trump’s links to Epstein. Hundreds and hundreds of them - to the point where [Billy McLaughlin] the digital media boss had to resign.” “Lucy Connolly fits a particular box when it comes to developing the “two-tier” narrative from a media perspective. And she came out of prison and straight into a summer of particularly relevant media headlines… There's a redemption arc playing out here. She is being weaponised by the media, in order to become a standard bearer for why it is ok to break the law.” “The tabloids tell us that Connolly is lovely and ordinary, runs a day care and is a great Mum, has suffered past tragedy and took her dog for a walk after posting what she posted. All of that may be true. But she wasn’t punished for any of that. She was punished for telling people it was okay to set fire to a building with human beings sleeping in it, because their life has little value. That she did that between having a cuppa and shampooing the dog, makes it more chilling, not less.” “Connolly decided that this country somehow belongs to her and she decides who gets set on fire and who doesn’t. And she communicated that wish, knowingly, to people who were out there looking for precisely such a rationale for their pre-existing grievances and violent tendencies. That is the bit that is not okay. The rest is window dressing.” Buy something from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our bookshop here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Or visit our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.quietriotpod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ***SPONSOR US AT ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠*** Brought to you by Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices