Remember when social media first burst on the scene? When it was seemingly innocent and built around the high-schoolish idea of "liking" someone or something?
Well, we've certainly come a long way. Yes, there's still some harmlessness involved with social media, but a nasty, sometimes violent, component has become more and more evident.
And in the tiny hands of some practitioners, social media has become downright dangerous. One of those practitioners is now President-elect of these United States. And he is a big fan of the social media tool titter.
In fact, tweeting was one of his main means of communicating during the recent campaign. His tweets involved little nuance; they were blatant, often non-factual, assaults on individuals and institutions.
He had been in the tweeting business for a number of years. Most recipients and others who saw his tweets apparently found them amusing. But now that he is to be the next President, some are finding his tweets to be calls to action. He criticizes a labor leader, and a few of his more troubled followers perceive an instruction to harass, or worse, that labor leader.
Thus the President-elect has stumbled upon a substitute for old-fashion strong-arming thugs. He has discovered social media thugs. And they don't even cost anything!
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