A Twitter trip to Trumpton
So, Donald Judas* Trump has cleared the number of delegates needed to become the Republican nominee for US President. Which keeps Sounds of Soldiers relevant, and means it stays at 99p/99c at least until November.
To get a feeling for Trump supporters, I’ve been conducting an experiment for the last couple of weeks. I’m following the Twitter stream of one, vocal Trumpeter, highlighting bigoted tweets or retweets from him. I didn’t just pick him at random. In fact, he picked me. I have a twitter account for Garth Owen, and when I put something out on there that mentioned Trump, it got a follow from this guy. He mostly goes on about how awesome Trump is, rather than spewing almost constant racism and hate, as I’ve found others doing within one or two retweets of him. So I haven’t gone out of my way to find the worst example possible, before anyone starts accusing me of that.
What sort of stuff have I found on his timeline? Let’s see-
No, keep Muslims out of the military. Serve them some pork and it may help. https://t.co/FtmCM0veSr
— sue noe (@suenoe2) May 12, 2016
@GeneMcVay What do you expect they are all Retards! Combined IQ of a Transgender!
— Black Haul (@blackhual406) May 14, 2016
In the shadow of political correctness the monster grows endlessly. It eats freedom, human rights and tolerance. pic.twitter.com/L40neORqQg
— End of Europe (@End_of_Europe) May 15, 2016
Diversity is a Lesbian, a pedophile, a transgender and an Islamic Jihadi robbing a convenience store.
— ✯✯Gene McVay✯✯ (@GeneMcVay) May 19, 2016
@GeneMcVay @PaulLouisThoma1 we already know about bho. hes muslim..a homo..crack smoker..an evil filthy islamic schemer
— jay oker (@chaosanarchyl) May 22, 2016
It only takes a small amount of common sense to figure this one out #refugeeswelcome #RefugeeCrisis #Trump2016 ????? pic.twitter.com/AJD3CL34uy
— #LauraJeanne4Trump (@GLaurajeanne64) May 22, 2016
One remove from my test subject, I found this intelligent commentary. (Update having revisited this account, it now looks more like a parody)-
@GLaurajeanne64 @realDonaldTrump @HillaryClinton @seanhannity @ASavageNation Fight Islams! No Muslims! No Islams! pic.twitter.com/fPbTUDFhlh
— Jack Meihoph (@JohnMeihoph) May 23, 2016
“Not one of us” What could that possibly mean?
@sri9011 @GeneMcVay Obama ain’t one of us! We know it now for sure pic.twitter.com/YloYz69Bzq
— dwayne roaden (@wildcatcrazyone) May 27, 2016
And that’s not including the extended conversations I go into, which included gems such as-
@Spinneyhead @g39ac4 @GLaurajeanne64 @realDonaldTrump it's not racist to love your own people. But it's retarded not to. Liberals R wusses.
— arkansaw (@JohnnydaleMoore) May 24, 2016
@Spinneyhead @g39ac4 @GLaurajeanne64 well I am very pro-white. In my opinion we're like the coolest people ever.
— arkansaw (@JohnnydaleMoore) May 25, 2016
Too ignorant to realize you're being invaded or maybe you're like Edward the king who abdicated loved Hitler https://t.co/a42QFWnZud
— #LauraJeanne4Trump (@GLaurajeanne64) May 23, 2016
This is just a scratch of the surface, and a few of the tweets I’ve seen this week. I’m going to keep watching, because it’s car-crash levels of compelling. It’s going to be a long, darkly comic and worrying run up to the US elections. Expect irregular trips back to Trumpton.
*What does the J stand for? I recently rewatched a lot of Red Dwarf, so sticking Judas in there is the natural reaction.