We’re Being Guided by a Host of Doublethinkers
Twitter, the President, and the Taliban want us to drink the punch and believe in a world where anything they say must be taken as truth
Twitter’s censorship guidelines continue to stump us. As is usual, the bird-chirping squeals of that platform persist in bleating out of both sides of their mouth. The latest flub: Twitter states the Taliban can retain their social accounts and resume posting-so long as they follow the rules. Twitter has made it clear that their number one priority is “keeping people safe,” banning content that purports a glorification of violence, platform manipulation, and spam.
Welcome to a fun, new brand of twenty-first century censorship and freedom, where the former President of the United States has his account banned in perpetuity, but the terror-fueled organization we’ve been warring against for two decades is allowed to remain. It’s fine-they only slice people’s heads off on camera, wed big-bearded, leathery gremlins to eleven year-old girls, and force women to cover themselves head-to-toe.
Amid claims from Taliban spokesmen that “ they are ready to have a dialogue,” women, men, and children cower in fear in their homes in Kabul. Thousands of families sprint across tarmacs, hands raised in the air, waving down planes that are attempting an escape. I’m not boots-on-the-ground in that worn-torn country, but one thing I do know-someone doesn’t grip the side of a plane that’s rocketing several hundred feet in the air for a good time. Those citizens who are trying to get out have their reasons, and all us viewers online have every capability of recapping countless examples of what Taliban rule looks like. So pardon me, Mr. Zabihullah Mujahid, if I don’t believe a word you say.
Below is a translated version of the above Twitter post. Thousands of people running frantic, planes and choppers taking off in some horror scene reminiscent of Saigon. But hey, the situation in Kabul is under control.
The response from President Biden has been eerily similar, truth be told. It has been abundantly clear that Biden wants to be the guy that ended this infinity-war. In a Thanos-esque manner, he wanted to snap his fingers and have all his troops home, all his diplomats secured, and by sundown, be skipping through the tall grass and flowers singing kumbaya. He wants to be the guy that ended the longest war in American history. On that front, who can blame him? Every leader of the free world since September 11th, 2001 has had that goal structured into their political platform.
Here we are, August 2021, and Biden’s done his finger-snapping. Only, everyone’s not home. They’re crammed in C-17s like cattle, with thousands more running haywire outside. Seeing these images, all the chaos and despair-it begs the question: how could we have better prepared to methodically withdraw from Afghanistan? Methodical being the keyword, as there was nothing scrupulous about this retreat.
President Biden claims the buck stops with him, then blames the Afghani troops and government for failing to defend their own country. He is saddened by the pictures, but claims this process couldn’t have gone any smoother. Apparently, no one at any level of the administration failed, intelligence did their job, everything has gone according to plan. What was that plan? I believe many Americans, even many world leaders, would love to see even just a shred of it. It’s becoming clearer by the day that it mostly involved Biden placing his middle finger on the pad of his thumb, and snapping things into a new existence. Oh that the world could operate in such a way.
At one point in Biden’s interview with Stephanopoulos, George asks the president if this chaos was “priced into the decision to leave,” to which the president replies, “Yes. Now, exactly what happened-is not priced in.” The perfect answer-in one simultaneous move he indicates they knew this would happen, but in an entirely other sense, had no idea. We knew there would be chaos, but when chaos ensued, we didn’t see it coming. The Orwellian world surrounds our administration-their brains must be getting buff off all that doublethink and duo-speak.
It might draw a laugh when you pour through some Taliban-authored Tweets. Surprisingly, the barbarians have been stringing together some posts that have hints of education and professionality. It seems this is all you need in order to trick Twitter into allowing you to push terrorist-driven ideals. A trick that former president Donald Trump never seemed to grasp with his misinterpreted posts.
Everything in today’s political scene has to be filtered through a Trump-colander-how has this matter been impacted by Trump politics? How would he have handled this transition? The current news: Trump gets banned for his online jabber, but the Taliban can write with a pseudo-intellectualism, and they get a pass. They are saying they will let American’s through. They are saying they won’t persecute women for not wearing their burqas. They are saying the people are safe and sound.
Well if they are saying it, it must be true. Yet we see reports of a woman being shot for not wearing the right garments. Reports that young women are being forcefully handed over to be wedded to Taliban fighters. It was only a few short months ago, in May 2021, that an Afghan interpreter for the US Army was beheaded by the Taliban on his way to Kabul. The Taliban haven’t had a moral awakening over the last five days. They aren’t going to start letting women be fully educated, or continue their education. The Taliban are just learning what it means to paint a nice picture to the online world, while maintaining the same barbaric, brutal, and pedophilic rule of law.
If we are to believe a group of anti-American iconoclasts can go from literally chopping the head off an Afghan interpreter to allowing, and even supporting, Afghan citizens who assisted America in the war-well then whatever punch they’re drinking must be potent. Seems that they want the rest of us to take a big gulp, too. Just like President Biden’s incompetent, double-thought response. Just like the Taliban’s signaling of some newfound virtue. Just like Twitter’s double-triple-quadruple standards.
While all these agencies, groups, and social media behemoths try to make the world what they think it should be, real people- real families-suffer. They suffer in the real world, where there is no tall grass, and the flowers have long been bombed out. Where the length of your beard, the clothes you wear, or the people you translate for could all mean life or death.
Originally published at https://bedletter.substack.com on August 21, 2021.
