Apple has threatened to ban Parler from the App Store

Everyone is being subjected to the same standards here. Fundamentally Parler was banned because they wouldn't enforce their own policies.

From Apple's post:

> Your app enables the display of user-generated content but does not have sufficient precautions in place to effectively manage objectionable content present in your app.

All Parler needs to do is not allow people to plot violence on their platform. This is against Parler's policies, it's against Apple's App Store policies, the actual conversations are often against the law.

It isn't as if Apple is banning Parler because people are debating the second amendment. They are literally being banned for allowing people to openly plots against multiple government entities and individuals.

I think two things are going on here: 1.) There is a radicalized minority of conservatives that believe in Q, storm the capital, etc etc. I think this minority is growing in size, as their publicity alone is lending them credence. It's easier to get someone to believe what they want to believe, than the truth if it goes against their world view, etc etc.

2.) The large majority of R voters are not off the wagon lunatics, and many claim they liked trump the least of all the R cannidates in 2016. But I think huge portions (*of both sides*) are so conditioned to whatever group of beliefs they hold, that they will never switch or compromise. So now we have a bat shit crazy president, because he out primaried several indistinguishable moderate opponents in 2016, and the whole R side (that is not stark raving mad) went with him, purely because they couldnt even start to entertain the thought of ever voting for a D. And now some of them are becoming radicalized, and it's kinda scary when people you know to be rational are asking you about election fraud... remember, its easy to believe what you want to believe... Below is something I posted some time ago, where I tried to outline how I thought many trump voters rationalized voting for him.

>>. What I fail to understand, as a foreigner, is how someone can vote for a president who is an outright liar. Look no further than his last tweets as of right now.

I don't fully understand it myself, but as it's been explained to me by trump supporters is: "don't listen to what he says, look at all the good policy, look at how hard he is on China, look at how many jobs there were pre covid, etc etc". Whether or not you see his policy as good, some people do, and they are willing to overlook his madness because they think he is achieving good things. (actions speak louder than words, etc) Some of his supports do bring up his appointing of tons of federal judges, and this what I would probably consider the most valid reason for voting for him (if one is aligned to a more conservative viewpoint), as his judges are more likely to enforce (or not) the laws that align with "traditional" republican political ideals, and that's the what matters to the voters.

Or also because they've always voted R, and Biden= socialism (which is worse than satan worship according to some people's moral codes..), or Biden= Let our cites get burnt down by rioters. This goes back to the, it's easier to vote against someone than for someone. And now that I put this all in words, this second justification is probably what I heard the most during trumps 4 years, some peoples defense of trump always came down to, "but hillary would be way worse". Some level of cognitive dissonance definitely plays into it.

Also having some subset of the population support a populist, pathologically lying sociopath is not necessarily a new or uniquely American problem. It's just that the problems seem to be amplified when they are American, cuz everyone is watching.

That isn't nearly as clear as it seems, because of the incentives the electoral college creates.

Republicans could pick up a lot more votes in places like California or New York if they had any reason to try, but none of those votes help them if they can't flip the state. Spending resources campaigning in California so that it goes to the Democrats by 54 to 46 instead 65 to 35 is a losing strategy, so they don't.

But then that's why the popular vote numbers come out the way they do. If you actually abolished the electoral college, suddenly the foregone conclusion states would matter, everybody's campaign strategy would change and so would all the numbers.

The people the electoral college actually underrepresents are the people of California and Massachusetts. But also Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, etc. The people it overrepresents are the people of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. The swing states. Because they're the only people whose vote can plausibly change the outcome, so they're the only people whose concerns politicians care to address.

Which means you can pretty easily end up in a situation where people from deep red states feel underrepresented, because in practice they are. The same as the people from deep blue states.

These are people who are nominally on his side, angry that he's no longer carrying water for Trump.