Twitter user Douglass Mackey sentenced to 7 months in prison after being found guilty of election interference for making memes disparaging Hillary

[JustOneWay]

Humor.

Im starting to see the problem now.

The only problem is he deserved a longer sentence.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

Juries never get things wrong?

That’s besides the point. A jury reviewed the evidence and the charges and voted to convict. They could certainly all be wrong. You haven’t shown that they are though.

What special insight do you have to say otherwise?

 

[GoldenBoy89]

I knew it! You have no comeback to the inescapable reasoning that is "yes".

No comment on skirting the forum rules either.

 

[Hazelelponi]

At this point it just seems like arguing for the sake of it since I'll never change.

But if you're going after the political right for making memes, then you need to jail people on the left for the same behavior.

So far, what most people are seeing is a justice system that is no longer blind, but offers different treatment for those who are at least more likely to vote Democrat. And the difference is glaring.

That said, I know conservatives are now second class citizens and such, but it's still seems wrong to jail people for making memes.

That will always remain my stance and there's no changing it... So I wish everyone good luck calling people out on the other side of the fence and cheering their jail sentences while ignoring your own.

As a besides, I don't think the left-wingers deserve jail for making memes either... But since we're throwing the political right in jail, I'll jump up and down demanding equal treatment.

 

[JustOneWay]

then you need to jail people on the left for the same behavior.

Please point out people on the left who illegally did the same thing so we can get them put in prison. Seriously, if there are others who did the same crime, point them out. Otherwise abandon the whataboutism.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

At this point it just seems like arguing for the sake of it since I'll never change.

But if you're going after the political right for making memes, then you need to jail people on the left for the same behavior.

So far, what most people are seeing is a justice system that is no longer blind, but offers different treatment for those who are at least more likely to vote Democrat. And the difference is glaring.

That said, I know conservatives are now second class citizens and such, but it's still seems wrong to jail people for making memes.

That will always remain my stance and there's no changing it... So I wish everyone good luck calling people out on the other side of the fence and cheering their jail sentences while ignoring your own.

As a besides, I don't think the left-wingers deserve jail for making memes either... But since we're throwing the political right in jail, I'll jump up and down demanding equal treatment.

You really truly believe this was all over a meme, don’t you? Like, the fact that there was a conscious effort to defraud people into casting a vote that went nowhere doesn’t even figure into this at all for you, does it? That deliberate actions were taken to make this seem as legitimate as possible so as to deceive and essentially deprive people of their constitutional right to vote.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

No, it means that I’m genuinely amused at those responses. And not surprised how this thread went.

I guess I don't understand your angle on this one.

"Not surprised at how this thread went", what's that supposed to mean?

It was presented as "guy gets sentenced to jail for making a meme"...given it's a debate thread, several members (myself included...and mind you, I have many skirmishes with left-leaners here on CF, it's not like I'm playing buddy-buddy with them here) went and looked up the actual details and found it to be a "not as advertised" situation.

If very misleading information is posted and someone looks up the facts and calls it out, what's there to be surprised about?



If I started a thread claiming "Man gets arrested simply for doing internet research" (citing only links that lack necessary context and make utterly false statements), and others were quick to point out "hey, as it turns out, what he was looking at was illegal images", I can't feign confidence/arrogance and say "haha, yep, this is exactly how I knew this would turn out" like I "won" the debate or "owned" the other side or something...

 

[Hazelelponi]

You really truly believe this was all over a meme, don’t you? Like, the fact that there was a conscious effort to defraud people into casting a vote that went nowhere doesn’t even figure into this at all for you, does it? That deliberate actions were taken to make this seem as legitimate as possible so as to deceive and essentially deprive people of their constitutional right to vote.im

There were memes going around telling Trump supporters to cast their votes via text too... I even shared one with my husband on Facebook because I thought it was funny and wanted him to see it too...

I never saw the right wing one but I heard someone on the right answered the lefts meme with one...

They are just jokes, the people I know find the humor in them and go about our lives...

But whether at one another or at ourselves, humor is necessary to life... I'm pretty sure even neanderthals laughed.

Why do you think the one major thing the people lack in every single dystopian film or book is humor?

I'm very sure no one defrauded or attempted to defraud anyone. I never will believe that.

 

[YorkieGal]

Elon Musk point of view

 

[ThatRobGuy]

There were memes going around telling Trump supporters to cast their votes via text too... I even shared one with my husband on Facebook because I thought it was funny and wanted him to see it too...

I never saw the right wing one but I heard someone on the right answered the lefts meme with one...

They are just jokes, the people I know find the humor in them and go about our lives...

But whether at one another or at ourselves, humor is necessary to life... I'm pretty sure even neanderthals laughed.

Why do you think the one major thing the people lack in every single dystopian film or book is humor?

I'm very sure no one defrauded or attempted to defraud anyone. I never will believe that.

According to the official report, there were actually ~5,000 people who got tricked by it (based on the SMS traffic they traced).

In the case of this guy, it also doesn't help his case that there were communications showing that it wasn't intended to be a joke.

Social Media Influencer Douglass Mackey Convicted of Election Interference in 2016 Presidential Race

“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent...

www.justice.gov

When someone is sending out communications to the effect of "stressing the importance of limiting Black voter turnout" leading up to the event.

That aside, there's certain things you're not allowed to make jokes about.

If I send out an image encouraging people to phone in phony bomb threats to facilities representing something I didn't like (and they pulled my message history and found messages that establish a definite nefarious intent), when I get caught, I can't simply proclaim "April Fools! I wasn't serious...what, you're arresting me over a joke???"

 

[ThatRobGuy]

View attachment 337978

Elon Musk point of view

I like Elon, and I give him the benefit of the doubt more than others do...

However, our legal system isn't structured around the concept of "did it end up having the desired impact?".

There's a reason why just about every major crime has a lesser "attempted XYZ" counterpart that's still criminalized.

If I attempt to rob a liquor store and fail, and it doesn't impact the store owner's bottom line, that doesn't matter, it's still called "attempted" robbery and punished accordingly.

 

[YorkieGal]

I like Elon, and I give him the benefit of the doubt more than others do...

However, our legal system isn't structured around the concept of "did it end up having the desired impact?".

There's a reason why just about every major crime has a lesser "attempted XYZ" counter part.

If I attempt to rob a liquor store and fail, and it doesn't impact the store owner's bottom line, that doesn't matter, it's still called "attempted" robbery and punished accordingly.

Fair assessment re: legal concept but the point Elon was making is that one party got away with actually doing something and causing interference and another got prison for 'planning' to do something which ended up having no demonstrable impact at all.

As I said earlier, our justice system seems to be aligned to one side at the minute and that is a scary place to be as a nation.

One day, any of us could be on the 'wrong side' and there is not going to be a legitimate justice system to be upheld if we keep tribalism alive as a way to align ourselves with a government who is against everyone and a system which is for no one.

The fact people cheer this kind of thing on is really quite naïve and despicable.

 

[USincognito]

But is sarcasm a crime? Again pretty shaky ground...

When are we jailing the Babylon Bee people? The employees of the Onion?

Who's after that? Sarcasm is sarcasm... It's dark humor.

We've lost the ability to get a grip is what we've done, when we jail people for sarcasm.

Let me know when Babylon Bee or the Onion targets a demographic and tells them they can vote via text message. Then your "it was just satire" defense will be worth addressing.

 

[USincognito]

It’s funny that so many think it’s voter suppression.

Nah, what's really funny is all Donald's ardent believers calling the legal proceedings against an accused criminal "election interference".

 

[USincognito]

Or copying election data from sensitive election systems?

No! That's different because, reasons.

 

[USincognito]

You got it!

Glad I got the reference. Still don't understand how it relates to the topic.

 

[USincognito]

I think it's worth pointing out that this was a jury trial. The jury was not (merely) shown memes. They heard testimony of how the guilty party conspired to influence the election. And convicted him.

No! That's not true! A Soros paid DA shopped this case to an Obama appointed judge who unilaterally imposed this sentence on a political prisoner.

(For the conservatives here ^^^ is sarcasm.)

 

[DaisyDay]

Yes, I love the idea of memes putting people in prison! More of this, please! Chinese and Korean governments are no longer just for the Chinese and Korean

Fraud isn't so clever.

 

[USincognito]

I know. Crazy how the Left is siding with the DOJ.

And there it is again. "The left hates law and order because they love crime, especially in blue big cities, so if they don't hate the DOJ they're hypocritical" which is hilariously discordant with, "the DOJ is corruptly in the tank for Dems which is why they're persecuting conservatives".

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Fair assessment re: legal concept but the point Elon was making is that one party got away with actually doing something and causing interference and another got prison for 'planning' to do something which ended up having no demonstrable impact at all.

As I said earlier, our justice system seems to be aligned to one side at the minute and that is a scary place to be as a nation.

One day, any of us could be on the 'wrong side' and there is not going to be a legitimate justice system to be upheld if we keep tribalism alive as a way to align ourselves with a government who is against everyone and a system which is for no one.

The fact people cheer this kind of thing on is really quite naïve and despicable.

That's actually a separate conversation...

But for the record, I was critical of the fact that government actors were putting, what I felt, was pressure on social media outlets to hide the NY Post story.

That being said, someone opting not to allow something on a platform isn't the same as taking a proactive dishonest action.

For instance, if I was someone who was against concealed carry, there's a huge difference between
"I'm not going publish/advertise what the process is because I don't want people to do it"
vs.
"I'm going to blast text 50,000 people and falsely tell them that there's constitutional carry in their jurisdiction (when there isn't) so that they get in trouble"


Or perhaps a better way to boil it down to its base elements:
It's the difference between refusing to talk about something vs. lying. (our legal system makes that distinction too)