As a journalist I know that the old adage "Retweet ≠ endorsement" disclaimer on your Twitter account only goes so far. For instance, if you are not only retweeting but agreeing with a person, and that person is spreading racial hatred, the disclaimer begins to sound a lot like the "I was just following orders" mantra that creeps into the language of a lot of people who are doing very bad things.
And so today Donald Trump's Twitter account not only retweeted an obvious white supremacist, it spread a meme by an account that has a well-known racist slogan in its Twitter handle.
Who is "WhiteGenocideTM", AKA "Donald Trumpovitz"? Just the top section of his Twitter page shows several obvious signs that this lowlife should not be promoted by a man who says he is qualified to be President of the United states. From the "get the fuck out of my country" banner, to a tweet about how Jews "do not belong in the movement," to a profile picture that seems to indicate that this man thinks Trump may be Hitler-esque which is why he's worthy of supporting, it should have been immediately obvious to Trump or whoever is running his campaign that this is not the kind of person you give an RT to.
Let's just take a look at some of WhiteGenocideTM's recent tweets, shall we (screen captured so they won't go away):
I'm sure a deep-dive of this account, which may or may not be too much to ask of any candidate, would find even more vile stuff, but the point here is that just a quick glance at this Twitter account, or even the handle "White Genocide," should have clued Trump's people into realizing the nature of this account.
So here's the question: was this a reckless accidental promotion of white supremacy, or the deliberate promotion of it? I think the answer is obvious, but either option is unacceptable.
-- James Miller
