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The unfounded belief that the election was stolen from President Donald Trump has for months been festering in San Diego.
“Stop the Steal” rallies, marked by a party-like atmosphere, plainly illustrated a determined resolve to keep Trump in power.
The conspiracy theory was further nurtured online, and the ultra-conservative One America News Network pushed it to a national audience from its San Diego studios.
So it came as no surprise to many that San Diego found itself in the national spotlight this past week, spurred by the shooting death of an Ocean Beach woman who was at the front of a pro-Trump mob that tore its way into the U.S. Capitol.
Since losing both the Electoral College and popular vote to Joe Biden in November s presidential election, Trump has doggedly pushed the bogus narrative that a second term in the White House was stolen from him as a result of mass voter fraud despite his legal team, led by Rudy Giuliani, failing to find any evidence to prove his conspiracy theories and losing more than 60 local court cases in the process.
Having promised his supporters a wild rally in DC to protest against the official certification of the election results in a joint session of Congress, the US president duly riled up the crowd last Wednesday by again refusing to concede and reciting his menu of lies, sparking the chaos that ensued and left five dead.
Bias, outrage and extremism percolate in partisan information bubbles
FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, a supporter of President Donald Trump gathers to protest in solidarity in Salem, Ore. Statehouses where Trump loyalists have rallied since the Nov. 3 election are heightening security after the storming of the U.S. Capitol this week. Police agencies in a number of states are monitoring threats of violence as legislatures return to session and as the nation prepares for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Paula.
Newsmax has made inroads by capitalizing on conservative frustration with Fox News. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford
Those cheering the creeping censorship are oblivious to their own threat.
As the world sits back and watches the reverberations of the President becoming routinely de-platformed by social media companies there is a very unsettling trend rising today. A number of people and outlets who are media figures those who not only are supported by but rely upon freedom of expression are actively supporting the silencing of the President.
Twitter gave a statement to explain why it completely disbanded President Trump’s account. The examples given had zero provocation to violence, but the company insisted there was enough subtext to be interpreted as a call for violence as big of a stretch as can be imagined. This was met by far more support than criticism from many in media circles.