It is fun to say this only works because trump is weak. And… there is an argument that most candidates can’t be directly spoken to by playing an ad on fox news.

But just ask any youtuber or otherwise popular e-celebrity. When someone makes a hate video about you? That hits hard. I have a LOT of problems with John “TotalBiscuit” Bain’s actions and legacy but he hit the nail on the head with (paraphrasing): You might have no body image issues. But then someone says your nose is big. And that is going to stick with you all day.

And the ad that specifically triggered the C&D? That was straight up gaslighting. Not “I don’t like you” gaslighting but fucking with someone’s head to isolate them and make them think everyone is out to get them. And everyone is susceptible to that. Hell, we as consumers/watchers are susceptible to that.

Again, it is really hard for me to give a shit about anything that is done to a hateful insurrectionist rapist. But this also feels like the kind of thing we need to pass legislature to protect against like… next year.

The closest man-child I can come up with would be Elon Musk, and even he’s (mostly) too busy to obsess over this kind of thing

Au contraire. He’s as thin skinned as Drumpf. One of the main reasons he bought Twitter was to silence his critical there