Before you get all excited over Twitter permanently suspending Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account, remember that she still has her congressional account. Perhaps the only way to strip her of that is to kick her out of Congress. I apologize for using “strip” and “Marjorie Taylor Greene” in the same sentence. Nobody should have to read that first thing in the morning.

Twitter has a policy it enforces the same way the rest of social media enforces its policies. Sometimes. As someone who’s been slapped around by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and even LinkedIn of all places, I understand the frustration. Sometimes I’ll have something removed with a message that equates to “you did something bad,” without knowing what bad thing it was I had committed. When social media yells at me, it usually accuses me of hate speech for the act of criticizing hate speech. It’s ironic when a social media platform removes your post waging a battle against hate speech and in doing so, inadvertently protects Nazis. I hope it’s inadvertently. In case you’re a Republican, “inadvertently” means you didn’t mean to do that, which is the opposite of you attempting to destroy democracy.

My posts are usually only removed when I anger the social media gods, with no other repercussions. But I did have a suspension on Facebook for several days because of one cartoon criticizing the Taliban over its treatment of women. Over the following days, several other cartoonists did the same cartoon (while telling me it wasn’t the same cartoon) and Facebook didn’t touch any of those. I guess mine was better. In this case, Facebook protected the Taliban. Of course, during my ban, social media continued to make money off hate groups.

And then there’s Instagram. Ooh, don’t get me started on Instagram. Too late. I’ve started on Instagram. I drew a cartoon comparing the anti-gay policies of the nation of Brunei to Chick-fil-A.
it’s a tiny little oil-rich country on the island of Borneo that’s governed by an absolute Islamic monarchy. Basically, it’s just one guy who collects palaces, Roll Royces, and wives. Chick-fil-A is a chicken restaurant that’s closed on Sundays because it’s controlled by religious zealots who use their chicken profits to fund anti-homosexual hate groups. But I hear they have excellent lemonade. One of these two places created a new law giving a death sentence for committing homosexual acts. I can’t remember which.

I don’t know who I pissed off more, Brunei or the chicken fuckers. But Instagram deleted my account. Now here’s the good part: I appealed and Instagram reversed their decision and told me they had made a mistake. Why, that cartoon wasn’t hate speech after all and they hoped there weren’t any hard feelings. Now here’s the really bad part: They never restored my account. After trying repeatedly to have their platform restore it, I gave up and started a new one (it’s claytoonz2.0). But, my new one only has a teeny-tiny fraction of followers the old one had. My old one had around 7,000 while the new one has 340. Dammit, Robert Reich had shared one of my cartoons from the old account and got me a buttload of followers. How do I convince him to do that again?

Another funny aspect of this is that Instagram is owned by Facebook and there are days one platform is angry with a cartoon while the other doesn’t care. It’s like Mom saying “over my dead body” while Dad says, “sure, go snorkeling with piranhas.” Also, anytime I get a cartoon removed, readers share it and they’re not touched by social media…usually. There have been times a reader told me they got a slap on the wrist for sharing one of my cartoons for criticizing the KKK. Social media is very inconsistent because, throughout all this, Marjorie Taylor Greene has been using social media platforms to spread debunked conspiracy theories like Trump won the election, the white nationalist insurrection for Trump at the Capitol, Covid is a hoax, Jewish space lasers start California wildfires, Matt Gaetz will never be on the registered sex offender list, and that vaccines are killing people.

Twitter has a policy that you can lie four times about Covid-19. After that, anything can happen. Hell, they might let you keep lying. How many lies did Donald Trump tweet before Twitter kicked him off their platform?

How many lies can I tell about Matt Gaetz before I get permanently suspended? Did you know Matt Gaetz’s penis looks like Quagmire from the cartoon Family Guy? Yeah, when it comes out of the zipper, it says “giggity.”

Anyway, the final straw for MTG was that tweeted to her 465,000 followers that vaccines are killing people. She had 465,000 followers? I wonder how many of those were Russian bots.

After receiving the Twitter smackdown, Greene issued a statement saying, “Social media platforms can’t stop the truth from being spread far and wide. Big Tech can’t stop the truth. Communist Democrats can’t stop the truth. I stand with the truth and the people. We will overcome!”

First off, MTG using an MLK statement is so wrong on so many levels. Why do white nationalists love quoting Martin Luther King Jr? You don’t see vegetarians quoting Colonel Sanders (hey, two chicken franchises referenced in one blog. I’ve really been hankering for some fried chicken lately).

Also, white conservative Christians still have this faux victimization going on. From being banned for spreading hate and conspiracy theories on social media to the war on Christmas to being forced to confront their own history of hate and oppression, white folks have it hard. And do you remember how mean everyone was to MTG over her casually screaming at her colleagues through their mail slots?

MTG issued another statement boo-hooing over being suspended by Twitter.

This time, the lunatic posted, “Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out Black Lives Matter terrorists on Twitter, CNN and the rest of the Democrat Propaganda Media can spread Russia collusion lies, and just yesterday the Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani, but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics. Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth. That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies. They can’t successfully complete a Communist revolution when people tell the truth. Social media platforms can’t stop the truth from being spread far and wide. Big Tech can’t stop the truth. Communist Democrats can’t stop the truth.I stand with the truth and the people. We will overcome! Follow me on GETTR, Telegram, and Gab immediately to continue to hear the truth about the Communist revolution in America.”

That statement was posted on Facebook.

Music note: I turned on the music when I started coloring the birds because that shit was tedious. I listened to Nirvana and Keith Whitley. Weird combo, right?

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 18 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

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