
Paul Graham retweeted and liked Trump's tweet with phrase “China Virus” - druml
https://imgur.com/a/ctE8rCd
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dekhn
So what? I'm gonna guess he wanted to amplify the photo of a mask-wearing
Trump, not the China Virus.

Are we supposed to "cancel" somebody just because they like a tweet?

~~~
onyva
Hmm... what if trump said the “Jewish virus” like other Neo Nazis, in Germany,
are now suggesting? Would that be too much for you?

~~~
dekhn
China is a location (which is currently the one believed to be the origin of
the virus), while Jew is an ethnicity/religious affiliation with no
statistical association with the disease. So while Trump's use of terms is
abhorrent, I don't think that comparison is realistic.

(I wouldn't cancel anybody for liking a tweet by Neo Nazis; I'd just
incorporate that into whether I would want to work with them or support them
in the future).

~~~
druml
There is a context in the original tweet.

Trump had repetitively used the term "Chinese Virus" since the pandemic.
Quoting _the Conversation_ [1]

> The expressions “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus” personify the threat...The
> adjective “Chinese” is particularly problematic as it associates the
> infection with an ethnicity. Talking about group identities withan
> explicitly medical language is a recognized process of Othering (here and
> here), historically used in anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy, including
> toward Chinese immigrants in North America. This type of language stokes
> anxiety, resentment, fear and disgust toward people associated with that
> group.

In this particular tweet, Trump used the term "China Virus" instead of
"Chinese Virus". Following the development of the recent events, it is very
clear that such a term still ties to people of an ethnicity, or people of a
location, instead of, say, just a location. The dismiss of the comparison is
weak.

> So what? I'm gonna guess he wanted to amplify the photo of a mask-wearing
> Trump, not the China Virus.

Even if pg's intend was just to amplify the photo of a mask-wearing Trump, the
fact that he liked and retweed a message inciting hatred is beyond
disappointing.

[1] [https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-chinese-virus-
the-...](https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-chinese-virus-the-politics-
of-naming-136796)

edited: add link

