We’re living in a Bananas Republic. That’s how I describe a corrupt oligarchy that has as a bonus gone insane.  

What do I mean?

In a banana republic … a strongman takes power. In a bananas republic, a president is installed who thinks he was running for the Senate.

In a banana republic … the powerful elites conspire to do away with the man of the people. In a bananas republic, the powerful elites conspire to remove a man of the people … days before he’s already set to return to a life of riches and leisure.

In a banana republic … elections get stolen. In a bananas republic, the media spends years reporting on how easy it is to steal elections with electronic voting machines. Then they scream “insurrectionist!” when someone actually suggests you check out those same machines after an election.

Only in a bananas republic is the slogan “Where We Go One, We Go All” (another way of saying E Pluribus Unum) considered hate speech. It gets you banned from Twitter. But talk like “Eat the Rich,” “A.C.A.B” (All Cops are Bastards) and “Fry Them Like Bacon”? That gets you your own Black Lives Matter Plaza right outside the presidential palace.

The Twitter Purge

“Where We Go One We Go All” is the slogan of the QAnon community. On Monday, Twitter confirmed that it had booted 70,000 who share Q-related material from its platform. Now, I know some people think the QAnon business is nutty.

I mean, who would ever believe that there’s an elite international ring of child sex traffickers catering to princes and presidents … when Ghislaine Maxwell the elite jet-setting friend of Prince Andrew and President Bill Clinton sits in prison for international child sex trafficking.

What could be more crazy than thinking that Deep State actors teaming with powerful global interests are conspiring to control freedom-loving Americans … when Deep State actors are at the moment teaming with Google and Facebook to silence freedom-loving Americans?

Sarcasm aside, I admit there are elements of Q that are waaaay out there. And some interpreters of the Q posts get it wrong and go over the line.

However, here’s the bananas republic thing about Twitter’s move: Q posts celebrate America. Q posts decry violence. The media repeatedly tells us that Q does not really exist. And yet Q followers get banned. Meanwhile, ANTIFA wants to overthrow America. ANTIFA celebrates violence. ANTIFA organizes daily to deliver that violence. In fact, just yesterday, ANTIFA marched through NYC like storm troopers declaring the streets theirs. And Joe Biden calls ANTIFA an “idea” and Rep. Jerry Nadler calls them a “myth.”

Yet, ANTIFA gets to run wild on social media.

Who Bans Whom?

Let’s add some more bananas. Twitter is using the Capitol incident as justification for the purge of Q types and other conservatives.

BLM, Inc. activists viciously attempted to breach the White House this summer, laying waste to the Nation’s Capital. Sitting on the board of BLM is Susan Rosenberg. She is a terrorist found guilty of actually bombing the U.S. Capitol. She was sprung from her 50 year prison sentence by President Clinton at the urging of … wait for it … Jerry Nadler.

Fact: House Judiciary Committee Chairman @RepJerryNadler got President Clinton to pardon terrorist Susan Rosenberg, who planted a bomb outside the US Senate chamber in 1983 to try to assassinate Republican senators. pic.twitter.com/5AaKYao5FK

— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) January 9, 2021

So “Where We Go One We Go All” = bad.  “We Go BOOM!” = good. 

Then Twitter Came for Me

Of course, Twitter is not only purging the QAnon community. You’re seeing hundreds of thousands of people suddenly gone. Conservative voices are losing followers faster than Taylor Swift loses boyfriends. Folks who wouldn’t know QAnon from a Q-Tip.

And folks like me. Yes, I, too, have been suspended from Twitter for reasons not explained.

I’m actually proud as a peacock. Bemused by the absurdity. Because what could be more bananas than Twitter thinking a lapsed comedy writer is more dangerous to the republic than terrorist leaders, dictators and Madonna?

China boasts about sterilizing its Uyghur slaves. And I’m the one off Twitter?

Chris “Fredo” Cuomo wonders “where does it say protests have to be peaceful?” And I’m the one off Twitter?

Kathy Griffin re-posts her picture with Donald Trump’s severed head. And I’m the one off Twitter?!

Writing Well Is the Best Revenge

Fortunately, I’ve been very lazy about building a Twitter following and smart-aleck responses to stupid media and politician tweets has not been the most constructive use of my time. So, overall, it’s no great loss. I’m no John Zmirak.

Still, what is the result? I am far more determined to build up my Gab and Parler and MeWe. And frankly, to be much more a pain in the butt on Twitter if and when I’m reinstated.

Because although one has to fight a banana republic, one cannot resist fighting and making fun of a bananas republic.

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl on Twitter (if reinstated), and @StreamingAl at Parler (when they return) and Gab and MeWe.