Politics - News Analysis

Twitter Explodes Over Ex-NFL Star’s Tweet: ‘I’d Rather Pay $20 a Gallon than Have Trump as President’

Often, when we cover viral tweets and the messages therein, it’s either because they are just funny entertainment, some are so stupid or so funny they need to be appreciated by a bigger audience. Sometimes we cover ones that enrage people and the responses to the tweet. Usually, those touch on a topic that we consider somewhat sacred, such as the obvious need for science. But we don’t normally cover tweets that split sides but, for which, there might not be a wrong “side” on which to be, one where both sides have good points.

So, when one comes along, one that is nearly everywhere on Twitter, it’s probably worth providing to our readers.

Shannon Sharpe is an ex-NFL wide receiver, a very good one. He is also a great communicator with quick wit and an intellectual. He was hired to be a host/analyst on one of the NFL networks. He is very wealthy. He is also black. He hates Donald Trump.

No one hates Donald Trump for one reason alone so it would be ridiculous to say that Shannon Sharpe hates Trump solely for his racism. We’re sure there are big policy differences, too. There are a ton of reasons to hate Trump. But there is no policy reason to think that Trump or any president has anything to do with gas prices given it’s a global commodity.

So that makes this rather simple appearing (at first) tweet a little “off.”

Okay, really quick and rather obvious issues.

One, there are a lot of us that truly don’t care about the price of gas with respect to Trump. We would happily pay more (of a realistic price) of $5 a gallon than have Trump back as president. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who don’t have much money, who have to drive a lot, either to or from work, or whatever, and the price of gas can impact them maybe up to $150-200 a month, maybe more. And maybe they don’t have it.

So, on the one hand, there is the very real point that Trump was so awful we would endure damn near anything (e.g. I’d be happy to be obligated to pick up trash on the side of the highway for four hours a week to keep Trump out of the White House and Biden in.) There is the other obvious problem that if one is wealthy enough, the price of gas is truly irrelevant. If Sharpe had to pay $250 to fill his tank, he wouldn’t notice any loss. So it’s easy to say, and many on the right jumped on that.

But the single biggest problem with that tweet is that it creates or reinforces the idea that the president has anything to do with the price of gas, with the possible exception of placing a ban on Russian oil. But, having discovered mass graves in Ukraine filled with totally innocent civilians shot in the back of the head, executed, one would have to be one of the sickest people on earth to still be willing to give Putin money to help his effort. Besides, the embargo on Russian oil may raise the price fifty cents, not two dollars. And, Biden released the strategic oil reserves for six months to make up for that amount we’d be exporting.

*Pause before tweets. Republicans voted against the continuation of the $300 per young child, $250 for kids supplement. That program would go a long way to cover gas for a single mom with two kids, obviously. 

So the shots began from all sides and we admit, some MAGAs made the right point, but then went right back to being MAGAs – typical one here:

Shannon Sharpe does care about Americans’ suffering because of gas prices. See above. His point was exclusive to him, he didn’t consider (but should have) the message it would send, that he doesn’t care about the poor. So the tweet above ignores what Sharpe was really saying and then references Biden’s gas prices. Perhaps this person would enjoy another pandemic, a different disease, no vaccine, keeping people at home again, and gas going back to $1.90 as they were under Trump? Trump didn’t make gas prices go down, COVID did. Why doesn’t this person care about the American people suffering?

On to the racism:

Racism goes so far beyond “hurt feelings” that one wants this person to suffer a bit.

He is not miserable and nothing about his tweet says anything about making others miserable, he was talking about himself and made a mistake in the analogy. And we have no problem imagining hating a man that much because we at this site do and we see a whole bunch of stuff that is more than hateful toward Biden, a man who Republicans used to even love.

As below, many people understood.

And then there is just “hateful MAGA” – the type that can’t grasp words strong enough to describe their hatred.

“Human.”

So, there’s the viral stuff. The last we looked it had about 5,000 replies. If interested in more replies, just tap Shannon’s tweet and you’re off and running.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak with Nicole Hickman

 

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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