The whole world became a small village, and if we like it or not, we can participate – at least mentally – in what people are concerned with in far distant places. I have to admit that I am almost addicted to CNN, albeit it is produced in the US, and appart from covering domestic topics, its international focus is mainly Asia and Africa.
Anyhow, one learns a lot from it. And it is simply of an high standard of journalism. Yesterday by chance I was following the US senat hearing of the new candidate for the supreme court. The guy nominated by the GOP is Brett Kavanaugh, and he is notorious for his ultra-conservative, pro NRA, anti immigrational, anti abortion and evangelical agenda. This guy is really disgusting.
But yesterday a democrats senator (Dick Durbin of Illinois) had 30 min to grill Kavanaugh, and he did it with the highest rhetoric and political skills. I was so impressed by the elder man, by his way of reasoning, by his stretgic talent in the debate, by his deeply routed, most honest democratic spirit, that I decided to write on his Twitter page some supportive words (see below). Of course I was not the only one, but maybe the only German. Hundreds of twitter messsages came in during senator Durbins appearance, including many many hateful ones (from neo-cons and pro-Trump rednecks, I guess). I was pretty convinced that here I was standing on the right side of history.
But today, I retrospectively began to feel guilty: Am I, as a foreigner, allowed to express my opinion on US domestic issues, using social media ?? FBI, CIA, media in the US all investigate potential meddling of foreign powers in their elections. Its a big concern their, and maybe they also have in mind people like me. So with my anti-Kavanaugh and pro-democratic tweets, I influenced at least 4 US citizens (which “liked” my tweets). Have I done something wrong ? Will they arrest me the next time I travel to the US ?
