this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
1290 points (97.7% liked)
Political Memes
5341 readers
3774 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Being accused of committing a crime is what triggers criminal legal proceedings. Many people commit crimes and get away with it because they have no accusers. Many others are defendants who are accused, but did not actually commit any crime. I'm not saying that Trump didn't commit crimes (it's pretty obvious that he did), but I am pointing out that it is the accusation and being formally charged that causes one to be prosecuted. In my mind, it's an important distinction.
Fair point, and a good elaboration. That dovetails with my thinking, too. If a house gets robbed and there's no evidence who did it, we still call it a crime, even without a conviction in court. If we accuse somebody of it, that's a good use of "accused criminal" in the colloquial sense.
I probably should have elaborated further in my first comment. The average Fediverse user seems to be highly reactionary, and I shouldn't have assumed that people would read deeper into what I was trying to say.