Social media is a magical place, full of whimsy and good times. Except, that is, for the horribly broken people who yearn to be as miserable as possible, many of whom focus almost solely on politics (Note: I'm not saying that all purely political accounts are run by miserable people but I'm not not saying it).
The worst offenders of the Perpetually Miserable Club (I would have called it the "Perpetually Miserable Society" but a member of that club would have called me sexist) are the ones who appear to exist solely to play "Gotcha!" politics on mass communication platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter. Take, for example, the account "PatriotTakes."
It is named like it should be a MAGA account. After all, who wouldn't want patriotic takes from the Internet? However, the name is meant to mock conservatives and, in particular, Trump and Trump supporters. The people behind the account do their best to try and paint the right in the worst possible light. Sometimes, they are successful, but their audience is similarly broken social media users who also hate Trump, so they're not shattering the political landscape by posting out-of-context quotes, stories, and videos.
Sometimes, though, their desire to post the "most damaging" stuff is so blatantly out-of-context that only the brain-dead could fall for it. For those of you in the comment section, I'll pause here so you can go ahead and start typing out your sassy comments about the left and brain-dead people.
Normally, I try to be a little more serious on the pages of RedState these days, but this is absolutely absurd.
In an Oval Office meeting with the Italian Prime Minister, Trump gave a quick update on the shooting at Florida State University. Toward the end of his comment, Trump said, "It's a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place." The PatriotTakes account lopped off the first part of that comment.
Trump on the FSU Student Union school shooting: “Things like this take place” pic.twitter.com/e1jvO6ltWv
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) April 17, 2025
It's so egregious because if you watch the video that PatriotTakes posted, the full quote is there. They didn't creatively edit it. Frankly, I'd have more respect for them (though not much) if they had tried to put effort into their dishonesty. But nope! They were lazy as hell.
As expected, the Trump team was quick to point out how egregiously out of context their post was.
Why didn't you include President Trump's full quote?
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 17, 2025
"It's a horrible thing — horrible that things like this take place."pic.twitter.com/R6WyPYbmMG https://t.co/LU0g4z63n7
And yet, as dumb as the post was, and as easily discredited as it became within minutes of going live, the damage was already done. The original clip racked up thousands of shares before most users had a chance to see the full quote. That’s the point of accounts like PatriotTakes—not to inform, not to clarify, but to flood the zone with nonsense in hopes that just enough of it sticks before the truth catches up.
This is the perpetual problem with politically weaponized social media: the truth is never the goal. Engagement is. Outrage is. And if the facts get trampled in the process? So be it. That’s why it’s important not just to call it out, but to make a point of remembering it the next time these folks try to lecture the rest of us about “misinformation.” Because once again, they’ve shown they’re not fighting misinformation—they’re manufacturing it.
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