Mayor McSelfie takes on local Twitterati…

1:57 PM EST on January 4, 2023

Although I don’t use Twitter as much as I did in the past, I still like to occasionally use the platform to troll Oklahoma City mayor David Holt, or as we affectionately call him – Mayor McSelfie

Whether we’re lampooning him for taking bad pics of food, chasing celebrities for photographs, and bragging about his national media appearances – or knocking him for cozying up the local ruling class, routinely avoiding discussion of important issues facing the city, and simply being one vote out of nine on the city council – we never turn down the opportunity to poke the Mayoral buttons with a selfie stick.

Knowing all that, it was a bit fun to watch him duke it out yesterday with a group of people who are equally as insufferable – the local Twitterati.

I guess Mayor Holt – a self-described moderate Republican who introduced a wide variety of draconian right-wing ALEC-inspired legislation during his time as an Oklahoma State Senator – felt the need to grandstand a bit, portray himself as a rational human, and share some thoughts on the effects of extremism in the American political ecosystem.

For example:

Both major U.S. political parties have extremists. They are extreme in their ideology and their temperament. In both cases, these true-believing extremists are a very small minority. The rest of the members have to decide to what extent they will compromise with them. 🧵
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) January 3, 2023

From there, Holt went on to ramble about how you can't compromise with extremists, how Republicans need to reject extremism like he bravely did, and how he's only focused on unity.

Surprisingly, not one of the seven tweets in his thread had anything to do with the Thunder, a hip local restaurant, or a celebrity sighting, which I think is a record for him!

Naturally, the local left-wing Twitterati wasn't a fan of his tweet.

They ignored the primary context of his thread and latched to his factual half-truth about both parties having extremists.

Eh true but the majority of republicans voted to overturn our election and blocked a bipartisan commission for 1/6 please don’t both sides this.
— charlesW1981@mastodon.sdf.org (@charlesw0781) January 3, 2023

The extreme left want a livable wage and healthcare for all. The extreme right want slaves and to own women. This is not a both sides argument.
— Girl Interrupted☮️ (@ladynurse1974) January 3, 2023

I understand what you are trying to say with your post, but your intent clearly doesn't match your impact. The opening statement clearly makes this a "both sides do it" type of post for readers. I see your point, but it comes across as less authentic due to the first sentence.
— Michael Baxter (@DrMBaxter) January 4, 2023

I'm responding to your opening statement "Both major U.S. political parties have extremists."
The Republican Party has active members (, including the current leader) who attempted to overthrow our Democracy.
You are trying to "both sides" this with your opening statement.
— Michael Baxter (@DrMBaxter) January 4, 2023

I'm responding to the "both sides" comment bc there is no comparing the 2 when it comes to extremism in the last 7 yrs. It's disingenuous & frustrating to have prominent voices conflate the 2... I appreciate the clarification bc the original msg was not accurate.
— Julia *NEW!* Gulia RN (@JuliamSoRisky) January 4, 2023

“Both sides.” Yea… the extremist on both sides are the same. 🙄 one wants to help regular, and disadvantage Americans, and take power away from oligarchs (both rep and dem oligarchs). the other wants to start a theocracy and take away democracy. Yea.. both sides.
— Syed (@smusab) January 3, 2023

I actually agree with both Mayor McSelfie and Twitterati.

Yes, both ”sides” of the political spectrum have their fair share of vocal, highly irritating, power-hungry extremists with wacko ideas who try way too hard to force their very rigid moral code and system of beliefs on everyone, and want to silence, oppress and control all those who disagree with them or stand in their way.

For what it's worth, most of these extremists are on Twitter.

And yes, a much larger share of those extremists – Christian Nationalists, Conspiracy Theory Freaks, right-wing MAGA Republicans, most Oklahoma voters, etc. – reside on the right side of the political equation, and pose a far greater threat to American democracy than the cancel culture leftists who are all for tolerance and acceptance of all humans, unless you disagree with them.

Instead of just getting good use out of his Twitter mute button, Mayor McSelfie tried to interact with the Twitter mob. To make matters worse, instead of saying "You know, maybe we're both right," he accused most folks of not reading the entire thread or understanding what we wrote:

The entire thread was focused on only one party, so I don’t see any “both sides,” but thanks for the feedback!
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) January 4, 2023

I suppose it didn’t really cross my mind that any reasonable person would believe that their political party of tens of millions of people doesn’t have even one single extremist. It didn’t strike me as a provocative opening, just a statement of objective reality.
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) January 4, 2023

Not really. The opening statement is just establishing that there is always extremism (of course there is in any group that has tens of millions of people in it) and what matters is how you handle it. (1/2)
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) January 4, 2023

I mean, the first Tweet has 400+ likes and a ton of positive feedback. You’re just saying you would have written it differently. Okay. But I write the way I write, I’ve been doing it a long time, it has worked for me, and if it’s not your style, no biggie.
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) January 4, 2023

I suppose it didn’t really cross my mind that any reasonable person would believe that their political party of tens of millions of people doesn’t have even one single extremist. It didn’t strike me as a provocative opening, just a statement of objective reality.
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) January 4, 2023

I've had my dealings with the local Twitterati over the years, but I've gotten pretty decent at ignoring, muting and blocking them. I've found that's the best way to handle Internet trolls, and now that I think about it, is probably why Mayor McSelfie never responds to any of my tweets about him.

Anyway, David Holt also made sure to respond to all the civic ass-kissers who liked his two-sides tweet with a praying hands emoji. He then squashed whatever viral controversy remained and quickly get back to his regularly scheduled Twitter programming: