Video Shorts (and a note) 206: Lincoln’s Ghost – A Diplomatic Disaster Waiting to Happen

In a first for me, the video below was automatically removed from TikTok for “violent extremism.”**

In case you’re afraid to watch, it’s a podcast clip from Show 871, light heartedly suggesting that the White House, by putting Winston Churchill (British World War II prime minister) in the haunted Lincoln bedroom instead of a non haunted alternative, could have risked a diplomatic incident. (Continues under video)

Churchill reportedly described getting out of the bath naked, to be greeted by the sight of long deceased U.S. President Lincoln (RIP) in the room. He reportedly said something along the lines of “Good evening Mr Lincoln, you have me at a disadvantage.” Lincoln then smiled and disappeared.

As a responsible purveyor of stream-of-consciousness monologular humour I, of course, gave counterpoint time to the possiblity Churchill might have taken offence had he NOT been offered the haunted room – perhaps it would have been viewed it as a snub.

**UPDATE:
My best guess is a brief image of Adolf Hitler, which is in fact a close up of a stock video clip of the front of his book, was assumed to be an endorsement. I used this clip once before and zoomed in better on the photo so the book wasn’t visible. My stock clips are from Vizard, a service used by many podcesters to create video for their shareable audio clips.

Rest assured I do not, nor have I ever had, any desire to promote Mein Kampf. If I did, I hope I’d have been considerate enough to provide an audiobook option, for my fellow vision impaired users.

TikTok’s system automatically deemed it to be “violent extremism” – YouTube and Instagrammer seem to be fine with it. I didn’t see any reason until I had used up my one appeal opportuntiy. While violent extremist seems to me a very serious allegation, it turns out it just means if I do it one more time I get a warning.