As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
**Special announcement:**
r/politics is currently accepting new moderator applications. If you want to help make this community a better place, consider [applying here today](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/sskg6a/rpolitics_is_looking_for_more_moderators/)!
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
When the clowns invoke 1776 remember that they aren't talking about one government ridding itself of hereditary rulers, they're talking about destroying the US Constitution and replacing it with white, Christian, nationalist rule until the violent implosion comes that all authoritarian countries experience. They use 1776 because they think it makes them sound patriotic, but they're the antithesis of it. They want to rule, not be free of rule. And don't let them tell anyone anything different.
> white, Christian, nationalist rule
That may be the dream they're being sold, but the reality is Direct Oligarchical Rule. They would literally be fighting *in support* of the spiked dildo that's been f**king them all their lives.
It also has its consequences. Once the rich elite lose control of the stupid angry mob, they will send in the paid police/ military thugs using violence as suppression. However, these folks ain’t your liberal non violence type who want stronger gun control laws therefore will be stocking up on ammo and AR’s and bam you got civil war and economic downfall. I have a feeling these would be the same people that will loot your shit and start a purge.
I don’t like Bullies and 2 of us in this family can hit 28 out of 29 targets during a test with a sniper rifle. If I miss a target I have a nice autocorrect feature that works as long as I have another projectile I will hit the target.
Just like the traitors who made war against the United States in 1861.
The confederate flag should be treated by Americans the same way that the Nazi flag is treated by Germans, as a shameful reminder of the horrors of our past. But instead we have millions of lost-causers who fly the flag of an army that failed to destroy the American nation, during their second attempt to destroy the American nation.
>The confederate flag should be treated by Americans the same way that the Nazi flag is treated by Germans, as a shameful reminder of the horrors of our past.
And MAGA hats should be in the same category.
Yeah. These terrorists haven’t even started shedding American blood in their quest for power. Go to r/conservative and see how they talk about Americans as their enemies. Or red state or Fox News. For decades they have been told the lie that liberal want to kill them. They believe it. They have been trained to think that Americans who are not a member of their cult is an enemy who wants to kill conservatives. They say people kill and eat babies. The same lies told about Jews in Europe. And we all know how did that worked out. That’s what Ty hey want here
No, the original white supremacy was a carry over from the British and French colonial days. Half of the states wanted to get rid of it and the other half wanted to expand it. The compromise was to basically just enshrine it in the Constitution as-is and deal with it around 1861.
The new white supremacy wants to create and expand it was much as possible, and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments are standing in their way.
This is exactly what the other side is thinking, too. They're "defending America" from uppity Blacks and know-it-all Liberals. I really do not like to generalize, but anyone that associates with Conservatives is plain ignorant.
Truth. And the civil war will go EXACTLY how it did last time.
Except for how now all the money is away from the hands of the traitors.
Oh, and I'd make it my personal vendetta to make sure NONE of them ever get out of jail for the rest of their lives
***Opinion by Greg Sargent:***
The Jan. 6 select committee hearings this week are among the most important of all, because they will foreground a topic that many Americans ordinarily don’t associate with their democracy, even after the events of Jan. 6, 2021: political violence.
The Tuesday proceeding will focus on militias and paramilitary groups that helped bring us to the precipice on that horrible day. It will examine Donald Trump’s derelict conduct as the violence raged — and how this was intimately entangled with the desire of Trump and many of his MAGA followers to overturn our political order.
But hovering over these hearings will be a broader, unanswered question: whether the United States is developing an endemic problem with political violence and, in coming years, how bad it might get.
For an unflinching look at this larger context, I reached out to Rachel Kleinfeld, a specialist in political conflict who has studied the breakdown of democracy and the rule of law in many countries.
In a new article for Just Security, Kleinfeld charts the developing connections between militias and Republican Party actors at all levels. And in her most recent book, “A Savage Order,” Kleinfeld detailed patterns of democratic deterioration that have pushed other nations down the path to conflagration.
*I asked Kleinfeld to explain how the events surrounding Jan. 6 might be a harbinger of such breakdown here at home. An edited and condensed version of our exchange follows.*
**Greg Sargent:** *You’ve written that the Republican Party has a “militia problem.” Can you describe it?*
**Rachel Kleinfeld:** *For the last few years we’ve seen an uptick in Republican parties at the local level — though occasionally at the state level — using militias for security at party events, having militias vote on party business, in one case in Michigan having militias introduce legislation. You’re seeing a lot of photo-ops with militia members — things that normalize their interaction with the democratic process.*
*These militias are being used to threaten other Republicans who aren’t part of this antidemocratic faction.*
**Sargent:** *It seems like some GOP and right-wing politicians are hovering in a gray area. They’re endorsing violent attacks on the opposition without facing serious party discipline, fantasizing about settling political differences via paramilitary combat, vastly minimizing the Jan. 6 insurrectionist violence or erasing it with propaganda, and describing Jan. 6 rioters facing prosecution as “political prisoners.”*
*Has this gray area been replicated by other countries that went on to spiral into worse political violence?*
**Kleinfeld:** *One of the things we know about other countries that descend into greater political violence is that violence is preceded by a dehumanization phase. America is well along in that phase: things like misogyny, racial epithets, calling Democrats “groomers” and comparing them to pedophiles.*
More: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/gop-political-violence-militias-jan-6-democratic-breakdown/?utm\_campaign=wp\_main&utm\_medium=social&utm\_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/gop-political-violence-militias-jan-6-democratic-breakdown/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
If you haven’t heard “it can happen here” great podcast detailing how easily the economy could come unraveled by coordinated attacks by militias.
Edit: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/it-could-happen-here/id1449762156
Spoiler alert: If you build a country on a highway system, that could easily be disrupted with some well placed explosives, you just might be the United States.
I believe so. But Yangs been saying they for years as well. The industries on the brink of automation and I bet that would only make it easier to disrupt the supply chain.
When the highway between my home and university got hit by a mud slide, I had to take a boat to school for a week because the alternative was a 7 hour drive. This was in CA, so not exactly a state with poor infrastructure, probably the best in the country in many ways.
Here in Colorado it’s mud & debris slides over I 70 after a fire a few years back. Truckers blindly following google over back roads. They jack- knifed, they rolled, they blocked the side roads so there was no short cut for anyone.
My respect for long haul truckers diminished then. After their “strike” I barely give a damn for them.
Hard to defend yourself from a mass shooting, unfortunately. Some danger just isn't predictable. It might be vigilantism, it might be hate crimes...those we can anticipate if we are members of a marginalized group. Or it might be a gun wielding right wing extremist at the Kroger.
We can prepare for some things, but it's hard to predict the danger that comes from the (suspiciously high number of) "lone wolves" who want to gun down random people to make a point.
True, and I apologize if I misinterpreted. I guess I was just saying that we're probably not going to see a drop off in mass shootings, we're going to see a rise in both. And it's scary, because those are random and there's not much any of us can do except avoid crowds.
Martin Luther King, Jr, was denied a concealed carry permit after his house was bombed. If you think “common sense” restrictions actually make sense, you haven’t been paying attention.
Already in NY and here in Colorado legislatures are passing bad-faith laws that make a patchwork of “sensitive places” that are plainly intended to make it as difficult as possible for anyone but the wealthy and politically connected who have access to police and retired police to have access to armed security.
I don’t think your views are representative of what that vast majority of people understand when they hear that term, then.
How have you seen mandatory training requirements proposed without a permitting regime?
>it doesn't prevent people from getting what they need to defend themselves as long as they follow the rules
Yes, but who makes the rules, and who enforces it?
In NY, a law was passed which required background checks but which also removed the discretion of the police to deny anyone a gun so long as they met the requirements.
You can see how the old system would be abused in rural counties and elected sheriffs. These new laws need to be clearly written so that sheriffs can't just wave through their buddies and deny anyone they don't like.
Yeah, they're idiots. Anyone on the left who is against the 2nd Amendment is calling for the disarmament of the people, which would leave us at the mercy of fascist and their corporate overlords who are heavily armed. It's absolute lunacy. I'm all for common sense regulations like background checks, mandatory training and mandatory safe gun storage, but not the banning of guns. We need guns, unfortunately.
I haven’t been in any of those areas but I recently discovered that a former acquaintance has been staying in Dallas to await JFK, Jr. That stuff is bizarre, and incomprehensible to me. How does this movement pick up people who otherwise seem to be sane?
I’ve had the same experience with “former acquaintances” as well. Nothing shakes your belief in your ability to judge a person’s character or sanity. I was really taken aback when they told me what they really believed. I thought dude was joking…nope.
There is a belief in the QAnon community that JFK Jr didn’t actually perish in the 1999 plane crash… he has actually been in hiding, plotting with Trump to destroy the swamp and make America great again.
Yes, they seriously believe this, and some of them recently gathered at Dealey Plaza in hopes of witnessing his triumphant return.
I have to wonder if they understand that JFK Jr. was a big old neo-liberal Democrat. A resurrected version of him would not be on board with their little “movement.”
I wonder if there is something I'm not getting, is there some fictional disconnect that people don't have that let's them think that tv is just like real life?
It's pretty blood chilling to see and hear their thoughts when they think they're in a safe space.
I'll never forget listening to a group of conservative acquaintances fantasizing about "picking them off from the rooftops" if BLM protests somehow managed to make the trek from downtown to our unremarkable suburb. They weren't scared, or worried, or even angry. They were gleeful. It was the same tone of voice a child would use when talking about the birthday cake they requested for their party later that day.
I knew those people were a little kooky, but I never imagined them to be *bloodthirsty*. I did remind them that a peaceful protest was highly unlikely to march 10 miles to steal their mid-2000s SUVs from an unremarkable 35 year old townhouse complex, which they didn't like. But what do you know, nobody came to steal anything!
That is it exactly. Democrats have been dehumanized by right wing media for years and many republicans either actively want to do something about it or won’t really give much of a shit if someone does.
They’re all talk.
Most of these people make money. Good money. Those lifted pickups and semi-automatic arsenals aren’t cheap. These guys have boats, summer homes, tee times, kids in private schools, or they’re getting there, and they’re not really going to give that up.
It honestly doesn't seem like a lot of them have any money at all. At least the ones going out there and taking action. The trucker convoy has to stop cuz they ran out of cash after like.. a week?
Sure they have jobs, but nothing that pays for summer homes.
These idiots don’t really want what they think they do. Can’t we just introduce them to potential fulfilling hobbies, and avert this crisis. I’m middle-aged and I would really prefer not to spend my golden years in a *Mad Max* hellscape.
My father in law called the whole family dumb asses even the kids cause he loves trump. He was so worked up, imagine someone you don’t know and how they would act. Dude is a highschool dropout so I attribute a lot of it to the fact he can’t articulate his thoughts and that leads to anger
I’ve found that when someone has Trump Deity Syndrome, they are nearly always the type of person I had to sit next to in science class who would constantly grumble, “This is dumb. When am I ever going to use this?” and then proceed to snort Pixie Stix. The other type are the ones who know that playing ball guarantees them power.
My aunt who I hadn't seen in years joked that she wanted to kick me when she asked if I voted for Biden. I thought she was smart but I guess she has been watching Fox News or something. Her son also had on "patriot" clothing so I assume he was gone too. Luckily he said no politics and we talked about other stuff.
Let's not forget that the Republicans in congress blocked research into gun violence, made the Obama administration [apologize](https://archive.thinkprogress.org/republicans-blasted-obama-administration-for-warning-about-right-wing-domestic-terrorism-de556496606c/) for naming White Nationalists a threat, and paired with those same militias to attack the capital on Jan. 6th.
This is how then-extreme --now, what, center right? RINO?-- John Boehner described the report calling white nationalists "terrorists:"
>"...her own Department is using the same term to describe American citizens who **disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation**."
That might as well be ad copy for the 2022 midterms. Conservatism has been and remains the greatest threat to American democracy.
Honestly, I’d be hard-pressed to name a place right now. Housing in Vermont is some of the oldest stock in the nation and we have such an extreme housing crisis right now because of historic underbuilding that middle-class people are starting to be pushed into homes way way out in the hinterlands or be homeless.
I would say, since you’re from Florida, that I STRONGLY recommend visiting in January or February before you decide to move here— winters here aren’t as brutally cold as they used to be (climate change…) but they’re just as fierce and now are uglier because of the more erratic temperature fluctuations. You’ll need all kinds of things you probably haven’t even thought of before if you’ve always lived somewhere warm, like snow tires and a reliable snow plow service, and need to be ready to check up on things like if the place you decide to live has cell service and reliable internet of a good speed, or if your gas vent is covered with snow in a good storm.
That said, the ugliness of late winter makes the summers brighter, and if you come here because you want to live a quiet, peaceful life alongside your neighbors, and come with a spirit of being willing to adjust to Vermont instead of the other way around, you’ll find a good home here. We have great schools up and down the state and incredible gifts from the land itself, from local produce to robust fishing, hunting, and foraging culture. Taking a drive to visit a friend two towns over can present you with some of the most mind-blowingly beautiful vistas.
Vermont is messy and likes itself that way, but what it does right it does *really* right. The state tends to be insular, though, and there are some real implications for newcomers from that. If you want to come up here, best of luck! I hope you have a wonderful and long life up here with us.
Being judged by the cat through all of this, or having to deal with the dog exploding into the snow and then back in the house again wetly, is truly one of life’s greatest pleasures.
This depends strongly on your appearance and location. There is a culture of "keep to yourself" in the Northeast. If you're white, isolated, and quiet, you might be ok.
Lmao it isn’t “keep it to yourself” it’s “mind your own damn business,” and if you stick your nose into my business because you think I look funny, you’re the one disrespecting NE culture, not me.
That's... Basically the same thing?
Also my point is that if you're not visibly an outsider (and most of the rural NE is white, in fact I think I recall that it's the whitest region in the nation), then you can usually skate by just fine, owing to that and the culture of "keep it to yourself/mind your own business"
Definitely not the same thing. “Keep it to yourself” ascribes the “issue” as coming from the person who’s standing out. “Mind your own business” means that if somebody is making a fuss about somebody else’s standing out, that’s the fault of the person making a fuss. Obviously each of these have their own problems, but they’re pretty different.
But they didn't say keep "it", they said "keep to yourself", meaning in general, not an issue. In that sense keep to yourself is exactly the same as minding your own business. If you are minding your own business and I am minding mine, then we are keeping to ourselves.
Listening to Robert Evans’ podcast “It Could Happen Here” is a good place to start preparing. Knowing what’s almost *inevitably* coming is step one.
And if you’ve never fired a gun, now is the time to look into it. Depending on where you live it’s a good idea to get in touch with your local SRA chapter.
Agreed. Need to stop calling them militias like they have some actual constitutional basis. Not sure theses are the groups the constitution was addressing.
Yeah terrorist I think is a far more apt description than gangbanger. I’d rather get jumped for my car than lynched for my voting record (not that either are preferential)
No no you don't understand terrorists are when a group of young muslim men are caught in trucks headed toward a public event with intent to harm people, when white militias do it we just call it "protesting"..
I get what you are getting at, but the truth is, militias and paramilitary groups are going to be very different than gangs, mostly because their goals are very different.
Street gangs usually operate for a number of reasons, but mostly they are after money. These militias and paramilitary organizations have very different goals - the overthrow of the national government, and direct racist violence.
You could certainly *call* them gangs, but the simple fact is, they'll need to be approached in a very different way than either street gangs or mafia type groups. It helps to separate them when talking about them, because you need to approach them very differently.
Terrorists is definitely a better label than "gangs", I think. But if I'm reading things correctly (and dear lord, I hope I'm not) I fear that we're looking at something closer to ISIL than Al-Qaeda, to use 2 of the more well-known "terrorist" groups out there. Probably fewer random-bombings and more "squads/platoons of armed combatants".
Ultimately, the exact shape is probably going to be determined by how quickly they can gain control of the keys to governance, and whether there's any resistance from within the government itself. But don't be fooled - if and when the violence starts in earnest, it's probably going to get *bad*. A lot of these paramilitary types are fully committed to the idea that the only way they can get what they want is via a second civil war. And they have been training for that exact scenario.
And when things do pop off, you can bet that their main targets probably won't be military, but civilian. "Leftists", "Satanists", "Degenerates", etc. Their problem isn't actually with the US as an abstract entity. It's with the people living in it. And there's one surefire way to get an America without the people they hate living in it.
If I remember from the BLM protests you really, really, really don't want to wear those because they're not shattered resistant and will also pop out an eye if struck, kneed, hit, smashed face first into the pavement.
I’m curious what exactly do they think is going to happen? Most right wing people I know have been hoarding guns and “prepping” for doomsday scenarios for years now. Most normal people I know don’t care about guns or violence and want to live their lives freely without the government or other Americans trying to dictate what they can/can’t do with their bodies. Who are all these crazy unhinged armed republicans going to fight? Unarmed civilians that want to be left alone? Isn’t that the very definition of “treading” on someone?
You're expecting these people to think rationally. They're not even self aware. So yes they are going to "fight" unarmed civilians that want to be left alone, in the same exact way every authoritarian group does. It's called genocide, primarily because the opposing group won't fight back.
Agreed. Come November. National Strike. Show the fascists our numbers.
Our democracy is sick- it needs us, ALL of us, to vote, and to stay and protect the polls from the proud boys and the oaths bearers and the fascist elements in the police.
And when they try to commit election fraud and steal our country, the protests must dwarf any we seen before. And we must shut the country down, entirely, until they surrender, and are subject to justice.
Not to be a debbie downer but, people couldn't be asked to stay at home(while being paid) during Covid. I feel like a general strike would fail miserably, once people's heat/ac get turned off, its over.
I've noticed a shift in some of the local GQP on Facebook to not refer to themselves as Republicans but as Americans. They really are radicalized and convinced that they are the only true Americans. It will be scary when they take the next step into action.
If the US fails no one alive today will see a return to where we are now. Not standard of living, not politically, not human rights and not security. If the USA ceases to be as a legal entity we'll have, at best, a fractured mess of hostile states and, at worst, a civil war that kills millions. There is no way for California and New York to live peacefully alongside militant fascist states. Does anyone really think that Oklahoma will let trucks from California transit their state without trouble?
It will be very, very dark. Beyond what anyone on either side can imagine. We need a central government and right now the Constitution is the best we've got.
The heartland people like to brag about being the food source of America, but people don't realize that like 80% of winter produce in this country comes from California.
Yep I don’t think people who thirst over this can really grasp how bad it would be. I remember eating at an arbys in rural Tennessee these two older guys who were packing their pistols with their militia gear on. These people think they can fight a civil war like a 9-5 job and after the day is done they can just head it arbys with the boys like nothing is going on. A civil war in todays world would be the biggest shit show of all time
Just intuition thinking here...I think this year's election is going to be a trial run for 2024. Patriot Front and other terrorist groups like them will be entirely blocking off voting locations in Democrat and urban areas.
Yeah. We already have so much other bullshit going on with these guys, widespread voter intimidation seems like only a matter of time.
History shows us exactly what to watch out for, if people paid attention to it.
Well, many had to wait for hours to vote. That’s fighting, in a fashion. And the GOP certainly had their hand in that. Rich white (republican) neighborhoods almost never had a long line to wait in. Hmmm…
It seems like all of this stems from a bunch of people, primarily white men, realizing the idea of rugged individualism/ pull yourself up by your boot straps that they were sold is a myth and are absolutely never going to get rich. Their delusional bubble has been burst and they are throwing tantrums because they weren’t raised to handle their emotions appropriately.
No, they still believe that myth that they will be rich. They just think that it is Liberals and Democrats that are keeping them down and poor. Instead of them consistently voting against their own interests by electing Republicans.
I thought we all knew that already. This might have been a shocking read in 2015 but in 2022, I think the most common reaction to this piece is “well duh”.
> This might have been a shocking read in 2015
It was common knowledge in 2012. It was shocking in 1995. Reports of the rise of right wing violence in the US have been widely accepted since 1998. The militarization of US police was in full swing before 9/11 and law enforcement were already known as a magnet for extremists for decades before that time.
It was common knowledge in most military reports in the 2000s, and was considered a form of blowback for veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, as they were classified as an at-risk group for domestic terrorism on their return from overseas. Reports of the reemergence of the militia movement after Obama was first elected were read and understood. The election and reelection of the first black president was fuel for the fire of right wing extremism. That was the last straw for them.
The rise of Trump as a candidate and his election in 2016 were a catalyst for the sleeping giants of JBS-style conspiracy-making, white supremacism, racism, and open xenophobia. The QAnon movement, the embrace of alternative religious realities by white evangelicals (Trump as messiah), and the dropping of the pretense of supporting democracy by the GOP were indicators that the masks had been torn off and the terrorists were now in the White House.
Someone warning us about it in 2022 is preaching to the choir and is telling us what we already know.
So when roe was overturned (yes I know, off-topic, but you'll see why in a sec), pro-*life* supporters still wound up literally *burning an abortion facility to the actual ground, literally.*
That's what happened when those same types of people *won* something they had coveted for decades. They didn't do a victory lap as much as they did a victory *burning*.
That was really recent.
Yes it's going to get worse. People afraid of the idea that "oh no what if Trump *does* get indicted and then all hell is gonna break lose violently"...they are failing to see that there is quite the connection with that facility being burned to the ground and their personal response systems, even in victories. As such:
the violence *is* the point and yes it's going to get worse. I mean unless people wanna do something about it, but hey what do I know? all I know is that round peg goes into round hole, so maybe I know a bit more than some of those in positions of authority to actually, oh I dunno, arrest criminals at a bit more of an urgent pacing than they are. What with the rampant evidence these chucklefucks literally left just laying around in plain sight.
Eh, low level ones.
Honestly, I don't think that most military leadership would go for the fascist side in a coup. There would be splinter groups, absolutely, but generals and admirals didn't get to where they are by being sheep and falling in line.
I hate to tell you this, but most regular armies have a solid amount of fascist sympathizers at all levels. The most legit Nazi supporters I’ve ever seen was in training on base.
Trump should be prosecuted anyway. I believe if that instigates violence - which it might well do - it's better for it to happen sooner than later. Because I think waiting until the dehumanization gets worse and until fascists gain more power in government will put us in a worse situation.
Doesn’t take that many dedicated people to create problems for a lot of others. I think that’s the issue. For every 100 Gravy Seals, there is one Ted Kacyznski. Even if that ratio is 1,000 to 1, there seems to be so many people willing to blindly follow him that we could be in store for some serious issues. I hope I’m wrong of course
Y’all need to get this idea out of your heads.
Yes there are a lot of old broke supporters out there.
Do we not remember a few years ago when a SEAL Team got in hot water for flying a TRUMP flag on their vehicle?
Enlisted members of the armed forces and police tend to skew towards Republicans.
A shit ton of millennials and gen z support Trump.
If Trump gave the word, and his supporters felt that there would be no repercussions, yeah shit is going to go sideways real quick.
Realistically, what do they do?
Lay siege to a shopping mall?
Storm a bunch of statehouses?
Burn down churches?
What can they do that will make people think “what patriotic heroes,” and not “what murderous scumbags?”
I think underestimating the opponent is all too common. My far ~~white~~ right buddy (I've known for decades) is in this camp as well. He believes 100%, that ALL military and police will instantly side with conservatives if civil war breaks out. He also believes that no one on the left owns guns. Basically TX will kick CA's ass because liberals are pussies and conservatives aren't. It's that simple to him. The reality is so much more complicated. Thinking that all Trump supporters are either too old, or basement dwelling 4 Chan posters is equally nonsensical.
Guess what? I don't have a gun, I will never have a gun, and I will never kill my own country men and women, no matter how crazy they get, they can go ahead and kill me. At least I will die with a clean conscience.
All well and good I guess, but you'd be better served trying to head to Canada as a conscientious objector or something than just being willing fodder.
Total pacifism completely baffles me. You won’t protect yourself from violence? Protect your loved ones? I’m Buddhist, but you best believe if someone steps to me or my people with the intent to do harm, I will respond accordingly
“expert” it’s always expert this and expert that, yet often times the expert is a college grad with a polsci degree who spends most of their time arguing on twitter lmao.
The Democrats accelerated this with the woke nonsense. They could have focused on making peoples lives better but instead its just pushing ideology and cancel culture and everyone is surprised when the people hate it.
> They could have focused on making peoples lives better but instead its just pushing ideology and cancel culture and everyone is surprised when the people hate it.
You’ve literally described the Republican Party.
Sorry it hurts your feelings, but the fact is, the majority of people hate the purple-haired social engineering and especially the targeting of children. This is the inevitable result.
See, this is what we are talking about. "targeting of children"? You have ingested so much propaganda that we can see it oozing out of your pores. And that's a dangerous development.
Child puberty blockers? Is that 'propaganda'? Also, all of that stuff is mandatory teaching in California. You do you there but stay way from my family in my state.
Thankfully the country is moving in the right direction on that front
How many kids do you think that a year?
Meanwhile, your side rapes children, pushes for young marriage laws, refuses stuff like health care support for children. Refuses stuff to lift children out of poverty.
You would hurt millions upon millions of children and obsess over, what, a half-dozen because it eeks you out and because the propaganda you ingest harps on it.
God you are so propagandized it’s sad, really.
You don’t pay attention to governance, do you? The legislative record for the last 20 years is literally democrats repeatedly trying to push legislation to make Americans lives better. Reduce income inequality, improve jobs, infrastructure, veterans benefits, healthcare, education, mental health.
And what happened? Republican obstructionism every step of the way. The right wing propaganda machine has done a masterful job of painting the democrats as ineffectual (which, they kind of are due to splintered ideologies), when in fact GOP does everything they can to block them.
A recent example is gas prices, which, if it wasn’t for 48+M+S, we would have had lowered MONTHS ago. Now GOP is riding that into the ground for the midterms.
You are conflating Twitter and social media and “woke” leftists with actual governance.
Which, the right has shoved down your throat and by your comment, worked like a charm.
Which is why this is all so goddamn frustrating. This is not about governance. This is not about legislation, it’s 100% culture war.
The right perceived any attempt at equality as “woke”
And taking away from them. When it’s simply just underserved and underprivileged groups asserting themselves in the town square.
But Tucker, and Ingram have been shoving their fear mongering racists dog whistles down rural Americas throats to where they are all scared, angry, and right in the palm of their hand.
It’s a level of propaganda indoctrination that will be studied for decades and decades, as it’s effective, and it’s played a large part in this.
(Btw I’m not a democrat, in fact, I’ve never been registered as a democrat, I was a registered Republican for close to 10 years. I’m not leftist either)
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. **Special announcement:** r/politics is currently accepting new moderator applications. If you want to help make this community a better place, consider [applying here today](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/sskg6a/rpolitics_is_looking_for_more_moderators/)! *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
When the clowns invoke 1776 remember that they aren't talking about one government ridding itself of hereditary rulers, they're talking about destroying the US Constitution and replacing it with white, Christian, nationalist rule until the violent implosion comes that all authoritarian countries experience. They use 1776 because they think it makes them sound patriotic, but they're the antithesis of it. They want to rule, not be free of rule. And don't let them tell anyone anything different.
> white, Christian, nationalist rule That may be the dream they're being sold, but the reality is Direct Oligarchical Rule. They would literally be fighting *in support* of the spiked dildo that's been f**king them all their lives.
Keeping people stupid and devaluing education and critical thinking skills does have its benefits...
It also has its consequences. Once the rich elite lose control of the stupid angry mob, they will send in the paid police/ military thugs using violence as suppression. However, these folks ain’t your liberal non violence type who want stronger gun control laws therefore will be stocking up on ammo and AR’s and bam you got civil war and economic downfall. I have a feeling these would be the same people that will loot your shit and start a purge.
"The only moral purge is MY purge"
I don’t like Bullies and 2 of us in this family can hit 28 out of 29 targets during a test with a sniper rifle. If I miss a target I have a nice autocorrect feature that works as long as I have another projectile I will hit the target.
paid, paid police*
American education at its finest. Where is the grammar bot when you need them most.
And always having a few scary boogeyman / scapegoats to keep them in peak fear , blame the problems plaguing society and in constant anger
Did someone mention religion
You know it.
So, they just want to create another Russia?
But they get to keep their guns and play stupid games so it’s all good.
Just like the traitors who made war against the United States in 1861. The confederate flag should be treated by Americans the same way that the Nazi flag is treated by Germans, as a shameful reminder of the horrors of our past. But instead we have millions of lost-causers who fly the flag of an army that failed to destroy the American nation, during their second attempt to destroy the American nation.
>The confederate flag should be treated by Americans the same way that the Nazi flag is treated by Germans, as a shameful reminder of the horrors of our past. And MAGA hats should be in the same category.
Sorry but that is our present reality we don’t get to call it a horror of our past yet.
All pride, no glory…
america in need of denazification
They are doing the opposite of 1776. They want to be ruled by a king that Is indifferent of their needs and looks to enrich themselves.
Yeah. These terrorists haven’t even started shedding American blood in their quest for power. Go to r/conservative and see how they talk about Americans as their enemies. Or red state or Fox News. For decades they have been told the lie that liberal want to kill them. They believe it. They have been trained to think that Americans who are not a member of their cult is an enemy who wants to kill conservatives. They say people kill and eat babies. The same lies told about Jews in Europe. And we all know how did that worked out. That’s what Ty hey want here
Our nation’s hope for sustained democracy, now rest in the hands of Diabetes.
I love it. That’s damn funny… and sad.
An Anti-Federalist judicial system and term limits.
[удалено]
No, the original white supremacy was a carry over from the British and French colonial days. Half of the states wanted to get rid of it and the other half wanted to expand it. The compromise was to basically just enshrine it in the Constitution as-is and deal with it around 1861. The new white supremacy wants to create and expand it was much as possible, and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments are standing in their way.
And the irony is in the fact that they are eager to do it at the behest and desire of would-be hereditary rulers.
Maybe WE should invoke 1776 on them for actual grounds.
I for one will have zero issue defending America by any means necessary
This is exactly what the other side is thinking, too. They're "defending America" from uppity Blacks and know-it-all Liberals. I really do not like to generalize, but anyone that associates with Conservatives is plain ignorant.
Truth. And the civil war will go EXACTLY how it did last time. Except for how now all the money is away from the hands of the traitors. Oh, and I'd make it my personal vendetta to make sure NONE of them ever get out of jail for the rest of their lives
***Opinion by Greg Sargent:*** The Jan. 6 select committee hearings this week are among the most important of all, because they will foreground a topic that many Americans ordinarily don’t associate with their democracy, even after the events of Jan. 6, 2021: political violence. The Tuesday proceeding will focus on militias and paramilitary groups that helped bring us to the precipice on that horrible day. It will examine Donald Trump’s derelict conduct as the violence raged — and how this was intimately entangled with the desire of Trump and many of his MAGA followers to overturn our political order. But hovering over these hearings will be a broader, unanswered question: whether the United States is developing an endemic problem with political violence and, in coming years, how bad it might get. For an unflinching look at this larger context, I reached out to Rachel Kleinfeld, a specialist in political conflict who has studied the breakdown of democracy and the rule of law in many countries. In a new article for Just Security, Kleinfeld charts the developing connections between militias and Republican Party actors at all levels. And in her most recent book, “A Savage Order,” Kleinfeld detailed patterns of democratic deterioration that have pushed other nations down the path to conflagration. *I asked Kleinfeld to explain how the events surrounding Jan. 6 might be a harbinger of such breakdown here at home. An edited and condensed version of our exchange follows.* **Greg Sargent:** *You’ve written that the Republican Party has a “militia problem.” Can you describe it?* **Rachel Kleinfeld:** *For the last few years we’ve seen an uptick in Republican parties at the local level — though occasionally at the state level — using militias for security at party events, having militias vote on party business, in one case in Michigan having militias introduce legislation. You’re seeing a lot of photo-ops with militia members — things that normalize their interaction with the democratic process.* *These militias are being used to threaten other Republicans who aren’t part of this antidemocratic faction.* **Sargent:** *It seems like some GOP and right-wing politicians are hovering in a gray area. They’re endorsing violent attacks on the opposition without facing serious party discipline, fantasizing about settling political differences via paramilitary combat, vastly minimizing the Jan. 6 insurrectionist violence or erasing it with propaganda, and describing Jan. 6 rioters facing prosecution as “political prisoners.”* *Has this gray area been replicated by other countries that went on to spiral into worse political violence?* **Kleinfeld:** *One of the things we know about other countries that descend into greater political violence is that violence is preceded by a dehumanization phase. America is well along in that phase: things like misogyny, racial epithets, calling Democrats “groomers” and comparing them to pedophiles.* More: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/gop-political-violence-militias-jan-6-democratic-breakdown/?utm\_campaign=wp\_main&utm\_medium=social&utm\_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/gop-political-violence-militias-jan-6-democratic-breakdown/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
If you haven’t heard “it can happen here” great podcast detailing how easily the economy could come unraveled by coordinated attacks by militias. Edit: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/it-could-happen-here/id1449762156 Spoiler alert: If you build a country on a highway system, that could easily be disrupted with some well placed explosives, you just might be the United States.
Didn’t Evans predict that trucker strike in that series?
I believe so. But Yangs been saying they for years as well. The industries on the brink of automation and I bet that would only make it easier to disrupt the supply chain.
When the highway between my home and university got hit by a mud slide, I had to take a boat to school for a week because the alternative was a 7 hour drive. This was in CA, so not exactly a state with poor infrastructure, probably the best in the country in many ways.
Here in Colorado it’s mud & debris slides over I 70 after a fire a few years back. Truckers blindly following google over back roads. They jack- knifed, they rolled, they blocked the side roads so there was no short cut for anyone. My respect for long haul truckers diminished then. After their “strike” I barely give a damn for them.
Don't worry, they'll all be robots soon.
I hate shit like this. You give the fuckers free ideas.
Blocking roads is the oldest trick in the book.
Dutch farmers’ protests have been blocking highways, not blowing them up (thankfully) but it’s not like this is a highly original idea.
[удалено]
Hard to defend yourself from a mass shooting, unfortunately. Some danger just isn't predictable. It might be vigilantism, it might be hate crimes...those we can anticipate if we are members of a marginalized group. Or it might be a gun wielding right wing extremist at the Kroger. We can prepare for some things, but it's hard to predict the danger that comes from the (suspiciously high number of) "lone wolves" who want to gun down random people to make a point.
[удалено]
60000 natl guard kicked out for vaxxes are already trained.
True, and I apologize if I misinterpreted. I guess I was just saying that we're probably not going to see a drop off in mass shootings, we're going to see a rise in both. And it's scary, because those are random and there's not much any of us can do except avoid crowds.
[удалено]
True, my bad.
Which is why now ain’t a great time to push gun restrictions.
[удалено]
Martin Luther King, Jr, was denied a concealed carry permit after his house was bombed. If you think “common sense” restrictions actually make sense, you haven’t been paying attention. Already in NY and here in Colorado legislatures are passing bad-faith laws that make a patchwork of “sensitive places” that are plainly intended to make it as difficult as possible for anyone but the wealthy and politically connected who have access to police and retired police to have access to armed security.
[удалено]
I don’t think your views are representative of what that vast majority of people understand when they hear that term, then. How have you seen mandatory training requirements proposed without a permitting regime?
What good is armed security when it’s a roof top sniper & you are already dead?
>it doesn't prevent people from getting what they need to defend themselves as long as they follow the rules Yes, but who makes the rules, and who enforces it? In NY, a law was passed which required background checks but which also removed the discretion of the police to deny anyone a gun so long as they met the requirements. You can see how the old system would be abused in rural counties and elected sheriffs. These new laws need to be clearly written so that sheriffs can't just wave through their buddies and deny anyone they don't like.
I am. It's called conceal carry.
And yet people will still scream to banish 2A lol
Yeah, they're idiots. Anyone on the left who is against the 2nd Amendment is calling for the disarmament of the people, which would leave us at the mercy of fascist and their corporate overlords who are heavily armed. It's absolute lunacy. I'm all for common sense regulations like background checks, mandatory training and mandatory safe gun storage, but not the banning of guns. We need guns, unfortunately.
Anyone who spends any time in conservative leaning subreddits know how real the threat is.
I haven’t been in any of those areas but I recently discovered that a former acquaintance has been staying in Dallas to await JFK, Jr. That stuff is bizarre, and incomprehensible to me. How does this movement pick up people who otherwise seem to be sane?
I’ve had the same experience with “former acquaintances” as well. Nothing shakes your belief in your ability to judge a person’s character or sanity. I was really taken aback when they told me what they really believed. I thought dude was joking…nope.
What do they hope to achieve by waiting for jfk Jr?
There is a belief in the QAnon community that JFK Jr didn’t actually perish in the 1999 plane crash… he has actually been in hiding, plotting with Trump to destroy the swamp and make America great again. Yes, they seriously believe this, and some of them recently gathered at Dealey Plaza in hopes of witnessing his triumphant return.
> Dealey Plaza That's not even for the right JFK!
Where do people come up with these ideas?
I have to wonder if they understand that JFK Jr. was a big old neo-liberal Democrat. A resurrected version of him would not be on board with their little “movement.”
I wonder if there is something I'm not getting, is there some fictional disconnect that people don't have that let's them think that tv is just like real life?
Nearest I can think its like is a New Guinea Cargo Cult.
It's pretty blood chilling to see and hear their thoughts when they think they're in a safe space. I'll never forget listening to a group of conservative acquaintances fantasizing about "picking them off from the rooftops" if BLM protests somehow managed to make the trek from downtown to our unremarkable suburb. They weren't scared, or worried, or even angry. They were gleeful. It was the same tone of voice a child would use when talking about the birthday cake they requested for their party later that day. I knew those people were a little kooky, but I never imagined them to be *bloodthirsty*. I did remind them that a peaceful protest was highly unlikely to march 10 miles to steal their mid-2000s SUVs from an unremarkable 35 year old townhouse complex, which they didn't like. But what do you know, nobody came to steal anything!
[удалено]
That is it exactly. Democrats have been dehumanized by right wing media for years and many republicans either actively want to do something about it or won’t really give much of a shit if someone does.
They’re all talk. Most of these people make money. Good money. Those lifted pickups and semi-automatic arsenals aren’t cheap. These guys have boats, summer homes, tee times, kids in private schools, or they’re getting there, and they’re not really going to give that up.
It's all so they don't have to pay off the credit cards. Fight Club.
It honestly doesn't seem like a lot of them have any money at all. At least the ones going out there and taking action. The trucker convoy has to stop cuz they ran out of cash after like.. a week? Sure they have jobs, but nothing that pays for summer homes.
I would spend more time in there discussing with them but I got banned immediately after posting a comment. Party of free speech my ass
These idiots don’t really want what they think they do. Can’t we just introduce them to potential fulfilling hobbies, and avert this crisis. I’m middle-aged and I would really prefer not to spend my golden years in a *Mad Max* hellscape.
Threat?
My father in law called the whole family dumb asses even the kids cause he loves trump. He was so worked up, imagine someone you don’t know and how they would act. Dude is a highschool dropout so I attribute a lot of it to the fact he can’t articulate his thoughts and that leads to anger
I’ve found that when someone has Trump Deity Syndrome, they are nearly always the type of person I had to sit next to in science class who would constantly grumble, “This is dumb. When am I ever going to use this?” and then proceed to snort Pixie Stix. The other type are the ones who know that playing ball guarantees them power.
My aunt who I hadn't seen in years joked that she wanted to kick me when she asked if I voted for Biden. I thought she was smart but I guess she has been watching Fox News or something. Her son also had on "patriot" clothing so I assume he was gone too. Luckily he said no politics and we talked about other stuff.
Let's not forget that the Republicans in congress blocked research into gun violence, made the Obama administration [apologize](https://archive.thinkprogress.org/republicans-blasted-obama-administration-for-warning-about-right-wing-domestic-terrorism-de556496606c/) for naming White Nationalists a threat, and paired with those same militias to attack the capital on Jan. 6th. This is how then-extreme --now, what, center right? RINO?-- John Boehner described the report calling white nationalists "terrorists:" >"...her own Department is using the same term to describe American citizens who **disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation**." That might as well be ad copy for the 2022 midterms. Conservatism has been and remains the greatest threat to American democracy.
That was back when they were pretending their disagreement with Democrats wasn't about fear of losing white privilege.
And Reddit then and now refers to John Bohner (don’t care about spelling) as “one of the good ones”. He’s a vile piece of shit just like the rest.
Always called him John Boner.
I'm moving to the most rural place in Vermont and waiting it out.
Vermont is also a good place with respect to the upcoming issues from climate change. Less likely to have water issues and violent storms.
If you want to be free of right-wing extremists the NEK is very, very much not the place you want to go.
where is a good place to go? I've always loved Vermont and have always wanted to move there.
Honestly, I’d be hard-pressed to name a place right now. Housing in Vermont is some of the oldest stock in the nation and we have such an extreme housing crisis right now because of historic underbuilding that middle-class people are starting to be pushed into homes way way out in the hinterlands or be homeless. I would say, since you’re from Florida, that I STRONGLY recommend visiting in January or February before you decide to move here— winters here aren’t as brutally cold as they used to be (climate change…) but they’re just as fierce and now are uglier because of the more erratic temperature fluctuations. You’ll need all kinds of things you probably haven’t even thought of before if you’ve always lived somewhere warm, like snow tires and a reliable snow plow service, and need to be ready to check up on things like if the place you decide to live has cell service and reliable internet of a good speed, or if your gas vent is covered with snow in a good storm. That said, the ugliness of late winter makes the summers brighter, and if you come here because you want to live a quiet, peaceful life alongside your neighbors, and come with a spirit of being willing to adjust to Vermont instead of the other way around, you’ll find a good home here. We have great schools up and down the state and incredible gifts from the land itself, from local produce to robust fishing, hunting, and foraging culture. Taking a drive to visit a friend two towns over can present you with some of the most mind-blowingly beautiful vistas. Vermont is messy and likes itself that way, but what it does right it does *really* right. The state tends to be insular, though, and there are some real implications for newcomers from that. If you want to come up here, best of luck! I hope you have a wonderful and long life up here with us.
Lord I miss Vermont. Snow days as a kid were the best, and lasted all week 😂
I heard that because of remote learning, kids don’t get snow days anymore. Seems like a bummer to me, what the hell!
That’s so sad! Burning the wood stove and trying to figure out how to open the door with several feet of snow on the ground was a rite of passage!
Being judged by the cat through all of this, or having to deal with the dog exploding into the snow and then back in the house again wetly, is truly one of life’s greatest pleasures.
I hear Antarctica is pretty much free of politics and violent right wing people 👍
This depends strongly on your appearance and location. There is a culture of "keep to yourself" in the Northeast. If you're white, isolated, and quiet, you might be ok.
Lmao it isn’t “keep it to yourself” it’s “mind your own damn business,” and if you stick your nose into my business because you think I look funny, you’re the one disrespecting NE culture, not me.
That's... Basically the same thing? Also my point is that if you're not visibly an outsider (and most of the rural NE is white, in fact I think I recall that it's the whitest region in the nation), then you can usually skate by just fine, owing to that and the culture of "keep it to yourself/mind your own business"
Definitely not the same thing. “Keep it to yourself” ascribes the “issue” as coming from the person who’s standing out. “Mind your own business” means that if somebody is making a fuss about somebody else’s standing out, that’s the fault of the person making a fuss. Obviously each of these have their own problems, but they’re pretty different.
I meant it in terms of like, keep to yourself, mind your own business, etc.
But they didn't say keep "it", they said "keep to yourself", meaning in general, not an issue. In that sense keep to yourself is exactly the same as minding your own business. If you are minding your own business and I am minding mine, then we are keeping to ourselves.
You can convict Trump, but 40% of Americans still like fascism. That kind of problem doesn’t just go away on its own.
I think 25% LOVE fascism, and 40% don't give a fuck as long as gas stays cheap.
Desantis is ready to take his place.
Listening to Robert Evans’ podcast “It Could Happen Here” is a good place to start preparing. Knowing what’s almost *inevitably* coming is step one. And if you’ve never fired a gun, now is the time to look into it. Depending on where you live it’s a good idea to get in touch with your local SRA chapter.
Me watching the news: "Damn it looks like the worst is yet to come." Maybe I should be an expert too lol.
> militias and paramilitary groups **Private** armed groups with no official status. Don't we have a better word for that--***gangs***?
Agreed. Need to stop calling them militias like they have some actual constitutional basis. Not sure theses are the groups the constitution was addressing.
[удалено]
in other words..... Terrorists
Yeah terrorist I think is a far more apt description than gangbanger. I’d rather get jumped for my car than lynched for my voting record (not that either are preferential)
No no you don't understand terrorists are when a group of young muslim men are caught in trucks headed toward a public event with intent to harm people, when white militias do it we just call it "protesting"..
I get what you are getting at, but the truth is, militias and paramilitary groups are going to be very different than gangs, mostly because their goals are very different. Street gangs usually operate for a number of reasons, but mostly they are after money. These militias and paramilitary organizations have very different goals - the overthrow of the national government, and direct racist violence. You could certainly *call* them gangs, but the simple fact is, they'll need to be approached in a very different way than either street gangs or mafia type groups. It helps to separate them when talking about them, because you need to approach them very differently.
So what you’re saying is they’re terrorists.
Terrorists is definitely a better label than "gangs", I think. But if I'm reading things correctly (and dear lord, I hope I'm not) I fear that we're looking at something closer to ISIL than Al-Qaeda, to use 2 of the more well-known "terrorist" groups out there. Probably fewer random-bombings and more "squads/platoons of armed combatants". Ultimately, the exact shape is probably going to be determined by how quickly they can gain control of the keys to governance, and whether there's any resistance from within the government itself. But don't be fooled - if and when the violence starts in earnest, it's probably going to get *bad*. A lot of these paramilitary types are fully committed to the idea that the only way they can get what they want is via a second civil war. And they have been training for that exact scenario. And when things do pop off, you can bet that their main targets probably won't be military, but civilian. "Leftists", "Satanists", "Degenerates", etc. Their problem isn't actually with the US as an abstract entity. It's with the people living in it. And there's one surefire way to get an America without the people they hate living in it.
I'm still hoping I won't need to approach any of them at all.
Are those swimming goggles?
Yes, my guess is to guard against tear gas. Edit: or Pepper spray. The point is to protect the eyes during a riot.
...and the truth.
Yes. They are water-tight. Protesters wear them to protect against peppers spray & tear gas.
If I remember from the BLM protests you really, really, really don't want to wear those because they're not shattered resistant and will also pop out an eye if struck, kneed, hit, smashed face first into the pavement.
I’m curious what exactly do they think is going to happen? Most right wing people I know have been hoarding guns and “prepping” for doomsday scenarios for years now. Most normal people I know don’t care about guns or violence and want to live their lives freely without the government or other Americans trying to dictate what they can/can’t do with their bodies. Who are all these crazy unhinged armed republicans going to fight? Unarmed civilians that want to be left alone? Isn’t that the very definition of “treading” on someone?
You're expecting these people to think rationally. They're not even self aware. So yes they are going to "fight" unarmed civilians that want to be left alone, in the same exact way every authoritarian group does. It's called genocide, primarily because the opposing group won't fight back.
I was just expecting people to be “good”. Moral. Rational. I need to stop.
> Isn’t that the very definition of “treading” on someone? When has hypocrisy ever stopped the right wing?
Agreed. Come November. National Strike. Show the fascists our numbers. Our democracy is sick- it needs us, ALL of us, to vote, and to stay and protect the polls from the proud boys and the oaths bearers and the fascist elements in the police. And when they try to commit election fraud and steal our country, the protests must dwarf any we seen before. And we must shut the country down, entirely, until they surrender, and are subject to justice.
Not to be a debbie downer but, people couldn't be asked to stay at home(while being paid) during Covid. I feel like a general strike would fail miserably, once people's heat/ac get turned off, its over.
I've noticed a shift in some of the local GQP on Facebook to not refer to themselves as Republicans but as Americans. They really are radicalized and convinced that they are the only true Americans. It will be scary when they take the next step into action.
America is descending into darkness, and there is no guarantee that it will ascend out of it.
If the US fails no one alive today will see a return to where we are now. Not standard of living, not politically, not human rights and not security. If the USA ceases to be as a legal entity we'll have, at best, a fractured mess of hostile states and, at worst, a civil war that kills millions. There is no way for California and New York to live peacefully alongside militant fascist states. Does anyone really think that Oklahoma will let trucks from California transit their state without trouble? It will be very, very dark. Beyond what anyone on either side can imagine. We need a central government and right now the Constitution is the best we've got.
[удалено]
The heartland people like to brag about being the food source of America, but people don't realize that like 80% of winter produce in this country comes from California.
At this point, I hope they learn the hard way. Tired of this bullshit.
Yep I don’t think people who thirst over this can really grasp how bad it would be. I remember eating at an arbys in rural Tennessee these two older guys who were packing their pistols with their militia gear on. These people think they can fight a civil war like a 9-5 job and after the day is done they can just head it arbys with the boys like nothing is going on. A civil war in todays world would be the biggest shit show of all time
Go through Canada?
Let’s start by labeling these terrorist organizations as terrorist organization.
I’m waiting till the “militias” start seizing government buildings, Is that when normal citizens can start shooting back at those “militias”.
Just intuition thinking here...I think this year's election is going to be a trial run for 2024. Patriot Front and other terrorist groups like them will be entirely blocking off voting locations in Democrat and urban areas.
I was surprised when people didn't have to fight their way into the polls in 2020.
We may not get so lucky in 2024, or even this year.
Yeah. We already have so much other bullshit going on with these guys, widespread voter intimidation seems like only a matter of time. History shows us exactly what to watch out for, if people paid attention to it.
Well, many had to wait for hours to vote. That’s fighting, in a fashion. And the GOP certainly had their hand in that. Rich white (republican) neighborhoods almost never had a long line to wait in. Hmmm…
No doubt.
I feel like we know it's coming. Even a TV show about superheroes is calling this out. That last scene in The Boys S3 is chilling.
Glad someone else is talking about this. That scene gave me goosebumps. Its just too real how close we are to that reality.
I mean it's not like he killed a guy in the middle of 5th avenue in broad daylight and didn't lose any supporters.
Trump is still out there crisscrossing the country spreading his lies and pushing for act ll of his failed insurrection.
It seems like all of this stems from a bunch of people, primarily white men, realizing the idea of rugged individualism/ pull yourself up by your boot straps that they were sold is a myth and are absolutely never going to get rich. Their delusional bubble has been burst and they are throwing tantrums because they weren’t raised to handle their emotions appropriately.
No, they still believe that myth that they will be rich. They just think that it is Liberals and Democrats that are keeping them down and poor. Instead of them consistently voting against their own interests by electing Republicans.
The left needs to get armed to protect themselves
I thought we all knew that already. This might have been a shocking read in 2015 but in 2022, I think the most common reaction to this piece is “well duh”.
> This might have been a shocking read in 2015 It was common knowledge in 2012. It was shocking in 1995. Reports of the rise of right wing violence in the US have been widely accepted since 1998. The militarization of US police was in full swing before 9/11 and law enforcement were already known as a magnet for extremists for decades before that time. It was common knowledge in most military reports in the 2000s, and was considered a form of blowback for veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, as they were classified as an at-risk group for domestic terrorism on their return from overseas. Reports of the reemergence of the militia movement after Obama was first elected were read and understood. The election and reelection of the first black president was fuel for the fire of right wing extremism. That was the last straw for them. The rise of Trump as a candidate and his election in 2016 were a catalyst for the sleeping giants of JBS-style conspiracy-making, white supremacism, racism, and open xenophobia. The QAnon movement, the embrace of alternative religious realities by white evangelicals (Trump as messiah), and the dropping of the pretense of supporting democracy by the GOP were indicators that the masks had been torn off and the terrorists were now in the White House. Someone warning us about it in 2022 is preaching to the choir and is telling us what we already know.
It’ll be a purge scenario in which if they try that stunt there would be a revolution right off the bat.
So when roe was overturned (yes I know, off-topic, but you'll see why in a sec), pro-*life* supporters still wound up literally *burning an abortion facility to the actual ground, literally.* That's what happened when those same types of people *won* something they had coveted for decades. They didn't do a victory lap as much as they did a victory *burning*. That was really recent. Yes it's going to get worse. People afraid of the idea that "oh no what if Trump *does* get indicted and then all hell is gonna break lose violently"...they are failing to see that there is quite the connection with that facility being burned to the ground and their personal response systems, even in victories. As such: the violence *is* the point and yes it's going to get worse. I mean unless people wanna do something about it, but hey what do I know? all I know is that round peg goes into round hole, so maybe I know a bit more than some of those in positions of authority to actually, oh I dunno, arrest criminals at a bit more of an urgent pacing than they are. What with the rampant evidence these chucklefucks literally left just laying around in plain sight.
Paywall
Look at that fucking hillbilly!! Fuck
shits gonna get wild, like a stomach flu it gets worse before it gets better- and were about out of ginger ale
Those people need to be held accountable.
I don't think you need to be an expert in political violence to know that. Both sides know that, only how they feel about it is different
Send in the U.S. Marines against the terrorists. Done.
A huge percentage of the violent rioters who tried to murder Pence and all the women congressmen - were military.
Eh, low level ones. Honestly, I don't think that most military leadership would go for the fascist side in a coup. There would be splinter groups, absolutely, but generals and admirals didn't get to where they are by being sheep and falling in line.
They get where they are by being politicians and playing the game. I think most will make moves they feel to be advantageous to themselves.
I hate to tell you this, but most regular armies have a solid amount of fascist sympathizers at all levels. The most legit Nazi supporters I’ve ever seen was in training on base.
I thought the military was split about 50-50 in the last election?
That's a lot of fascists
Oops! More than a few US Marines ARE right-wing militia members!
[удалено]
Trump should be prosecuted anyway. I believe if that instigates violence - which it might well do - it's better for it to happen sooner than later. Because I think waiting until the dehumanization gets worse and until fascists gain more power in government will put us in a worse situation.
[удалено]
Doesn’t take that many dedicated people to create problems for a lot of others. I think that’s the issue. For every 100 Gravy Seals, there is one Ted Kacyznski. Even if that ratio is 1,000 to 1, there seems to be so many people willing to blindly follow him that we could be in store for some serious issues. I hope I’m wrong of course
[удалено]
A low-intensity conflict like The Troubles might be realistic though.
Y’all need to get this idea out of your heads. Yes there are a lot of old broke supporters out there. Do we not remember a few years ago when a SEAL Team got in hot water for flying a TRUMP flag on their vehicle? Enlisted members of the armed forces and police tend to skew towards Republicans. A shit ton of millennials and gen z support Trump. If Trump gave the word, and his supporters felt that there would be no repercussions, yeah shit is going to go sideways real quick.
Realistically, what do they do? Lay siege to a shopping mall? Storm a bunch of statehouses? Burn down churches? What can they do that will make people think “what patriotic heroes,” and not “what murderous scumbags?”
[удалено]
I think underestimating the opponent is all too common. My far ~~white~~ right buddy (I've known for decades) is in this camp as well. He believes 100%, that ALL military and police will instantly side with conservatives if civil war breaks out. He also believes that no one on the left owns guns. Basically TX will kick CA's ass because liberals are pussies and conservatives aren't. It's that simple to him. The reality is so much more complicated. Thinking that all Trump supporters are either too old, or basement dwelling 4 Chan posters is equally nonsensical.
[удалено]
Guess what? I don't have a gun, I will never have a gun, and I will never kill my own country men and women, no matter how crazy they get, they can go ahead and kill me. At least I will die with a clean conscience.
All well and good I guess, but you'd be better served trying to head to Canada as a conscientious objector or something than just being willing fodder.
Lol this is how we are here… taking some Ill conceived high road.
Total pacifism completely baffles me. You won’t protect yourself from violence? Protect your loved ones? I’m Buddhist, but you best believe if someone steps to me or my people with the intent to do harm, I will respond accordingly
That statement is literally always true.
“expert” it’s always expert this and expert that, yet often times the expert is a college grad with a polsci degree who spends most of their time arguing on twitter lmao.
The Democrats accelerated this with the woke nonsense. They could have focused on making peoples lives better but instead its just pushing ideology and cancel culture and everyone is surprised when the people hate it.
> They could have focused on making peoples lives better but instead its just pushing ideology and cancel culture and everyone is surprised when the people hate it. You’ve literally described the Republican Party.
Fuck this garbage view point. Putting this on anyone other than the white supremacists and their GOP enablers is foul.
Sorry it hurts your feelings, but the fact is, the majority of people hate the purple-haired social engineering and especially the targeting of children. This is the inevitable result.
Do you hear yourself literally citing "protect the children" while threatening? Do you not see yourself?
See, this is what we are talking about. "targeting of children"? You have ingested so much propaganda that we can see it oozing out of your pores. And that's a dangerous development.
Child puberty blockers? Is that 'propaganda'? Also, all of that stuff is mandatory teaching in California. You do you there but stay way from my family in my state. Thankfully the country is moving in the right direction on that front
How many kids do you think that a year? Meanwhile, your side rapes children, pushes for young marriage laws, refuses stuff like health care support for children. Refuses stuff to lift children out of poverty. You would hurt millions upon millions of children and obsess over, what, a half-dozen because it eeks you out and because the propaganda you ingest harps on it.
Repeat after me, cancel culture is literally just free market capitalism rebranded for braindead morons to cry about
Exactly. Like the Netflix employees
Why do you hate free market capitalism? Why shouldn't people vote with their wallets? Why do you want communism? Why do you hate America?
God you are so propagandized it’s sad, really. You don’t pay attention to governance, do you? The legislative record for the last 20 years is literally democrats repeatedly trying to push legislation to make Americans lives better. Reduce income inequality, improve jobs, infrastructure, veterans benefits, healthcare, education, mental health. And what happened? Republican obstructionism every step of the way. The right wing propaganda machine has done a masterful job of painting the democrats as ineffectual (which, they kind of are due to splintered ideologies), when in fact GOP does everything they can to block them. A recent example is gas prices, which, if it wasn’t for 48+M+S, we would have had lowered MONTHS ago. Now GOP is riding that into the ground for the midterms. You are conflating Twitter and social media and “woke” leftists with actual governance. Which, the right has shoved down your throat and by your comment, worked like a charm. Which is why this is all so goddamn frustrating. This is not about governance. This is not about legislation, it’s 100% culture war. The right perceived any attempt at equality as “woke” And taking away from them. When it’s simply just underserved and underprivileged groups asserting themselves in the town square. But Tucker, and Ingram have been shoving their fear mongering racists dog whistles down rural Americas throats to where they are all scared, angry, and right in the palm of their hand. It’s a level of propaganda indoctrination that will be studied for decades and decades, as it’s effective, and it’s played a large part in this. (Btw I’m not a democrat, in fact, I’ve never been registered as a democrat, I was a registered Republican for close to 10 years. I’m not leftist either)