This bomber guy looks too insane for it to be blamed on trump or his rhetoric. I've been getting my info from CNN, and even through that lens it appears he's just too crazy. His extreme right wing (white wing?) politics appear just to be the convenient outlet he chose for his insanity. But if it wasn't trump, I think he would have found some other cause du jour for which to attack his craziness. I do think that what trump says, and does, is immature and does spark violence. But in this case, it was simply the medium this dude chose. He made assassination attempts. But I think he just as easily could have murdered hitchhikers on some middle of nowhere highway.
Unless you’re outright threatening someone or saying severely prejudicial shit, there’s no real consequences to saying mean, hateful or rude things to or about people. Combined with different validation perks (likes, etc.), it produces a pretty terrible environment. I think it’s going to even out over time, or at least become so normalized people will ignore it like end-of-times ranting on a street corner.
I don't see it evening out as much as people will just tune out the opposition entirely. Might create echo chambers but it's certainly less stressful than constantly getting worked up in online arguments. Ive blocked all of my facebook friends that post endless vitriol from the left as I can't stop myself from getting hot blooded over it. What once was a singularly annual political arguments with my liberal Aunt and Uncle became a daily battle. I don't know if it's purely a validation thing or if arguing just floods the brain with adrenaline and endorphins. Also, another active shooter developing at a Pittsburgh Synagogue. Apparently screaming "All jews need to die." Have a nice day.
At least 12 shot and 4 confirmed dead so far. Shooter captured alive. Hopefully with a few extra holes in him just for funsies.
God damn, dude was so far down the rabbit hole that he believed Trump was whatever the white-nationalist version of a crisis actor is. Just someone hired/planted by the Jews to appear to be a white racist.
Just mild ones. Friendly reminder that it's helpful to carry a tourniquet (or several) with you. I drive a lot for work and I have bad luck coming on vehicle accidents, so I carry a military-style IFAK that I have used and had to replenish too many times. But tourniquets save lives. Despite what the armchair wannabe mall cops say about it, I recommend the RATS tourniquet. It worked when I had to use it and that's enough for me. Other good, medically-approved and combat tested alternatives are the CAT and the SOF-T. First responders take minutes, but with an arterial bleed people can die within as little as 30 seconds (some say 20). /end soap box rant
Having had to spend a lot of time around people like that, all I can say is they are very low IQ and simple minded. I've heard all their theories about ZOG conspiracies and find it difficult to understand how anyone could fall for the bullshit. People like this could easily go off the rails for just about any cause someone brainwashes them with.
I think this is correct in principle, but in practice we are seeing people go off the rails far more on the right than on the left. And I think the reason for that is revealed when you look at the circumstances in which these people with "high nutbag potential" become radicalized and activated. The right embraces crazy conspiracies to a far greater degree than the left does, and in so doing creates the environment in which these radicalizing communities grow and connect with these would-be nutters. Someone like Alex Jones is literally one step removed from actual illegal incitement, and should never be in the same room as POTUS much less being treated as a valid part of the political conversation. And yet we have a President who praised him, went on his show, and granted Info Wars White House press credentials. You see this across the right; they do not isolate their extremism and dangerous conspiracies, they embrace them for electoral expediency.
I would say for the most part, you are correct. But I don't think it's quite as skewed to the right as you think. Remember how many people were spewing that Trump was going to have death squads roaming the streets taking down anyone who was brown, homosexual, trans, illegal? Then there was the guy that shot Scalise, not to mention all the BS surrounding the Kavanaugh nominations....gang rape, etc....with no one corroborating the stories. It goes both ways, with both parties. It's sad that they find low IQ, susceptible individuals with mental problems as useful idiots. Yes, Trump is an idiot and has done a lot of questionable things, but on the other side of the aisle Democratic leadership has also fanned the flames and now we have a toxic mess where people are assaulting each other, sending bombs, sending poison and being complete assholes to one another. I don't think that's acceptable.
This is a very good example of what I'm talking about: This was said on Fox Business Network. It is a completely insane conspiracy theory that is presented as if it's a viable idea. The notion that the State department, which a) is completely under Trump's control, and b) has been thoroughly gutted by the Trump administration anyway, is somehow under the secret control of a Jewish billionaire who is using that power to undermine US sovereignty with a migrant caravan. This isn't on the fringes of right-wing thought, this is at the very core of its mainstream on its largest media outlet. Why do the "regular folk" on the right put up with it? Why do they watch this, accept this, vote for this?
Steele dossier. Both sides do it and it's complete bullshit that it happens. It needs to stop completely. Journalists should report the news, not give their political slant and nuance events to fit their personal agenda.
The Steele dossier is not a conspiracy. It is an intelligence document generated by an experienced intelligence officer. He created it and presented it with his own assessment of the credibility of the claims within (he said it was likely 70-90% true, with the rest being bad intel or deliberate disinformation). It was considered worthy of further investigation by both the American intelligence agencies as well as Republican lawmakers like John McCain. To date no part of it has been proven false. It is a completely different thing than a wholly unsupported anti-semitic conspiracy theory generated from whole cloth.
So 70-90% possibility of being truth is good enough for you? That's a pretty wide range of probability. Do you know how many people still completely believe that Trump hired hookers to piss all over each other on a bed that Obama supposedly slept on just because he hated Obama so much? The Steele dossier was completely unvetted, and much of it obvious bullshit, but some news outlets put it out there as gospel truth. Do you think that is ok?
More like 70-90% of the claims within for sure happened. The rest of it is things that came through his sources, but he had reason to suspect that his sources could have been mistaken or deceived in those instances, or he just didn't have further confirmation of those claims. It was a work of intelligencecraft, and was understood as such by the people it was delivered to. I don't know what to say other than that it is a very very different thing than the kinds of conspiracies that are peddled about Soros and the like.
Fair enough. Has any of the Steele dossier proven to be true? Has it been helpful in anyway in bringing our country together? I'm not asking you to change your political views, just question the sources which shape those views. All media puts their slant on every story and quite honestly 70-90% is a pretty low threshold for accepting information. People with opposing views are not some bogeyman....truth be told we probably want the same thing as you, we just disagree about how to attain those goals for our country. I'm just sick and tired of the demonizing of opposing views by both sides, it's getting us nowhere.
Much of the more mundane aspects of it have been confirmed. The degree to which intelligence services have confirmed other parts of it with classified information remains unknown. Honestly my views, at their core, probably aren't all that different from yours. Particularly on deficits and debt. In a saner world I might even vote Republican from time to time. But I'll be honest, I'm scared. I'm scared that the biggest threat facing our country is not just being ignored, but is actively having any attempt to address it undermined; I'm scared that the more dangerous and irrational parts of the Republican party have taken control of it, and therefore control of the country; I'm scared that the democratic institutions that would allow the country to course-correct are being undermined in an effort to lock in Republican power regardless of voter preference. All of this scares me.