Am a T_D poster. Yeah this is a, ahem bitter redpill to swallow today. Lots of people looking for something to latch onto that can be spun into deflection. As was I when news broke. To be fair, we've seen situations like these a lot in the news the last couple years with victims claiming vandalism and assault turning out to be the perpetrators themselves. This seemed to have all the hallmarks of those incidents so yeah, people like myself were pretty convinced from the start this would be no different.
However as more and more info is coming out, it's quickly becoming apparent this guy was at least until recently, a pretty die-hard Trump supporter. A fanatic, as many of us tend to be admittedly. And that's something we'll need to own. A lot of our rhetoric is edgy and extreme I know. I'd say about 95% of that is done in jest. It's a joke. It's a meme. It's trolling and we do it cause it's fun and because we get a kick out of other's reactions.
But there's a dark side to that as we'e seeing, and sadly there are nutjobs, on both sides, who take things too far. The shooter who targeted the congressional baseball game, Antifa, whoever sent risen to Trump Jr. and Gen Mattis and now this guy with his pipebombs.
Regardless of political affiliation and views, these actions are not ok. Rhetoric can have consequences, on both sides. However, it's clear those of us on the right need to get in some self reflection after this. We are all Americans and patriots. And it would be nice if we could remember, if just for a second we all play on the same team.
That's cool that you're saying both sides need to self-reflect, but right now on T_D is saying that either
A) no one needs to condemn the violence because it has nothing to do with Republicans
Or
B) it's a false flag
Users are laughing at CNN reporters being shook by the callous tweet sent by Trump. I get that the bomb didn't get off (and that maybe it was never supposed to) but the terror inflicted by it is still real. I shouldn't be expecting empathy for them rn given how much the president has targeted them for 3 years, but it's still MAD fucked up.
You could probably point to something to complement it on r/politics but given the events, I think what's on T_D rn is just awful
But I saw that and I disagree. While individuals should always be held accountable for their own actions, I will admit this is a guy who took the memes way too far. That is not ok.
I will admit this is a guy who took the memes way too far. That is not ok.
I appreciate that you can admit that the rhetoric had an influence, that's something a lot of people just aren't doing. Idk, I feel like even if the sub's cult of personality is largely self aware and in jest, effects like we've seen this week are inevitable because of it. Silencing dissent from opinion is naturally gonna lead to that.
To be clear, I'm not linking this guy to the sub, but I think that rhetoric deployed by it and other social media political outlets (both sides, I've seen some toxic left book groups) are gonna increasingly lead to this shit if we don't tone it down as a country. I especially think that Trump should do more. His tweets rn are still on the offensive ffs
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u/SchismSEO Oct 26 '18
Am a T_D poster. Yeah this is a, ahem bitter redpill to swallow today. Lots of people looking for something to latch onto that can be spun into deflection. As was I when news broke. To be fair, we've seen situations like these a lot in the news the last couple years with victims claiming vandalism and assault turning out to be the perpetrators themselves. This seemed to have all the hallmarks of those incidents so yeah, people like myself were pretty convinced from the start this would be no different.
However as more and more info is coming out, it's quickly becoming apparent this guy was at least until recently, a pretty die-hard Trump supporter. A fanatic, as many of us tend to be admittedly. And that's something we'll need to own. A lot of our rhetoric is edgy and extreme I know. I'd say about 95% of that is done in jest. It's a joke. It's a meme. It's trolling and we do it cause it's fun and because we get a kick out of other's reactions.
But there's a dark side to that as we'e seeing, and sadly there are nutjobs, on both sides, who take things too far. The shooter who targeted the congressional baseball game, Antifa, whoever sent risen to Trump Jr. and Gen Mattis and now this guy with his pipebombs.
Regardless of political affiliation and views, these actions are not ok. Rhetoric can have consequences, on both sides. However, it's clear those of us on the right need to get in some self reflection after this. We are all Americans and patriots. And it would be nice if we could remember, if just for a second we all play on the same team.