The posts are ominous.
“Pick a side, or YOU are next,” wrote conservative talkshow host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions.
The replies were even more so.
“Dan, seriously now,” one user wrote in response to Bongino. “I see no way out of all this mess without bloodshed. When you can rig an election, then weaponize the government and the courts against a former President, what other alternative is there? I’m almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny.”
That’s a common version of how many people on the US right reacted to the ex-president’s verdict, drawing on a “mirror world” where Trump is seen as the selfless martyr to powerful state forces and Joe Biden is the dangerous autocrat wielding the justice system as his own personal plaything and a threat to US democracy.
Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump’s guilty verdict came down, all predicated on the idea that the trial had been a sham designed to interfere with the 2024 election. Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars.
I’m not really sure it should be up to 70 year olds whether we have a civil war. It’s the young people that will have to live in it’s wake, should it happen.
I mean - its the press amplifying the opinion of some irrelevant old geezer who’s just calling others to violence. I wouldn’t really concern yourself too much with these idiots.
Sadly that’s pretty much always the case with war, the youth pay the bill for the elderly
And the poor pay the bill for the rich and powerful.
FWIW, I know 70some and 80some year olds that can still think critically and know what doom is on the horizon if Orange Satan’s Rectum wins. Intelligence, as well as stupidity, transcend how many years one has rode around the yellow fusion ball.
Their ability to think isn’t what I’m really talking about. No matter what, an 80 year old is writing checks someone else has to cash. Maybe we do need to have a big fuck off war to end these fascist fucks once and for all, but that’s not an 80 year old’s decision, you know?
It used to be the old guided the young into the future. Somehow with the last generation, rather than transition, they’ve vice-gripped the entire system to hold onto the 1950s until their hands are bleeding. I see what you are saying with regards to the decision, and we have seen many of the olds make “fuck you, I got mine” decisions every day. I suppose I was just pointing out that they’re not all bad. There’s just that greedy psychotic vocal minority holding all the keys to shit all over everyone. To solve that? Maybe we do need a big fuck off war. Really wish it wouldn’t have to come to that though. Waiting it out doesn’t even work because modern medicine keeps extending their lives.
I didn’t mean to imply they are bad. I’m fifty. I’m not really including myself in the group of people who should be calling those particular shots, but I also want to be part of the solution and I hope it doesn’t come to that. My grandpa fought in WW2. I don’t want my kids or grandkids to face that. But sometimes the world doesn’t care what we want.
So do you support taking away their ability to vote then?
Not the other commenter, but I could only support that if they are legally proven mentally unfit to care for themselves. I know that is a high bar, but there’s really no good argument for restricting anyone’s right to vote.
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To be fair, he did give another option.
Don’t forget the generation of radicalized vets from desert wars.
Is there any valid evidence of this radicalization? Anecdotally, I’ve been in the Global War of Terrorism social circles, and they seem to be pretty even with their political distribution, maybe a little more right leaning, but I think that’s due more to lack of higher education than military experience. What I think happens is that the right likes to make logical fallacy appeals, so they exploit radical veterans by giving them a louder voice.
It reminds me of a scene from The Big Lebowski.
Rather than be a rational level-headed support like The Dude, the right exacerbates their struggles to exploit them.
I lived and worked among many over the last two decades. So, just anecdotal experience. https://www.rand.org/news/press/2024/04/09.html
Yeah, it seems like misplaced anger that is masking underlying pain and sadness to me. The right-wing leaders take advantage of their mental health issues for their own selfish goals. It’s disgusting.
That is the story of the right. My father-in-law is sitting on his couch with his drug addicted son, who has never had a job, railing against Hunter Biden. My grandmother is 80 years old and is worried that we are days away from going door to door and pulling Christians out in the street. My mother is full up on social programs and benefits but it’s the “others” that are making her life worse. Mental health issues, sadness, inability of reflecting…lots of excuses.