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If you will pardon some hysterical left wring political doomerism:
I think I'm having an AI risk moment, and you guys are doing it to me!
I was always kinda skeptical of leftist claims re. right wing fascism in the US.
Yes, claiming the election was stolen is a little ehhhhh, but it is also just more traditional right wing signaling about corrupt institutions and blah blah blah.
Yes, circling the wagons around Trump and friends when they were doing clearly sketchy/criminal shit was a little fucked, but could I honestly say the left or the libs wouldn't do the same thing in exchange for the presidency? Of course not.
Yes, conservative justices are openly political and have only enough respect for precedent to secure the fig leaf with blue tack, but come on now. Roe v Wade, anyone?
The reaction of right wing populists, elected officials, intellectuals, and media regarding our lovable insane maga hammerbro doing a little trolling are making me wig out. People I thought were wrong but serious passing around clear bullshit about gay escorts, pretending the dude wasn't Q radicalized, and laughing it off. It's one thing for the lunatic fringe to do that shit, it's another entirely when the largest single conservative news network and most popular intellectuals are doing it.
Then I come here for a dose of sanity, and I have to dig DEEP into the replies before I find anyone positing the plainly obvious: that if you say your political opponents are child rapist election stealing perverts, some section of the population will actually believe the literal words you are saying and "take action".
Maybe I'm just having a little moment and will regress to mean in a couple weeks, but this particular incident has shifted me from "no" to "They would if they could" regarding conservatives in this country, at least temporarily.
I was already armed because I think guns are fun and cool and are never gonna be banned regardless of how many schools get shot up so I might as well have fun, now I'm shopping around for my local John Brown chapter.
(also, if you are apolitical or don't mind some leftism from time to time and are looking for a gun club, the John Brown Gun Club and SRA are actually really chill and safe, so far. Much better than the local non-denominational clubs. I haven't been flagged once by a dude shoulder carrying his AR with closed bolt and magazine loaded yet, which is a damn sight better than the public ranges in SC.)
One last thing while I'm thinking about it: Dude once showed up to the range with the sickest Springfield armory 1911 I've ever seen, all nickel and smooth as glass and beautiful as fuck, one of their 2000$ fancy jobs. Predictably everyone gathered around and asked to see it like a bunch of 7 year olds for a foil pokemon card, then dude turns around and fucking holds me up with it practically. Scary as fuck. He let me shoot it afterwards though, so that was something.
This is pretty much the reason I think we should not tell noble lies. Our golems will ultimately always eat us. You get it with the weird Q groups producing lunatics like the one who attacked the Pelosis and you get it with the ACAB types eventually inspiring the burning down of police stations and wanton rioting. But even you are taking the wrong tact here I think by referencing the groomer word games, which while I agree are tiresome, are not what has caused the Pelosi hammer incident. That was caused by a pervasive conspiracy theory called Q which I doubt anyone here seriously endorses as it's as plainly ridiculous now as it was when it started on 8chan. I don't know what the right can do about these people anymore than I know what the left can do about people who say "no, we were not playing word games, end the police".
I think the whole "groomer" thing is in response to "you can freely call me a Nazi, a fascist, a murderer, all this sort of thing, now how do you like it when you're called horrible names? Oh you're not a paedophile in reality? Well I'm not a Nazi, but that didn't stop you guys".
Not to be constantly carping about Rings of Power, but stuff like this :
and this:
See? If you don't like what the show has done to canon, then if you're not a fascist yourself, you're at least fascist- and white supremacist-adjacent.
Ok, groomer.
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