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.

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    6 months ago

    I remember watching movies as a kid where the children were these clever little heroes and the adults were morons or bad guys they had to deal with. It’s fun for kids to see the tables turned and watch the children in the movie save the day or outsmart the dumb adult.

    I got a very strong vibe like that (but worse) while reading this story. These people are caught up in a fantasy they’ve been sold where they have to save everything they love from evil. They seem to live in a fantasy movie world where if you feel like the righteous underdog, and other “good” people tell you the same thing, then surely you are the hero! You can’t listen to evidence and reason from outsiders, they’re just trying to trick you!