• Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I’m honestly worried about tonight. Saturday night, plenty of places where people gather, and a lot of extremists are just waiting for a moment for escalation that they can exploit.

    Attempting to take the life of the party leader during an election is going to push some people over the edge.

    I honestly give it a 50% chance that there’s some sort of mass casualty event in the next 12 hours related to this. I fucking hope I’m wrong, or that the odds are somehow in our favor, but I’ve run out of optimism.

    • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I don’t. They might commit more hate crimes, but mass shooters usually do it because they’re demoralized and feel powerless. Trump supporters are the opposite rn. The shooter rolled a natural 1 for agility and Trump rolled a critical success for luck. It couldn’t have gone better for him.

      • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The DC for the shot was much higher than you think. He rolled a combined 24 when the DC was 25.

        If he rolled a 1 he would have been shot dead before getting a shot off at all. Instead, he grazed the target’s ear from over 100 feet away. That took skill.

        • too_high_for_this@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          It was around 400 feet, but that’s still absolutely nothing for an AR. My 65 year old mother was hitting a six-inch target at 300 ft her first time ever shooting.

          For comparison, Army recruits have to hit a human sized target at about 500 ft to qualify. And basically everyone qualifies.

          • flat@reddthat.com
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            4 months ago

            i think he might’ve been a tad bit nervous though. that seems quite reasonable.

        • tyler
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          4 months ago

          Reports are saying it’s the teleprompter glass that cut him, which makes wayyyy more sense than him getting grazed.

    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      I’m far less concerned about emboldened supporters than I am about the likely backlash by the state. Events like this are always taken as justification for more harsh oppression of the people. Also, Biden now has to make statements sympathetic to Trump. This couldn’t have gone worse - we get the blowback from an attempt, and he’s able to ride this to more popularity.

      Assassination isn’t the way, folks. I know you’re hurting, I know you’re disempowered by the electoral system, but Trump and Biden aren’t the core of the problem. You can’t cut the head off because it’s not a snake, it’s a hydra. The way to beat this system is to build alternatives and wean people off of their dependence on it, and deprive it of victims. You have to starve the beast.

      • Jumpingspiderman@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Taking out the fascist figureheads does nothing about the ideology and forces behind the fascism. Make being a Nazi something to be ashamed of again.

      • akakunai@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        The way to beat this system is to build alternatives and wean people off of their dependence on it, and deprive it of victims.

        And how do you propose we do this considering the only way the system can have alternatives is if the system allows for alternatives which (spoiler) >!it won’t!<.

            • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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              4 months ago

              No worries, a lot of people are stuck in hierarchical realism. We’re programmed for it from the moment we begin school or earlier if we had authoritarian parents. It’s nobody’s fault if they haven’t yet imagined a future without hierarchy.

              Edit: It’s also nice to get a genuine reply back, so thanks.

        • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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          4 months ago

          He’s already made those statements and his campaign has ceased all outgoing communications. He doesn’t have to, but he’s a liberal, so he’s not going to let an opportunity to lose pass him by.

    • Semicolon@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I honestly give it a 50% chance that there’s some sort of mass casualty event in the next 12 hours related to this.

      Given that there is more mass shootings in USA than days in a year, I think this ship has already sailed…

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        There’s a difference between a mass casualty event and the technical definition of a mass shooting. One is easily met by gangs doing a drive by. The other requires multiple emergency rooms, triaging people, and calling up neighboring counties for more resources.

        I’ll leave you to figure out which one is a loaded political term and which one is the thing that gets 48 hours of close coverage on the news.

        • Semicolon@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Seems like only in America “political terms” are loaded with actual bullets and regularly shoot bystanders in schools, nightclubs, malls and other public spaces.

    • Jumpingspiderman@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      It will be more than 12 hours before it happens. But that’s small consolation. Once political violence is in the mix it can very quickly spiral out of control

    • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I think years of pushing for laws to make it legal to run over protesters in their pavement princesses is going to lead to a lot more road rage incidents. Idiots are already emboldened by putting on that red cap, now they have a vehicle too.

      I hope this is quickly exposed as a poorly planned inside job, but even then it won’t matter to the Base. Y’all Qaeda has moved into full on terrorist demagogue territory.