Teach us, o Wise One!
He just did.
Actually she did leave and return (or at least was temporarily out of the store).
My biggest problem with this is as a symtom of a spreading attitude that the only reason for me to behave myself is if there is a credible threat of violence against me; that "authority"means only the power to punish and hurt; that by establishing that you better not correct anyone’s behavior for fear they’ll shoot you, then I get to do whatever I damn please whenever and wherever, unless you are ready to get in a gunfight.
I dunno that I’d drag Trump into this. To my knowledge, he has said nothing about this particular incident.
But I’ve known more than a few big swinger types who can and do become aggressive, even violent, if they feel they are being “disrespected.” From what I have heard, prison culture is big on this, and it’s not limited to the inside of the joint; there’s plenty of folks I could name, black or white, who feel perfectly comfortable starting a fight if they feel they’re getting short shrift. Based on what I have read in the news on this incident, I gathered that this was very much a case of that.
That being said, I’m well aware that I don’t have all the facts. I either have to believe that there’s a whole lot that I’m missing, or that some clown genuinely felt that it was necessary to assassinate a guard in broad daylight for the heinous crime of refusing to admit someone without a mask.
Or, in an unrelated story, shoot up a McDonalds for being asked to leave a closed dining area.
I’m no Trump fan, but I don’t know that I can blame him for all the poison stupidity I see around me. But if he were to say, “All of you, some creep wants you wear a mask? Pop a cap in his ass! They won’t let you dine in? Strafe the room! Don’t let them take away your rights! I’ll pay your legal fees!”
…then I’d say “Hold the bastard accountable.” And these days, there is literally no telling what he WILL say… but he didn’t say that. Yet.
No, vague and inane “holier than thou” babblings do not teach anyone.
Including you. 
This is the sort of thing that bugs me. Why in the world should the connection have to be that blatant and direct for someone to be blamed?
What Trump has done is not wear a mask himself at times when he should, directly attacked people who say they should wear masks, and directly supported the armed protesters who protested wearing masks,
What’s more, we know that the COVID-19 protest situation was started by a PAC that is associated with his Secretary of Education. We know that the Facebook pages for multiple protests were owned by the same person. We know that the people at those protests were predominantly Trump supporters.
Trump is a president who is actively creating this artificial hatred for wearing masks.Even a moron would wear a mask if they think it was necessary, and, in a country with a civilized leader, the president would be part of pushing that. Instead, he’s actively tried to undermine it every step of the way.
To ignore Trump’s culpability in the anti-mask movement is silly. To pretend that he needs to actively condone specific instances of violence and not just the overall attitude that those asking you to wear a mask are tyrants is ridiculous.
It’s like not blaming the incels who say women are subhuman when one of their own starts killing women, or not blaming the white supremacists when their preaching that other races are mere animals results in a follower killing them. It’s the natural consequence of what they are saying.
If the people who say you should wear masks are tyrants, and we’re taught that tyrants should be resisted with guns, then all it takes is for one person to put the two together.
Does it mean they aren’t at fault? No. But to ignore that Trump played a part because he didn’t directly tell them to go out and kill people is stupid.
Thank you, BigT. I hope Master Wang-Ka thanks you also.
It’s frustrating to encounter people unable to connect the dots as BigT does here.
Agreed. Good job, BigT.
Yes, trump is responsible for the culture in which this sort of thing happens. He aids and abets it.
If any of you think that everyone in the US would be wearing face masks, that everyone would even have face masks, and that nobody would act violently to a supposed “dissing” without Donald Trump, then you truly are idiots.
I believe the store should have had some masks to offer their customers. Perhaps they couldn’t obtain enough masks.
I agree that he aids and abets a general culture of stupidity, and of ridicule and resistance to these safety measures. That’s clear from his tweets about liberating Michigan and other such idiocy. But that’s very different from saying that he’s responsible for this incident.
Try a thought experiment.
Imagine this pandemic happened 10 years ago, during the Obama administration. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that Obama would have been orders of magnitude more competent than Trump, we still would have been in a situation requiring lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing. Do you seriously believe that there wouldn’t have been exactly the same type of idiotic protests that we have seen in the past few weeks? Hell, given the right’s, and especially the racist right’s, pathological hatred of all things Obama, there probably would have been even more protests.
And do you think that the shooter in this case, or someone just like him, would have stopped and said, “You know, Obama tells us we need to wear masks, so I should cut this security guy a break and do what he says”? Sometimes a sociopath is just a sociopath, and it’s silly to go looking for convoluted chains of responsibility when a sociopath takes a gun and kills someone over a minor disagreement like this.
Trump is a symptom, not a cause, and he’s not responsible for this incident.
Uhhh; since we’re testing intelligence, Mr. Garrison, please write a 15-word essay on the following topic:
Compare the following statements. Do they have identical meaning?
(1) Nobody would be an asshole or act violently if Trump weren’t President.
(2) The level of asshole-type violent behavior has risen because of Trump.
Thanks in advance, Mr. Garrison.
I can think of a dozen reasons why this isn’t even remotely practical.
It is discouraging to me that people do things like that whatever the circumstances. and that people continue to support a bully and jerk.
Everyone has access to a mask of some sort, even if it just a bandanna. They werent checking for N95 masks- just something, anything. Just like where my wife works, you just need a lower face covering. And yes, you should always be wearing face masks when shopping in a store.
Yep. Exactly.
My God, but you’re fucking obtuse and idiotic.
The question isn’t about access. The point is that, under any president or administration, there would be some measurable percentage of the population that would refuse to make or obtain masks, and that would react stupidly to being required to wear a mask in stores. There would also be dangerous felons like the people in this story, who resort to violence when they feel disrespected.
As much as I would love to say Trump was responsible, if it would cost him one less vote.
But, there have been crazy episodes like this one, even before the Trump days.