Getting into a Family Dollar in Michigan was worth killing the security guard

[DrDeth]

@mhendo

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.

**
septimus ** said it very well:

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.
Was this one, isolated case influenced by trump? We will never know. But the overall “open” and “resist” movements have been pushed hard by trump. trump is aiding and abetting asshole covid resistance. Maybe this ONE incident would have happened anyway- but in general, the resistance to covid rules is caused by trump. Look at the pictures of MAGA hat wearing covidiots brandishing assault weapons “protesting” the restrictions. You think the trump signs and MAGA hats could be clues?

[ElderSign]

This place has gone to the pits in recent years, but I agree with Omar Little. Blaming the POTUS for this crime is beyond rational.

TDS:

“In the first stage of the disease, victims lose all sense of proportion. The president-elect’s every tweet provokes a firestorm, as if 140 characters were all it took to change the world.”
“The mid-level stages of TDS have a profound effect on the victim’s vocabulary: Sufferers speak a distinctive language consisting solely of hyperbole.”
“As TDS progresses, the afflicted lose the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality.”

[cochrane]

@BigT

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.

@septimus

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.

@needscoffee

Agreed. Good job, BigT.

@DrDeth

Yes, trump is responsible for the culture in which this sort of thing happens. He aids and abets it.

Is there an echo in here?

[Skywatcher]

@ElderSign

This place has gone to the pits in recent years, but I agree with Omar Little. Blaming the POTUS for this crime is beyond rational.

TDS:

“TDS” is little more than an excuse for the right to gloss over anything their naked emperor does. Surely you can find a better term.

[carnivorousplant]

(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.
If there was no asshole type violent behavior before Trump became President, both statements could be true. :dubious:

Of course, there always has been this type of behavior, and there will be this type of behavior no matter who is President.

[Skywatcher]

Some food for thought: To many Trump supporters, declining to wear a mask is a visible way to demonstrate “that ‘I’m a Republican’ or ‘I want businesses to start up again’ or ‘I support the president.’ ”

[DrDeth]

Last year was the Hottest on record. **I blame trump. **Now it’s true, that even if we had Clinton for 4 years and signed the Paris accords and whatnot, we *might *have still had 2019 as the hottest on record- it takes a while for CO2 cuts to take effect.

But still- trump fights hard against any sort of relief for Global warming.

So- it’s trumps fault. Like it or not. That’s my stand, and I am sticking to it.

[Monty]

@septimus

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.

You forgot to include the fact that Trump has actually called for violence, and not on a “hot microphone mishap”. He’s actually called for violence a number of times at various rallies and basked in his [del]vigilantes’[/del] [del]racist morons’[/del] supporters’ reaction to such calls.

[BigT]

@DrDeth

Last year was the Hottest on record. **I blame trump. **Now it’s true, that even if we had Clinton for 4 years and signed the Paris accords and whatnot, we *might *have still had 2019 as the hottest on record- it takes a while for CO2 cuts to take effect.

But still- trump fights hard against any sort of relief for Global warming.

So- it’s trumps fault. Like it or not. That’s my stand, and I am sticking to it.

The only problem with your logic is that the cuts would have taken time to work, not “might have.” So you have a definite falsehood.

In this other situation, we know for a fact that the anti-mask protests were pushed by Trump and his cronies and did not arise legitimately. We can look at other countries and see that those without a leader who undermines the science, barely any people protest this stuff. We can consider how people who aren’t misled by lies tend to act in their own best interest.

Thus the proper analogy is one where we know that the cuts would have dropped the temperature by 2019. Sure, maybe there’s a small fluke where the temps got naturally higher than they should and we still wound up the highest. But it’s highly unlikely.

That’s where we are here. It is highly unlikely that none of these threats were by Trump supporters. It is even less likely that they weren’t influenced by the president saying it’s okay to not wear masks. Y’all are taking the least likely scenario and treating it like it’s greater than 50/50 chance. It’s more like 99/1.

Or, to butcher a colloquial metaphor–when there’s smoke, you don’t run around saying it’s probably not fire.

[Master_Wang-Ka]

@mhendo

snip 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.

I agree completely. Sure, Trump’s a jackass, he won’t wear a mask, and he’s big on your second amendment rights, long as you’re a Repubican voter.

But if Obama had been president right now, can you flat say, “This would never have happened?” Hell, there are people who, if Obama had said, “Hey, shooting preschoolers is a bad idea,” they’d IMMEDIATELY go out and shoot up a preschool, “to own the libs.”

This is a terrible thing, but to blame it on Trump is a stretch. That being said? Trump’s an irresponsible asshole.