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.
I hope the country does reconstruction properly after Civil War II instead of coddling traitors and letting them put roughshod Confederate statues in town squares.
They didn’t put up the statues. Most of them specifically said to never make statues of them, such as both Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Woodrow Wilson wrote a good portion of “Southern Revisionist History,” using his Yale History Credentials, and ordered the erection of almost all those statues during his presidency.
I agree with the rest of your sentiment.
Honestly, I’m inclined to agree. I also don’t see a way out without bloodshed. Not because I want Republicans to die or think that Democrats are so great that I am ready to die for them, but rather because we have split so far ideologically that I cannot see us ever being united again and we seemingly don’t have any method available for a peaceful divorce.
My personal plan is to leave the country permanently as soon as I retire, but that is 15 years away. I can only hope that things stay somewhat together until then and I will use my vote to try to help it do so.
What would “bloodshed” achieve though?
Well, historically, civil wars seem to end in one of two ways, either the victor subjugating the loser or the country splitting apart. So I would wager the outcome to be one of those.
We forgot to subjegate the south and let them infiltrate our society over 150 years.
Yeah, that was Johnson’s failure.
Both of those sound so much worse than the current situation though.
As in, to have a decisive civil war everyone has to be certain there’s no alternative, knowing that they may well die in such a war.
Things would have to get a lot worse before that seems like a good idea.
Everyone doesn’t have to decide a war is preferable, just a critical mass. And it probably won’t be a war like you’re imagining, with battles and such, but rather a whole lot of terrorism and assassinations. Only a fool would attack a well-armed group directly when there are so many soft targets all over the place. Most Trumpanzees are dumb as bricks, but there are enough of them with a basic knowledge of military tactics that they won’t just throw themselves into a meat grinder.
It is NOT a good idea, it is NEVER a good idea. However, in order to avoid it, both sides would have to be willing to talk to each other, in good faith, and work out an agreeable way forward. That is what we used to do. We have always been a divided country, but when it mattered both side could usually work out a mutually agreeable resolution. That has stopped. So, we are divided and continuing to split further and no one will work together. What is the resolution? I don’t see a good one any time in the near future.
Where ya planning to move to?
Well, I don’t like hot and humid, so most Asian countries are probably out. Most likely some where in Europe. Depends on the current state of affairs at the time.
“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.”
Go right ahead, pal. No one will miss you.
You guys don’t understand, this time they’re double-super-mega-serious, not like all the other times these overly fearful ammosexuals talked a good game from behind their screens but completely failed to follow up in the real world.
Would we even notice if they followed through? From the people who brought you domestic terrorism its… more domestic terrorism.
Would we even notice if they followed through?
January 6th. Though that was massively helped by Trump preventing organizations from preparing beforehand and preventing action during.
They’re probable talking heads trying to spin up stuff to make forget that trump actually was convicted on a shitload of things.
And anger make you forget that, and maybe get you out and vote too …
IMO it’s programmed and a lot of bots.
Wait till they find out how hard it is to get a hair cut once “mobilized”.
I’ll just say what George W. Bush liked to say during his presidency. “Bring it on.” If you try to kill me, you best not miss.
I’ll give him this much: Dude really knew how to dodge a shoe.
And the look on his face is priceless
One thing to note is that Republicans have been talking like this for years. Minion Death Cult (tagline “The World Is Ending. Your Uncle’s Facebook Feed Is Responsible. We’re Documenting it.”) have coined “Minion’s Law”, which is that right-wing comments on a news story will have at least one person calling for civil war.
Does this mean we are at zero risk for a second civil war? Of course not. But finding people online calling for civil war isn’t sufficient cause to be worried; there needs to be at least some evidence of mobilization, as there was leading up to January 6th (for instance).
Are you under the impression that claiming election fraud and presidential felony convictions are routine?
Well obviously presidential felony convictions aren’t. But election fraud? Sure, republicans have been claiming that to some degree or other for a long time. See for example the false claims that Trump would have won the popular vote if it weren’t for undocumented immigrants voting en masse.
In any case, the specific claim I was making was that calls for civil war on social media are routine. Maybe they’re more serious this time! But maybe look for concrete plans rather than vague threats.
Yep it was similar during the Obama administration with conspiracies of many types that featured people talking about revolution and civil war.
How many insurrections happened during Obama’s term?
I didn’t notice any, but that’s not what we were talking about. The specific item of discussion was “calls for civil war” which we observed many of during the Obama term.
I think it’s reasonable to be a bit worried considering the context: several seriously fucked up factors which are unprecedented. A coup attempt already happened, and now he’s been convicted of felonies after being “cheated out of the election”.
Lol silly Americans.
Class civil war being instigated by wealthy oligarchs who don’t really care how it happens, but they’re intent on bringing about a coup one way or another. So they amp up the chaos and division and will look to take advantage of it. Right-wingers are being fed a bunch of bullshit and they’re trying to deify Trump, one of the worst examples of a human being in history, and getting pushed to violence to protect a living piece of excrement.
The Justice Dept really needed to come down harder on Trump and everyone else involved in Jan. 6. They showed their cards then and what they’ve been planning all along, we shouldn’t gave given them a second chance.
Merrick Garland was a huge mistake.
I doubt the oligarchs really want a civil war. A civil war would shrink their labor force.
And their profit base. They want right wingers in control because they tax them less, but they don’t want a religious dark era either. They want to sell lots of shit to lots of people preferably on credit.
The oligarchs don’t want a civil war; they fear it! But they are losing control.
The wealthy instigate the entire culture war and manufacture the propaganda behind it. The wealthy even plan to leave the country for us to kill each other.
At the risk of sounding like a fascist-fucc-boi, I don’t see any evidence to backing the claims that this is an engineered crisis. I don’t doubt it, but making claims like that without evidence and strong linkages is exactly what the right does.
I’ll just go to the evidence tree where they leave confessions to everything they do. I’m sure they’ll leave a nice summary wrapped in a bow for you.
Or you could read a summary of project 2025
I don’t get why you’re being so hostile, when I just asked a question. ‘just google it, bro’ is the refrain of every Monster Energy slinging, tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist out there.
I will google project 2025, though I doubt I’ll find anything of value; much like any response to this comment you might make.
If you don’t know what project 2025 is you’re either embarrassingly uninformed of intentionally ignorant
I would suspect that even if it is an engineered crisis, it’s not our own wealthy class doing the engineering. They can have what they want in a more stable way by not having this nonsense happen. It’s not like the democrats are suddenly going to actually start making their lives notably harder. In fact, a lot of the ‘MAGA’ is stuff they would not want (high tariffs when they want to import cheap and sell high instead, abusing immigrants by detaining and deporting instead of abusing them by making them be a cheap labor source afraid to exercise any rights they might have for fear of getting deported).
Foreign interests are about the only ones that stand to gain from this sort of instability.
Guy in a MAGA hat, running: “…the US is under threat…”
Goose, chasing: “under threat by who, motherfucker??”
Lets hope they just rise high enough to be caught and end up behind bars.
Or curb stomped by the military.
I’m almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny.
Go ahead, then, put the barrel to your head and pull the trigger.
Oh, it’s actually about oppressing others and not living under tyranny? Thought so.
And then he drove back to his McMansion in his F-250, hitched up the boat, and went to the lake for the weekend.
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!
Nonsense. They aren’t mobilizing. Loud pundits are telling them to mobilize.
Where are they gathering? They weren’t even outside Trump’s trial in any sizable numbers.
This is some fearmongering bullshit based on stupid nonsense people like fucking Dan Bongino of all people on said on fucking Truth Social. Even most of MAGA world isn’t on Truth Social.
i mean, they already mobilized and attacked once. January 6 was not a spur of the moment thing. if you watched the hearings for it you’d know that the fbi knew about j6 for months and warned everyone they could.
presumably there’s much the same kind of planning happening right now.
That planning was coordinated, in part, with the administration in power. Which can’t be done this time.
Removed by mod
Currently the Republicans, hopefully a couple of them will have aneurysms and drop dead, which would give Biden the house and Senate.
Mr Koch
There isn’t a central planning but I’d expect an increase in stochastic terror attacks. Fertilizer bombs, shooting up a substation, etc.
Problem is there’s a high likelyhood it will be done come Nov 2024/Jan 2025.
That entire “revolution” was halted by a single gunshot. Hopefully they don’t injure innocent bystanders when they check again if they’re brave enough for terrorism.
Where are they gathering?
I would check Waffle House.
The plumpest ones are at Cracker Barrel.
Tucker Carlson, the rightwing media heavyweight, waxed apocalyptic: “Import the third world, become the third world. That’s what we just saw. This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.”
Seriously wtf. These people are trying to get people killed.
These people are trying to get people killed.
Ofc they are … because they don’t think it’ll come back to bite them in the ass.
That’s because the US is under threat.
I mean… what did people think happens when the lies an empire is built upon is debunked one after the other?
No one is mobilizing shit, people are still fed and clothed, housed and have jobs and still have their entertainment…these loudmouths aren’t going to do shit. They just talk a lot but at the end of the day, they’re not going to start shit.
The jackass down the street “mobilized” in 2020 to harass poll sites. He was rolling coal all over town, among other things. I’ll let y’all know if he’s fool enough to start up again, right after the fbi.
They kinda are, though. Some mobilized on Jan 6. Some have been going out and showing open displays of nazi hate, complete with sieg heil salutes. Some have been threatening drag queen story hour at the libraries by standing outside with guns strapped to their backs and hips (because we all know that libraries are the most dangerous place for these guys – too many facts in books i guess). Some are open-carrying at polling places during voting.
Some are shooting up Planned Parenthoods. Some are setting pride centers on fire. Some are going after non-christian places of worship.
It’s all happened.
But when they do this stuff – when they show us who they are and try to intimidate us and terrorize us, believe them. They are dangerous.
Small tiny groups doing shit like that is not going to start a civil war though. Yeah it’s fucked up they’re doing that shit but they’re not going to be creating a rebellion.
I don’t think most people are seriously worried about civil war. However some horrifying examples of domestic terrorism is possible and unfortunately likely.
O the terrorism part I am not denying at all, that’s a very plausible reality, but this entire theead has been people worried about a civil war and dipshits on the maga side acting like they’re going to do something right after they finish off the 3 baconators.
They wouldn’t wear a paper mask to save their own family. They’re not going to drop 100 pounds and die for their asshole king.
Yep, they’re going to talk a bunch of shit online, they’re not going to get off the keyboard and move to a central location in mass to create a rebellion and start a civil war.
The irony.
The Republican crowd has done more in recent memory to mobilize than anyone leaning center-left has. We’re the ones that talk a lot and do little. The Right is dangerous, stop giving them a pass by presuming they won’t do anything.
They…will…not…start…a…civil…war.
I don’t know how much clearer I can be. They’re loud, but the amount of people who even turn out for these rallies is a joke.
Doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. Especially since they know most of us typically turn our heads to avoid confrontation. While there are reasons, some of them good, I have no doubt that group has felt emboldened by the lack of stalwart opposition these past few years.
No one ever stormed the capitol… /s
1k people do not make a civil war, and those people went back with full bellies and talking shit online.
And after talking shit online, some found a comfy new home for a short stint
It’s exactly the same as all of us going “hurdur guillotine time.”
We vent about it, but no one is actually going to get violent.
Imagine though? “Global history classes 2040: America had 2 civil wars. One was over literally owning human beings and the other was over an orange man who could never have enough attention. America is a silly place that you should never go to, just laugh at from afar.”
Well, it’d be more like “the 2nd was a proxy conflict over a figurehead after news networks were coopted by conservative billionaires and used for 30+ years to sow seeds of stochastic terrorism after laws regarding lying on TV were eliminated.”
