The horror of people willing to die for Donald Trump

[dalton99a]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/12/fbi-cincinatti-standoff-shiffer-people-willing-to-die-for-trump/
https://archive.ph/BZ3Do

The horror of people willing to die for Donald Trump
By Alyssa Rosenberg
August 12, 2022 at 4:36 p.m. EDT

On Thursday afternoon, a man whom authorities have identified as Ricky Shiffer was shot and killed in a stand-off with police officers after he allegedly tried to break into a FBI office in Cincinnati. Reports suggest that he may have been motivated by a strong devotion to former president Donald Trump and by anger at the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

On Thursday evening, The Post reported that according to sources, the search at Mar-a-Lago was aimed in part at recovering “classified documents relating to nuclear weapons.” Trump’s response? A post on Truth Social, the platform he founded, declaring, “Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax,” and a false suggestion that “Barack Hussein Obama” had done something similar. ...

The absurdity and maliciousness of the cause for which these people have died only compounds the horror of their deaths. How is it that no one, no institution, could offer something more substantive than the manifest hollowness of Trump and Trumpism?

An essential part of Trump’s malign magic is its impermeability. Suggest that his followers deserve better — whether that is an actual infrastructure package or a leader who appeals to their best qualities rather than their basest — and you’re accused of exhibiting the very contempt that made Trump attractive in the first place. Suggest Trump is scamming his followers, and you’re a tool of the deep state. According to Trump and his many enablers, there is no evidence that isn’t planted or manufactured, no moral act that is disqualifying, no act for which Trump himself can be held responsible.

Even the people who seek to martyr themselves in Trump’s defense can be redefined and reinterpreted through this corrupt logic: On social media, Trump fans aren’t celebrating Shiffer as a Trumpist patriot. They’re dismissing him as a false flag planted to paint the FBI in a flattering light.

[orleans]

1. "horror" doesn't strike me as the correct word. "insanity" seems more fitting nt

[Jarqui]

2. As bad as Trump has been, Ron DeSantis worries me more

He killed a lot of Floridians with his Covid policies.

People compare Trump to Hitler. I think DeSantis is closer to Hitler.

Republicans are ruthless for power.
When the time is right, they'll run over Trump with a steamroller and won't look back.

[Jade Fox]

5. +1

[live love laugh]

8. ✔️

[JI7]

10. I don't think DeSantis would get the cult following that Trump has

Part of the reason the idiots like Trump is the entertainment part of it .

DeSantis just comes off angry and miserable all the time .

[Jarqui]

13. He'd offset a bunch of that by picking up the Republicans turned off by Trump

and getting unfair media hitjobs on Biden daily.

[Dorian Gray]

14. Desantis

is smarter than trump. (Worrying) But he does not have the comedic PT BARNUM entertainment value that Trump embodies. He's kind of a dud on stage.

America Firsties like him bc he uses divisive issues to embolden his leadership. But he can't command a room like Trump does. And he won't inspire people to die by suicide in a FBI shootout for him.

[Funtatlaguy]

11. Don't say gay, Mickey Mouse and Pluto.

[Jarqui]

16. Don't say 'wear a mask' in school or teach 'critical race theory' and

#3 in the nation for banning books
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-bookstores-react-to-floridas-banned-books-14296052

He's all for tossing out gun laws - just don't bring one to his campaign stops ...

[LonePirate]

3. Did he think he was single-handedly going to take out several or dozens of trained and armed agents?

These people are as stupid as they are dangerous.

[Jade Fox]

6. He was hoping to get killed and become a MAGA martyr.........

How ironic that his comrades have turned on him in death.

[Whiskeytide]

17. I think calling him a false flagger is just ...

… self-cover and disassociation. They don’t want the rest of us to know what psychopathic morons they all are.

[Solly Mack]

4. Trumpers can all die for their beliefs for all I care.

Sure, it's tragic, but better them than the rest of us.

[live love laugh]

7. As radical as the ones on 9/11- except domestic.

[KS Toronado]

9. I wish MAGAts the best dying for their Der orange Fuhrer

[Dorian Gray]

12. THIS

"The absurdity and maliciousness of the cause for which these people have died only compounds the horror of their deaths. How is it that no one, no institution, could offer something more substantive than the manifest hollowness of Trump and Trumpism? "

I've been saying this over and over since Jan 6th. I have bored my family and my friends with this. I've said it this week in threads here. To do this for that ridiculous man is something I don't quite understand, and it borders on absurdity. (And horror bc people are dying for him.)

[vercetti2021]

15. Okay

If they want to die they can die without hurting other people but other than that I don't give a shit

[Buckeye_Democrat]

18. It's very bizarre to most of us, but...

... it's apparently a trait of right-wing authoritarians toward their "strong leader".

The best predictor of a Trump supporter during the 2016 GOP primaries was right-wing authoritarian (RWA) personality. (Since many RWA's become fundamentalists, it's not too surprising that so many evangelical Christians voted for Trump too.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarian_personality

Submissiveness

Right-wing authoritarians tend to accept what their leaders say is true and readily comply with their commands. They believe that respecting authority is an important moral virtue that everyone in the community must hold. They tend to place strict limits on how far the authorities can be criticized, and believe that the critics are troublemakers who don't know what they are talking about. RWAs are extremely submissive even to authority figures who are dishonest, corrupt, and inept. They will insist that their leaders are honest, caring, and competent, dismissing any evidence to the contrary as either false or inconsequential. They believe that the authorities have the right to make their own decisions, even if that includes breaking the rules that they impose on everyone else.

It really blows my mind that someone might decide to even kill their own family members if they're perceived to be opposed to the "strong leader", but that can happen too... like in Nazi Germany decades ago in regard to Hitler.

[SKKY]

19. Meh. It's like that Napoleon Bonaparte quote...

..."Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." They want to follow him off a cliff, I'm fine with that.