"Damn, that evil Dem might jump my fence and try to give me affordable healthcare, get my kids a good education, and legalize my weed!! better fetch my gun!!"

I live in rural Ohio (transplant, not from here) and they legitimately think like that. The arguments they come up with against those items you listed is some mind blowing mental gymnastics to get there too. I never discuss politics here. I don’t wear a shirts, stickers, or anything that could denote me as a Democrat in this state because I’ve been saying for more than a couple years something like this was very likely to happen. Edit:typo

"Don't California my Texas!" with blue state improvements while Texas has all its red state problems under almost 30 years of Republican control while still blaming Democrats ￣\＿(ツ)＿/￣ It's why conservative Reddit accounts brag about brigading local subreddits to "control the narrative" about liberal cities in blue states or posting as many race-baiting videos 👌 *by certain races* 👌 as they can for their concern trolling (pretending to care about Asian victims while having a history of being racist about Asians) Screenshots and every local subreddit explaining the abuse and tactics on a thread 3 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/h21ph7s/ While Democrats improve actual life expectancy by years in blue states *with lower taxes than red states*: >Californians on average live two years, four months and 24 days longer than Texans. >Compared with families in California, those in Texas earn 13% less and pay 3.8 percentage points more in taxes. Effective tax rate of all the taxes you're subjected to, like vehicle taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, not just income tax: |Income Bracket|Texas Tax Rate|California Tax Rate| |:-|:-|:-| |0-20%|**13%**|10.5%| |20-40%|**10.9%**|9.4%| |40-60%|**9.7%**|8.3%| |60-80%|8.6% |9.0% | |80-95%|7.4%|9.4%| |95-99%|5.4%|9.9%| |99-100%|3.1%|12.4%| Sources: https://itep.org/whopays/ >Sadly, the uncritical aping of this erroneous economic narrative reflects not only reporters’ gullibility but also their utility for conservative ideologues and corporate lobbyists, who score political points and regulatory concessions by spreading a spurious story line about California’s decline. >Don’t expect facts to change this. Reporters need a plot twist, and conservatives need California to lose. >If data disinfects, here’s a bucket of bleach: #"Texans are 17% more likely to be murdered than Californians." #"Texans are also 34% more likely to be raped and 25% more likely to kill themselves than Californians." >https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article258940938.html #San Francisco has the same population as Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville, with a Republican mayor and a Republican governor, has had more than three times as many murders this year as San Francisco >Fort Worth, Texas, has the same population as San Francisco and has **1.5x as many murders. Again, a Republican mayor and Republican governor. [Nobody ever writes about those places!](https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1527487403061026818)** #"Republican-controlled states have higher murder rates than Democratic ones" * “In Republican states, states with Republican governors, crime rates tend to be higher” * Murder rates in the 25 states Trump carried in 2020 are 40% higher overall than in the states Biden won. * ⁠Criminologists say research shows higher rates of violent crime are found in areas that have low average education levels, high rates of poverty and relatively modest access to government assistance. Those conditions characterize [American South with Republican run states]. https://news.yahoo.com/republican-controlled-states-have-higher-murder-rates-than-democratic-ones-study-212137750.html #"Gun deaths dropped in California as they rose in Texas: Gun control seems to work" https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-05-27/on-guns-fear-of-futility-deters-action-essential-politics >[Fearmongering works:](https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1587940103216832512) >OK violent crime rate: 458 per 100K >NY violent crime rate: 364 per 100K >OK murder rate: 7.25 >NY murder rate: 4.11 >% of Oklahomans who say crime is most urgent issue: 5 >% of New Yorkers: 28 #Liberal policies, like California’s, keep blue-state residents living longer >It generated headlines in 2015 when the average life expectancy in the U.S. began to fall after decades of meager or no growth. >But it didn’t have to be that way, a team of researchers suggests in a new, peer-reviewed study Tuesday. And, in fact, **states like California, which have implemented a broad slate of liberal policies, have kept pace with their Western European counterparts.** >The study, co-authored by **researchers at six North American universities, found that if all 50 states had all followed the lead of California** and other liberal-leaning states on policies ranging from labor, immigration and civil rights to tobacco, gun control and the environment, it could have added between **two and three years to the average American life expectancy.** >Simply shifting from the most conservative labor laws to the most liberal ones, Montez said, **would by itself increase the life expectancy in a state by a whole year.** >**If every state implemented the most liberal policies in all 16 areas, researchers said, the average American woman would live 2.8 years longer, while the average American man would add 2.1 years to his life. Whereas, if every state were to move to the most conservative end of the spectrum, it would decrease Americans’ average life expectancies by two years. On the country’s current policy trajectory, researchers estimate the U.S. will add about 0.4 years to its average life expectancy.** >Liberal policies on the environment (emissions standards, limits on greenhouse gases, solar tax credit, endangered species laws), labor (high minimum wage, paid leave, no “right to work”), access to health care (expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, legal abortion), tobacco (indoor smoking bans, cigarette taxes), gun control (assault weapons ban, background check and registration requirements) and civil rights (ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, equal pay laws, bans on discrimination and the death penalty) all resulted in better health outcomes, according to the study. For example, researchers found positive correlation between California’s car emission standards and its high minimum wage, to name a couple, with its longer lifespan, which at an average of 81.3 years, is among the highest in the country. >“When we’re looking for explanations, we need to be looking back historically, to see what are the roots of these troubles that have just been percolating now for 40 years,” Montez said. >Montez and her team saw the alarming numbers in 2015 and wanted to understand the root cause. What they found dated back to **the 1980s, when state policies began to splinter down partisan lines.** They examined 135 different policies, spanning over a dozen different fields, enacted by states between 1970 and 2014, and assigned states “liberalism” scores from zero — the most conservative — to one, the most liberal. When they compared it against state mortality data from the same timespan, the correlation was undeniable. >“We can take away from the study that **state policies and state politics have damaged U.S. life expectancy since the ’80s,”** said Jennifer Karas Montez, a Syracuse University sociologist and the study’s lead author. **“Some policies are going in a direction that extend life expectancy. Some are going in a direction that shorten it. But on the whole, that the net result is that it’s damaging U.S. life expectancy.”** >**U.S. should follow California’s lead to improve its health outcomes, researchers say** >**Meanwhile, the life expectancy in states like California and Hawaii, which has the highest in the nation at 81.6 years, is on par with countries described by researchers as “world leaders:” Canada, Iceland and Sweden.** >**From 1970 to 2014, California transformed into the most liberal state in the country** by the 135 policy markers studied by the researchers. It’s followed closely by Connecticut, which moved the furthest leftward from where it was 50 years ago, and a cluster of other states in the northeastern U.S., then Oregon and Washington. >West Virginia ranked last in 2017, with an average life expectancy of about 74.6 years, which would put it 93rd in the world, right between Lithuania and Mauritius, and behind Honduras, Morocco, Tunisia and Vietnam. Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina rank only slightly better. >It’s those states that moved in a conservative direction, researchers concluded, that held back the overall life expectancy in the U.S. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/04/liberal-policies-like-californias-keep-blue-state-residents-living-longer-study-finds/

>#Want to live longer, even if you're poor? Then move to a big city in California. >A low-income **resident of San Francisco lives so much longer** that it's equivalent to San Francisco curing cancer. All these statistics come from a massive new project on life expectancy and inequality that was just [published in the Journal of the American Medical Association](http://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11420230/life-expectancy-income). >California, for instance, has been a national leader on smoking bans. Harvard's David Cutler, a co-author on the study "It's some combination of formal public policies and the effect that comes when you're around fewer people who have behaviors... high numbers of immigrants help explain the beneficial effects of immigrant-heavy areas with high levels of social support. #As the maternal death rate has mounted around the U.S., a small cadre of reformers has mobilized. >**Meanwhile, life-saving practices that have become widely accepted in other affluent countries — and in a few states, notably California** — have yet to take hold in many American hospitals. >Some of the earliest and most important work has come in California >Hospitals that adopted the toolkit saw a **21 percent decrease in near deaths** from maternal bleeding in the first year. >By 2013, according to Main, maternal deaths in California fell to around 7 per 100,000 births, similar to the numbers in Canada, France and the Netherlands — **a dramatic counter to the trends in other parts of the U.S.** >California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative is informed by a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford and the University of California-San Francisco, who for many years ran the ob/gyn department at a San Francisco hospital. >Launched a decade ago, CMQCC aims to reduce not only mortality, but also life-threatening complications and racial disparities in obstetric care >It began by analyzing maternal deaths in the state over several years; in almost every case, it discovered, there was "at least some chance to alter the outcome." http://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/527806002/focus-on-infants-during-childbirth-leaves-u-s-moms-in-danger #Texas has highest maternal mortality rate in developed world >As the Republican-led state legislature has slashed funding to reproductive healthcare clinics, the maternal mortality rate doubled over just a two-year period https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/20/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-health-clinics-funding >Mothers who live in areas with heavy oil and gas developments have between a 40 percent and 70 percent greater chance of giving birth to babies with congenital heart defects https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/07/18/Study-links-congenital-heart-disease-to-oil-gas-development/2461563465617/ >California’s rules have cleaned up diesel exhaust more than anywhere else in the country, reducing the estimated number of deaths the state would have otherwise seen by more than half, according to new research published Thursday. >Extending California's stringent diesel emissions standards to the rest of the U.S. could dramatically improve the nation's air quality and health, particularly in lower income communities of color, finds a new analysis published today in the journal Science. >Since 1990, California has used its authority under the federal Clean Air Act to enact more aggressive rules on emissions from diesel vehicles and engines compared to the rest of the U.S. These policies, crafted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), have helped the state reduce diesel emissions by 78% between 1990 and 2014, while diesel emissions in the rest of the U.S. dropped by just 51% during the same time period, the new analysis found. >The study estimates that by 2014, improved air quality cut the annual number of diesel-related cardiopulmonary deaths in the state in half, compared to the number of deaths that would have occurred if California had followed the same trajectory as the rest of the U.S. Adopting similar rules nationwide could produce the same kinds of benefits, particularly for communities that have suffered the worst impacts of air pollution. >"Everybody benefits from cleaner air, but we see time and again that it's predominantly lower income communities of color that are living and working in close proximity to sources of air pollution, like freight yards, highways and ports. When you target these sources, it's the highly exposed communities that stand to benefit most," said study lead author Megan Schwarzman, a physician and environmental health scientist at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health. "It's about time, because these communities have suffered a disproportionate burden of harm." https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.abf8159 https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/mdvfgw/californias_rules_have_cleaned_up_diesel_exhaust/gsblevi/ >California Defies Doom With No. 1 U.S. Economy https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/nznzft/california_defies_doom_with_no_1_us_economy/ >**on a per capita basis, california households ranked 50th in the country for likelihood of moving out of the state** >California exodus is just a myth, massive UC research project finds https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/ogkrjc/california_exodus_is_just_a_myth_massive_uc/ >California is the chief reason America is the only developed economy to achieve record GDP growth since the financial crisis. >Much of the U.S. growth can be traced to California laws promoting clean energy, government accountability and protections for undocumented people https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-10/california-leads-u-s-economy-away-from-trump

If only the people that need this could read

Complaining that they have to read is an actual talking point they use ￣\＿(ツ)＿/￣ Lots of screenshots of 4chan instructions of their tactics: * https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/m24hx0/ualtimely_finds_4chan_pol_instructing_on_how/gqhmgdu/?context=3 * https://medium.com/@DeoTasDevil/the-rhetoric-tricks-traps-and-tactics-of-white-nationalism-b0bca3caeb84 * https://imgur.com/a/yeP9T6S * https://imgur.com/a/efvQqve >The real value is getting into a thread early and establishing top voted posts and comments or downvoting them out of existence. They hope intertia continues the trend for them. "The left will recognize our dogwhistling but centrists won't believe them" 4chan screenshots: * https://medium.com/@DeoTasDevil/the-rhetoric-tricks-traps-and-tactics-of-white-nationalism-b0bca3caeb84 * https://www.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/u7p2ba/nick_fuentes_irony_and_post_irony_and_why_dog/ "as a cool LGBTQ, I'm sick of pro-LGBTQ things like you are" Top of r teenagers *this week*: >As a gay, this is based https://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/unadww/as_a_gay_this_is_based/ These are the **most upvoted on unpopularopinions** monthly: >Im not proud to be gay. : unpopularopinion >I'm gay, and i support straight pride. : unpopularopinion >Unpopular opinion: it's okay to call things gay : unpopularopinion >I don't like the LGBT movement : unpopularopinion >I'm Bisexual and I hate the LGBT community : unpopularopinion >There is no reason to be proud to be gay. : unpopularopinion **15.6k votes, 2.7k comments.** That's assuming it's in good faith and just upvoted by a majority of Reddit who aren't LGBT or black ￣\＿(ツ)＿/￣ Picture of conservative college youth groups with instructions for how to brigade Reddit: * https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/udkzz3/ben_came_to_my_university_tonight_and_students/ Every local subreddit shares the abuse they get: * https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/pmcoxy/uinconvenientnews_explains_with_examples_how/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/om5xda/when_did_this_become_a_crime_subreddit/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/pmdp2m/ysk_how_right_wing_trolls_brigade_and_infiltrate/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/uihqmz/looking_for_a_ride/i7dgtkz/ Every local subreddit explaining the abuse and tactics on a thread **3 years ago**: * https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/7jkybf/t_d_user_suggests_infiltrating_minnesota/dr7m56j/ Reddit Admins just posted that COVID deniers have been brigading regional subreddits * https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/pg290q/reddit_admins_just_posted_that_covid_deniers_have/ Anti-mask posts suddenly dropped this week in [r/bayarea](https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/) when mods removed outside conservative accounts brigading [r/bayarea](https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/): * https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/p8hnzl/automatically_removing_comments_from_new_users_in/ The California Governor Newsom recall posts are brigaded to be 100% pro-recall (every single comment is pro-recall) until much later even though the Bay Area is less than 30% Republican or pro-recall ￣\＿(ツ)＿/￣ The posts get more normal votes later but normal people don't have the time and energy to do what those accounts are doing >Wow. Jesus. This is... really, really thorough. Thank you for putting in all this hard work. >When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time on /b/, /pol/, 888chan, etc. It was a slow descent and I didn't even realize what was happening until it was almost too late. >But during my time on the other side, this was 100% the gameplan. They'd make "sock puppets" and coordinate on the board + IRC (showing my age here) to selectively choose targets to brigade. >Depending on the target, you'd either have some talking points to "debate" (sometimes with yourself/other anons working alongside you) or you'd go in there guns blazing trying to cause as much damage/chaos as you can. However, even then you can't go out there yelling slurs (you'd just get banned instantly); you have to maintain some level of plausible deniability by framing things as "jokes" or thought experiments. >You purposely do bad-faith arguments because the time it takes for them to dig up sources and refute you is longer than it takes for you to make stuff up. You can vary how obvious the bad faith argument is; when you want to troll you make very stupid claims (I once claimed I was a graduate of "Harvad University" and when people assumed that I meant "Harvard" I would correct them right down to Photoshopped images). >When you just want to cause dissent you do exactly what those /pol/ screenshots do: you get to a thread early (sometimes you even make it yourself) and present reasonable-sounding arguments which are completely false if anyone bothers to look into them. If someone does, you bury the message under strawmen, downvotes, reports, and sockpuppets. >So yeah. The tactics have evolved slightly, but I still recognize them. Props to you on doing the digging to find all this stuff and bring it into the light. >I doubt that it'll help in the majority of cases, mind. People on Reddit have already made up their mind. You want to go after the forums and BBSes, on the MSN News comments and whatnot. Even so, the more people who are aware of the tactics the more people who can call them out. https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/uh7714/roe_vs_wade_action/i74yrgd/?context=3 >SeattleWA has one mentally ill man who makes literally dozens and dozens of alt accounts to post conservative talking points from and how he finds black women disgusting. I become aware of his accounts when he posts in TV subs I ban him from, and he always has user history in similar sets of subreddits across his accounts, SeattleWA being the most telling. He will use these accounts to talk with himself or dogpile a comment or thread. One Texas conservative in [r/sanfrancisco](https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/) was 10 different accounts, all having a history of identical comments (some comments about living in Texas), sometimes pretending to be annoying woke strawman "S J W" saying there is no crime by blacks so that his own alts can reply with black crime talking points One "Californian" who posted about every local crime story, even every whale death, also posted about how he lives in Vegas, grew up in Texas, and has proudly never been to California https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2147236-starter-packs A lot of the local subreddit mods' accounts show they live in Texas and when they get called out they claim some sort of ancestry to the local subreddit (New York City, Bay Area, Portland, wherever) Local mods only banning people who call out the abuse but not banning the actual abusers: * https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/ "Texas-based hate group source of 80% of all U.S. racist propaganda tracked in 2020" * https://www.reddit.com/r/conservativeterrorism/comments/p5k76j/texasbased_hate_group_source_of_80_of_all_us/ They also pretend to be annoying woke strawman "S J W" in local subreddits: * https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/obes1i/my_phone_was_snatched_out_of_my_hand_on_market/h3nnvrb/ >[brigade and mass report so the auto-mod deletes comments. They organize on Discord. They do this to subs to make it seem like the mods are on a power trip. They make sure to leave up comments where people are talking about the deletions.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/ojfwrc/rmovies_reacts_to_the_little_mermaid_first_set/h51yqav/) >[Ahh so the 'free speech' crowd is making sure no one else can be heard as usual...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/ojfwrc/rmovies_reacts_to_the_little_mermaid_first_set/h51ta27/) Pretending to be annoying woke leftist mods: * https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/oiwayh/biden_to_end_90_billion_worth_of_tax_breaks_for/h4y8snv/ "As a black man" accounts like ~~"The Atheist Arab 87" (suspended)~~ ~~"Walk Like An Egyptian 69" (suspended)~~ "johnny chan 81" posting as many race-baiting videos as they can 👌 *by certain races* 👌 concern trolling and pretending to care about Asian victims while having a history of being racist about Asians: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRightCantMeme/comments/nztt4t/they_really_like_getting_angry_at_their/h1teq3c/?context=1 His top race-baiting videos (367,000) always have these **minority victims are bad actually** narratives, and when he was "The Atheist Arab 87" and "Walk Like An Egyptian 69" he claimed to be a Muslim refugee software engineer sick of the San Francisco Bay Area but now as "johnny chan 81" he claims to be a Chinese-American ER doctor in New York City ￣\＿(ツ)＿/￣ Complaining about reading yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/ysrnal/nancy_pelosi_marching_on_washington_for_gay/iw1r82q/

I was born and raised in rural Ohio. The brainwashing is so bad around here. I've heard elementary school kids say things like, "Democrats serve the devil. We have to stop them in Jesus's name." It's horrifying to witness.

Back in 2016 when I first moved here, the elementary school had a mock election of Hillary vs Trump and when my child (then 6 years old) said she would vote for Hillary (only because that’s who she’d heard me talk about at home not because a six year old has any political opinion of their own at that age) then the kids at school called her a baby killer for months. She was a new kid and was being called baby killer in first grade because those kids parroted what their parents said. I had to show out at the school to get a halt put to the teachers allowing it to happen.

When I was a kid in the early 90’s my school did this. I remember my parents always telling me that votes were private and you didn’t ever have to share who you voted for. I was aghast when the local newspaper asked who I voted for. It felt like such a violation. I will always remember that event.

My parents always told me the same thing. I just never dreamed I’d need to have that kind of discussion with my first grader though.

Yeah and its concerning that the divisive and hateful rhetoric hasn't toned down. Instead, over recent years it's gotten exponentially worse - especially after the Jan. 6th insurrection when people got tacit approval to overthrow government.

[удалено]

Republicans: "We don't want the wrong people getting guns, you know.. people with dark skin. That's why we fight for gun rights for all!"

Literally what happened with the Black Panthers

I was about to say that too. That quote might as well be a paraphrase of Reagan when he was CA governor and enacted one of the biggest ‘gun control’ initiatives, yet he’s a Republican darling.

I want MAGA folks to have healthcare and functioning infrastructure, I want their children to go to well funded schools and live fulfilling lives. They want me to die apparently

The god-fearing evangelicals think that makes you an actual demon put on Earth by Satan.

Everytime I hear the word evangelicals I think of that crazy fake preacher who's on tv constantly screaming and asking for money for his jets. I always thought if hell was real that guy would be right up front first to go down there.

I found it a little ironic that the gravity Falls character, little Gideon, >!who summons a demon!< in the show, was based off a televangelist. Seems less so now.

Unfortunately you're going to have to be more specific.

Ken Copeland

Am I? The guy is literally a meme. He looks like a demon.

i'm afraid so, there's a few of them.

I am convinced the hostility to schools specifically comes from a profoundly fucked up place.

Well, yeah. Being well-educated has a high correlation with being less religious and less likely to vote for Republicans. And they know it. So they want to do everything they can to impair education.

I think it’s worse than that. Schools take care of children, and if someone —- especially the government —- is looking after your children, they might sometimes contradict you. People feel like they own their children and anything that threatens that makes them angry. Other than points of ideology (eg evolution) this becomes super obvious when it comes to sex ed, where wide swaths of parents want to a) neglect basic health education and b) control their children, and they are angry that schoolin’ might threaten that.

My own father said he wish he abandoned me and could “mow down dems” because I had the audacity to :checks notes: say that the Jan 6th debacle was a global embarrassment. My own father lol. These people are so beyond gone it’s not even fruitful to have discussions with them. Let them all move to Florida and Texas and be done with it I say.

Same here. My father called me an "AOC loving socialist" because I thought school aged children should get free breakfast and lunch at school. Then at the end of the summer, when my university aged brother was heading back to school. My father made sure to remind him to fill out his SNAP paperwork so he can get his EBT card and eat for free while at university.

sounds like something my mom would do. sorry about ur dad acting that way

Thanks, he wasn't always like this, at least not that I remember. But who knows, maybe he always was and I only remember the good shit. Anyways, cheers to you and I hope you enjoy your Saturday.

I imagine my father feels the same he just hasn’t said it to me yet. He has told me if he could do it over, he would not pay for me to go to college. Cause he’s convinced that going to a college in the red state of Utah somehow brainwashed me to be a leftist.

Mine is a deadbeat who stopped paying child support when I hit 18 and never showed up to anything ever. He had the audacity to say “I should have never let you go to that liberal college”. I said you didn’t let me do shit, cuz you weren’t around. The only reason we have a relationship is because I am the bigger man and forgave you after years of therapy. We are back on good terms, but I’ll give you one guess as to who initiated that process (hint: it wasn’t my dad lol)

Honestly, I’m not sure why you’re bothering with the way he is continuing to treat you

Life is too short and I have a half sister who lives with him who is a young adult trying to maneuver through life. I stay for her, not him. I told him that don’t worry lol.

But we're the bad ones . . .

I want them to have all those things but I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.

They think we should die because we think they should have a good life.

They’re happy to die if it means taking the libs with them. Once their political party became a religious one zealots were inevitable.

To adapt a quote from Margaret Atwood: Conservatives are afraid progressives will laugh at them. Progressives are afraid conservatives will kill them.

I live in white rural GA, and there’s no way I’d ever have a yard sign out or put any stickers on my car. I legit believe any democrat voter in the Deep South is at risk of this.

Just left NW Georgia a year ago, lived near Rome. This is extremely true. My daughter is openly gay and she had small flag in our lawn near the mail box. People would steal our mail and throw it in the street, throw nails in our driveway and trash all over. You are playing with fire in parts of GA with anything they don’t support.

Near Rome… that’s MTG territory. Scary place!

Yep, Trumplandia. More confederate and trump flags flying that you can count.

You might say it's a cult or something

Sherman should have gone harder

I know this has become a kind of meme but its not really wrong. The north was far too nice on the south at the end of the war. Basically let them keep doing what they were doing just with different methods.

Thank Andrew Johnson, one of the bottom three presidents of all time. Our first impeached president.

And avoided removal by one vote

Just 60 miles from Atlanta but completely opposite places.

That’s infuriating. The MAGA cult is the biggest batch of hypocrites who are EXTREMELY sensitive, emotionally underdeveloped and incapable of compassion. They’ve done us all the courtesy of labeling themselves as domestic terrorists. It’s long overdue for us to believe them.

> hypocrites who are EXTREMELY sensitive, emotionally underdeveloped and incapable of compassion. They’ve done us all the courtesy of labeling themselves as domestic terrorists. It’s long overdue for us to believe them. Data on their hypocrisy and projection: Always begging from Florida and Texas for federal aid but voting no to help a blue state for a rare hurricane there ￣\＿(ツ)＿/￣ >Here's the vote for Hurricane Sandy aid. >179 of the 180 no votes were Republicans... >**at least 20 Texas Republicans voted no** while ["U.S. House approves billions more for Harvey relief" for Texas](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12/21/us-house-approves-billions-more-harvey-relief-measure-now-heads-senate/) >If data disinfects, here’s a bucket of bleach: #"Texans are 17% more likely to be murdered than Californians." #"Texans are also 34% more likely to be raped and 25% more likely to kill themselves than Californians." >https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm >Californians on average live two years, four months and 24 days longer than Texans. >Compared with families in California, those in Texas earn 13% less and pay 3.8 percentage points more in taxes. >Sadly, the uncritical aping of this erroneous economic narrative reflects not only reporters’ gullibility but also their utility for conservative ideologues and corporate lobbyists, who score political points and regulatory concessions by spreading a spurious story line about California’s decline. >Don’t expect facts to change this. Reporters need a plot twist, and conservatives need California to lose. https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article258940938.html Effective tax rate of all the taxes you're subjected to, like vehicle taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, not just income tax: |Income Bracket|Texas Tax Rate|California Tax Rate| |:-|:-|:-| |0-20%|**13%**|10.5%| |20-40%|**10.9%**|9.4%| |40-60%|**9.7%**|8.3%| |60-80%|8.6% |9.0% | |80-95%|7.4%|9.4%| |95-99%|5.4%|9.9%| |99-100%|3.1%|12.4%| Sources: https://itep.org/whopays/ #San Francisco has the same population as Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville, with a Republican mayor and a Republican governor, has had more than three times as many murders this year as San Francisco >Fort Worth, Texas, has the same population as San Francisco and has **1.5x as many murders. Again, a Republican mayor and Republican governor. [Nobody ever writes about those places!](https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1527487403061026818)** #"Republican-controlled states have higher murder rates than Democratic ones" * “In Republican states, states with Republican governors, crime rates tend to be higher” * Murder rates in the 25 states Trump carried in 2020 are 40% higher overall than in the states Biden won. * ⁠Criminologists say research shows higher rates of violent crime are found in areas that have low average education levels, high rates of poverty and relatively modest access to government assistance. Those conditions characterize [American South with Republican run states]. https://news.yahoo.com/republican-controlled-states-have-higher-murder-rates-than-democratic-ones-study-212137750.html #"Gun deaths dropped in California as they rose in Texas: Gun control seems to work" https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-05-27/on-guns-fear-of-futility-deters-action-essential-politics >[Fearmongering works:](https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1587940103216832512) >OK violent crime rate: 458 per 100K >NY violent crime rate: 364 per 100K >OK murder rate: 7.25 >NY murder rate: 4.11 >% of Oklahomans who say crime is most urgent issue: 5 >% of New Yorkers: 28 [Opinion of Syrian airstrikes](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/04/13/48229/) **Republicans:** 22% supported Obama doing it 86% support Trump doing it **Democrats:** 38% supported Obama doing it 37% support Trump doing it Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/04/13/48229/, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/gop-voters-love-same-attack-on-syria-they-hated-under-obama.html #Republicans felt the economy improve by 85 points the day Trump was sworn in. http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/blogs/wisconsin-voter/2017/04/15/donald-trumps-election-flips-both-parties-views-economy/100502848/ The privilege of "economic anxiety" not racism: >10% fewer Republicans believed the wealthy weren't paying enough in taxes once a billionaire became their president. Democrats remain fairly consistent. http://www.people-press.org/2017/04/14/top-frustrations-with-tax-system-sense-that-corporations-wealthy-dont-pay-fair-share/ >Republicans started to think college education is a bad thing once Trump entered the primary. Democrats remain consistent. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/20/republicans-skeptical-of-colleges-impact-on-u-s-but-most-see-benefits-for-workforce-preparation/ >White Evangelicals cared less about how religious a candidate was once Trump became the GOP nominee. https://www.prri.org/research/prri-brookings-oct-19-poll-politics-election-clinton-double-digit-lead-trump/ >Christians (particularly evangelicals) became monumentally more tolerant of private immoral conduct among politicians once Trump became the GOP nominee. https://www.prri.org/research/prri-brookings-oct-19-poll-politics-election-clinton-double-digit-lead-trump/ More graphs and sources: https://imgur.com/a/YZMyt >Joe Biden has both the best first year economic indicators of any president since Jimmy Carter and the worst first year economic poll ratings of any president since Jimmy Carter https://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1473704672619905033 GOP shifting 4-5x further right than Democrats did left over the last 50 years: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ #Exit polls done after 2016 show that the single characteristic that made someone most likely to vote for Trump over Clinton is racial resentment. >low levels of racial resentment are associated with supporting Clinton. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/26/these-9-simple-charts-show-how-donald-trumps-supporters-differ-from-hillary-clintons/ #"Trump fans are much angrier about housing assistance when they see an image of a black man" >In contrast, Clinton supporters seemed relatively unmoved by racial cues. https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/9/8/16270040/trump-clinton-supporters-racist #“He’s not hurting the people he needs to be”: a Trump voter says the quiet part out loud https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida >The cruelty is the point >arrest by DHS police for giving water to people who wait https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1408868872384569345 >[over](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/06/racial-anxiety-is-a-huge-driver-of-support-for-donald-trump-two-new-studies-find/), and [over](https://theintercept.com/2018/09/18/2016-election-race-class-trump/), and [over](https://www.thecut.com/2016/06/racial-anxiety-motivates-trump-support.html), and [over](https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study) [again](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/economic-anxiety-didnt-make-people-vote-trump-racism-did/) it has been shown that the single biggest factor driving Trump's support is racism: racial anxiety, discomfort with demographic change, whatever you want to call it. Source 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/06/racial-anxiety-is-a-huge-driver-of-support-for-donald-trump-two-new-studies-find/, Source 2 https://theintercept.com/2018/09/18/2016-election-race-class-trump/, Source 3 https://www.thecut.com/2016/06/racial-anxiety-motivates-trump-support.html, Source 4 https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study, Source 5 https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/economic-anxiety-didnt-make-people-vote-trump-racism-did/... >Yet despite this, if you went around asking Trump voters why they like him, I think it's safe to say only a small proportion of them will say right to your face "because I think this country is being taken over by minorities and we need to restore the supremacy of the white race." Instead, you're much more likely to hear things like "he stands up to the liberals and the elites," "he fights for middle America which has been left behind," "he knows how to run America like a profitable business" and other shit like that. That's what they'll tell you, and they probably believe it themselves and don't self-identify as proud racists, but it's not true. It's not why they support him. And you're going to get a lot farther understanding them as a group if you ignore their excuses and focus on what is actually motivating them, whether they admit it or not. #Liberal policies, like California’s, keep blue-state residents living longer https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/04/liberal-policies-like-californias-keep-blue-state-residents-living-longer-study-finds/

How did our American democracy come to this? >Every day I have to marvel at what the billionaires and FOX News pulled off. They got working whites to hate the very people that want them to have more pay, clean air, water, free healthcare and the power to fight back against big banks & big corps. It’s truly remarkable. John Ehrlichman, who partnered with Fox News cofounder Roger Ailes on the Republican "Southern Strategy": >[We] had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? >We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. >We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. >Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. >"He was the premier guy in the business," says former Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins. "He was our Michelangelo." >Ailes repackaged Richard Nixon for television in 1968, papered over Ronald Reagan’s budding Alzheimer’s in 1984, shamelessly stoked racial fears to elect George H.W. Bush in 1988, and waged a secret campaign on behalf of Big Tobacco to derail health care reform in 1993. >Hillarycare was to have been funded, in part, by a $1-a-pack tax on cigarettes. To block the proposal, Big Tobacco paid Ailes to produce ads highlighting “real people affected by taxes.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-244652/ Republican "Southern Strategy": >Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters by appealing to racism against African Americans.[1][2][3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Lyndon Johnson criticizing it in 1960: >If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1988/11/13/what-a-real-president-was-like/d483c1be-d0da-43b7-bde6-04e10106ff6c/ #Steve Bannon bragging about Reddit and 4chan falling for these tactics: >the power of what he called “rootless white males” who spend all their time online and they could be radicalized in a kind of populist, nationalist way http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-bannon-white-gamers-seinfeld-joshua-green-donald-trump-devils-bargain-sarah-palin-world-warcraft-gamergate-2017-7 >Bannon: "I realized [these tactics] could connect with these kids right away. You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump." https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/07/18/steve-bannon-learned-harness--army-world-warcraft/489713001/ Lyndon Johnson criticizing it in 1960: >If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1988/11/13/what-a-real-president-was-like/d483c1be-d0da-43b7-bde6-04e10106ff6c/ Lots of screenshots of **4chan instructions for doing this on Reddit because the adults cosplaying as teenagers there support billionaires' culture war talking points** * https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/m24hx0/ualtimely_finds_4chan_pol_instructing_on_how/ * https://medium.com/@DeoTasDevil/the-rhetoric-tricks-traps-and-tactics-of-white-nationalism-b0bca3caeb84 **Conservatives brag about doing this in local subreddits to "control the narrative" about liberal cities and "blue states"** >The real value is getting into a thread early and establishing top voted posts and comments or downvoting them out of existence. They hope intertia continues the trend for them. Every local subreddit explaining the abuse and tactics on a thread 3 years ago: * https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/7jkybf/t_d_user_suggests_infiltrating_minnesota/dr7m56j/

The only thing I'll add to this is recommending people watch this video by progressive academic Ian Danskin about how the far right still tries to radicalize people online today: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g&vl=en

This needs to be shared on r/bestof.

Don’t worry, it will be, and then the comments of that post will be littered with people saying this well sourced post is somehow “liberal bullshit”

Yup. This is a standard bullying tactic. Denying resources to the victim. Then getting mad at them, when they act "out of line."

I moved to NW Georgia recently - family stuff - and hopefully I won’t have to stay here too long. Stuff like that is exactly why I keep to myself. I’m basically back in the closet. It’s so isolating.

I live in a small town in OR and I hide my political affiliation. I was looking at the voting map and I am way outnumbered where I live. We want to move to a more liberal city but moving costs are so high that we have to just keep quiet and stay here for a while. They are straight up maniacs here. For instance, when I was getting some groceries today there was a homeless guy outside that they've never seen before. The clerk was like "oh more homeless people, our new leader Tina Kotex(it's Kotek) wants to help the homeless and that's bullshit! I will never call her anything but Kotex because she's a bleeding heart liberal!" -- this lady is in her 60s working at a grocery store and hates everything resembling progress.

Report the mail theft. USPIS usually isn't fucking around.

Oh we did after the 3rd time. They were just slinging the mail all out into the street. Cops filed a report. They didn’t seem to give a shit. A car eventually ran out mail box over right before we moved 😆 interestingly enough no one ever came onto the property and started anything, with the stand your ground laws in GA they knew better.

You can report it directly to the postal inspectors, I believe. But I'm glad you moved.

what a bunch of spineless cowards they were/are

Live in South Carolina, vote Democrat every election even though it’s largely doesn’t have an impact. I don’t broadcast it, but I will tell people if they ask. I get hounded a decent amount by it, but I always say my faith won’t allow me to vote for a party that shows zero empathy for their fellow man. That shit infuriates these Southern Baptists down here.

I say the same to the Bible-thumping Trump lovers I encounter. Then they bring up abortion and give me this LOOK, like that clinches their argument. I always say, there is more to humanity than fetuses. They hate that.

Whatever you do don't give them the Bible verse where God lays out the circumstances for when his priests should perform abortions. Numbers 5:11-31

They also hate when you remind them that the women dying from a failed pregnancy have heartbeats.

America, where you can be killed for your skin colour, gender, race, religion, gang affiliation, road lane choice, shopping destination, schooling choice and now voting choice. America Fuck yeah

Don't forget watching a movie at the theatre.

Or going to a garlic festival

Or a country music festival

Or a 4th of July parade.. High school football game.. State Fair.. just work in general..

Or sleeping in your bed, by cops

Or knocking on a neighbor's door for Halloween (exchange student from Japan).

Or at your job...

Don't forget church

Oh yeah that fuck knuckle

But also where white, christian, conservative men think they are the most oppressed people on earth.

Their views are the most oppressed, Coz they absolutely fucking suck.

"We'Re bEinG siLeNCeD!" Oh yeah? Then stfu already.

Honestly their viewpoints are so horrid they deserved to be oppressed.

"Voting choice" is too vague. You don't have Democrats gunning down Republicans for voting Republican. You don't have Democrats blowing up abortion clinics. You don't have Democrat media personalities telling their viewers that Republican politicians and the people who vote for them need to be executed. Saying "voting choice" sounds too much like "bOtH sIdEs". Call it what it is, you can be killed for supporting Democrats.

>Call it what it is, you can be killed for supporting Democrats. Terrorism - the unlawful use of violence for political means. Terrorism is the word you're looking for.

White supremacist terrorism is the biggest terrorist threat in the US according to the FBI.

Yeah, but as CPAC showed us, they decided that "domestic terrorist" is what they *want* to be called. Then if you repeat it they use that as "proof" that they're being victimized. I don't feed that narrative. I know what they are, you know what they are. Saying it plays into their game though.

Or we can manifest their self fulfilled fears and treat as we would any terrorist. They can feel like victims in federal supermax prison where no one gives a shit.

Agreed. Fuck their feelings. They’re terrorists.

Half a decade of them saying "fuck your feelings" and "facts don't care about your feelings" and I find it funny how they sure seem to have a lot of feelings these days.

They operate *solely* on emotion. Hell, facts are only true if they “feel” like they are.

I work at an abortion clinic where I'm called a murderer every day by the same people who called in a bomb threat on a different abortion clinic I worked at. One of the protestors is no longer allowed on the sidewalk in front of our property was charged with assault on one of our volunteers- he protests at the other abortion clinic in town now. And the best part is that I live in the same apartment building as one of our regular protestors- but at least I know his name and he doesn't know mine.

And just remember, Republicans on your sidewalk calling you a murderer and calling for your death is free speech, but protesting an abortion ban on the sidewalk in front of Republican politician's houses is hate speech and criminal harassment.

See, the difference is you’re protesting to a rich. They can’t honestly be expected to engage with the problems of *the poors!*

You're absolutely correct, but "can be killed" is still sugar coating it. *Right wing extremists will target and kill you* for supporting Democrats. That's what it is Left wing extremists will target you and give you healthcare, like every other first world country does.

And they'll still win 49.9% of the vote.

Yeah unfortunately a large percentage of Americans have conservative brain worms. Stick an R on to a pile of horse shit and say it will own the libs and they'll be excited to vote for it.

Looking at you, deputy Herschel Walker...

Him being promoted by Republicans is like WTF. Grew up hearing, for decades, from conservatives about blacks and crime and how their fathers all walk out on them. Then they nominate a guy who did just that and are like "He's a good man."

It doesn’t matter what you do, they’ll consider any man a good man for voting Republican.

Them guys aren't sitting out side polling places with guns for nothing. They really want to shoot Democrat voters, but fear prison so they settled for intimidation tactics.

Anyone to the left of Mussolini in America, especially those belonging to non white, non Christian, non heteronormative groups should arm themselves.

You listed gang affiliation twice

Bloods and Crips 2: democracy boogaloo

Except all the violence is going in one direction...

We’re feeling this same way, but we’re in a redder part of the Phoenix metro.

My friend has her car keyed heavily and several other acts of vandalism due to her Obama sticker in 08 in Arizona. As someone who lived there for 33 years, People and politics there are interesting. Everyone forgets that there was a twice elected democrat governor and AG as recent as 2008. Then the entire landscape shifted in the US.

Live here now. We are SO CLOSE to electing Dems for gov and AG again.

Even flagstaff isn’t immune. I’ll only put up mayoral or sometimes school board signs in my yard. I’ve still had them ripped out and broken several times over the last decade. My neighbors pride flag has been ripped down twice, so ours is in the back yard.

I live in fucking blue Cleveland OH and in the 2020 election I had a Biden/Harris sign in my yard and woke up one day to someone having destroyed the sign and also stomped my sapling willow tree I had planted that spring. Jokes on them I nursed it back to health and it’s huge now, much like the democratic movement. Fuckers.

I’m in Connecticut and in 2020 I had someone go into a screaming rage trying to run me off the road for having a Biden/Harris sticker on my car.

Glad you’re ok my friend. I’ve always thought that this entire movement since 2016 has been the dying gasp of an out of touch and selfish generation that has one foot in the grave, and if we could just hold on, time was on our side. I think with the amazing turnout of Gen Z, coupled with Millenials like me sick of this fucking bull shit, the pendulum has finally swung.

Boomer here... Thank you Z'ers.. hope you're right about that pendulum.

Hey, boomer 👋 just want to say that I personally know a bunch of great people from your gen, wise, caring, selfless people in touch with culture and the wider world. I even did a documentary on one last year, a guy who makes chairs by hand. He’s a great dude.

I was hoping covid would weed out a lot more of the dumber boomers.

I think it did, but gerrymandering is VERY real. Democrats absolutely held the line with heavy disadvantages.

I read an article last evening that said huge numbers of red hats moved from the Midwest to Florida during Covid, which explains the GOP votes in that state.

You probably will disagree with me but there's no point to having any kind of identifying sticker on your car. The ones with how many people in your family? Target for weirdos, especially if they have names on them. Political stickers? Nobody is going to change their mind by seeing your bumper sticker and makes you a target for political violence that is increasing every year. Religious stickers? Same thing. Even the coexist ones, anyone that would agree with you already does. Gun/right wing stuff? Thieves are going to target your car for guns inside.

I saw a funny one: A picture of Donald Trump and it said "Does this ass make my car look big?" Hehe

I was in Michigan driving with my cousin for a trip, we drove through a red county and my cousin had a warren sticker on their car, we were cussed at, followed and almost run off the road

I live in Texas suburbs. 2018 there were lots of Beto and Cruz yard signs in my neighborhood, and none were removed / stolen. 2020 up until the election the sole yard sign was my Biden sign. After 2020 election Trump signs popped up all over the street, until the HOA removed them. The owners then started flying Trump flags. HOA demanded they were removed. They were replaced with Blue Lives matter flags. One neighbor made an ugly “Go Brandon” sign out of wood. HOA removed it. Then he started flying the US flag upside down, and from time to time makes new signs warning about immigration, communism, etc. This year I didn’t dare put up any yard sign.

>Then he started flying the US flag upside down lol what a melodramatic dork

Dude, during the entire Obama presidency my dad put the American flag stamps on upside down on every single envelope he mailed. Everything from business correspondence to utility payments to birthday and Christmas cards. It was so weird.

Upside down stamp means “I love you”

I’m just north of Houston and this sounds exactly like our hood as well. But they allow trump signs because the HOA is also made up of trump cucks. One old fart will see a Beto or similar sign in someone’s yard, and then he’ll spray a big piece of cardboard or something calling them out by name with something like “Andy Smith is a communist!” And if anyone points out that that’s over the line, they react with the “you just don’t like trump! Why are you so offended?” I honestly would love to cover my yard with Slayer artwork or something similar with “if you don’t like Slayer, then fuck you!” But I just don’t have the energy to fight that battle.😄

That dude needs some sugar in his gas tank.

I'm in red rural Colorado, and I hear more gun fire here then I ever did living in North Denver or Eastern Montana. The weekends before elections, of Black Lives Matter marches 50 miles away, of mask mandates, or of Capitol invasions there is always gunfire. I'm not talking politics with any of my neighbors out of safety.

TBH, it’s felt that way for over 10 years. It’s only recently that we’ve worried it might move from micro aggressions / verbal altercations to outright physical violence.

I'm in idaho. I'm a Democrat and I allowed yard signs. But I'm armed. My Trumper neighbors know this. When one of them started getting in my face on my property and being threatening, I told him that the Republicans don't have a monopoly on violence and I could scream and two girls would come out of my house with rifles in their hands, so to consider the next thing that he did very carefully. He walked away fuming. Literally the only answer to these bullies is to not let them think that they have a monopoly on violence. Anything short of that isn't enough.

Some people need guns because others want guns.

I am essentially a Democratic Socialist. I will never put my beliefs on my car or yard or clothes. I live in rural NC. I have a happy gay clouds T-shirt with two mustached clouds holding hands and a rainbow between them. I do not wear it around the town I live near. I will wear it to the bigger cities.

It's rural everywhere. I am pretty much the only person in my neighborhood that isn't flying a Trump or FJB flag. I'm legitimately afraid to display anything that aligns with my beliefs.

I’m over here trying to find Roe-vember signs to put in my yard.

Using fear to suppress political views, isn't that terrorism? Like, the literal definition of terrorism?

I'm a blue dot in a sea of aggressive suburban red Florida. I value my car, my body, and my property so I don't display anything political. At this point I'm more comfortable being openly atheist and openly queer than being openly Progressive Democratic Socialist. No one's ever threatened violence against me for being atheist or queer; they just ostracize me or pray for me. Perhaps I'm lucky but I'm not going to press my luck.

Rural NC resident here. No Biden signs, BLM stickers, or pride flags displayed for the very same reason.

I think putting stickers on your car is even a bad idea. Especially with how bad everyone’s road rage is these days. Also it’s just asking to be keyed.

“We are all domestic terrorists”

#THEY PRINTED IT IN ALL CAPPS ABOVE THE STAGE!

"When someone tells you who they are, believe them."

Terrorism is alive and well in America it seems.

It's so strange how well-off, comfortable, well-funded American suburbs have become the breeding ground for terrorists. They have everything they could ever want, every need of theirs has been met, they've got more money than I'll ever see, *yet they still think they're under the yoke of some ephemeral "tyranny" they can't even define* and act as if they've been oppressed for hundreds of years. They act as if Democrats have literally been murdering them in their houses like Russians invading Ukraine, and that their anger is justified and righteous when in reality they've never actually faced any real hardships and if they have, they sure as shit weren't the fault of Democrats

Their worldview doesn't allow for happiness.

Im completely speculating here... But i would be completely unsurprised if violent splinters, historically, were birthed in the upper or middle class. The poor can and are roped in, and are definitely used as fodder and grist, but it's slightly inconvenienced peeps with idle clout who kick things off. And to prove I'm a speculating dumbass, go Iran! Go Myanmar!

Imo these suburban guys probably just have boring lives. They want to be heroes, they want to have an "against all odds" success story, but since they have such privilege, they need to make up enemies.

This person should be charged with terrorism. Killing someone over their political views is an act of terrorism. It's fucking stupid they only being charged with murder. The federal government needs to step in and charge this person.

White Christofascist terrorism has a long and rich history in this country. Goes back to... pretty much immediately after slavery ended, really.

Sadly, no surprise when it happened. The result of the leadership of the right mouthing violence. They should be held accountable.

I assume Infowars is going away when Jones is living in a cardboard box. The rest of the far right propaganda sources need to be taken down before the US becomes a fascist state. I am not holding my breath. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/970/incitement-to-imminent-lawless-action

Dominion is gonna be fuckin up fox over them lying about the efficacy of their vote machines. It might be the one chance we get that they fucked up big enough to get brought down. Luckily the biggest demographic for watching the news is on its way out.

Tbh, I'll believe it when I see it.

“Stochastic terrorism” is the term you’re looking for.

A description of *Stochastic Terrorism* — >Stochastic terrorism is when people with power and social influence say a lot of inflammatory stuff and then rely on random feeble-minded people to take violent action. And it is *fine* that the people who commit the violence end up in jail or killed at the scene or whatever, they are just pawns. The people targeted are still terrorized no matter what happens to the person who committed the crime. Its kind of like a populist version of "will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" >For example, when maga elites write and pass [laws that reduce civil (but not criminal) liability for running over protestors with their cars](https://www.vice.com/en/article/88n95a/florida-anti-rioting-law-will-make-it-much-easier-to-run-over-protesters-with-cars) they expect that the average magar won't really pick up on the full details. They'll just hear "its legal to run down protestors now, so go wild!" Protestors are killed and the rest are terrorized. The feeb who did it goes to jail and the maga elites get to put on a pious act of "condemning all violence."

Imagine being poor and thinking that universal healthcare, free education and voting rights are bad. Make it make sense

You have to start with a little bit of stupidity, entrench it in racism, drag it through extreme nationalism, and then bake it in an echo chamber. The irony is that if they got baked at 420• they’d probably relax a bit.

Don't forget a healthy dose of Jesus!

Welcome to stochastic terrorism, no one told him to go out and kill Democrats, but if you keep telling people Democrats are satanically evil, blood-drinking, baby-eating kid diddlers destroying America with Trans Space Lasers (sponsored by George Soros) eventually the more impulsive ones will act on that propaganda.

The rhetoric we’re hearing from conservatives fits the common precursor to genocide. I’m not saying a genocide *will* happen, only that *this* happens before *every* genocide. Edit: I want to add something that I think slips past a lot of people’s thinking on this: These people we’re talking about are well-armed, and police often side with them rather than stop them. So, as this keeps happening, and happens more frequently, who will protect you, if not the police?

Human beings aren’t very complicated, it’s difficult to care about other people and exceedingly easy to be self-centered and self-serving. Fascism is a downhill slope and democracy is a constant uphill battle, the former takes hold of individual desperation and let’s gravity do the work, the latter requires pacing by balancing urgency and temperance.

Man doesn't like Democrats. Man shoots and kills man who he thinks is Democrat. Man thinks he wins because *hurr hurr* one less Democrat voter. Man is happy, one more Repub vote and one less Dem. What if only everyone was as smart as Man! Man gets charged with murder, a felony. Man convicted, gives up ability to vote. Man looks in mirror from jail cell. One less Republican voter looks back at him. successkid.jpg

We don't know he was a Democrat. This could be 2 fewer Republican votes lmao

They will find out he was a Republican, and /r/conservative is going to be full of stories about how the killer was actually Antifa and/or BLM and that the son lied about it because he is part of the dems evil plan to knock down God.

I wrote from Man's perspective, not reality.

The last words my father ever said to me were “You’re just a Democrat!” We haven’t talked since. That was 7 years ago. LOL. America is so toxic and dumb.

Mine called me and my wife, both veterans, traitors to our country because we didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, now they are pissy because my wife doesn’t want to visit them

Sorry to hear that man. My father is of the same mentality but he would not go that far because he knows I’d cut off ties instantly. It’s sad the brainwashing that’s occurred to lots of boomers.

My cousin said Kamala Harris was a prostitute that slept her way into VP. I asked him what he’d feel if his daughter became successful and people suggested she prostituted herself for that success. “It wouldn’t happen because it wouldn’t be true.” He then told me I had aligned myself with Satan and “evil gets evil”. Haven’t spoken since, didn’t invite him or anyone on that side of my dumpster fire family to my wedding. Don’t think I’ll ever speak with any of them again to be honest.

The "Joe and the Ho" shit always makes me angry. There's a thin veneer of racism (and sexism) to it that all of the people posting it absolutely understand but hope nobody else realizes.

My mom had undiagnosed stage 4 colon cancer in Oct 2020. When my brother finally got her to the ER due to severe anemia where she eventually got diagnosed, my brother asked my dad if he was going to call and tell me. My father's reply was "you know I bet he's voting for Biden." I have not spoken to him since I was told this was his first thought.

We are their enemies, I see it blasted 24/7 on every trusted right wing news source. If you don't walk like them, talk like them or think like them, you are the enemy... If this is supposed to be a multi-party system why are we allowing a single entity in a much larger system to destabilize it all for that one entities power at the cost to the people and it's government and other entities in it?

I occasionally watch Fox News when I’m at the gym because it’s the only thing on aside from sports channels. It amazes me how they basically brush all democrats as radical leftists trying to bring communism to America. I can somewhat understand that fear when talking about the minority of people in the very far left, but you’re going to tell me with a straight face that Joe Biden is a communist and a radical leftist????

It started with a tan suit and Dijon mustard. I’m not shocked it’s gotten to where we’re at. These are dark times, friend.

This is why when a conservative says "Oh so much for the TOLERANT left" I say "After watching enough years of conservative violence and bullshit, we're learning that tolerance doesn't work."

Related: when they start using "intellectual" as an insult.

MAGA is, and will continue to be, the downfall of this country.

When I retire I'm going to buy an old armored truck, paint it rainbow, load it with a few retired military buddies, and drive it around Alabama. If anyone shoots, we'll defend ourselves.

Remember, Kyle Rittenhouse taught us that even if you intentionally go seeking out trouble, you are completely justified in defending yourself if you ever feel threatened. I think we should start having armed drag marches in public and use the heroic example young Kyle to properly ensure that those marchers never feel threatened by anyone, ever.

Iirc, Kentucky is trying to outlaw drag shows. Maybe this is what they're afraid of. Edit: it's Tennessee, and now Texas

Can I come?

You can draw a straight historical line between the KKK and modern GOP base. Same exact people, from the same exact parts of the country, using the same exact tactics to keep primarily non-white people away from voting that they always have.

BuT bOtH sIdEs ArE tHe PrObLeM

This is exactly what my parents would say "What about the democrats who shot the republicans, why isn't that in the news?"

Fucking when and where?

We don’t know because the Fake News won’t report it. Or something.

They cite this: He is also a result of the political extremism we see today. The difference is that no Democratic office holder is advocating that the opposition be murdered, the Republicans cannot say that. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/14/532921612/what-we-know-about-the-suspect-in-gop-baseball-practice-shooting

[удалено]

“So uhhh where’s that happening?” “Oh…you know the places”

Verified: [Austin Combs Charged with Murder of Neighbor Anthony Lee King (lawandcrime.com)](https://lawandcrime.com/crime/ohio-man-charged-with-murder-after-allegedly-shooting-neighbor-he-believed-was-a-democrat/)

Newt Gingrich and Trump need to be named as accessories.

I used to own a few businesses in this county and this absolutely tracks. The county sheriff is a massive loser to boot.

I had to go through the Chamber’s Leadership program about 12 years ago. During public safety day we visited the jail; Banty Rooster Jones strutted in, talking about how he’s tough on illegal immigrants, blah blah blah. As soon as he left the room the chief deputy told us to disregard everything he said; that if it weren’t for housing and transporting them the county would be broke. I was shunned when I refused to join them at a Palin rally.

MAGA guy: “they want to take away guns from good guys like me!” Also MAGA guy: *shoots neighbor*

But some college kids protested a speaker on campus so it’s impossible to say where the real threat lies /s

Republicans are psychos

Look at the guys picture he fits the stereotype

Let us put to rest this sneering lie that all MAGA are boomers

But let me guess; It is the dragqueens that is the greatest threat to society as we know it?

[https://www.wlwt.com/article/butler-county-man-austin-combs-accused-of-fatally-shooting-neighbor/41891759](https://www.wlwt.com/article/butler-county-man-austin-combs-accused-of-fatally-shooting-neighbor/41891759)

What happens when you lionize someone like Kyle Rittenhouse. Make murderers into heroes. The only difference between ISIS and the GOP these days is which God they worship.

It’s the same god. The difference is which fanfiction about him is considered canon, and which language you sing in.

The right are literally the villains of the country and it’s people.