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Trump Rally Gunman Was ‘Definitely Conservative,’ Classmate Recalls
(www.thedailybeast.com)
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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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So…. Why then? Was he one of those rare conservatives that don’t like Trump? I think I’ve only ever met maybe one or two.
There is a growing movement within conservative groups that want Trump out of the way so a more competent politician can enact their crazy goals more effectively. Nick Fuentes is one example.
It is though any groups of people is not a monolith who perfectly toe the line with each other.
They usually don't talk about it because either they are lumped into trump supporters or attacked by the former for being a liberal pansy.
His Twitter page preached hate for Epstein and pedophiles.
Definitely not a Christian Conservative then.
that's reductionist and turns Christian conservatives into a one dimensional monolith. my parents are extreme conservative Christians, creationists, maga, the whole stupid 9. they hate pedophiles with a burning passion, my mom and i were both victims of them.
there's a whole problem with conservatives hating LGBT people because we've been lumped in with pedophiles for some reason, it's their whole schtick
We're not here to think or be reasonable, the goal is to be the most outraged.
fuck. i forgot
This is an online forum, not a political debate, do y'all not understand the social contexts and how figures of speech work? Everyone posts the same sad tired comment to appear like they've actually contributed something meaningful to jerk their own ego
Reminds me of that key and Peele sketch
You're just agreeing with me, but that makes me the bad guy for pointing it out.
The irony being that me saying be as outraged as possible is, of course, a figure of speech and not meant to be taken literally.
He had a twitter page??
Sorry, I saw a screenshot of Twitter. Seems to be Instagram, but so far unverified.
That's not him. the pic is a troll that immediately regretted spreading his own pic and posing as crooks.
This looks much more like the 'comedian' who was posting pretending to be him, and not actually the guy.
a comedian pretending to be the shooter, my god how thirsty for attention can you get
I've met the "I don't like Trump, but he's a Republican, so..." Variant.
That would be a big chuck of them. It seems many support him only because they fear retaliation from the anti-democratic red hats.
If he passed, how long before the red hat movement collapsed without him as its figurehead? How long before many conservatives started shifting/distancing themselves from his memory? I would guess not long at all.
The movement would collapse near instantaneously, as a slee of people would try to take his place and 20 heads would all try to control the hydra at once.
Problem with American politics is there tens of millions of people on both sides of the party split who abhor the candidate they've voted for but that's the candidate that won the primaries. So their options are vote their party, or waste their vote not voting, voting third party or voting the opposition party.
A conservative that hasn't been brainwashed. You don't see that very often these days.
I imagine there are a bunch of conservatives who dislike trump, especially ones whose family members have been completely sucked into the cult.
I think, looking at what has been published on him, it's pretty clear as to why he shot Trump. For one, his personality lended itself to a hero complex. He was really nice, shy, intelligent, informed, and helpful. He clearly had respect for the Republican party, but given the info on his friend group, it was likely due to peer pressure. This is mostly made obvious by his political donation to the Progressive Turnout Project he made. A project that no conservative really should want to encourage.
In all likelihood, this guy saw the direction the States was headed in and realized there was no way to stop it from imploding without resorting to extreme political violence. I imagined he was upset with the fact that he wouldn't be able to do much through official channels in his life, so he made the ultimate sacrifice to will the change himself. That's why this guy's a hero in my books, not because he took a shot at Trump, but because he realized there's nothing any of us normies can do about the States' political situation through normal means, so he went above and beyond. He probably spent some time weighing the options as to whom to shoot, and realized Trump was the better pick.
Cynicism will definitely lead you to civil war. Go read up on the Spanish civil war. Their experience might come in handy. Political violence won't help you get out of this polarized mess, it will drag you in deeper.
If radical change is what's necessary. Then civil wars should be on the table. Besides, I'm sure the shooter's goal wasn't to depolarize the masses.
"civil war" in this country = the US military vs the side that gets obliterated inside of 1 week. the question is which side they will pick
Still, that sort of sacrifice should be expected if you want to make changes in your country (the US)
it's the people who are trying to STOP change, or undo it, who are talking about civil war.
Yah I mean, if your narrow understanding of what war is is Trumpets trying to take over the white house than yah, I guess one would hate the idea of using violence for the greater good.
so...given the implication that you have a broad comprehensive understanding of war, your solution is that we should just assassinate people we disagree with? make them martyrs?
gtfo dude
~~Side note, he didn't make that donation. It would have been illegal as he was 17 at the time, and the donation came from a 60+ year old in Philadelphia with the name Thomas Crooks, not his town of Bethel Park.~~
Apparently that little bit of trivia doesn't actually apply to the story, and the shooter did make the donation.
Seems like he did it
Thanks, I had seen the posts that they referenced floating around Lemmy
Yeah, it would have been nice if he hadn't done the donation.
Need a source on that or I'll just assume you're lying through your teeth. As literally every major news outlet is reporting he made that donation
I saw some posts about it yesterday on Lemmy, but apparently upon further digging there is a 69 year old Thomas Crooks of Pittsburgh, but he didn't make the donation. The donation was marked as coming from Pittsburgh which is close to Bethel Park. I've edited my post.
Your edit correct (most of this is directed at the user you are replying to) the kid from this weekend was 20 and the donation was made 3 years ago. It would have been illegal for him to make a campaign contribution at the age of 17, there is also a PA gov website that you can look up public campaign donations on (Its where this info came from). Im not able to locate the exact page, but screenshots have been circulating for a bit. In addition, there are updates that the FBI has gotten into his phone and the investigations interviews with his friends and family are starting to hit the news cycle.
Just be open minded that this is a developing story and that the general narrative will change.
this kind of speculation is pointless until more evidence is revealed.
I do wonder how much improvement there would be in the political situation in the US if Fox and the other channels spewing right-wing lies and fearmongering garbage went off the air?
While I'm sure there would be a net positive, it's also a completely absurd hypothetical. To get rid of hateful and rightwing propaganda networks, you'd have to completely change the political donor system in the US. You'd have to change the political landscape, you'd have to change the population, the rules on election and numerous other things.
You can't just get rid of something that's so beneficial to those in power. You have to completely remove that power in its entirety.
There's a Dr Who episode "The Long Game" from 2005 that kinda covers this.
Your opinion isn't based on anything... The conversation around that single, small donation to a "Progressive" cause is developing. Last I heard, speculation was that it was a known very spammy PAC and it was asking some ambiguous, more centrist survey question and then you could donate. People will turn their backs to a mountain of evidence to focus on a Pebble on the ground behind them.
Now reasonable assumption is A) he was tricked into donating to a cause he would never knowingly support B) He meant to graze and wound, but not kill to try to make trump a martyr C) He actually wanted to kill trump to incite a civil war or race war and figured trump would be down to be the pin on the grenade because he was delusional D) he was straight up mentally ill and he wanted trump to go meet Jesus quickly to get a medal or some shit.
What are you talking about dude? Have you read anything regarding the shooter?
https://www.campaignfinanceonline.pa.gov/Pages/CFReportSearch.aspx
Please update your mental narrative or stop wildly speculating and let the investigation run its course. If you want to sluthe yourself or "do your own research" here is the site to look up PA political donations, it was a simple google search away.
The donation in question was not made by the shooter, but by a different individual with a similar name 3 years ago. The shooter would have been 17 at the time, and thus unable to make such a contribtion.