Even before the most basic details of the shooting at Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally yesterday had emerged, the ceaseless, grating background noise of American political life had cranked itself up once again.
You might imagine that a possible assassination of a leading presidential candidate would be a scared-straight moment for a nation that has been sleepwalking into a culture of political contempt, delegitimization and tribalism. But before anything, it was right back to reflexive criticism of the media, vitriol for the other side and conspiracy theories.
The shock: Someone was apparently able to take multiple shots at a former president of the United States, protected by a phalanx of Secret Service and surrounded by a throng of citizens.
The non-shock: Yet another person in the United States was apparently willing to engage in potentially lethal violence in the arena of politics, the latest in a sorry trail that has menaced elected officials, judges, civilians, the Capitol and now a leading presidential candidate.
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Using a fundamentally biased and un-moderated platform as a source of news is lazy, unprofessional and gratuitous. Do better.
Hated when news articles would take one person’'s tweet, even before musk took over, and use that as a basis of a group of peoples opinions. Terrible journalism, as you have described.
Democratic politicians: condemn political violence of any kind
Republican politicians: immediately blame media and democratic party, howls for violent revenge, etc.
Some rando on social media: the shooting was a false flag!
Politico: All of America is responsible for this
Politico: All of America is responsible for this
They’re not wrong tho. That’s the whole point.
I’m sorry, I must not have communicated my thought well. I understand this article’s point perfectly well and I am rejecting that point because it’s fucking offensively wrong and stupid. This is 100% the fault of Republicans and their supporters, full stop, and unless they’re prepared to acknowledge that simple reality I don’t see any point in discussing this incident any further.
It’s been pretty hot this summer hasn’t it? Let’s talk about what we can do to keep climate change under control.
Fair enough.
I hope you have a good day.
reverts
It had stopped…?
Well I mean I I’d assumed that it was a disgruntled MAGA-head The second I read the original headline last night. Today’s news just prove me right. Again. Getting really tired of that happening.
I really don’t care much about the assassination attempt. It’s a natural outcome of putting more guns into a population, stirring up hatred, and then putting everyone in a financial pressure cooker. I’m surprised that we didn’t see something similar earlier than this, aside from the attack on Mr. Pelosi and some other lower profile attacks (at least the ones we found out about due to many being foiled by FBI and other agencies).
The right wing media bubble and GOP politicians have been fomenting this for years…It was done to both build a lone wolf stochastic terrorist pool and to build out the mob that attacked the US Congress on Jan 6th. The attack just happened to turn against them this time.
You might imagine that a possible assassination of a leading presidential candidate would be a scared-straight moment for a nation that has been sleepwalking into a culture of political contempt, delegitimization and tribalism.
Was this written by AI? It sounds like someone who’s never met a human being before. Humans are tribal by our nature. It’s a fundamental part of how we have evolved as a species. That fact doesn’t change just because you choose to ignore it, or pretend it doesn’t exist.
