• Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    139
    ·
    5 months ago

    Conservatives are shooting conservatives now, so I guess I better vote conservative for being so brave by standing up to conservatives.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Kids are also just ridiculously vulnerable to radical ideologies. It’s entirely possible this guy thought Trump wasn’t extreme enough.

          • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            13
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            I’ve always said that if the wrong person love bombed me at exactly the right moment in my life I could have easily been part of a cult. 20 year old me needed a fucking hug and would have worshipped Marmaduke or whatever to get one. Even in my 30s at exactly the wrong moment I could have gotten sucked into some fucked up shit because my life had several extremely negative things happen all at once.

            • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              5 months ago

              That’s me right now, in my early 30s and the last 14 months has just been a non stop onslaught of bad. I have to rebuild my social circle from the ground up. Doing my best not to get into anything I’ll regret later

              • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                5 months ago

                Keep your chin up. You’re absolutely not alone. By the sounds of it part of what you are going through is part of what I went through.

                I’ll say it ain’t easy, but after I did come out of it (only one largeish regret!) things ended up better than ever. It took a lot of effort and more luck than I’m willing to admit but it was so worth it.

        • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          We already know he was a conservative voter, there’s no need to pile on any other mental illness diagnoses

          • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 months ago

            I’m just pointing out a truth about the disease. If you have ever witnessed someone change almost overnight at that age, it’s a possibility an undiagnosed illness is revealing itself. People do some whacked out shit, especially if they are intelligent.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            There’s always some mental health issues with something like this. The very concept of killing someone and knowing you’re going to die as a result requires an altered mental state.

            • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              5 months ago

              I wouldn’t say so in every situation. I’m sure plenty parents would say they would die to defend their kid, and I don’t think that would quality for an altered mental state.

              I mostly do agree though, but I do think you can sacrifice yourself as a rational and mentally healthy person. But it certainly not a choice that hypothetical person would make lightly.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                5 months ago

                Well yeah, the whole greater love thing. This doesn’t strike me as such a situation though…

      • lars@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 months ago

        He’s a law-and-order conservative: there was nothing criminal about Trump’s failed coup d’état

        • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          And Thomas Matthew Crooks was just a peaceful tourist doing peaceful touristy things, just like all the Jan6 rioters peaceful tourists - I think I’m getting the hang of this.

          Like Pence almost did :)

  • Empricorn@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    106
    ·
    5 months ago

    He registered as Republican, identified as Republican, and classmates remember him as conservative.

    maga: RINO! FAKE CONSERVATIVE! ANTIFA DEMOCRAT LIBERAL AGENT!!!

  • Zachariah@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    72
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    A former classmate of the 20-year-old man who tried unsuccessfully to kill former President [and convicted felon] Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday recalled him being staunchly to the right of the political spectrum. “He definitely was conservative,” Max R. Smith told The Philadelphia Inquirer of Thomas Crooks. “It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.” Smith shared an American history class with Crooks, and remembered a mock debate where their teacher made students stand on one side of the classroom or another to signal their allegiance. “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.” Crooks died in the assassination attempt. Trump, who suffered a minor injury to the ear, was “fine” Sunday after being treated at a local medical facility, his campaign said. One audience member was killed and two others critically injured amid the gunfire.

    • Kecessa
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      126
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      That’s kind of fucked up, asking kids to tell their political allegiance… In debates we were assigned an opinion and had to defend it no matter what our personal opinion was to make us understand how to build arguments…

      • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        67
        ·
        5 months ago

        When I was in 8th grade, at a Catholic private school… I was the only person who preferred liberal. During the debates we had, I won over a majority of my classmates with my arguments in favor of doing things how Jesus would behave. I won the debate but the teacher didn’t recognize my success. It was actually very illuminating at the time and has stayed with me all my life. Hardcore conservatives will choose reactionary ideas over their religion.

        • glimse@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          25
          ·
          5 months ago

          I had a similar experience in middle school when my parents signed me up for CCD (after school program to get you ready for Catholic confirmation). I considered myself a Christian until then and was looking forward to the program…until my non-combative questions about applying Jesus’ teachings to the real world were dismissed and I saw the cult mentality I had fallen for.

          Weirdly enough, the final nail in the wrist coffin was when I asked my teacher how he knew that What Dreams May Come was not an accurate representation of pergatory and he said “it just isn’t.”

      • hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        I agree.

        I get that Lemmy is super liberal, but this kind of mentality is toxic. It results in a generation that is unwilling to question their beliefs, leans into mob mentality, and doesn’t see the need to understand and articulate political beliefs you support.

      • PixTupy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        5 months ago

        We never had debate, but in a performance acts class once we were asked our opinion on something and then would have to defend the opposite opinion.

        It was nothing so blatantly polarising as only one person on one side though.

    • zaph
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      Smith shared an American history class with Crooks, and remembered a mock debate where their teacher made students stand on one side of the classroom or another to signal their allegiance.

      Please tell me this was college.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 months ago

        In college it’s assigned and you’re expected to defend the assigned position. You also get switched in subsequent issues modules so you don’t get pigeonholed and nobody can just stay on the side they like.

        • zaph
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          5 months ago

          Yeah that’s how I experienced it but it sounds like this story was from high school and telling students to segregate themselves like that seems super fucked up.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            5 months ago

            I agree, that’s basically asking someone to other themselves. It would be a great test if you wanted to see which students needed support and counseling. But not as some kind of learning objective.

    • That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      5 months ago

      Maybe Trump wasn’t extremist enough for him. Or maybe he recognized that Trump and the Republican party have ceased being “conservative” a long time ago. Or maybe he recognized Trump as the danger to America.

      • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        Pure speculation but, given his age, there is a good chance he saw Trump and American Conservativism as the Nazi cover operation it is and wanted to fight his own WW2 against overwhelming evil. College is about the time we learn the world doesn’t run like a small town and massive things can exist like human rights abuses and amoral politics. He probably felt Tlthat shock and frustration that the world continues to be ruthless because and in spite of us.

        Then he saw a figurehead for the alt right and decided to be the change he wanted to see in the world.

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          I mean, if he was staunchly conservative, learning those facts would only make him care less about others. After all, God only punishes the evil! If you’re being enslaved, it’s because you’re bad!

          … This is a direct thought pattern I’ve witnessed many times in conservatives. They use any tragedy as a sign that the person it befell is bad. Similarly, they might view the close call as protection by “god”…

          Yes, conservatives have the brains of children.

          • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            He was young enough to be a Believer of Buckley. He may have actually believed in being right wing by principle and didn’t like hypocrisy.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              5 months ago

              Notice how I started my post with, “even if”. I’m not talking about the shooter specifically, but Republican brain rot in general.

              If you think moronic religous beliefs don’t have a huge influence on conservatives, you haven’t been paying attention at all.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              5 months ago

              My point still stands for every religous conservative. I’m not speaking to the shooter specifically, but conservative brain rot in general.

              If you think conservative brain rot is limited only to the religous, then you are extremely foolish.

      • WhatTrees@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        5 months ago

        My personal suspicion (not based on any hard data, just a guess) is that he was a right-wing accelerationist who thought that killing Trump and/or his supporters would encourage others to “fight back” against the liberals and start the war the right has been itching to fight for decades. I’ve seen that same thing before in the boogaloo boys.

    • niktemadur@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      I’ve been done for twenty five fucking years, since Gingrich and Limbaugh and that generation of social parasites.

      • cmbabul@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        5 months ago

        As a Georgia native I am eternally sorry to everyone for unleashing Newt on the world, I couldn’t vote until well after he arose but I still feel bad about it

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    I assumed he just voted republican because the area was and he wanted some influence but this would blow that theory out of the water.

    • Voyajer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 months ago

      He lived in a borough of Pittsburgh, wouldn’t he want to register as a dem so he would have more influence?

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        5 months ago

        No, it’s a solid red district. Bethel Park is in House District 40, which is a +30 R district. They have voted R for congress ever since 1969, the first election listed.

        • ilovededyoupiggy
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Wait, so he’s in a candy apple red district, but somehow every single person in his American History class was standing on the liberal side of the room during their little exercise? That little anecdote sounds a little fishy.

          • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            5 months ago

            high school and college kids tend to be way more liberal. younger in general do. Im still flabbergasted how so many people I knew through school went right. Granted most of those never seemed to be very commited but more just going with the flow.

            • ilovededyoupiggy
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              5 months ago

              Yeah, I get that schools/youth tend to skew more liberal, but everyone?! Out of that entire class, not one single kid except for Shooter McSnowflake on the red side? Seems hinky. Hell, even if the district went 65/35 liberal instead of conservative, I’d still expect at least a smattering of neocon kids, Bible thumpers, rednecks, whatever… Gotta be a handful of them, even if it’s a small handful. Is the classmate misremembering? Intentional exaggeration? Just seems like this is trying too hard to push an angle, IMO. I’m just not sure what that angle actually is.

              • valtia@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                5 months ago

                Or that’s just what happened. The same thing happened in my school when we did something similar, and I grew up in a solid red sundown town.

              • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                5 months ago

                from my experience that would be the case but likely its going to depend on the size of the school. when i was in my small grade school I had no one to hang with but the high school was much larger and I had a small nerd crowd of friends.

          • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 months ago

            No clue on the article’s accuracy either way, but he may have grown up in a different district than he currently lives.

  • Kalcifer
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    5 months ago

    Smith shared an American history class with Crooks, and remembered a mock debate where their teacher made students stand on one side of the classroom or another to signal their allegiance. “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,”

    Conservatism isn’t mutually exclusive with liberalism.

    • hobovision@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      5 months ago

      By definition conservatism and liberalism are opposite. However, modern Conservatives in America are largely Neoliberals in terms of most policies except stuff like religion, sex, and race.

      • Kalcifer
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        By definition conservatism and liberalism are opposite.

        Would you mind sharing what definitions (with its source(s)) that you are using?

  • mindbleach
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    Hey, y’all waiting for fascism among Republicans to end, and some mythical ideal of conservatism to reclaim the party… was this what you meant?

    Because it’s about the only way that’d happen.