WHAT

  • Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump was shot at a rally in PA.

TRUMPS STATEMENT

“I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW SO FAR

  • gunman is dead
  • Trump “is fine”
  • one attendee is dead
  • another attendee is in critical condition

News Sources

  • jeffw@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Do not advocate or celebrate violence, please. Comments advocating violence will be deleted and bans will be issued.

    Also, please avoid promoting conspiracies. Discussing current events is fine but suggesting things like “it’s a false flag” without evidence is spreading a conspiracy.

      • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Communism, not Fascism, or to protect workers’ rights if you go back far enough. We only got involved in fighting fascism because we were drawn into the war, otherwise it’s never been that big of an issue to Americans and many schools aren’t even allowed to teach about it anymore because “kids shouldn’t have to feel bad about something like that” or whatever excuses the far right is currently using to prevent their schools from teaching about Anne Frank, concentration camps, slavery, anything else they want to implement themselves.

    • Emmie@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Lemmy users when they can’t advocate violence:

      young_guy_straining.jpg

      • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Advocating for violence to prevent a fascist from abolishing the democracy is the only acceptable violence. Sometimes a democracy has to be protected violently if it is too weak to protect itself. Trump allies always say its why they have the second amendment. Now that it is used against them they cry about it.

          • NoSpiritAnimal@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The paradox of tolerance is only a paradox if you don’t believe in the social contract.

            Beliefs that violate the social contract deserve no protection under it.

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I know you have to say this, but holy shit do I disagree.

      This person advocated significant violence and contributed to the deaths and loss of human rights of thousands. A good whack of the world would turn up hungover to work tomorrow after celebrating only a few inches over.

      • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com
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        2 months ago

        No better fuel for an extremist ideology then having a martyr. Trump isn’t the problem, it’s the millions who listen to him.

        • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Trump is absolutely the problem when he’s the mouthpiece of American fascism. Why are we pretending his death would be bad? We’re a couple years from having concentration camps in the US if he wins and everyone’s wringing their hands over this attempt at saving millions of lives by taking one.

          Yea it might cause a civil war, that looks unavoidable at this point anyway. I’d rather civil war than concentration camps

          • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com
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            2 months ago

            They’re still waving the Confederate flag. What makes you think bullets will kill this ideology in round 2?

            • snooggums@midwest.social
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              2 months ago

              It would silence one of the most successful voices and hamper the movement, not kill the ideology itself.

              • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com
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                2 months ago

                And how do you kill the ideology? By having the most successful voice of it ultimately accomplish nothing and die as a sad old man.

                There’s a reason his rhetoric has been: “The election was stolen!” Because that feeling is powerful, that they were right on the cusp of doing something great, if only the enemy hadn’t poisoned it. It’s got the right mix of victimization and hope that really motivates a movement. You’ll get that 10x now that he’s victimized. And you’d get it 20x if he’s martyred.

                • snooggums@midwest.social
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                  2 months ago

                  You can’t kill any ideology.

                  Nazis are still around.

                  Confederate apologists are still around.

                  The only effective end to the tyrrany of their ideology when it had enough momentum wasn’t strong words and voting. MAGA is about three small steps from turning the US into a literal fascist state.

                  The only thing that holds authoritarian regimes like the MAGA crowd together are narcissists like Trump. They would collapse without someone as good at stoking their anger, and he really is the only one that is personally revered by the MAGA crowd. Sure, other grifters make money and get ciews, but nobody cares when the other grifters like Alex Jones face some justice.

    • Christer Enfors@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      spreading a conspiracy

      I know this is off-topic, but can we please go back to saying “conspiracy theory”? Conspiracy and conspiracy theories are not the same. There are actual conspiracies (a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful) , and there are theories of conspiracies. They should not be confused.

      • SleezyDizasta@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That’s not a justification for more violence, two wrongs don’t make a right. He was wrong for doing what he did and this is wrong as well. This is because political violence in it’s entirety is wrong. Jesus, do people not have principles anymore? Seeing all the supposedly moral people turn into Q anon level conspiracy theorists who condone violence is depressing.

          • SleezyDizasta@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            But these are vastly different situations. For the record, all three of these individuals used political violence to achieve political aims, that’s one of the reasons why history doesn’t remember them fondly. The constantly killed people they didn’t like under the justification that it’s for the greater good or self defense. Saddam Hussien did that when he genocided the Kurds in Iraq and the invasion Kuwait, Hitler did that with the Holocaust and the invasion of Europe, and Bin Laden did that with 9/11 and the other terrorist attacks he launched.

            Keep in mind, we actually have a justice system in this country that actually works. If we want Trump to face justice it has to go through the justice where he faces trial and is found guilty based on evidence… which has already happened btw for one of his crimes. That’s how justice is handled in a civil democracy. We can’t have randos going on self righteous terrorism crusades killing political candidates they don’t like. If someone tried assassinate Biden, would you being say the same? Probably not, and rightfully so, but the terrorist who tried to kill would be making similar justifications to what you’re trying to make right now. The very idea is wrong.

              • SLfgb@feddit.nl
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                2 months ago

                The US invaded Iraq under GW Bush on a lie about WMD’s. Killed Saddam and countless Iraqis, including journalists, for nothing.

                The US invaded Afghanistan rather than negotiate with its ruling power to hand over Bin Laden, then didn’t get their hands on him for another decade even though the US won the war and took over the country from day 1. 20+ years of bloody occupation later you lost the war and the Taliban is back in power. Another pointess war started with deception.

                Don’t get me started on Vietnam.

                You guys have some twisted idea of democracy where the ‘Democrats’ don’t even elect their own candidates.

                Please stop exporting democracy. The world doesn’t want your perverse version.

                Hitler killed himself btw.

                • RoboRay@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  The US invaded Afghanistan rather than negotiate with its ruling power to hand over Bin Laden

                  To be fair, the US did try to negotiate with Afghanistan to extradite Bin Laden and the Taliban refused.

        • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Tell me, should we have turned the other cheek during WWII? Two wrongs don’t make a right after all, right?

          • SleezyDizasta@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            We didn’t join WWII because the Nazis were bad, we joined because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and then Hitler declared war on the US.

              • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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                2 months ago

                Really? You don’t realize that the US didn’t join a war that started in 1939 until 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor … so was only part of the war for less than 4 years?

                Wow!

                • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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                  You inferred something about Nazis, and now what you’re saying makes no sense as a response to what I’ve been asking you.

                  I’ll put it more clearly so you can actually give an answer: When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, you’re saying we should’ve turned the other cheek?

      • DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        This shit was never here before because it’s likely CYA mode for Lemmy because feds could come sniffing here if copycat incidents occur.

      • John Richard@lemmy.world
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        How many deaths did it result in? Cause there is only one death on Jan 6 that has ever been attributed to Jan 6.

        I don’t disagree that he incited the insurrection, but making false claims doesn’t help show that the left is the party of honesty.

        • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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          Why are you pretending like right-wing violence isn’t the literal leading domestic security threat?

          Have you been living under a rock since 2016?

            • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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              Well, yeah, I mean, we can go back a hundred years, conservatives will always be pushing violence and division whatever era you look at since they can’t hold power without it, I mostly mean it’s come out fully into the open since 2016. The mask dropped off completely and they’re no longer even pretending to be anything but the Confederacy 2.0.

    • SLfgb@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      How do you spread a conspiracy? I think you mean speculation.

      • orcrist@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        My friend, you know exactly what they mean. Don’t push a “well maybe somebody set it up because …” theory unless you have facts to back it up.

        • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Obviously someone set this up, bullets don’t just appear out of nowhere. It may have just been the gunman who acted entirely alone. We have no evidence that anyone worked with the gunman but what’s that saying about the absence of evidence?

          • orcrist@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            You can’t use the English language in an openly misleading fashion and expect that people are going to go along with it, not in a situation like this. The expression “someone set this up” clearly implies the existence of a second person.

            What made you think that another person is involved? Nothing. If we were to look at historical evidence, we would find that a lot of these situations are done by so-called lone wolf attackers. So if we’re going to blindly speculate, we should at least be consistent with historical evidence, and we should certainly speak unambiguously.

          • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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            2 months ago

            The issue is the volume of comments about this being faked entirely or a false flag.

        • SLfgb@feddit.nl
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          2 months ago

          I take issue with inaccurate language. This is how trains crash. A conspiracy is where 2 or more people plan something in secret. A conspiracy theory is where an outsider speculates about the nature of such plans. Also, without wanting to speculate myself, logically it was either a lone actor or a group conspiring, since it clearly wasn’t publicised in advance. I personally doubt it was some grand conspiracy.

      • barkingspiders@infosec.pub
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        2 months ago

        This community can be whatever it wants to be. If you want to advocate for violence you are free to do that elsewhere in the fediverse. Just not here.

      • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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        2 months ago

        If the only way you can discuss an assassination is by advocating for additional violence and pushing lies, then I guess not?

          • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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            2 months ago

            True: confirmed information. False: unconfirmed information of a speculative nature. Do you see a specific issue you disagree with or are you just trying to argue?

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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              You are just moving the problem around via definitions not actually saying what method you used to know exactly what happened yesterday.

              All I asked is how you arrived at the truth. Did you see evidence that the general public didn’t? Because what I am seeing is you all are so absolutely certain you have literally compared it to Covid misinformation. Amazing, a 30 hour news event is so well understood you can compare our knowledge of it to the single most studied virus in human history months after a new variant had appeared.

              It is not unreasonable how you were able to obtain information the rest of us apparently do not have and how you were able to eliminate all other alternatives so quickly.

        • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          You are limiting discussion to centrist viewpoints, centrism caters towards permissive attitudes towards fascism. You know this.

          • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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            2 months ago

            Not really what I said at all. “Hey guys, don’t make stuff up, please rely on credible sources, and don’t advocate for violence”.

            Or, in other words: follow the rules we’ve always had in place

            • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Advocating for, or not advocating for, violence is a political stance. Many people defend Israel’s ongoing genocide and are not blocked from doing so. That doesn’t feel like the rules being consistently enforced. The people speculating on whether or not this is staged have access to the same information as everyone else, and in the spirit of true discourse, if it was seen to be false you could figure that out by discussion rather than censorship.

              • Blackbeard@lemmy.worldM
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                2 months ago

                If you have evidence that it was staged, feel free to share it. If you don’t, then we ask that you not speculate. It’s no different than any other claim for which we’d require a basic amount of credible substantiation.

                • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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                  I don’t personally think it was staged, but be honest … it’s not like you delete every single comment that doesn’t have sources …

  • Soltros@lemmy.world
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    What peeves me is that the right are all clutching their pearls about anyone who says anything other than blind Trump sympathy. Don’t get me wrong, political violence is wrong. But, remember this:

    When Paul Pelosi got his face bashed in with a hammer, the right made fun of it. Mocked him. Idk, man.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      This is what is so frustrating.

      Conservatives call for violence; Call for rising up; Literally calling themselves DOMESTIC TERRORISTS: Absolutely a nothing burger. Just a bunch of locker room talk. Relax that’s normal conservative speech.

      Liberals blinking aggressively: WHY ARENT YOU MORE TOLERANT BE BETTER.

    • CasualPenguin@reddthat.com
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      2 months ago

      Or how about when he said that if he lost to Clinton:

      “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      That shit was amazingly disgusting. And yeah, Trump gets no sympathy from me. But I won’t call for his death, either. I want him to live a very long time. In prison.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Alright, let’s get it out ahead of time, since I’m already seeing this:

    It’s probably not staged. Trump reacts quickly - the fuck kind of timing you think that bloated potato has? To lift his hand to his ear just as the gunshot rings out? And the idea that the shooter grazed him on purpose is, likewise, absurd. The kind of risk that would entail, to just nick his ear?

    Whether the shooter was insane or politically motivated, this is a real event.

      • Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world
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        Do we know yet whether the would-be assassin or Secret Service hit the bystander? I was driving when it happened and am still getting up to speed

        Edit/update: It seems the gunman was on a rooftop, not in the crowd, so, no idea what happened. I have a few theories, but I’m not gonna risk starting rumors.

        • foggy@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Same. And same with Biden. When asked, he said “I have an opinion but we’ll wait for the facts to come out.”

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, a 120 meter shot to graze does not exist. One inch to the right and he’s dead. With wind variables and stuff, the shooter who can reliably pull that off in one shot or volley does not exist.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I said this in another one of these threads- it is not at all outlandish to think that someone unhinged with a gun would see the threat of a fascist dictator and decide to do something about it.

      • MagicShel@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        The right has been agitating for stochastic terrorism for about sixteen god damn years. Well, they got it.

        It’s likely a good thing the guy missed. Trump being assassinated might just kick off the open violence that has been brewing. Still might, but it’ll depend on the next couple of days. If that dude turns out to be a left-winger, and Trump makes no attempt to stop it, I could see things getting very, very ugly.

        • Burstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          If that dude turns out to be a left-winger

          That dude’s political leaning will turn out to be whatever the news we prefer says he was.

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
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      Thank you. And fuck the idiots spouting off with the “staged” nonsense. The time to believe something is staged is when you have evidence that it was.

      • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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        Trump’s entire persona is built on lies, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s many people’s first thought.

        • kescusay@lemmy.world
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          But it shouldn’t be. He shows no signs - cognitively speaking - of being capable of putting something like this together as a stage-managed event, and all of his past stage-managed events have been shitshows because he micromanages everything and he’s incompetent.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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      Agreed. It’s going to further inflame chaos and tensions in the country, it’s going to further radicalize Trump himself into an even nastier man, and it’s going to motivate his base. Even if Trump were to pass away, that base still remains, and we have the risk of a much more intelligent and gifted speaker taking up its leadership.

      • 100@fedia.io
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        2 months ago

        people gathering around him ready to pounce and abuse power are more dangerous than he is

  • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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    2 months ago

    I did some cyberstalking (someone actually built a whole ass family tree on Ancestry already, which was my source to look up the other info). Just a reminder, please don’t dox or post any publicly identifiable info on here.

    The alleged shooter did donate to a liberal group in 2021, age 17, before he was registered to vote. Rumors of this being another person are likely inaccurate, as the donor has the correct name and zip code listed.

    The alleged shooter is a registered Republican. Some have theorized he did this as a “stop Trump” sort of thing to vote in PA’s closed primaries. His father is a registered libertarian and his mother is a registered democrat. His sister is a registered libertarian.

    I imagine we will have more info on his background and motivation in the coming days and weeks. It’s possible that he could have any kind of political alignment. A lot of young men can get radicalized between 17 and 20.

  • Audacious@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I was excited at first, then sad. Trump’s death would be the only way american people get justice as he’s clearly above the law. Can’t believe all the news hasn’t called him felon trump, instead calling him president trump, dropping the former.

  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Guy tries to overthrow the country, and people are worried that someone tried to kill him. What is wrong with this world. If people aren’t trying to kill him we have something to worried about.

    The justice system failed to arrest and detain the suspect and keep him imprisoned until charged properly. This isn’t a failure of the people, it is a failure of the government.

  • Queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    Gotta love how people are instantly pulling a QAnon deal of “ITS A FALSE FLAG, FAKE NEWS, NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A GRAND CABAL!”

    Somehow Trump is a mastermind of this. The dude who can’t hide stolen files properly, can’t lie on his taxes properly, and loses money on a casino, somehow has the ability to rig a false flag assassination attempt.

    Are NeoLibs that so far into the Kool-Aid that Dipshit Trump is also a grandmaster 5D chess player of this, while not being able to string words together? It’s not like he’s ever been a good actor.

    “Now Trump’s gonna say Biden tried to kill him.”

    He already said that.

    “Now Trump’s gonna call for repression of the left.”

    He already did that.

    “Now they’re gonna say Trump is a martyr.”

    They already say that.

    “Now the right is gonna get violent with their political opponents.”

    They already do that.

    “Now the fash are gonna push for an enabling act.”

    They already are doing that.

    It’s equally frustrating and vindicating that people are waking up to the alarms minorities have been sounding for… decades? Even during 9/11, people were saying this is the start of the end for any form of freedom. Then we had economic crash after crash. Then more rights removed. More drone strikes. More illegal wars.

    Then we tried to warn about Trump. No one cared. He won. The people who said he would hurt did get hurt. People acted shocked.

    Biden came in. Ignored the people in jail cells, ignored COVID for better polling, refusing the new powers given to him to do anything better for the country at large, and slowly turning into a walking skeleton.

    And every single time people have said “Hey this is bad for any form of democracy” people said it was overblown, nothing bad would happen. Then it got worse and worse. Voting didn’t solve most of the issues. Protesting did. And then both parties clamped harder on protestors and increased funding to the militarized police.

    Welcome to Weimar Germany, America. People have only warned you for decades. If this doesn’t wake anyone up, then you’ll sleepwalk as you claim ignorance on why you’re “just following orders”.