General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThey might as well head to down to Guyana, spike some Kool-Aid and pass it around...
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Sooner or later, we are going to have to be willing to reconcile as a nation, and wishing them death by cyanide is a little harsh, no?
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Once he's taken down it won't be pretty.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Youre patently wrong, and you might want to look at why you are so unwilling to imagine, and so blithely forclose, a civil and nonviolent approach to resolving American political polarity.
Id submit that you are repeating the call of the radicalized, and its serving who?
Putin.
Once hes taken down? What possible basis do you have to assume he will be removed, rather than defeated?
Maintaining and supporting the peaceful transition of power is in the national interest. We had the largest rout in history, and it hasnt lit the fire of insurrection. So why would taking Trump down, rather than obstructing, investigating and pursuing every charge warranted until he leaves offic3 (and then leveling them), be in any way the better choice?
President Obama and Secretary Clinton, as well as many others in our intelligence community, know that.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)His cult is already too radicalized to not accept his early departure well.
Don't underestimate these people.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Thats why I am wary to participate in helping visualize or normalize it.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)They're already in violent rebellion.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)To their violent marches and beat downs of people in the streets, the mass shootings and penchant for violent actions, the way that they're inspiring people like the Proud Boys and the Atomwaffen Naziss to attack Trump's perceived enemies and the attempted bombings by the MAMAbomber, I can only tell you that they're just getting started.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Trump has quite openly said that his enemies: the press, Democrats, immigrants, the rule of fucking law, anyone who isn't part of the cult are all enemies of the state. There are people in this cult who are taking him at his word and are coming after us.
Ignore them at our peril.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)It's on them.
Don't play nice with these people.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)LOL on the imputation that I am somehow not a Democrat. Arguing with Republicans is what I do.
Unlike you, apparently, I dont take violence lightly, nor do I conflate it so lazily with the idea of calling out. What exactly are you doing in that regard here anyway? Precisely Dick.
Most of all, I recognize passive radicalization when I see it. And half ass calls for violence exude it.
JI7
(89,172 posts)their fucked up leader Trump encourages them to be violent.
they love it that he supports shooting children crossing the border.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)more upset at some thread with a common methaphor on the internet than actual violence that is being done right now.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Putinism.
JI7
(89,172 posts)charge.
but it's clear what is going on .
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Kinda fucked up concept.
JI7
(89,172 posts)the MAGATRASH .
and MAGA tRash that are out attacking minorities .
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,079 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Totally tasteless to joke about Jonestown.
Also, it wasn't even Kool-Aid. It was Flavor Aid.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)And Rep Jackie Spiers laying next to him, playing dead, as the killers walked around her.
Lulz
treestar
(82,383 posts)What difference does that make? It is a metaphor for cults. Not meant to be exact. The saying has come into the language as kool aid. Jim Jones referred to kool aid when showing off the pantry. His followers are dead whatever it was. The cyanide and other poisons were the operative ingredients.
melman
(7,681 posts)This is true. That's why it's bad taste to joke about.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,079 posts)Just making a comment on cult type thinking, which truly does exist when it comes to Trump.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Treating them as if they were is the surest way to advance the cause against America.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Why are you defending these people?
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)I would have thought you would support that idea.
I oppose Republicanism vigorously... hence my name... but I do so rhetorically (this is a discussion forum, not a. Militia, after all... whatever their affiliation they are, and will remain, my countrymen.
They are not all my mortal enemies, although some of them may be. Moreover, I would much sooner strike our real enemies than phantoms of hate conjured by their agents, or endanger my own freedom by internalizing those hateful views of my neighbors.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)And then there is this warning from Trump confidant Roger Stone: Any attempt to remove the president from office, he said in August, would result in "a spasm of violence in this country, an insurrection like you've never seen."
If Trump's presidency deteriorates further, expect the religious fervor of many of his followers to reach a fever pitch. That poses a risk for the country. Because the only thing more dangerous than a cult leader is a cult leader facing martyrdom.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-aslan-trump-cultists-20171106-story.html
It's not as if other people can't see what's been happening.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)And make no effort to directly address my valid observation that there is a plurality of thought amongst the opposition that can be exploited, rather than cast away in typical brutish, ignorant Trumpist style as you advocate.
Like trumps, such thinking is weak and empty, lazy and frankly part of the problem.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Some (Most) Republicans are simply functioning as Trump's enablers.
The true believers are another thing altogether. I've been consistent in referring to those people as the cult.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)A. When I compared Trump's cult to the Jim Jones Cult, I was being facetious.
B. It's not up to me to make these people do anything.
C. Given that Trump's eventual political demise is bound to be particularly messy, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that his cult won't take that well.
D. Given the track record of the cult members who have already been particularly violent, it's only a matter of time before more do the same.
E. If you don't take his cult seriously RIGHT NOW, it's only going to be a matter of time before you will in the future.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)MAGA hats, arms caches and enemies lists are a surefire quantifier
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Especially since I was joking in the first place.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)At this point dealing with you:
Just take it as a metaphor and leave it at that.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)It may be hard to see in the Red Hour, but thats not the way to a better and fairer country for all of us.
JI7
(89,172 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Everyone around here knows that my sense of humor can, at times, be biting and dark.
Just regard it as all part of my charm.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)When someone tells you you have caused them offense with the casual use of a mass murder in a violence fantasy you consider humor, if you focus on discounting their critique from the outset, foisting empty dodges and sarcasm,rather than addressing the issue someone is raising, that is hardly charming... its juvenile.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)As this point, not so much.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)It ain't gonna happen.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Your distance from the event is a privilege.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Gallows humor, baby, sometimes it happens.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)And you knew that too.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)At least Im making a cogent and consistent argument for a focus on nonviolence and recognition of the radicalization such metaphors reflect... even if it goes completely unaddressed.
LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)regnaD kciN
(26,035 posts)I have a friend who was godmother to two young children whose parents then "discovered" the People's Temple and took them away to Guyana. Those two kids were forced to "drink the kool-aid." My friend still gets furious when people use the term casually; she makes the good point that it's a little like joking about people being "sent to the gas chambers."
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)But at least someone got the spirit of my post.
That's because you know my style, Big T.C.
LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)How is that going to happen, exactly?
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Weve kind of seen too much incrementalism, he said. I think theres an appetite among the American people to see someone who can unite us though big ideas.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/09/eric-swalwell-iowa-presidential-run-california/
LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)Swalwell, they probably do not negate the fact that many of Trump's followers need to be deprogrammed. Actually, literally, deprogrammed.
These people have been around forever. Trump did not create them. Trump just gave them permission. Permission to state their feelings without fear, because others like them are also now out in the open. Are these people open to "coming together" or finding "common ground"?
There is no "coming together" with people like that.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Your concluding statement is demonstrably false, and in fact proven so by the very war that tore our nation apart.
Why now? Why this man? Why abrogate the rule of law so willingly?
LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)I think you should continue to believe that there is a way to find a happy medium with racists, white supremacists, xenophobes, homophobes, etc.
You go ahead and do that, and I'll go ahead and not feel any guilt by continuing to believe that they should be scorned.
Good luck.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Are you seriously suggesting that it is possible to purge a population of racism? Thats insane. What we can do is consider, and accelerate, the effort to strengthen, restore and extend prot3ctions for all people from bigotry and racism, using Trumpist abuses as a roadmap for preventing such practices from further legitimation.
If you declare war on a person for their beliefs, rather than their actions, you are not advancing American ideals.
There is a reason we did not engage in the kind of outward violence against German civilians and POWs that the Russians did, for example.
LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)The next time someone blatantly expounds on their hatred for other races in my presence, I'll gently remind that person that I am considering and accelerating efforts to strengthen, restore and extend protections for all people.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Geez
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)nini
(16,670 posts)They're the enemy supporting that nazi.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Exchange photos of our meals? A food fetish or something? Just who in the hell makes this offer to strangers online?
Docreed2003
(16,817 posts)It's long been debated whether it was Kool Aid or Flavor-Aid drink...both were found in the compound... .
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Docreed2003
(16,817 posts)Just thought I'd add a little historical snark...love your podcasts man!
Wintryjade
(814 posts)I do not even know what that looks like. I have Republicans too, but simply saying no politics has worked in our house. Sad sad.
I cannot even imagine this.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Speier and others were shot at point-blank range. Ryan and four others, including Harris, were dead. The survivors waited, supporting one another through the night.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/jonestown-murders-jackie-speier-37-years
JI7
(89,172 posts)all those people who were killed and harmed on 9/11.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)If you believe in the continuation of the United States as we know it, that is.
JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Because you dont get to make that decision unilaterally without surrendering your right to freedom.
JI7
(89,172 posts)is very clear.
fuck Trump .
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)And a fucked up concept.
JI7
(89,172 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)That is JUST what Putin would want us thinking, oddly enough.
JI7
(89,172 posts)with MAGATRASH .
hahahha.
keep it up.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)That you dont support the continuation of the US under a bigot like TRump rather than work to remove him in the interests of the US, as a loyal citizen.
Eyebrow raising indeed!
JI7
(89,172 posts)JI7
(89,172 posts)Yup.