I'm certainly not upset that someone tried to take out the guy that literally said he wanted to become a dictator if elected. I don't think that political assassination is the right move in most situations, this included. On the contrary, I think someone should put a bullet in Putin's head. So I ask where do we draw the line? Currently the system is corrupt and is shielding Trump from consequences. That leaves the people with few options. What is 2A for if not to defend the country from a tyranical dictator? To me, this is a "leopards ate your face" situation. Trump has been fucking around, and the people are bypassing the broken legal system so he can find out. I'm sad he lived.

Edit: To stir the pot a little more, I'm all for guns being illegal. If there were better gun policies in the USA, this wouldn't have been possible. So this is Republican policy in action.

I agree with you, however denouncing political violence doesn’t need to extend to fawning.

This is my favorite proposed response I’ve seen:

If I was a Dem asked what I think this would be my short statement:

History has shown us that political violence like this is a hallmark of authoritarian states.

That it turned against the man inciting it shows how slippery and dangerous our current moment is.

Come November we have a choice -- an America where a man like Trump, who believes lynching his political enemies is fine, sits in the white house while fires of political retribution burn across the nation; or an America where our fragile democracy rests in less unhinged hands, safe for the moment.

https://sfba.social/@DeliaChristina/112781894739327584

"Character" is just as much a social construct as gender is. What you call a "test of character" I call a "natural human reaction."

When you learned about all the evil Hitler did, did you scold the people who celebrated his death? What about Stalin? Pol Pot? Mao? The US government assassinated Bin Laden and the Iraqi people hanged Hussein- did you decry them not being tried for their crimes? Should people not be happy that Lee Harvey Oswald got what he gave out?

Plenty of historians have drawn parallels between what's happening in the US today and where Weimar Germany was in the 1920's. Obviously I'm not saying that Trump is on the same level as the other people I mentioned, but if a person truly sees the historical connections, do you blame them for trying to avert what comes next using more extreme methods?

The fact is, political violence has been ingrained into American myth since its inception. Every year of public school we're taught that the people who overthrew the government with violence were right to do so because they succeeded, while the people who tried to secede with violence were wrong to do so because they failed. Why would you expect any American to not think otherwise? People like Washington and John Brown are hailed as great American heroes for using violence.

On top of that, Donald Trump is a man that the legal system is bending over backwards to prevent him from facing any consequences whatsoever from crimes he's committed. The "process" isn't working- is it a shock that when the system is failing the people, the people will take matters into their hands? The voice of the people is systematically being silenced; people will therefore resort to whatever means they have to make themselves heard. This is a constant throughout all of human history.

And not just that, but Donald Trump is the head of a political party that shrugs its shoulders when hundreds of children are murdered in schools or churches or malls annually. Every time a school shooting happens, Republicans rush to decry Democrats for "politicizing" a tragedy to avoid any sort of gun control legislation from even being discussed. Should people not feel some sort of vindication at seeing the party that refuses to address gun violence in the US suffering from that refusal?

So, yeah. I think that someone being upset that a person tried to assassinate a political candidate is a rational response. But I also think it's not unreasonable to have other feelings about it too.

... praising the shooter, advocating for, glorifying, or just flat out calling for violence ...

There's a big difference between the above, and recognizing that the world would be a better place without Donald Trump in it.

Political violence has absolutely no place in a healthy society

But we aren't in a healthy society. If anything, this shooting is proof of it. This isn't an excuse. This is a claim that your arguments will fall on deaf ears.

I'm not cheering this (I would go as far as saying that I hate what happened), but I don't think people who have/are doing so, are displaying abject character or intellectual dishonesty. I think they are misreading the current political context, and I think nothing good will come of this.

Trump has caused unknowable deaths from the policies put into place during his presidency, and with Project 2025 would (will?) cause even more.

Pacifism becomes extremism when it cares more about policing and shaming those who vent their frustration at the current state of things. "missed the exit ramp to utopia" is a hell of a way to convince people to listen to what you have to say with an open mind.

Political violence has been happening for years, and this is what gets us a mod post ? I would venture that I am just as disappointed in my fellow lemmings as you are, but frankly, this feels almost as tone-deaf and unhelpful as those calling for blood.

Now is the time for constructive advice. Bandying about "extremism" helps no cause but that of inaction.

You want a better society? Go outside and organize. Help people feel prepared for their future. Leave those calling for blood on an online forum to be picked up by the feds and law enforcement. Or talk to people like you care about them, not picking up after the mess they will make.

People are dying of hunger, of lack of shelter, of preventable diseases, of working 3 jobs without breaking even, and they just saw one of the rich fucks that spent 4 years making their lives worse dodge death and supercharge his followers. Now you expect them to calm down because someone online invokes "rational, independent thinkers", after preemptively accusing them of downvoting a post that they have yet to read.

Shooting Trump is not how we get through this. Making this post with this tone is not how we get through this, either. I don't have the answers beyond "find a better way to get your point across or you will just push away those you are trying to reach". Hopefully I have not, myself, fallen into the same trap with this comment.

It's not all of Lemmy though - on Feddit.uk, nobody's even mentioned it. The Britons are just discussing the wide variety of meals you can make by combining chips, cheese, beans, gravy and curry sauce in different arrangements.

Abdicating the lawful, peaceful transfer of power would be insanity.

Donald Trump has incited violence for the last 4 years, he gets grazed by a bullet or a shard of glass, people rejoice! Why? Because the psychopath who wants America to burn to the ground just got some of the violence HE caused. Karma.

I choose to read the post in Patrick Stewart's voice.

The sheer number of people here praising the shooter

Post links because I haven't seen one yet.

Don't worry man, I've noticed an uptick in crap, but for the most part I've just seen a large uptick in trolls. They're coming out of the woodwork right now, they latch onto stuff like this to stir the pot.

You and I don't agree on everything, but we definitely agree on this. Just don't feed the trolls

Well said.

This is how we genuinely defend liberty and equality, the values so many brave soldiers died on battlefields all over the world to protect. Far more effectively than wishing for yet another blood drenched battlefield, liable to get the same results as all those in centuries past.

Did the US Civil War end racism? Did WW2 end fascism? Did the assassinations of MLK Jr or Abraham Lincoln end the fight for civil rights? No. Because ideas cannot be destroyed, they can only be effectively fought with other, better ideas. Not blood and steel.

Defense with violence from other, already-engaged violence is one thing. Accelerating towards new violence is another, and is not going to truly fix a problem.

You think the content you see is bad? Check the modlogs. People really went over the top in some cases

I haven’t seen anybody praising the shooter. I have seen about bunch of gallows humor. Is that what you’re talking about?

are you surprised though? The number of people I have heard from early childhood all the way to present who say things like "if I could go back in time I would kill hitler as a baby" or "I wouldnt feel bad about killing a pedophile" is so high I lost count when I was 6. A lot of them are people I'm certain couldn't handle the emotional aftermath of actually killing someone. Its so much easier if someone else does it for you without your involvement. Essentially this is exactly what I expected of people, especially social media users.