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Ryan Wesley Routh was made in the post-truth age (AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)
“Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”, asked Henry II in 1170, to no one in particular. He was referring to his fractious Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket; in turn, some of Henry’s knights took his remark as their cue to murder the Archbishop.
This is hardly the last time incendiary language has, however indirectly, prompted violence in the real world. Nine centuries on from Henry II, Donald Trump’s characteristically florid turn of phrase has been repeatedly linked to real-world threats to public safety. Then just last week, his repetition of a rumour about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating local pets sparked a media furore — and reported bomb threats in Springfield itself.
But what if the real heirs to Henry II are actually Trump’s enemies? Hot on the heels of a week’s pet-food discourse, Trump himself was reportedly the target of a second assassination attempt in as many months and FBI agents apprehended a gunman at his golf course in Florida.
The conspiracists are already poring over details of the two attacks, and drawing inferences from them about the perpetrators. They have, for instance, noted that this weekend’s alleged would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, and the previous attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had both appeared in campaign videos produced by well-known players in the conspiracy-theory pantheon: Crooks appeared briefly in a 2022 BlackRock advert filmed at his then high school, while Routh, a pro-Ukraine activist, appeared in a 2022 campaign video reportedly produced by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. Little is known about the political views of Crooks, but the fact that he seems not to have had any political opinions or social media presence whatsoever has, for conspiracy-lovers, itself been interpreted as some kind of institutional cover-up.
Inevitably, then, the internet has donned its tinfoil hat and set out to uncover what this all means. Trump had, after all, pledged to bring a swift end to the conflict in Ukraine, likely by ceding some territory to Putin. Figures such as the former NSA intelligence contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden have hinted that Routh’s Ukraine links mean he must have been in contact with “White House agencies”. Other partisans speculate that the instigator is some element of the neoconservative establishment desperate to sustain the war with Russia.
Are these people mere disposable foot-soldiers for some shadowy institutional player who fears a Trump win above all else? Who knows. Just as plausible, however, not to mention less paranoia-inducing, is the possibility that no such coordinated conspiracy exists — but rather that “stochastic terrorism” is becoming a mainstay of politics, across the ideological spectrum, as a byproduct of the new, post-truth politics of attention and weaponised “truthiness”.
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Subscribe“When I said that Trump was literally Hitler, I didn’t mean he was literally literally Hitler. I mean he was figuratively literally Hitler. Duh.”
It’s actually easy to tell the two apart. Trump is a much taller man, and he has no facial hair.
Have they ever been photographed in the same place at the same time? No? Case closed!
Do either sing the “Horst Wessel Song” in the bath? Or read the daily telegraph. Ye shall know us by our lyrics and FFS pls pay to see our shows lol
Also Trump is not a socialist. Only socialists think that killing lots and lots of people is how you make the world a better place.
I’m sure someone will attempt to refuse your assertion by pointing out that fascists also “think that killing lots and lots of people is how you make the world a better place”.
At which point it’s useful to point out that the official name of the Nazi Party was… the National Socialist German Workers Party.
This is schturmers problem – if he has internationalIst “commintern” aspirations he is a global commie threat, if he confines his assault to the UK he is guilty of national scoialism – ie socialism in one country (UK)
Please Mike,
Starmer is a moron, who rose above his level of competence.
He might be dangerous for uk but not internationally because he enabled forces wanting destruction of the country.
That was entirely my point. The Comintern invented the term ‘fascist’. Fascists described themselves as socialists. Mussolini especially.
To be fair to fascists, they definitely made the place better for their supporters and most of the population of their countries.
Communists made life the misery for 90% of the population.
See how close he got to KSA/Israel normalising relations – only the atrocities in October 23 prevented this – HAM-ASS IMO were paid and sponsored by a vile alliance of the western “left” and Putin. If you want to work out geopolotics “cui bono?” is a good place to start.
A good point. Most people have forgotten that Trump’s Abrahamic Accords were the first gleams of light in the Middle East for years. And this was undoubtedly the reason for the October massacres. Hamas don’t want peace because they might lose their status. Status-seeking is the usual cause for wars.
Try to find anyway to be funny. This is just nonsense.
Of course. 100 million+ deaths thanks to your ideology isn’t funny. I never suggested it is.
Ever heard of Mussolini? probably not he was only killing Black people in Ethiopia using mustard gas. Who cares ? ….Black Lives don’t Matter? Were the proponents of the Atlantic Slave Trade Socialists? Is the Kkklan Socialist? Was the Germans who carried out Genocide against Herreros in South West Africa Socialist? When they exported hundreds of thousands of severed heads to Europe for research were they Socialists?
Ever heard of Mussolini?
You mean the guy who was a personal friend of Lenin and said ‘above all we are socialists’? That Mussolini? Read some history.
Mussolini and Lenin never met and were not friends.
Mussolini and Lenin were not friends, but I remember reading in a reliable history book that Lenin told the emerging Italian Communist Party to not waste their time because Italy couldn’t feed itself and was underdeveloped industrially. Stalin’s concerns were strictly national, he showed very little interest in exporting socialism and the USSR did have good trade relations with Italy for a while.
Yes, early on and against Trotsky policy of international revolution.
But that changed after ww2 when he grabbed Eastern Europe and tried to do the same in Korea.
To be fair to Socialists, that was Communist approach.
Socialists wanted more control of “critical” industries but believed in democratic process.
I am against Socialism as a policy platform but mass killing of people was not part of it.
I think people sometimes confuse Western Socialism with Soviet Block parties which claimed to be Socialist but were Communist ones.
Plus millions died at the hands of the shorter one with facial hair. But in the minds of those who try to make a correlation that doesn’t matter and their deaths are of no consequence.
And two balls and no decorations for bravery in the defence of the state.
Also, although one mostly sees Hitler in black and white photos (as was the fashion in the day), I’ve never heard of any contemporaneous record describing his complexion as “orange”.
This time it seems Hitler wants peace with Russia
So did the actual Hitler (for a short time, at least).
He who wants war must prepare for peace.
So did Churchill and FDR.
And so did Chamberlain.
… and whoever was in charge of Poland when it came to divvy up Czechoslavakia
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact?
Won’t be long before trendy bars are serving that as a cocktail: the Tuetonic.
Exactly. The Germans and Russians were buds through almost the first half of WWII. Many died in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Romania and almost all of Europe…What Vichy France? Fortunately Stalin was a fool and Operation Barbarossa was soon to come.
That is the problem with lefty woke teaching children in uk.
Most young people I know in London only know Russia as allies of uk in ww2.
They know nothing about Ribentrop-Molotov pact, Katyn, starvation of Ukraine and Russian genocidal imperialism over centuries.
So they now believe that somehow Ukrainians are responsible for Russia attacking Ukraine.
Many of these morons post on here and elsewhere.
Whether it’s meant literal or not it’s still making the same accusation.
Left wing hippies (like the author of this piece and many others at this website) cannot accept that there are actual conspiracies, and that Trump isn’t Satan or Hitler
There are a few actual conspiracies conducted by governments (eg. Watergate), but governments are so incompetent that they always come to light.
Terms like “stochastic terrorism” bother me. It’s just sleight of hand, slapping a fancy label on a dodgy concept to distract people from seeing what you are really doing so you can slip the dodgy concept past them.
No, you can’t hold someone responsible for a random act of violence because their words made the violence more likely to happen. There is no causal link between the words and the violence. There is no incitement.
In the US, at least, this principle that incitement is not just generalized heated talk is clear and embodied in the law as passed by the legislatures and interpreted by the courts. Trying to dress up an old idea in new clothes doesn’t make it a new idea. It’s still old.
So Thomas Crooks and Ryan Routh are alone responsible for their terrorism. Those who have called Donald Trump a threat to democracy bear no legal blame. You may call their talk stochastic terrorism, but that doesn’t make it a crime.
Now, Henry II may be a different story. I don’t see a problem if all he said was (as reported soon after the murder): “What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and promoted in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born clerk!” But if he did indeed say: “will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”, that’s troublingly stronger.
Did any Trump-hater say, “will no one rid me of this orangish buffoon?” or like words that Thomas Crooks or Ryan Routh took as inspiration to turn to violence? If so, we are not talking mere stochastic terrorism. That strikes me as incitement.
I agree but as long as the standards are shamelessly applied differently there will be few willing to stick to that principle. Call it anger or self preservation, the result is the same.
Absolutely agree. The Dems should not be held accountable for the actions of deranged assassins. They should be held accountable by voters for being depraved scum bags who will use the most depraved rhetoric to win elections. It’s one thing to make a one-off stupid remark, but the Hitler thing and threat to democracy narrative is a sustained political strategy over many years to instill fear in voters.
The lunacy of the “Hitler thing” claim is that Trump has already been president for four years. So if he really is like Hitler, there ought to be plenty of actual evidence out there to prove it … except there isn’t ! Same with the “threat to democracy” – they voted him out and he went (just as a rather bad loser).
I think it’s impossible to deny that mainstream journalism in the US has become so partisan and manipulative that its practitioners must take significant responsibility for the upsurge in political violence. Bear in mind that Americans are very poorly educated – and the ‘educated’ ones no longer even have common sense to fall back on.
Politicians do not become culpable for attempted murder just because the actual culprit may have been influenced by the politician’s words, true.
But that doesn’t mean they cannot be held liable for language that achieves the aim of dehumanising their opponents. The last few years have seen utterly disgraceful conduct from many politicians in this respect and at the same time political discourse has sunk to the level of sectarian hatred based upon purity tests over absurd concepts: the no-true-scotsman nonsense, but applied to idiotic notions like critical race theory and radical transgender politics.
Yet you would still allow such political grifters to stand protected by the defence of the right of free speech when they do their best to ruin others for daring use that freedom?
Sorry, but you’re missing far too much of the big picture here.
“Yet you would still allow such political grifters to stand protected by the defence of the right of free speech when they do their best to ruin others for daring use that freedom?”
Yes.
That really is the point of free speech.
The people you detract would say the same about you. Worrying how willingly both you and your detractors are to open the door to authoritarianism so long as you think you’ll be on the winning side. Truth is, if either you or the people you disagree with get what you want, no one will be the winner.
First off no, that isn’t “really” the point of free speech.
Secondly, what’s implied above is that political figures expect to escape the political consequences of their rhetoric. That’s what I’m talking about. Such an expectation is absurd.
Political figures rely upon freedom of speech to convey their message to the voters, and must take the political consequences of doing that job badly: ie they lose elections.
Finally, I stand by my point that nobody has the right to assert their own freedom of speech at the expense of someone else’s. That’s obviously bollox and should be called out as such.
So Trump bore no responsibility for the takeover of the Capitol, then?
You mean the one day “takeover” by those who were admitted freely and stayed within the the ropes? January 6th could more accurately be described as a guided tour that only got out of hand when the guards decided to start shooting than an insurrection.
What “Takeover”?
US President Joe Biden actually did admit it was a mistake for him to say, “time to put Trump in a bullseye”, days before first assassination attempt on his election rival.
You are correct that only perpetrators are rsponsible for their crimes. However, assasination does make sense for a person with a gun who believes what they are told by Democrats – that DJT will destroy the US Republic if he wins the presidency.
“Did any Trump-hater say, will no one rid me of this orangish buffoon? or like words that Thomas Crooks or Ryan Routh took as inspiration to turn to violence?”
Obviously such things have been said, many times, whether or not Crooks and Routh heard or heeded them.
But you miss Mary’s point:
The truth no longer matters; “truthiness” prevails. And can inspire the loose nuts rolling around among the millions. No, DOES inspire them.
How about – https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/7b04b05d-a8ed-479c-b92d-5868a1f6873b
Just taken a look … the real deplorables speak …
I think a better term would be Brownian motion terrorism. Brownian motion evokes a temperature and an entropic aspect. Behaviour can be seen to go beyond lines in the sand naturally. I feel this is more accurate also.
You’re missing the main point here, which is surely that it’s an odd offshoot of the US deep state establishment who’d decided to go for Donald.
Why yes, there have been actual calls by allegedly responsible people calling for the murder of Trump and jailing or death for his supporters.
If “stochastic terrorism” is a thing can be disputed. But if it exists it is a subset of a broader set of the observable increase in chaotic human and natural activity. There are more human conflicts in the world today than even 10 years ago. There are more deadly weather events every year than 10 years ago. Lots of other stuff in the human and natural world are exhibiting higher levels of entropy – at least along the scale that human beings care about. So we get more attempts, successful and otherwise, of public figures and not so public too.
Not all assassination attempts of politicians are driven by disagreements about policy. My recollection is that the guy who shot Ronald Reagan did it in order to impress Jodie Foster (although I never got to the bottom of why he thought it would).
Did it work? If I take a shot at Ed Davey does that mean I’ll get a night in bed with Jet from Gladiators?
Only one way to find out, I guess.
All I’ve got is a spud gun though, hopefully that will buy me 5 minutes at least
A second way would be to ask Jet beforehand, but where would be the fun in that?
I’d offer to custard pie Starmer in the face but it would take too long to decide which one.
I feel like it was some kind of confused, schizophrenic projection of the plot of Taxi Driver.
John Hinckley was tried for the crime of shooting Ronald Reagan and three others and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He never went to jail but had to spend 35 years in a mental hospital. So his obsession with Jodie Foster was crazy.
Later in life she admitted that it had impressed her
Since we are talking about Literally Hitler, let’s bring in Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. He wrote that the political was the distinction between friend and enemy.
In other words, politics is all about defeating your enemy and gifting your friends. And our ruling class, the educated class, believes with a fiery passion that politics is the royal road to justice.
No. Politics is the royal road to war. You don’t like threats and assassinations and “stochastic terrorism?” Then cool your jets on the politics front.
Why spend a week focusing on the economy, the cost of living, the increased security threat in the world, the challenges of AI etc when you can obsess on whether someone ate someone else’s cat?
I’m sure this article gets a lot right (it sure makes me glad that I don’t spend/have to spend time on X etc.), but the word which springs to my mind is “laziness”.
No-one seems to be willing or able to take up the big problems, think long and hard about them, come up with solutions and present their ideas. Far easier to take the latest weird thing that Trump has said and spin it out for a week rather than just scoff at the silliness/inaccuracy, pass it by and return to more important issues that matter to the average American. They’re the ones who lose out from this ongoing craziness.
God only knows how the Democrats can seriously say they are the party of decency – they are every bit as bad, every bit as willing to go down into the gutter.
Actually, what Haitians eat (if they are lucky) in their own country is nothing if not fascinating. How much of a stretch is it, really, to suggest a lot of fowl and even a few small mammals might be at risk.
The average American doesnt understand that asking the government to do everything for them isn’t very productive/cost effective and that getting the government out of every transaction would actually improve their lives. So they get cat memes.
In my experience the average American understands only too well how far the competencies of the US government stretch !
Ronald Reagan’s “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” quip about the most frightening words in the language worked for a reason.
“Ronald Reagan’s “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” quip about the most frightening words in the language worked for a reason.”
“Worked”, as in, doesn’t any more. The average American gets far more from the government than he or she contributes to it. Try taking away their benefits and see how many votes you get.
Mary is a good cultural commentator but her skills her misplaced here. She ( ironically)moves away from all facts here herself and basically does the on the one hand and then the other hand thing.
But the facts ( undisputed) we have are thst the CIA allowed crooks to get his shot off.
Then the media ( msm) failed to investigate properly.
At no point was there a press conference explaining what we know or didnt know.
And then a few weeks later another gun man gets within 300 meters of trump again
…and is prevented from carrying out his plot. Sounds more like trying to make Trump a martyr. Or just incompetence!
Then the
Ministry of TruthMain Stream Media dropped writing about the first assassination attempt more quickly than one might expect.I wonder how long they will write about the second assassination attempt? Or perhaps they will offer distractions like ‘Trumps cats’?
Quite so. This silly thing matters more than attempted murder
Cats appear to be a consistency in Trump’s electoral history, whether they are eaten, figuratively grabbed, or kept by childless women. Whatever have they done to deserve their distracting reputation? “If you don’t know where you are going, then you will end up where you are headed,” was the advice given to Alice. Could it be relative to Trump’s electorate? Welcome to the MAGA hatter’s tea party.
“A figure who, above all others, represents the ne plus ultra of absolute evil.”
Establishing that evil as the preeminent evil is the left’s greatest success.
Killed by AH and his crew c12m. Killed by Mao, Stalin et al 120-160m but there are still many out and proud Marxists.
Seemingly, the Left and Democrats believe this is the only way they can coalesce power, especially since they have put forward a very weak candidate, who did not go through the nominating process (no one voted for) in the form of Kamala Harris – all to ‘save democracy’.
If you want to use statistics it is generally a good idea to get the numbers at least approximately correct, which you have failed to do in this case.
If you think his figures are incorrect, then why don’t you explain how/why and identify what you believe are the correct figures?
So, from my memory and off the top, and I have read quite a lot. I don’t have the figures for ‘communist’ deaths but I do have a rough (yes very rough but please correct me if I am far off) idea of WW2’s butcher’s bill:
4m German soldiers etc;
1/2 m German civilians
100,000 British civilians (maybe nearer 70)
1m Western allied servicemen
6m Eastern death camps
1m Eastern (non Russian) civilians (unsure about that one)
25m Russians – civilian and military
? Italian, Romanian etc servicemen on Axis side
I am not counting Japan as ‘his crew’, but there’s quite a lot there as well, maybe 5m, maybe a lot more?
That adds up to 35-40m – rather more than 12m even if I am a fair way out.
Thank you. I think Martin Bollis’ figures may have been ‘indicative’ rather than a curate as such. However, I believe he was trying to point out that AH’s killings are a small proportion of the total killings committed in the name of or by communist/Marxist régimes. Stalin was a monster who killed substantially more people (e.g. the Kulak genocide) before and during WW2 than did AH; but he has never been vilified and demonised to the degree that AH has been. AH’s unique contribution to the history of humankind’s ghastliness was the creation of industrial death factories designed specifically for that purpose and nothing else. At least Stalin’s gulags, while lethal, were not solely death factories.
Fair enough. Please quote the actual figures.
The most comprehensive source of figures (which are necessarily margins with probabilities) with all the sources used to come up with them is “The Black Book of Communism,” Jean-Louis Panne and Andrzej Paczkowski. Came out in 1999, nearly a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the nineties a host of academic (including these two) spent years poring over the basement archives beneath the Kremlin, through insanely voluminous records all the way back to 1918. Then Putin shut down access as he rose to power. The best documentation is, of course, on the Russian experiment. The error bands on the Chinese and the Khmyer Rouge are wider. The Russians had no problem documenting what they were doing and why.
You aren’t serious?
And the Russian figure is…? I don’t have the detailed knowledge to come up with a ‘communist’ toll, but see my post for the German c.1935 to 1945 butcher’s bill – some 35-40m (I repeat my request to be corrected as that would not be a problem for me). Timothy Snyder in his excellent, albeit necessarily harrowing, ‘Bloodlands’ puts the toll of civilians in that decade in the benighted area between Germany and Russia as 14m, skewed towards Germany so say 8m-6m (the largest part of that 6m in the Ukrainian Holodomor).
And don’t forget Timur the Great, the ‘Sword of Islam’, whose rampage across NW India killed an estimated 17m, about 5% of the world’s population at the time. His signature was piles of skulls hundreds of feet high left at the sites of the cities he razed to the ground.
Wasn’t that Genghis Khan chap a bit of a rotter?
25 million killed in Atlantic Slave Trade? 40 million killed by King Leopold in the Congo. Sorry to interrupt your lilly white conversation…I know I know N. …gers don’t count. I beg you pardon sirs!!
10-15 million were transported in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Death rates c 10% (same as for civilians, roughly =1-2million. Not 25million. Slaves had commercial value.
In Belgian Congo, the genocide is put at 10million, which puts Leopold into the top tier of genocidaires.
And they do count. It’s just that the socialists killed so much more.
I think you’ve got to add to the Holocaust the millions killed on the Eastern Front. And Hitler and Naziism did this in just 7 years (the killings started really in 1938). If they’d won, there’d have been a whole lot more. I don’t think Philip K d**k’s The Man in the High Castle and the Amazon version overstated their evil. It did skate over Imperial Japan’s evil, though. I think that Hitler was truly evil, maybe even demonically possessed – read Overy’s Why the Allies Won for an account of seeing one of Hitler’s speeches. Real existing socialism has hundreds of millions of corpses, but Communists are still allowed on the air.
Like prof Mitchie advising Boris government and now in WHO.
Why West not only tolerates traitors like her but allows her to indoctrinate our young is beyond me.
Ms Harrington is like a god on the pages of UnHerd but I have to say that her article is just a waste of space.
To summarise: living through the internet causes a blurring between fact and fiction. If enough people post that Trump is a reincarnated Hitler, then he is a reincarnated Hitler.
Not her best. Goddess status is still safe, if we don’t get too much more of this.
Worth it for the phrase “Inevitably, then, the internet has donned its tinfoil hat and set out to uncover what this all means.”
That so perfectly sums up the narcissism and shallowness of so much of social media. Indeed, the same comment applies to legacy media now I think about it !
I like it, simply because it raises some awareness. So many folks who live on social media and the internet in general have had their brains re-wired to pretty much immediately assume that the most innocuous events are driven by the shadow cabal. It’s tiresome to listen to, and oftentimes just baseless paranoia. It was refreshing to read an article essentially reminding us to go outside and experience the real world once in awhile.
Modern life has become a computer game. Everyone has an online mission, and the objective is to get a higher score – more views, more likes, more reactions, more reach. The picture of your new kitten leads to picture of ‘kitten looking cute’, ‘kitten looking cute in a bowtie’, ‘kitten with bowtie chasing butterfly’.
People dress weirder. They perform, parade and play act. They take pictures of their dinner, and photoshop their family. Online they have influence because Elon Musk liked their post.
Online politics moves from liking something someone said, to adding an innocuous comment, to cheering for your side, to joining a pile-on, to meme-making, to tracking someone down and recording yourself shouting at them, to filming an act of vandalism, to… Individuals want to make themselves players for the rush of bonus points from doing something more than everyone else. Someone will do it, so be that guy and get those views.
In these games people lose their moral and ethical boundaries. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lie or a smear if you get more votes. It’s then not surprising that the extremes are getting wilder – it doesn’t need an orchestrating hand in the background, just an obsession with ‘the game’ and being ‘a player’.
Weak article
This guy wanted to shoot the Donald because he was told DJT would end the war in the Ukraine.
The media sold him the narrative that modern holiness lies in supporting the nationalist cause over there. In fact only the sheer corruption of Nuland, Biden and Cheney’s sponsorship of that country has come to light.
Since ultranationalism has taken over (aka F-scism) all the statues of partisans have been taken down in the Ukraine – the people who fought against the N-zi collaborators in a vein attempt to stop concentration camps being built in the 1940s.
These characters have always operated with neo-N-zi batallions in their militias fighting in the Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine. Minimum these people bullied the ethnically Russian population in the 10 years before the Russia invasion. More recently, they were known to round up Romany children and tie them to lamp-posts as the Russian tanks roll in.
Chapter and verse, please
It’s certainly impressive that you have spoken to this Ryan chap at length and know why he did what he did, or rather didn’t do.
I haven’t heard of any statues of partisans being torn down, just Russian dictators etc – perhaps you could list them all.
Damn your ignorance sir. The “Ryan chap” was/is utterly obsessed with the Ukrainian nationalist cause; he even wrote a book about it. Dyed his hair blue/yellow, for Christ’s sake. He was very public about the whole thing; nobody needs to interview him to find out his motivation.
The processes of “decommunisation” and “de-Russification” carried out by the current Banderite neo-fascist regime in the Ukraine have indeed involved the destruction of hundreds of memorials to the soldiers of the Red Army in WW2 (including millions of Ukrainians, by the way) as well as the burning of over 13 million Russian-language books held in the Kiev libraries. And much else beside.
Fascism isnt Fascism without private companies feeding at the trough while doing the government’s bidding. MIC anyone?
Might it not be better to impart your detailed knowledge of the Ryan and his motivation along with all other relevant information to the security services rather than telling us here?
Or is it simply your held opinion which you are promoting as fact dressed up with some fabricated “evidence.”
I don’t know whether this is a ‘mainstay of politics, across the ideological spectrum, as a byproduct of the new, post-truth politics of attention and weaponised “truthiness”.’ But I dare say Trump has made a number of victims who would shed no tears if told of his demise.
“He learned to become the killer… who needs to succeed at all costs, who recognizes that other people are expendable, who does not need to take responsibility, who will do anything to get attention, financial rewards and “to win.”
Mary L. Trump, writing about her uncle Donald Trump in ‘Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man’
Mary is a bitter deceiver.
I have no respect for those family members who attack other members of their family in the public arena. Mary Trump should be heartily ashamed of herself and look long and hard in a mirror.
It’s funny that the Trumpers, typically supporters of gun ownership, haven’t tried to assassinate anyone running for President, but that the side who hates gun ownership and would outlaw it if given the chance, now have two attempts on Trump’s life made by lunatics on their side.
And I do think the furore over the pet eating thing last week is a bit rich: true, making an unsubstantiated rumour the basis of a political speech was a daft mistake to make, but Trump and his followers aren’t going to take any lectures on falling for nonsense from a bunch of voters who think women can have penises, and it is ludicrous that such voters would expect to be taken seriously on any subject.
back in the 80’s, park department employees at the SF GG Park found a pit with skinned dogs. I read it. It was in the SF Chronicle. This shit happens, when you’re hungry for meat and protein, and don’t tell me I’m wrong or bad.
West Canadian Geese should the first to go, and no complaints. Ducks are cute and pretty, but they would be a target. Cats, well it they’re feral, they can go. But home kitties, that’s not negotiable.
Starving people will eat practically anything. Rats were eaten regularly during the Siege of Paris and during the German assault on Leningrad. It was a stupid thing to say in a serious debate but it’s far from impossible that someone somewhere did eat someone’s pet.
Why can’t the US electoral system produce, from a population of over 330m, at least 1 but preferably 2 decent, competent and trust worthy candidates to stand for presidential election.
Trump has not changed whether it is cat eating or drinking disinfectant to ward off Covid, he will always come out with crazy things. But his nearest challenger did not even come close to getting the Republican party nomination.
Despite it being obvious that Biden was struggling to perform the role a year ago and had no chance of lasting a further 4 the Dems anointed him and when he fell flat on his face they replaced him with a vacuous woman whose flip flopping makes 2 tier Keir Stalin look consistent.
Why do ordinary Americans, for the 3rd time in a row, need to choose the least worst option?
Trump never said to drink disinfectant.
What matters in presidential elections is not who the candidate is but who is paying for the campaign. Why, despite repeatedly promising to punish those responsible for the 2008 crash, did Obama do nothing on gaining office? Because they put him in the White House.
Management expert Peter Drucker talked about this problem in his book The Effective Executive. He pointed out that it would seem like we should look for well-balanced people to lead us, but that’s wrong. Strong people have strong weaknesses. If you try to find people with no major weaknesses, you will end up with people who are mediocre at best and incompetent at worst.
So Peter Drucker suggested focusing on strengths. The main strength you need in a president is the ability to execute, to get things done. If you have that, you can find a way to accommodate most any weakness the person has. If you don’t have that strength, that’s disqualifying.
In that light, Donald Trump is a very strong candidate. He can say stupid things, but so what? Words don’t matter. Actions speak louder than words. The man is always in motion, always at work. And that lets him get things done.
Kamala Harris? Not so much. She has a long record undistinguished by a single accomplishment that I can see. And what did she get done as vice president? Not a thing. She has her strengths, or she wouldn’t be the nominee. But getting things done, the most crucial ability for an executive, is not one of them.
She has
her strengthsa vagina, or she wouldn’t be the nominee.“Why do ordinary Americans, for the 3rd time in a row, need to choose the least worst option?” Because that’s how democracy works.
It’s interesting to read so much about Trump’s cats and not a word about Harris’s claim that today no US service member is currently fighting overseas.
It feels like we’re being mocked.
Where is it you say US service personnel are currently fighting?
Are you really an idiot or are you just pretending?
.
Read the Twitter posts about her words from American servicemen in Iraq, Syria, from ships in the Red Sea. They are probably there on tourist trips
Oh, Twitter? That most venerable of references! The fact that American servicemen are “based” somewhere doesn’t mean that they are “fighting” there. There are even some based here in Australia. They aren’t “fighting” here thought. I understand that there are lots in Korea and Japan too, but there are no wars there.
“But what if the real heirs to Henry II are actually Trump’s enemies?” Have you only just worked that out?
Under Obama, the US was complicit in the start of 5 new wars. Under Trump, no new wars and peace agreements in the Middle East. Under Biden, the war in Ukraine and Gaza.
Trump threatens the business model. He is also not a member of the DC club.
He’s not a member of the “Democracy Club” either.
Routh probably isn’t the last, and the threat may last several months if not years. And when people ask the question “why haven’t there been assassination attempts on Biden or Harris I would say probably there are an awful lot more people who are perceived to be like those two – whereas there’s only one person who’s like DT
The sock puppets looking to be elected by the dems are legion.
I certainly agree with the last sentence, and when Trump is finally gone (hopefully from natural causes), Trumpism will die, because there will be nobody with the personality to sustain it.
A huge segment of the population hates Trump based on confirmed lies spread by the media. “Fine people on both sides”, “bloodbath”, “dictator from day one”, “suckers and losers”. It’s so widespread that it’s hard to blame the liars. Lots of people will believe anything they’re told.
Aren’t those direct quotes?
Pulled from their necessary context. This is cherrypicking, son.
Excellent article, Mary. As you say, “The point is the truthiness.”
Now, I’m gonna go make my tin foil hat (aluminum/aluminium foil, actually) and log back into X.
Trump has broken the entirety of the left, its media wing, and a significant portion of the right. Because he’s not part of their club. He’s the guy speaking for millions who have noticed that the emperor is naked, that the presence of a D or R never matters on questions of substance. It wasn’t Trump who made the term “uniparty” popular; it was the members of both parties who often act in concert against the interests of their constituents but for the interests of their big donors. That things have escalated to this is the natural consequence of every other attempt to disqualify Trump having failed.
Mary Harrington might also have mentioned that some of Donald Trump’s more reckless statements have been interpreted by Democrat commentators as a promise that once in power, DT wil overthrow the American constitution, dissolve all the branches of government, and institute a Trumpocracy. He deosn’t exactly help himself by the immoderate language he uses.
“Did you see how short her skirt was? What did she think would happen?”
MSM to Trump: ” What would you do if you were a dictator?”
Trump: “If I were dictator I would….”
MSM: “Trump is going to make himself dictator!!!!!!”
Crooks political views can be extracted from what little the MSM has seen fit to publish: he was registered Republican, but donated to Democrats. You might think that is uncertain, but in 2022 the Democrats strongly encouraged their voters to register Republican so they could vote for Dr. Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary. So, Crooks is a true blue Donkey
And less we forget, in 2017 a Bernie worker took a few shots at the Republican softball practice, sending Rep Steve Scalise to the hospital. And Routh is another Bernie-bro.
Violence has long ruled the left.
Yes, but manipulative “truthiness” is completely asymmetrical. The Left has been using it much longer and more successfully than the Right, thanks to a compliant media and lately, ideologically distorted science, corporate, and educational institutions. Social engineering campaigns supported by exaggerated claims of rampant illiteracy, hunger, lack of health care, suburban spouse abuse, racism, poverty, police abuse, homophobia, climate change/global warming, vote suppression, and the whole witch’s brew of Progressive pearl-clutching topics have for decades kept the nation in a bubbling ferment of anger and frustration over one emergency after another. If you’re looking for a source of polarization, this is it.
I’m seeing related comments on social media such as “third time’s a charm” and other clever phrases. It saddens me as an American that reason and dialogue has been completely lost. In my own heart I have become deaf to the opposition. I no longer see respect as a viable option. And so I prepare.
Don’t base your view of anything on social media comments. They are trolls, kids, and some deranged adults no doubt. Stick to talking to people outside of the home, bars, restaurants, grocery clerks, whatever. You will find much more sense and probably have some interesting discussions too.
“Instead, all sides have embraced whichever interpretation of events feels the most truthy from their standpoint.”
In short, some people (hopefully not all) on ‘both sides’ are deliberately choosing what they want to believe, or what furthers some favoured narrative of theirs, over what the available evidence suggests is true. According to William Kingdon Clifford, author of the philosophical essay The Ethics of Belief, such people are behaving irresponsibly and unethically. He writes,
“To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
“If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it — the life of that man is one long sin against mankind….
“”But,” says one, “I am a busy man; I have no time for the long course of study which would be necessary to make me in any degree a competent judge of certain questions, or even able to understand the nature of the arguments.”
“Then he should have no time to believe.”
The Ethics of Belief was first published in 1877. Intellectually and ethically, are we going forward or backward?
Those who wish to read Clifford’s once famous essay in its entirety can find it here. I think it should be on the curriculum in every high school:
https://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/Clifford_ethics.pdf
“Conspiracists”. When one looks at the events in Butler PA, it is difficult to conclude the Secret Service was well beyond benign neglect in its actions. The cremation of the body, immediate washing off of the roof the assassin perched on, and the obvious cloak of secrecy over the family and associated agencies is typical of a coordinated agency response: i.e., a conspiracy. Call it a ‘shadowy cabal’ , whatever. Why would federal agencies and the current executive ( obviously not Biden) deny protection for so long to RFK Jr, or intentionally minimize it for Trump? That is the real question, not whether or not stupid blather like this essay by a Mary Harrington, with demonstrated limited analytic skills, can fill a page with circular reasoning.
Found the conspiracy theorist.
The label “silly blather” seems more apt for this comment than for Mary Harrington’s essay.
What I find strange is the following of this demonstrably stupid clueless woman. She promises nothing that she’ll admit to. Half the world seems to want the Left running the show, a mystery to the other half who see no palpable benefits.
I really hope this doesn’t come about because all sorts of trouble could be unleashed as a result, but I am starting to think that Trump’s ultimate destiny is to be martyred.
If he is, will he be made a Saint? He is after all a pious and holy man!
Good article, but I have personal history with the word, and take issue with the way “stochastic” is currently being used, in that it normally implies conjecture or randomness, and I don’t think either is intended when, as is currently the fashion, it’s coupled with terrorism.
Good point. The term “stochastic terrorism” is an abuse of the term “stochastic”. Those who talk about stochastic terrorism are simply trying to lay blame where it shouldn’t lay. They have no scientific or logical basis for their argument. The silliness of their argument hides behind a facade of science. .
It reminds me of how some people abuse the term “quantum”, as in quantum consciousness or quantum healing. They have no idea what they are talking about.
The mate and I were watching Matt Tiabbi and Walter Kirn on “America This Week” last night and they showed some clips from recent MSNBC commentary on Donald Trump and his supporters. It was revelatory for us, we never watch news shows on TV. The vile nature of their remarks was so upsetting to my partner she turned the TV off mid-stream, saying: “I really find that disturbing.”
It was indeed disturbing, ATW is a usually amusing podcast with Kirn’s dry commentary. If you’d like to check it out, it’s on YouTube under the Racket News account, America This Week from 9/16. If you are looking for someone asking to be rid of a priest, it’s a good place to start.
A party as deeply corrupt as the democratic one, who lied about Biden’s condition for over four years, who executed a coup to get a woman who failed her primary to be made candidate undemocratically, who own a media willing to effect her transition from unpopular to fairy godmother – such a government would have no compunction against encouraging (at the least) assassination attempts. And yes, there is always money behind it. I do not need to be a scholar, an academic or an analyst to know that the democrats would do anything to get rid of Trump.
Ok, let’s say (for the purposes of discussion) that what you say is right, and the Democrats would be prepared to have Trump assassinated. Why wouldn’t they hire a professional assassin with a rifle that was fit for the job? Why get a succession of losers to bungle it?
By engaging in stochastic terrorism the democrats just create the myth of a monster and then wait for the nuts come out of the woodwork.
That is not quite the same thing as “assassination” though. Trump did the same thing the other way round – a few “injudicious” words, and his goons just happened to invade Congress.
Trump will never be allowed to regain the Oval Office. They will either kill him or if he wins the election they will tie him up with lawfare. There will be no transfer of power because the incumbents love the money and the letter agencies are enemies. During his first term Trump suspected the letter agencies were working against him. Now he knows they were and they know that he knows so his election would represent an existential threat.
well logicicaly he can remain away from DC and issue POs from home – meanwhile using the energy and food co’s to help deliver – i suspect LATAM and MEA suppliers would love this – starting with the magical kingdom of Mejico.
Too true – RIP Dimebag Darrell. “He deserves to be beaten” [sic] I truly believe many ppl including Philip Anselmo would’ve gladly kicked his alcy cokehead ass – but murder? – no. The guy that shot him was a diagnosed schizophrenic who refused his meds – praps, like Roky Ericsson, he though the CIA were controlling his mind via the mail. I notice how easy it is for the left to use “mentally ill” actors as proxies. They don’t get it. They too are equally likely to fall prey to those who say “when i’m mean i’m evil”. Well i’ve lied and i’ve stolen and i aint f**in jokin’, it must’ve been that leftist s**t that i read.
Brings back 9/11. If you fire up fanatics to do your dirty work for you, there’s always the risk they can come to think you’re not devoted enough to the cause. And turn on you, as Bin Laden did or this Azov groupie.
Ouf! Mary, try again!
Horrible Harrington! Petty ideologue! During the pandemic, in order to avoid any further investigation of Wuhan, the Dems set in motion the spurious rumors of attacks on Asians. That was patenly false, I Iived at the time in one of the great hubs of Chinese inmigrants in CA. No hate there, not even questioning of the unanimous aceptance by my Chinese neighbors of the wet market big lie. The Asian Anti-Hate Iniciative was such an obvious propaganda tool. Now, is the bombs in Springfield, the attack of the dog-eaters. And all this, while a couple of months ago hundreds of encampments of murderous antisemites across the world demanded the extermination of the Jewhish State and several Ivy League presidents refused to condemn the haters. Democrats in America are commies, meaning: fascists that won the war. And the poor kittens are just another Colbertian psyop aimed at deflecting attention from the repeated assasinations attempts. Late night TV hosts are heirs to Lunacharsky, and so is Harrington.
Fifteen years ago, everyone was praising social media for its revolutionary capabilities to bring about democratic change. Today it has turned into a monster that is driving everyone to despair and insanity. We are witnessing a civilization coming apart and the cause is its own technology.
The invisible hand of capitalism and the pursuit of profit coupled with the steadying hand of democratic governance is meant to bring about social good, but now that government is no longer functioning except as a handmaiden to profit the single-minded pursuit of profit has created uncontrollable technology that is destroying civil society. It will only get worse with AI.
In the United States where we are awash in military style weapons the violence, we are seeing was inevitable. That too will only get worse. Years of 50/50 elections, neo-liberal economics and ugly rhetoric from both sides has led to political stagnation and a society slouching toward anarchy. Trump the king of misrepresenting other people’s positions has only made things worse.
Just today, our press secretary AGAIN called Trump “a threat to our democracy”, if this isn’t inciting yet another attempt on his life, what is? And she is supposedly not “fringe”, like all the lurkers you allude to.
Hmmmm….in the US, in regards to immigrants eating urban domestic and urbanized creatures, the documentation supports the claims Haitians are chowing down on the critters.
Cats and dogs though? I understand their may be evidence relating to ducks and geese, but we all eat them.
The “Hitler thing” is linked to the Churchill thing: we must never rest in our battle to stop the next Hitler. As Lawrence Tribe put it about Trump, “If you’re going to shoot him, you have to shoot to kill… Otherwise you’re just going to nick the guy, and make him feel empowered and vindicated.” Cooper is absolutely right, as is Pinkosky. https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-end-of-the-churchill-myth/
The easier explanation is of something called ‘the deep state’ or the ‘military industrial complex’ which gets its power from supine, paid off politicians. It helps if the president is greedy for money.
The trouble with Trump is that he is already immensely rich so the Deep State/MIC can’t control him with it – and they can’t bear having a president they can’t control.
So when Trump was elected president I believed someone would try to assassinate him and replace him with someone they could control. I thought they would try while he was in office, but they tried to use lawfare instead but have basically failed so far.
But the Deep State/MIC seems to be a conspiracy theory even though conspiracy theories can be the truth. Remember that the FBI and CIA had members on the boards of Twitter and Facebook during the last presidential election and Facebook recently admitted to suppressing inconvenient news like the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop – exactly what you would expect the Deep State/MIC to to if you wanted the greedy, controllable, senile Biden to be the President.
The last wannabe assassin was eliminated and his body was cremated before the state coroner even saw the body. Nothing to do with making sure he didn’t blab of course – that would be a conspiracy theory and not stochastic terrorism. But the latest has been caught. I have a bet on him having a sudden medical emergency in prison which results in death and a quickly held cremation in the middle of the night.
“Kamala Harris’ open border” is the furthest thing from disinformation–rather the coldest of hard truths. Is the author denying the reality of the many millions of illegal migrants that have entered the United States since the start of the Biden-Harris administration?? Good Lord…
I’ve been drawn in to this headline several times now. “The reason people want to kill Tru…”. Letdown ensued when I found it was only Trump and not Trudeau they were referring to. Trudeau has become so reviled in Canada now that I was curious about whether it had become American intense or not.
Presumably there will be an election at some point, at which Canadians can give Trudeau his marching orders (if they so choose).
I admit I’m beginning to dispair of Mary. Does she think there are no conspiracies? Only someone unacquainted with history could hold such a view. And does she consider Stephen Colbert, the former late-night comedian but now straight-up left-wing apologist, worthy of quoting in a seeningly serious article? You are spreading yourself too thin, Mary.
The comparison of Trump to Hitler, so often bandied about by Democrats, is utterly absurd. One would imagine that Trump was getting ready for a coup. But he’s already been in power! And not very much happened. Once Hitler was Chancellor he passed the Enabling Act which gave him dictatorial emergency powers and the Nazi Party never looked back again and Hitler prepared the country for expansion to the East and the invasion of Russia. I suppose things could turn out differently the second time round, but nonetheless, Trump’s enemies just show their historical illiteracy.
In the realm of psychological manipulation, I think few tactics are as insidious and disorienting as DARVO. It stands for “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender,” a concept first identified by psychologist Jennifer Freyd. It’s a defensive strategy used by perpetrators of wrongdoing, particularly those accused of abuse, to deflect blame, invert reality, and maintain power and control.
Denial is the abuser’s first line of defence. When confronted with evidence of their misconduct, abusers outright DENY the behaviour—often delivered with such confidence and composure that it can be incredibly persuasive to others. Following denial, perpetrators ATTACK the credibility of the accuser. This can be direct or subtle, with the abuser often portraying the accuser as mentally unstable, attention seeking, or manipulative. Finally, the most disorienting part of DARVO is the reversal of roles, where the PERPETRATOR claims they are the actual VICTIM. This can involve expressing hurt feelings, seeking sympathy, or claiming they are the ones who have been wronged.
I think that what makes DARVO so effective is that it exploits our inclination to give people the benefit of the doubt, it intentionally obscures the truth. The reversal of victim and offender can be so convincing that it not only causes others to question the victim’s claim, but can also make victims question their own reality and sanity. Sound familiar? (thanks to a member of The Mighty website for providing this definition and details).
Comparison of Emotional Immaturity and Maturity
Emotional Immaturity
Thoughts about life are simplistic, literal, and rigid. Dislike the uncertainty of an evolving reality.
A need to control others through guilt, anger, or shame.
View others as incompetent.
Express charm and charisma.
Define self and others by their roles in a binary way: submissive or dominant.
Poor filters; say whatever comes to mind without regard for others’ feelings.
Claim it is “being honest.”
Poor listeners, unattuned, and unable to resonate with others who disagree with them.
Resist and deny reality, especially when ti does not fit with their opinions.
Emotional Maturity
Appreciate the nuances of life and how things are constantly changing.
Aware they cannot and do not want to control others.
See shortcomings as a part of being human.
Express warmth and sincerity.
Equitable view of all humans and comfortable without a social ranking system in place.
Share feelings from their own experience in mutually respectful ways.
Deep listeners, meaning focused, able to attune to self and others.
Integrate new information with acceptance even if it is uncomfortable.
The facts do not change because they experience intense feelings.
Can self-correct and grow, owning and learning from mistakes.
(Taken from the appendices in Disentangling From Emotionally Immature People by Lindsay Gibson). Vote for who you like but discover what characteristics describe them and with the previous definition, what their tactics are for getting what they want
“You just need a few nutjobs”. I submit that those taking violent action are, for the most part, Leftist useful-idiots and paid “activists”, such as but not limited to Antifa, who are encouraged by mainstream media, Leftist politicians, establishment Neo-Cons, and anti-America Cultural Marxists, et al.