Seth Cotlar: It’s stunning that we just take for granted that people serving on a jury for a trial of a former President should simply expect to get avalanches of death threats from his supporters. What are we even doing here?

It’s stunning that we just take for granted that people serving on a jury for a trial of a former President should simply expect to get avalanches of death threats from his supporters. What are we even doing here?

If the presidential candidate on whose behalf this was being done refused to condemn it, that would be bad enough. But the fact that we all know he enjoys it, is mind blowing. What citizen of a democracy, in their right mind, would vote for such a person?

Or not vote against him 😒

This 👆🏽

The phrase "in their right mind" is the linchpin to that rhetorical question.

Rhetorical answers Trump voters are not insane. They are pursuing self interest rationally. It is sad that visions of self interest is racism and hurting people. To a one I don’t see illness, I see malice as the motivation.

This here. People don't want to believe there are some people who think sadism and evil are strength.

Calling them 'insane' would remove their agency from them. The vast majority are actively choosing to behave in this manner, and are fully responsible for those choices and their consequences. An important distinction when it comes time to prosecute them for their crimes.

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The "I don't care how bad it gets for me, as long as it gets worse for others" mindset is so alien to me as to be incomprehensible. You can't reason with that kind of malice.

That's a great way to put it.

The original poster did not write "insane," he wrote "in their right mind" and that is what I agreed with. People can be perfectly sane and hold views that are completely contrary to any sense morality or decency as those concepts are generally understood in our society. I'm not excusing them at all

Trump is so simple and baffling at the same time It is very frustrating for me to try to process it all.

I did not intend that to be a dunk on your comment

But most of them won't benefit so it's not even rational, they might have lied to themselves that "they're the good ones" but that's by definition irrational

The very scary thing about the future of this country is that these people don’t go away when Trump does.

I had that thought the day after the 2016. That even our democracy (and I) can survive his term that the motherfuckers who voted for him will still be here for the rest of my life. No matter what happens I'll know that these people voted for such an unbelievably shitty human being.

This is what I thought and said. I was told I was over-reacting. And that even when that person is out of office (but apparently not going away,) that the legacy of hate would continue and grow. Like they all had permission to be awful.

This is why I can't forgive the people who voted for him in 2016 but not in 2020. I'm glad they changed their minds. But it was clear who he was from the beginning.

America spent centuries being a place where if you were something other than a WASP cis het male, you were inherently disadvantaged under the law and under America's dominant social order. And that is what MAGA stands for; make America 1953 again, before court rulings, before cultural progression.

And that is why you are precisely right about 'permission to be awful,' because that was what he projected -- that he was simply going to roll back everything they hated about America (decades of acknowledging that LGBTs, women, non-WASPS are full citizens, too) and restore a state of privilege.

I didn't vote for him but many of my family and friends did (stuck in a republican state) and they all say they thought his stuff was an act. Most did not vote for him a second time. the rest voted for him to keep republican control not because they liked Trump. Ugh.

Hopefully its a sign that some of those people who voted for him the first time around are coming to their senses though. I know two of those who voted for him twice have said they won't vote for him again.

And that they were already here long before he ever chose to run for office.

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It cannot be understated what 30 years of this shit has done to people's brains, particularly Reaganaut boomers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...

History of Fox News - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

A bunch of really shitty, selfish people.

We're way past this point unfortunately. America won't get back until our branches of government see trumpism as terrorism. Sadly, it's gonna take a really bad event for that to happen. Even worse than J6.

Clearly part of our problem as a country is that there are many tens of millions who are in fact not in their right mind.

Mortgage holders hoping all the other houses will burn down and they'll get to be Rick Grimes in the wasteland. Idiotic assholes. Americans.

They'll get to be a Brit named Andrew Clutterbuck pretending to be an American..? Actually, that does sound about right.

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A citizen who wants democracy to end

Enjoys < definitely encouraging it

A whole bunch of citizens are not in their right minds. That's who would vote for him. Sad, isn't it.

All the ones disgruntled about having to live in a democracy for the nonce, of course.

Getting boiled like fucking frogs is what.

Just so, sir.

We have all been slowly boiled, going through the narcissist's process of normalizing ever worse behaviour, on a continual incline.

Capitulating to fascism

Newspapers are capitalist outfits. As long as they toe the line, they're fine making money under fascists. Mussolini said fascism should properly be defined as corporatism, advocating total integration of corporations with the state. They are not capitulating. They are anticipating.

They are, in fact, encouraging the change.

Being an absolute unabashed shameless dirt bag seems to be Trump’s superpower. People expect no less. It’s bizarre. They still think he’s a reality TV personality.

Replace "former president" with "reputed mobster" and it makes perfect sense. This one just managed to get elected once.

I've probably been naive and ignorant about a lot, but it seems i'm not the only one. Trump is a HUGE problem, yes, but the fact that no matter what happens to him, we're still left with this population of people who SUPPORT and LOVE everything he is and does, and i'll be wary the rest of my life.

His power doesn’t come from votes. He knows it and his supporters know it.

feels like one way this got worse in the world was with that "thats just how the internet is," in response to complaints of toxicity/hatred; when it absolutely wasn't and didn't need to be, and it's grown into being just how everything is everywhere. "That's just how things are, toughen up"

when writers and thinkers talk about fascism shapeshifting and sneaking in under the radar, they weren't joking or being stylish or just having fun with their keyboards.

The system was designed for a certain level of good faith interaction. It just can't handle the levels of shameless lying and gaslighting it's being subjected to.

Whatever it is that we are doing - it’s wrong. Can we make it right?

Cosplaying democracy. The media will aim a laser on each juror until they all leave, gleefully reporting every kickass moment of it. Exciting presidential horserace!

It has been happening for years.

I don't even know if there's a contingency, like are the Feds prepared to use Witness Protection Program for these people and their families or were these people just randomly selected in a death lottery to be sacrificial lambs?

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Not enough to protect jurors, if you want a jury trial. This is an example ofthe kind of arsed up comedy that made Lee Kuan Yew end jury trials in Singapore's legal system. it's easier to protect three wise judges than a stack of ordinary people with varied wisdom and conerns.

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