Fanone was abducted by the mob on Jan. 6 and nearly killed when a MAGA-hatted rioter who believed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election drove a stun gun into his neck.

Michael Fanone, a former police officer who was nearly killed by a mob during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, spoke outside the courthouse during closing arguments in Donald Trump’s hush money trial Tuesday, calling Trumpan authoritarianwitha violence fetish.”

Hours later, Fanone’s mother was “swatted” at her home in Virginia.

On Tuesday, a fake “manifesto” attributed to Fanone was sent to a number of email addresses, including some associated with a high school that Fanone attended for a year more than two decades ago. The “manifesto,” viewed by NBC News, claimed that the writer had killed their mother and planned to go to the recipient’s school Wednesday and shoot more people. It provided Fanone’s mother’s home address.

  • jobby@lemmy.today
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    1 month ago

    There are three sorts of MAGA asshole.

    1. Cynical as hell and only supporting it because they want to make money in the chaos.

    2. Genuinely evil, cruel and racist (Steven Miller) and wants to hurt people in the chaos.

    3. Ignorant as fuck and frequently also coupled with lower intelligence. Honestly has no fucking idea about anything beyond their daily existence or the tip of their nose, and doesn’t care to become informed. Low information voter and proud of it. Opinions and raised voices count far more than being able to read. Hopes they can get cheaper gas and beer in the chaos.

    • lennybird@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Don’t forget the 4chan incel meming nihilists!

      Our society is full of ignorant assholes. The only thing I’ll say is the red dunce cap makes them easier to spot and filter.

    • eldavi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Ignorant as fuck and frequently also coupled with lower intelligence. Honestly has no fucking idea about anything beyond their daily existence or the tip of their nose, and doesn’t care to become informed. Low information voter and proud of it. Opinions and raised voices count far more than being able to read. Hopes they can get cheaper gas and beer in the chaos.

      this describes fanone before jan 6th based on the interviews he’s given since then and i wonder if he has any unique insights into the psyche of the people who believed as he once did.

      i’ve also come to understand that people who “don’t like politics” are the biggest part of this group and can be used as a dog whistle.

      • jobby@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        I have, in younger years, not been particularly informed about politics and was glib in saying things like ‘they’re all the same” etc. but I was at least lucky to have a family background with enough smarts to never have given the time of day to a piece of shit like Trump.

        To be charitable, there are unimaginably VAST numbers of people who are not actually idiots, but lack any point of intelligent reference in their family or community with which to leverage any thinking outside of the purposely-regressive framework set up by the GOP types; the RW media, the business grifters, the churches, the impassioned-but-warped-and-misguided funders, the downright evil. They are all in that mix.

        Ever since he was the front runner in 2016 I’ve become determinedly interested in politics and the courts and become loquacious in attempting to describe their importance to people who claim the disinterest I used to.

        Help spread the word to people you know need the help to understand the importance of it!

        Yes politicians can be self-serving, but GENERALLY on the Left, particularly the progressive Left, politicians are not there to line their own pockets. This absolutely cannot be said for the Rightwing.

        • eldavi@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Help spread the word to people you know need the help to understand the importance of it!

          in my experience they either don’t want to hear it or know it but disregard it when it suites their goals (eg biden administration on the gaza genocide).

          how do you get people who refuse to listen?