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On TheDonald.win, the more-or-less-official replacement for Reddit’s now-shuttered The_Donald subreddit, Sunday is Gun Day, in which the site’s assorted mega-MAGAs post pictures of their firearms like proud parents passing around photos of their babies.
On this particular Sunday, the day after the race for president was called in Biden’s favor, the guns come with vaguely threatening captions and not-very-subtle intimations of civil war.
Like Trump himself, his fans on TheDonald.win refuse to accept his loss. And while Trump so far is calling on the courts to reverse the election results, his super-fans don’t seem to share his faith in peaceful election-stealing.
Here’s a post suggesting that assault rifles are the real “Keep America Great tools.” It’s garnered more than 4000 upvotes from the denizens of the site.
Here’s one suggesting that rifles are the proper response to Democratic “socialism.”
And here’s one — with nearly 6000 upvotes — raising the specter of all-out civil war.
In the comments the regulars share videos suggesting that their side would easily win in a civil war. One commenter names name the “enemy combatants” as “Democrats. All democrats. Politicians, media, supporters.”
A more, er, moderate commenter called PegasoSeiya replies:
Too broad. When an objective is too broad there is no way of winning. Specific objectives are way better. The first enemy is anybody involved in rigging the elections and therefore are guilty of treason to the country. The leaders that colluded to commit treason. Primarily those who made the decision to count ballots received late, those who defied the orders from the Supreme Court, those who found votes at 4am. Those who gave patriots sharpies for their ballots. Once you arrest and bring to trial anybody who committed these acts, then you can continue with others.
Apparently giving sharpies to “patriots” is an executable offense.
Still another commenter harks back earlier than the American civil war, writing that “the answer to Biden 2020 is 1776.” There are more than a few “jokes” about the need to water the tree of liberty with blood, and it’s clear whose blood they mean.
A commenter called Deo_Favente offers up a virtual manifesto:
Elections are the means of resolving differences in a peaceful manner – when the shadow of doubt is cast over this process to the point of disbelief, it removes the most vital tool for peaceable resolution.
It is said that there are four key facets to the American Republic: The Voice Box, The Voter Box, The Jury Box, and The Ammo Box.
Your voice has been stripped – you are not allowed to speak. You have been de-platformed, ostracized, and run the implicit risk of violence against your person for speaking your mind.
Your vote has been robbed – for every fraudulent vote cast, an honest one is shredded. You have been disenfranchised by rampant and unchecked voter fraud. Make no mistake — if swift and certain judgement is not brought to the offenders — this will not stop. They are empowered by our inaction.
Your courts are overrun by those that do not hold one modicum of respect for your Constitution or our rule of law. They undermine and slowly pick away at the very foundation of our great Republic — Are these then the same individuals we then trust to ensure a fair outcome of this election in which these scoundrels so brazenly and assuredly try to steal? Pray then that these judges do not then kick this box from under Justice and leave her to hang from the slowly withering tree of Liberty.
Disarmament has been a continuing and key talking point of the establishment and your fellow Countrymen – they wish to remove your final means of protecting your God given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They’ve stripped your voice, rigged the vote, and stacked the jury — Under no means should your arms be peacefully or willingly surrendered.
The removal of your voice and packing of the courts was the slide into a soft tyranny and the removal of your vote and armaments is the decent of our great republic into a tyrannical hell.
In these dark times, pray for deliverance through peaceful means but pray also for the strength and wisdom of our forbearers that we may establish and ensure the cause of our continuing liberty.
E pluribus unum.
A commenter called VetforTrump2 offers a somewhat more succinct version:
They are stealing our lives i seriously hope we fight back in the most violent manner possible.
These are the people some think we should be approaching with tea and sympathy in the wake of Trump’s loss.
It’s weird how widespread voter suppression is never seen as rigging an election by these wannabe Rambos.
If you can bear to look, /pol/ is even worse/better. It’s practically fractured between Trump supporters and Biden supporters, and since Q hasn’t posted anything since Election Day (and incidentally, on the same day 8kun’s admin resigned) his supporters are panicking about how he’s betrayed them. It’s hilarious.
This is probably a reference to an incident in one county in Arizona where voters were given sharpie pens to mark ballots, which are recommended by the county because they don’t smudge, and some conservatives completely made up some idea that those ballots were invalidated by being forced to use sharpies. It’s total garbage, but Republicans are trying to spin it into more.
Of course, projection is strong among these kinds so almost all the things they’re complaining about Democrats doing to them are things they’ve done or want to do.
I am not so much worried about civil war because these types seem very incompetent and bad at organizing. I worry more about individuals pursuing domestic terrorism and trying to assassinate Democratic officials or anyone else they see as having wronged them, like the plot against Gov. Whitmer. Many of these will be foiled due to the general lack of skill and discreteness, but I expect at least a few attacks to happen. Be very careful, especially if you live in a red or swing state or are a minority.
@Anonymous
Even if Q doesn’t ever post again, now that QAnoners have permeated all areas of society this will probably be around a while. Some are suggesting that QAnon has effectively supplanted or will supplant Evangelicalism as the main religion of the GOP. Already I’m hearing QAnoners claiming that actually this was all part of the plan and that the election was actually a trap. There appears to be no limit to their bizarre faith in this ever more convoluted theory.
I don’t know much about 4chan at all, but isn’t it completely anonymous? If so, how does anyone know who is the “real” Q and what stops anyone from just saying they’re Q? This is probably a dumb question but I honestly don’t know.
Edit: I looked it up and apparently there is a system of tripcodes. Even then, what stops someone from just using the same tripcode so anyone can be Q? Apparently there has been speculation for a while that the owner is Q, so him resigning and Q no longer posting would imply that he was Q the whole time. Not that I expect true believers to be swayed, of course.
@Anonymous
It’s honestly a riot. And now apparently they are placing all their emotional energy on hoping that the worthless lawsuits stick and somehow makes its way to the Supreme Court to somehow make Roberts and every other judge vote in their favor ala Gore v Bush.
This isn’t magical thinking, it’s black magical thinking. They don’t even pretend to have a bit of evidence.
@Ooglyboggles
And the reactions you get when you point out that even Trump’s own justices will favor the (neocon) status quo over showing loyalty to Trump is strangely addictive. Honestly, Trump can’t offer them anything to ensure they won’t turn on him and they’re from the Harvard Law School milieu that he’s opposed for ages. What reason do they have to work with him when he can’t even punish them for possible betrayal?
@Ooglyboggles, Anonymous
One thing which is heartening is how literally every one of those lawsuits has been dismissed or otherwise rendered useless. I was arguing with some Trump supporter online earlier who insisted that eventually one would somehow change things, but even they seemed to admit that Trump is just throwing whatever he can and hoping something works. This doesn’t mean that Trump won’t find some way to steal this, but it will be harder than he anticipated.
The crank doth complain too much.
I find it interesting that these people threatening to kill us trans/queer folk for “stealing their voice” are the same people, broadly speaking, who were gleeful when Trump won, because they hoped he might give them that “open season” on us that they’ve been just itching for.
We’re damned whether these goons win or lose.
I hope the army won’t get on their side.
If only “civil” supporters do that, it possibly can kill an horrific amount of people but it won’t budge America. If police get in the fun, that start to be worrying given the stupid amount of wargear they have, but it’s probably still not enough to do mass damage. If the army get in the fun, it will be a war.
(that’s supposing only a smallish % of each group do that)
OK, I just LOLed at the Keep America Great Tool. The M&P is a basic entry level AR. Can’t ID the scope, but if they are excited about the M&P, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a cheap Centerpoint. (‘Course, it’s not like it can’t kill people, but that’s like copping an attitude about street racing when you drive a Dodge Neon…)
As for the Vintage liberation from socialism edition… I could be remembering WW2 wrong, but since it is a Garand, I think he mispelled fascism.
@.45 : I guess their reactions would be “it was against national socialism !”. When the nazis are the bad guys they are socialists, when they are the good guy they are nationalists. It remind me of the comedy routine “my son have had full A on his report, and your son have broken the vase in the dining room !”
As for the weapons themselves, the user and the logistic around him is a lot more important than the weapon. Of course, I suspect someone who use cheap entry line ARs is on average more likely to not upkeep his gun correctly, not have enough cartridge and whatnot (is having replacement parts importants for thoses guns ? I am not very well learned in that), and not being a particulary useful soldier overall. But conversely, a soldier that know what he do is probably almost as dangerous with thoses than with the best rifle in the world.
Both Third Reich and the USSR had national socialist media.
(And nowadays nearly all countries have nationalist social media)
@Ohlmann
I rather doubt that it would, most of the military ballots counted have been for Biden and Trump has repeatedly trashed the military and insulted its members. There might be a few members or veterans who involve themselves, but I doubt that the military as a whole would.
@gijoel
That’s…something. I’m not really surprised though, the vast majority of the time Republicans accuse Democrats of something that’s a thing they have done, are planning on doing, or want to do.
You win one internet. Have a cookie or something similar.
I hope (but kinda doubt) Biden will overturn a lot of Trumps policy decisions (like banning trans military members and such). Time will tell. Given that nearly half of the voters went for Trump anyway there will have to be a lot of hard work to prevent something similar to 2016 from happening in 2024, but with a more capable individual.
@ .45
Any idea why the handguard doesn’t colour match the main stock on that Garand?
At first I thought it might be a duffle cut; but unless the two parts were stored differently that wouldn’t explain it. So is it maybe just cobbled together from two different rifles?
@Battering Lamb
Biden has announced that he will use executive orders to undo a lot of Trump’s orders, but it remains to be seen whether/how that happens and what the courts do. I’m more worried about the 6-3 conservatives SCOTUS blocking them all.
@Naglfar
If the Dems can take back the Senate and keep the House, they need to pack the courts and/or start impeaching far-right justices.
They won’t though. They still, after all this, lack the spine.
@Cyborgette
I don’t think we’d be able to impeach as that would require 2/3 of the Senate while a best case scenario (winning both elections in GA) would be having half with Harris as the tiebreaker. Packing would be an option in that scenario but we’d need every single Democratic vote, which is hard given that there are some very conservative Democrats in the senate like Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. A third possibility that could potentially help in the long run would be admitting DC and/or Puerto Rico as states, changing the balance of the senate by adding 2 senate seats for each which would likely be Democratic or Democratic-aligned (I don’t know much about the politics of Puerto Rico, but IIRC they have different political parties than the rest of the US).
On “Pegaso Seiya”:
Imagine being Latino and supporting a Nazi that wants to exterminate you. Better yet, imagine being a disgusting, appalling racist and naming yourself after one of the most altruistic and empathetic anime characters out there. It’s like these people miss the point of these shows.
@Diego
They also miss the point of all the books and movies, too. One might think they’d notice when they keep positively comparing themselves to the villains, and might reflect on that, but they have no capacity for introspection whatsoever.
As for Latino Trump supporters, one result of this election that I found odd was that more Latino voters supported Trump this time than in 2016. Idk why this was.
@Nagflar : part of it is the cuban exilees, who historically are quite right wing.
More generally, the democrat party is taking minorities as granted, and it show. I hope they will understand that being better than republicans isn’t a foolproof solution.
I already promised my roommate that if there are riots anywhere near my route that I will bring the mail back and go home. Hopefully there won’t be, I’m not downtown, but just in case…
@ .45:
I think it might be a Primary Arms 5X Compact Prism Hunting Scope w/ ACSS Reticle PAC5X?
I got a notification today about Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine success.
I was really tempted to put a comment “Congratulations; and thanks for delaying this announcement until after the election so Trump couldn’t claim credit’
But as it happens I didn’t need to as the Trump camp are getting all conspiracy theorist on their own:
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1325791542490050561