The posts are ominous.
“Pick a side, or YOU are next,” wrote conservative talkshow host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions.
The replies were even more so.
“Dan, seriously now,” one user wrote in response to Bongino. “I see no way out of all this mess without bloodshed. When you can rig an election, then weaponize the government and the courts against a former President, what other alternative is there? I’m almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny.”
That’s a common version of how many people on the US right reacted to the ex-president’s verdict, drawing on a “mirror world” where Trump is seen as the selfless martyr to powerful state forces and Joe Biden is the dangerous autocrat wielding the justice system as his own personal plaything and a threat to US democracy.
Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump’s guilty verdict came down, all predicated on the idea that the trial had been a sham designed to interfere with the 2024 election. Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars.
It used to be the old guided the young into the future. Somehow with the last generation, rather than transition, they’ve vice-gripped the entire system to hold onto the 1950s until their hands are bleeding. I see what you are saying with regards to the decision, and we have seen many of the olds make “fuck you, I got mine” decisions every day. I suppose I was just pointing out that they’re not all bad. There’s just that greedy psychotic vocal minority holding all the keys to shit all over everyone. To solve that? Maybe we do need a big fuck off war. Really wish it wouldn’t have to come to that though. Waiting it out doesn’t even work because modern medicine keeps extending their lives.
I didn’t mean to imply they are bad. I’m fifty. I’m not really including myself in the group of people who should be calling those particular shots, but I also want to be part of the solution and I hope it doesn’t come to that. My grandpa fought in WW2. I don’t want my kids or grandkids to face that. But sometimes the world doesn’t care what we want.