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babylonsister

(171,942 posts)
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 06:49 AM Yesterday

Shooter Believed He Was Fulfilling Trump's Wishes

https://politicalwire.com/2025/03/31/shooter-believed-he-was-fulfilling-trumps-wishes/

Shooter Believed He Was Fulfilling Trump’s Wishes
March 31, 2025 at 5:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard


“Patrick Crusius believed he was acting at the direction of President Donald Trump when he murdered 23 people and wounded 22 others at an El Paso Walmart in 2019,” El Paso Matters reports.

Said defense attorney Joe Spencer: “He thought he had to stop the invasion because that’s what his president was telling him… He thought, if he doesn’t do it, then nobody’s going to do it. He’s got to start.”
59 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Shooter Believed He Was Fulfilling Trump's Wishes (Original Post) babylonsister Yesterday OP
It's a cult UpInArms Yesterday #1
a cult of sociopaths. nt Javaman Yesterday #7
a dumpster of deplorables too. Montauk6 Yesterday #21
A murder of morons. leftyladyfrommo Yesterday #36
I think you ment "murder BY morons", no? AZ8theist Yesterday #44
A group of crows is called a murder. nt leftyladyfrommo Yesterday #45
Yes of course. Context. AZ8theist 4 hrs ago #59
Seriously, I wonder what the percentage of Dump voters are sociopaths mdbl Yesterday #34
No boundaries, leaky sieve for a mind. bucolic_frolic Yesterday #2
And you can bet your sweet bippy Trump and the rest of them cheered those deaths for the same sick reason. Solly Mack Yesterday #3
An example of "stochastic terrorism". Rile 'em up and somebody will take action. SharonAnn Yesterday #4
Trump loves it when he manipulates people to kill for him. Irish_Dem Yesterday #5
Yes bdamomma Yesterday #50
The tragic thing is, he was. Scrivener7 Yesterday #6
A grinning Trump giving a thumbs up while posing with orphaned baby at El Paso Hospital: sop Yesterday #8
Disgusting! Dixc Yesterday #9
Creeps! Smiles were totally uncalled for in that situation. ReRe Yesterday #37
I'm actually kinda surprised this hasn't happened more... SKKY Yesterday #10
Insane kkmarie Yesterday #11
Faux noise (murdoch) makes huge profits from these brainwashed. nt Justice matters. 21 hrs ago #54
1000 Percent Radicalized djacq Yesterday #12
And that's.... purr-rat beauty Yesterday #13
That proves he has no political agenda, and will get the mental illness excuse IronLionZion Yesterday #14
Satanic BoRaGard Yesterday #15
Karoline Leavitt soldierant Yesterday #42
snork AllaN01Bear Yesterday #16
So what's worse SCantiGOP Yesterday #17
neither is OK stopdiggin Yesterday #22
Not a non-sequitur nor fuzzy logic Cirsium Yesterday #25
The poster was not 'pointing out' the moral ambiguity of the right stopdiggin Yesterday #29
Civil disobedience Cirsium Yesterday #32
Good grief GenThePerservering Yesterday #28
I don't think there WAS much of a point there stopdiggin Yesterday #30
I disagree SCantiGOP Yesterday #31
you are SO correct stopdiggin 22 hrs ago #52
No Cirsium Yesterday #33
the post is quite clearly (IMO) justifying the one stopdiggin 19 hrs ago #55
While I have no empathy for Elon Musk, I don't think vandalism is okay. Cinnamonspice Yesterday #49
Waste of time with Teslas TommyT139 22 hrs ago #53
Once he is found guilty, he needs to sit in prison for the rest of his life. He should not be put to death. That lets OLDMDDEM Yesterday #18
"I'll handle them, Mr. President" Wednesdays Yesterday #19
He was fulfilling trump's wishes. republianmushroom Yesterday #20
Bondi seeking death penalty for this one too? Emile Yesterday #23
There's a photo of this nutcase that has made him the poster child... keep_left Yesterday #24
America is a sad and dangerous place to live. Passages Yesterday #26
What happened to the peace and love sixties hippie generation? LiberalLovinLug 18 hrs ago #56
Reaganites and neoliberalism seems to have been major contributing factors. Passages 11 hrs ago #58
Is that what he actually believes or is it an attempt to get a reduced sentence EdmondDantes_ Yesterday #27
Charge Trump for inciting murder! 4catsmom Yesterday #35
I HEAR PARDON!!!!!!... BurnDoubt Yesterday #38
Son of Sham lame54 Yesterday #39
Our society is full of these people ReRe Yesterday #40
MegaCult Clouds Passing Yesterday #41
You have to figure that there are millions like him who cannot discern between reality and RW propaganda ffr Yesterday #43
Yep. Trump is a terrorist leader LymphocyteLover Yesterday #46
This should be headline news for weeks Johnny2X2X Yesterday #47
He realizes it's El Paso and not The Step, right? Cinnamonspice Yesterday #48
Said defense attorney Joe Spencer: Marcuse 23 hrs ago #51
White nationalist terrorism ck4829 15 hrs ago #57

AZ8theist

(6,671 posts)
44. I think you ment "murder BY morons", no?
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 07:59 PM
Yesterday

The people he killed were certainly not morons. They were innocent victims of fascist stupidity.

mdbl

(6,024 posts)
34. Seriously, I wonder what the percentage of Dump voters are sociopaths
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 03:19 PM
Yesterday

And to those that aren't I say "WTF WERE YOU THINKING MORON?" I really don't even want to know the answer any more.

Solly Mack

(94,599 posts)
3. And you can bet your sweet bippy Trump and the rest of them cheered those deaths for the same sick reason.
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 07:24 AM
Yesterday

Irish_Dem

(67,106 posts)
5. Trump loves it when he manipulates people to kill for him.
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 07:30 AM
Yesterday

It makes him feel powerful and in control.
And he is a sadist who loves inflicting pain and tormenting others.

bdamomma

(67,839 posts)
50. Yes
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 10:10 PM
Yesterday

Irish_Dem we are seeing the felon inflicting a lot of pain, hope that pain reciprocates on him.

sop

(13,386 posts)
8. A grinning Trump giving a thumbs up while posing with orphaned baby at El Paso Hospital:
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 07:44 AM
Yesterday


Mission accomplished!

Dixc

(56 posts)
9. Disgusting!
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 08:05 AM
Yesterday

She took that baby from the arms of his Grandmother and then plastered on the smarmy smiles for the photo-op.

ReRe

(11,476 posts)
37. Creeps! Smiles were totally uncalled for in that situation.
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 04:11 PM
Yesterday

They don't have an ounce of empathy or sympathy in their souls.

SKKY

(12,464 posts)
10. I'm actually kinda surprised this hasn't happened more...
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 08:09 AM
Yesterday

...I'm glad, but surprised nonetheless.

kkmarie

(110 posts)
11. Insane
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 08:29 AM
Yesterday

When we hear the deranged demented madman who can't complete sentences or even words. Some people hear go out and kill for me.
We're never going to recover from this if 30% believe Comrade Krasnov.

IronLionZion

(48,246 posts)
14. That proves he has no political agenda, and will get the mental illness excuse
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 09:09 AM
Yesterday

since all Trump supporters are mentally ill.

soldierant

(8,316 posts)
42. Karoline Leavitt
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 05:05 PM
Yesterday

apparently remarked that this is "spiritual warfare." She is 100% right - and 100% on the wrong side of it.

SCantiGOP

(14,417 posts)
17. So what's worse
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 10:21 AM
Yesterday

Killing humans, or scratching Teslas.
Civil disobedience is becoming a necessity.

stopdiggin

(13,534 posts)
22. neither is OK
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 01:02 PM
Yesterday

and this is precisely the kind of non-sequitur and fuzzy logic that leads the dim bulbs out there into a moral and ethical wasteland.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cirsium

(2,160 posts)
25. Not a non-sequitur nor fuzzy logic
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 01:23 PM
Yesterday

Republicans are calling damaging Teslas "terrorism" but not mass shootings by people inspired by Trump.

Pointing that out is not leading any "dim bulbs out there into a moral and ethical wasteland."

stopdiggin

(13,534 posts)
29. The poster was not 'pointing out' the moral ambiguity of the right
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 02:13 PM
Yesterday

but gives every appearance of advocating and encouraging violence and criminal action as the 'lesser of two evils' and necessary measure.
(at least that is the way I read it)

"Civil disobedience is becoming a necessity."

And, yes - I will continue to label the advocacy of violence - especially when it is justified (and tried to offset) by pointing toward 'other' measures of violence - as misguided, and a degradation of any moral path or guidance. These two actions bear almost no relation to one another - and trying to equate them, or make some kind of fulcrum of justice and action of them - is the essence of 'fuzzy logic'. Neither is OK. And it is very clearly an example of both unethical and 'fuzzy' thinking.

But I kind of knew somebody would be willing to step forward in defense of the anarchists ..
Nice to meet you again, C !

Cirsium

(2,160 posts)
32. Civil disobedience
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 02:55 PM
Yesterday

Civil disobedience does not necessarily mean violence.

The poster did not equate mass shootings to vandalism. Ironically, though, you have attempted to do just that.

stopdiggin

(13,534 posts)
30. I don't think there WAS much of a point there
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 02:23 PM
Yesterday

The poster appeared to think that vandalizing and destruction of property (oftentimes belonging to people that have not the slightest of connection to any kind of issue) .... As, OK, (perhaps necessary? ) because ... guns! Or something ....

And, no - both the argument and the logic or justification ... Are just crappy on the face of it.

SCantiGOP

(14,417 posts)
31. I disagree
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 02:28 PM
Yesterday

Was the Boston Tea Party domestic terrorism, or an act of civil disobedience by an oppressed people?
It all depends on your point of view.
Damaging property is not in the same moral sphere as harming/killing people by destroying the social safety net.

stopdiggin

(13,534 posts)
52. you are SO correct
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 11:39 PM
22 hrs ago

the 'Boston Tea Party' was the actions of a gang of (most likely drunken) loutish thugs - was generally seen so at the times - and was only later polished up and papered over with the shiny veneer of 'glorious revolution'.

And, again - you reach into the bag for, 'one thing not AS bad as the other' to provide moral justification and cover. While I am saying neither is okay. And it is precisely that kind of 'fuzzy' moral dualism - that ultimately results in us justifying (read rationalizing) actions that are well outside the bounds of ethical or moral.

But, again, you're so right - torching and burning things (damaging property), certainly takes on an entirely different complexion - when the mob is moving down your street - and nearing your house.

Cirsium

(2,160 posts)
33. No
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 02:57 PM
Yesterday

That is not anything like what they posted.

"So what's worse, killing humans, or scratching Teslas?"

Obviously killing humans is worse. Did that need to be spelled out for you? The poster is not equating the two, as you claimed.

"Civil disobedience is becoming a necessity."

Not sure why you have a problem with that, nor why you connect it to guns, or mass shootings. But you are the one trying to connect them.

stopdiggin

(13,534 posts)
55. the post is quite clearly (IMO) justifying the one
Wed Apr 2, 2025, 02:32 AM
19 hrs ago

'civil disobedience is becoming justified' (while offering up an example in back and white, i.e. vandalizing vehicles)
by pointing to another, and greater, moral failure.

And I don't think I'm misreading what the post is trying to say.

OLDMDDEM

(2,382 posts)
18. Once he is found guilty, he needs to sit in prison for the rest of his life. He should not be put to death. That lets
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 11:34 AM
Yesterday

him off too easy.

keep_left

(2,812 posts)
24. There's a photo of this nutcase that has made him the poster child...
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 01:21 PM
Yesterday

...for the 8chan incel neckbeards, particularly on the hard-left sites where it's used in countless memes. It's not a mugshot, though it looks like one. I think the photo is from LinkedIn, believe it or not.

?quality=75&strip=all

Passages

(2,409 posts)
26. America is a sad and dangerous place to live.
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 01:26 PM
Yesterday

Leadership matters, we see how people absorb ugly rhetoric, how it infiltrates the psychie of vulnerable people and or people who are already prone to violence.

America needs a rescue from itself.

Passages

(2,409 posts)
58. Reaganites and neoliberalism seems to have been major contributing factors.
Wed Apr 2, 2025, 10:27 AM
11 hrs ago

The false belief that the government was the enemy was used for nefarious reasons.

We need to undo so much damage, I find it troubling. I think we can do it, but it feels overwhelming.

How Neoliberalism Failed, and What a Better Society Could Look Like
August 7, 2024

By Joseph Stiglitz

https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/how-neoliberalism-failed/

EdmondDantes_

(369 posts)
27. Is that what he actually believes or is it an attempt to get a reduced sentence
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 01:41 PM
Yesterday

Not that Trump should be speaking the way he does, but I don't know that this is sufficient evidence that he is inciting violence because one person committed violence given the high standards around free speech. The klan advocates violence but the ACLU still defends their free speech. Where's the line between that and the group that incited violence against a family in Idaho where the family won the property of what Christian nationalist group was targeting them? From what I understand their has to be a direct link targeting a specific person, and I don't see that this meets that standard.

ReRe

(11,476 posts)
40. Our society is full of these people
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 04:55 PM
Yesterday

including the one's who incite them. They're in our families, in our neighborhoods. We do nothing about our truly mentally ill. Then something happens. They hurt themselves or someone else. Then we shame ourselves for not having done something before the tragedy happened. We figured out how to fly to the moon and back, how to clone animals & fertilize babies in a petri dish, but we can't seem to do anything about the sociopaths/psychopaths among us who wreak havoc in so many lives. It beats the hell out of me.

ffr

(23,160 posts)
43. You have to figure that there are millions like him who cannot discern between reality and RW propaganda
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 05:27 PM
Yesterday

Just look at the hate being spewed on Fox Entertainment both up front and in subtle messaging in their movie channels (Tubi). They see themselves as heroes with a righteous cause and everyone else as vermin, to be mastered and ruled over. They cannot think for themselves, because for them, that's difficult. What excites their minds is accepting what someone else says and belonging.

If it's a cult by definition, it doesn't matter to them, because that's not what they're told they belong to. It's not fascism if they don't believe it is or if they see it being projected it onto others on Fox television.

And you'll know them, by how they speak. They all use the same words, have the same words that trigger them, repeat the talking points for that day, just as you would expect a loyal cult member to do.

Cinnamonspice

(167 posts)
48. He realizes it's El Paso and not The Step, right?
Tue Apr 1, 2025, 10:01 PM
Yesterday

It has a hispanic name for a reason. That's the history. He probably shot third or fourth generation Americans. Ugh.

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