Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/27/geophysicist-arrested-for-beating-cop-at-trump-riot-said-he-was-patting-him-on-the-back.html
…
11 Likes
I always flee to Switzerland when I’m completely innocent.
52 Likes
That cop was antifa tho or something.
33 Likes
Lying coward.
27 Likes
Why Switzerland?
A very quick search shows we have an extradition treaty with Switzerland from 1996. Another quick search indicates they really do not want people from plague ridden countries (like the USA) coming to visit.
Has he watched too many WWII prison escape movies? One too many viewings of The Sound of Music?
34 Likes
That looks like an anthropomorphized smegma stain.
9 Likes
Yes, and the smell ain’t so pretty too.
13 Likes
“not a gneiss guy”
Very clever byline there, that shows real wit and intelligence. Bravo
15 Likes
The OJ Defense
10 Likes
Joking apart, that’s pretty much how the rioters rationalised beating the crap out of cops. Their term for a cop who refused to join the insurrection is “oath breaker”.
24 Likes
RNC would still buy a million to push it to top of NYT list and to distribute at events.
10 Likes
I’m pretty sure that’s what my toddler would claim he’s doing when he punches his dad in the nuts. Just to clarify, he’s 2.
15 Likes
It needs to be said 1000 times. If a BLM crowd had dragged a cop down the stairs and beat him with flags or clubs or whiffle bats, they would still be loading the bodies into trucks today.
Next time QAnon openly plans to overthrow the government and murder elected officials, BLM and Antifa should announce they will be there to stop them. That will make sure that the cops are fully kitted and ready to fight. Then just don’t show up and watch the cops get confused again when their enemies are white supremacists (Again).
45 Likes
Geophysicist.
Let that sink in for a minute.
This is someone considered a “smart” person, at least book smarts. And yet went all in on the bullshit. Who knows what they were like prior to this, but goddamn, I don’t know if I’m more shocked that there’s more “smart” people coming out of the woodwork as hard right wing fascist lovers or people that hold respected jobs falling for all this.
I guess it was really there all along, the “hillbilly” slant was just smokescreen (?) of sorts to disguise the fact that a bunch of suburban brainwashed cosplayers are really the main right wing population.
I’ve read that many (most?) of the rioters were middle and upper class but goddamn, what a fucking weird world, And what a completely shitty way to define oneself
21 Likes
I’d like to use this example as an opportunity to talk about the demographics of the right and the alt-right.
Out on the left-leaning side of the internet, I often see rhetoric that stands up a particular stereotype of an alt-right or even just a right-leaning person. There’s a common tone that people need to be stupid, or at least naïve and simple, to fall into Trumpland, even more so to go down the QAnon rabbit hole.
I see people pushing for long-term solutions involving better education, with a focus on critical thinking. I believe these solutions are great, but I am worried they won’t be enough.
This guy in the article has been a geophysicist for years. His LinkedIn profile is in the top three results from Google. According to it, he has held senior and leadership positions in his field for over a decade.
On paper at least, without knowing more than a cursory glance will tell me, it looks like he is not in line with the left’s stereotype of the right.
Similarly, of my personal circle, those who are right-leaning are closer in type to a “successful geophysicist” than of the mouth-breather that I would (shamefully) like to imagine instead.
That is, of the people I personally know, those who fly (or flew) the Trump flag are people that are already objectively well-educated, who have (or had) successful careers, and are not generally prone to magical thinking.
Maybe this is because my circle is small. I do have a very small circle. And just like everybody else, my circle is like my own personal echo-chamber, because I just don’t follow people who don’t already fit my worldview. Everybody I listen to is already on the left, or otherwise injected into my social circle because of family or work. So I’ve got a lot of bias in this.
But it worries me because I think there is some evidence that intelligence, education, and critical thinking skills are not a full defense against the sort of social pull that fascism brings to the table. Probably it helps–certainly it couldn’t hurt–but history has plenty of smart, well-educated, capable Nazis.
I don’t know what the answer is. In part I just wanted to verbalize some of this. I’m worried about my close and extended family, and of how to de-program my mother. It doesn’t help me to think of Trump supporters as being naïve or gullible. This guy reminds me of that.
38 Likes
“Geophysicist” in this context likely means “works in the oil industry”, which might explain a) his rightwingedness and b) why he could financially consider hiding out in Alps Country.
21 Likes
Started reading it. My goodness, I put the book down and couldn’t pick it up again!
7 Likes
It is axiomatic that MAGAists do not do enough research.
5 Likes
We have here, the understatement of the century, I tell you.
9 Likes
