Trump supporters storming Congress [split topic]

[Video Game Fan 2000]

However, the starting point for this is people trying to deploying those things - in the garb of mental disorder and intellectual disabilities, which rightly or wrongly are tied up with attributes of diminished responsibility - to try to get others off the hook for doing something that took an awful lot of concerted effort and planning.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Which is why the cynicism of the right guiding the conversation towards mental illness and neurological divergences is so distasteful to me. But there is a way to talk about why some people are vulnerable to online epistemic bubbles but others are not, and the unethical way platforms exploit this, without pathologising criminal acts or suggesting that mental illness is necessarily proximal to antisocial and criminal behaviour, no?

[Zetetic]

Yeah.

[Dog Botherer]

That statement with "retard" and "short bus" took me back to like 2000s internet. Who the fuck speaks like that now?

absolutely fuckloads of people that i've met in the midwest do.

[earl_sleek]

I've noticed "retard" or derivations of it being used here a few times recently.

[bakabaka]

If that's the lawyer's argument, the shaman is fucked.

Asperger's Syndrome, when it was a medical diagnosis[nb]medically it no longer exists, it's now just part of the autism spectrum because it has no specific, hard and fast symptoms [/nb], was defined as 'high functioning' which meant that the person was of average or higher intelligence. Not a 'retard'.

Ever since hackers, as brainy, geeky, shut-ins who were diagnosed with Asperger's, got off lightly because of it, it has been used as an excuse for all sorts of behaviour that doesn't fit the diagnosis. In such a high profile case, I can't see it working here.

[JaDanketies]

I believe in the US, you can plead insanity if you were afflicted by a mental health condition that made you unable to ascertain whether or not the action you were participating in was right or wrong? So you could say that they were delusional or were taken advantage of. There's no doubt in my mind that the people involved in storming the capital thought they were doing the 'right' thing.

Such abnormal mental condition, from any cause, as to render the accused at the time of committing the alleged criminal act, incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong and so unconscious at the time of the nature of the act which he is accused.

It seems like the only option for a 'not guilty' plea, although I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up with the Shaman sitting in a mental hospital for longer than they would've spent in jail.

[checkoutgirl]

absolutely fuckloads of people that i've met in the midwest do.

Bit unprofessional of a lawyer to a high profile defendant to be talking like that.

[bakabaka]

Can something be 'abnormal' when it's participated in by thousands of people and encouraged by thousands more, including the president?

Unless being Republican gets defined as a mental health condition.





That would be the cherry on the top!

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

The Qanon Shaman's lawyer : https://twitter.com/mattshuham/status/1394666856171122692

"AUTISM BAD"

For fuck's sake.

Imagine being a lawyer, an educated person, and talking like this.

[Sonny_Jim]

Where did he find that lawyer?   At the fucking dog track or something?

[bakabaka]

Where did he find that lawyer?   At the fucking dog track or something?

Four Seasons Garden Centre, Trenchmouth, Illinois.

[brat-sampson]

I believe in the US, you can plead insanity if you were afflicted by a mental health condition that made you unable to ascertain whether or not the action you were participating in was right or wrong? So you could say that they were delusional or were taken advantage of. There's no doubt in my mind that the people involved in storming the capital thought they were doing the 'right' thing.

I mean, on that basis, no form of terrorism would deserve jail time.

[JaDanketies]

I mean, on that basis, no form of terrorism would deserve jail time.

depends how good their lawyer is. Guilty by reason of insanity doesn't mean you walk the streets anyway, it means you get detention in a mental health facility for up to the maximum length of time you would've been jailed for, if not even longer.

[Paul Calf]

terminally online

Sorry, what?

[madhair60]

I've noticed "retard" or derivations of it being used here a few times recently.

Yeah I saw it crop up unchallenged recently and was surprised.

It's a word I have been trying to force out of my vocabulary.

[bakabaka]

Sorry, what?

On computer terminals rather than offline ones like train and bus stations. They're better known as recruitment centres for religious cults than libertarian groups.

[DrGreggles]

I used 'retarded' (in its correct context) at work a couple of years ago and everyone looked at me like I'd just shat on their Nan.

I was aware that it was now an offensive term, but I didn't know the original meaning had been erased.
Maybe they thought I was trying to insult an IT project.

[Dayraven]

I believe in the US, you can plead insanity if you were afflicted by a mental health condition that made you unable to ascertain whether or not the action you were participating in was right or wrong? So you could say that they were delusional or were taken advantage of. There's no doubt in my mind that the people involved in storming the capital thought they were doing the 'right' thing.

The bar for pleading insanity is very high in most jurisdictions. The fact that storming the Capitol would be a fairly reasonable response to the genuine belief that the election result was fraudulent would probably count against them — it shows rational thinking even though the premises are bad.

[Ignatius_S]

If that's the lawyer's argument, the shaman is fucked....

In the article that the quotes are from, there's opinion that these are the kind of tactics that are fairly common at the moment (e.g. invoking Trump) and could prove effective in reducing sentences. For most defendants, I suspect that damage limitation is best outcome they can hope for.

[Ignatius_S]

Where did he find that lawyer?   At the fucking dog track or something?

With a bio like this, why wouldn't you want him? https://www.kwklaw.net/albert-watkins

[Fambo Number Mive]

I like how the bio starts of by saying he is beyond description and then spends a lot of time describing him.

If he describes selling hot dogs as the best job he ever had, why doesn't he go back to doing that?

[Ferris]

This has made me do a google of the old "who's who" that we haven't heard about for 4 or 5 months.

Lin Wood's gone properly barmy, claiming he's Jesus and that trump is still the president. He lost an election to run the SC GOP after trump endorsed his opponent (lol). Sidney Powell is (allegedly) taking the money out of the "Defend the Republic" non-profit she got people to donate to, and spending it on herself. Fox is being sued for several billion dollars by smartmatic and dominion for spreading falsehoods - doubt they'll win, but you never know.

The rest seem to be grifting on telegram and gab, apparently a Dallas "Q-con" was held mid April and cost $500 to get in (and VIP access starting at $1,000). Real "Man of the People" stuff.

Funny old country.

[Mr Banlon]

"AUTISM BAD"

For fuck's sake.

Imagine being a lawyer, an educated person, and talking like this.

I know the UK has gone to shit of late, but I'm sure if a lawyer over here said that kind of shit they'd be disbarred/struck-off or whatever it is they do.

[kngen]

Lin Wood's gone properly barmy, claiming he's Jesus and that trump is still the president.

Lin Wood was the lawyer who lost the 'pedo guy' defamation case against Elon Musk. It'd be only fair if the poor bastard that was libelled got another shot on the basis of 'I didn't realise my lawyer was on the verge of going batshit insane, and declare himself Spiritual King of the MAGAs, second only to God Emperor Trump'

[steve98]

Wood said last week, to an audience of about 20 fat Trump-lovers "if the military need to initiate a first strike they'll call President Trump for the codes... it's true"

[chveik]

The rest seem to be grifting on telegram and gab, apparently a Dallas "Q-con" was held mid April and cost $500 to get in (and VIP access starting at $1,000). Real "Man of the People" stuff.

the schoolboy q fanclub is going strong

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Sorry, what?

Internet and social media addictions go hand in hand with believing weird shit and having arbitrarily strong opinions. Even if you're not addicted in general, just to the bubble that you're in.

I'm 38 and spend all my day reading about my academic niche. Yet somehow I have powerfully strong opinions about video games I barely have time to play. 

Terminally online.

[Retinend]

Internet and social media addictions go hand in hand with believing weird shit and having arbitrarily strong opinions. Even if you're not addicted in general, just to the bubble that you're in.

I'm 38 and spend all my day reading about my academic niche. Yet somehow I have powerfully strong opinions about video games I barely have time to play. 

Terminally online.

Well said! The internet attracts opinionated people and people with opinions that most people would never engage with. This is also the reason why communities formed online tend to be more explosive than circles of friends in the real world: a selection bias.

[Dr Rock]

A study has just come out - most of those that stormed the capitol were over 40, had quite good jobs, families, not nutters from the fringes of society. And when another survey was done, asking people if they thought the election was stolen, and would they take part in violent protests because of it, the proportion that said yes to both had something else in common - they all believe in the 'great replacement' theory, and believe that non-whites have 'more rights' than they do.

[bgmnts]

A study has just come out - most of those that stormed the capitol were thick, nasty cunts.