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.

  • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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    6 months ago

    I don’t get why you’re being so hostile, when I just asked a question. ‘just google it, bro’ is the refrain of every Monster Energy slinging, tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist out there.

    I will google project 2025, though I doubt I’ll find anything of value; much like any response to this comment you might make.

    • Beetlejuice001
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      6 months ago

      If you don’t know what project 2025 is you’re either embarrassingly uninformed of intentionally ignorant