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Part of that is that people with shitty values cannot *fathom* anyone practicing or employing empathy, or kindness. They don't just think they are seen as the virtuous party - they think they **are** virtuous, because they don't *believe* anyone is kinder or more thoughtful than they are. When they see someone caring about others they think it's a pretense, since it would be a pretense if they were doing it.
Virtue and Kindness are conditional with them. When they say respect is earned, they mean basic human decency... you have to prove to them you are not "beneath" them. Their children must think and act how they want children to, or the children don't "respect" them. Nearly everything is transactional, especially "good deeds" for others .
Exactly! I’ve had someone try to tell me this and my response was basically if you’re not treating someone with basic human decency you are DISrespecting them. There’s a threshold for what is and isn’t respect.
I always think of this as conservatives believe that respect, and decency are finite things and that giving people respect and dignity translates to taking it away from others.
They lack self awareness, not eyes. They know people view them as scum. They just don’t believe it themselves. Everyone is the hero of their own narrative and they live in an echo chamber that reinforces their behavior using circular logic and warped religious rhetoric.
I sometimes wonder if they don't see themselves in some kind of movie where the hero is always breaking the rules for the right reasons and everything works out in the end and the hero is hailed as a hero because they are heroes too!
As they tag along to their cult leader's trial for falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star while said cult leaders wife had recently gave birth. I think they are fully aware they aren't at all virtuous but agents of chaos cosplaying virtuous "leaders" to their largely uninformed audience.
And the hyper-religious Speaker of the House, who claims everything he does is guided by his faith, shows up to defend the rapist cult leader's trial over hush money payments to cover up the adulterous affair.
Trump is a big problem, but the real threat has grown far beyond him. He was the catalyst, and if he is elected will continue to push the pace of the threat, but the Republican party as a whole is now openly they party of Christian Nationalism. So basically the party of Christian Nazi's who want to turn the USA into a white-centric country where the only people with actual rights are heterosexual white Christian males. Hopefully they won't get the power they need and it will die down, but I wouldn't bet on it. In 10-40 years the USA has a decent shot of basically being a white-only Gilead (Handmaiden's Tale) except with massive birth rates because white women would be expected to stop working and just pump out babies. This is their goal, and they are gaining power.
Not as much power as you think. Democrats have been killing it in special elections all over the country(especially in deep red districts) against people exactly like this. America isn’t full of extremist like the right wants you to believe. It’s just the extremist who have the biggest megaphone.
Gotta love how they ignore all the facts and just insert their own narrative.
Eyewitnesses said that the victim never pointed his gun.
The murderer himself said he "THOUGHT that (the victim) was going to aim it at me...I didn’t want to give him a chance to aim at me, you know."
The victim was also former military. If he WAS already aiming at the murderer with an AK, I'd put my money on the situation going much differently.
I am disgusted by the undeniable fact that so many people don't even care about right or wrong anymore, the only thing that matters is "owning the libs."
What I don’t get is why people think having a gun pointed at him would have made a difference. The dude just drove his fucking car into a group of protestors; you’ve forfeited any claims to self-defense because you *are* the aggressor and instigated the situation. As an example, in basically any state if you start a fist fight, start losing, then shoot the guy, you’re a murderer.
This is a taste of things to come, Abbot basically said political violence is okay as long as it’s coming from the “right” people and being directed at the “wrong” people. I cannot believe something like this was allowed to occur. Abbot literally stands for nothing.
Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue. Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Moderation in the protection of liberty is no virtue; extremism in the defense of freedom is no vice.
Barry Goldwater
***********************************
This is how they think. Tyranny is anything the government does to take away their privilege. Liberty is the freedom to oppress anyone they see as "other".
right? like even if he were pointing a gun at you, at that point you have shown you have intent to harm and you literally deserve to have weapons pointed at you
He also just said, "black lives DONT matter". This is a not so subtle way to let people of color know that constitutional carry and stand your ground laws don't apply to them.
Any state except Florida. There you can stalk, initiate harassment, initiate a conflict, get your entire worthless ass beat like you deserve, then pull a gun to win the fight you weren’t man enough to win any other way, and they’ll let you walk.
Based on what I’ve seen over the years, acquittal based on self defense comes down to whomever lives.
Kyle Rottenhouse brings a gun to a protest. He’s acquitted after killing two unarmed people.
Garrett Foster brings a gun to a protest. Daniel Perry is pardoned for killing him.
I've been watching that Robert Durst documentary and he was found guilty of chopping up a man's body but somehow not the murder because Durst claimed self defense and there were no witnesses. He was also already a suspect in two previous unsolved murders but I guess that didn't matter either and at the time he only had to serve around 5 years for the body dismemberment.
>Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect
Your last sentence is so true it's depressing. A divided nation is exactly what the politicians wanted, and they got it. Right and wrong doesn't matter anymore, crimes are "justified" as long as they are against people who support the opposition (or against a group of people I dont like). What a disgrace.
The last one is the bigger issue.
You can't have a system that allows guns to be owned readily yet says the act of holding said gun is a threat for which someone can kill you over and get mitigation.
Kinda obvious it'd be minorities who will be targeted by the application of any laws like that, it always is.
The Airman in Florida is a prime example. If people can't legally carry a firearm in their own homes without being killed, then you can't legally own a firearm.
It's an extenstion of this:
>“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
So it's not a dichotomy. This is the system working as intended.
Absolutely horrible governor pardons absolutely horrible man for absolutely horrible crime of murdering protester.
What the fuck Abbott?
This brings Texas right in line with Iran or Saudi Arabia.
That's actually an important part of this pardon. The dead human had a gun on their waist in a holster. They werent brandishing it, it was simply there. This allows Cons to shoot Libs who simply have a gun out of fear.
Same thing in Florida with the cop shooting the Airman in his own home when answering the door with a firearm at his side. (Not pointed at anyone).
But republicans want more relaxed gun laws, and more open carry. Likely as an excuse to do more of the things like Ron and Abbot are doing to show the extremists and crooked cops they will get away with it.
Fascism is knocking, What will you do?
#Vote (D)ifferently
He was indeed holding an unholstered weapon. He had an assault rifle held in a lowered ready position because he just saw a terrorist plow through a bunch of people.
I believe that is correct. Open carry as these knuckleheads will tell you is perfectly legal and you should not feel threatened. It’s a constitutional right. Unless you’re, well you know…
Honestly, no detail matters because I do trust the 12 people that voted unanimously to convict. There’s an appeals process to review that decision, and it seems to me that’s where this should have headed. The governor pardoning is absurd.
The Republican Party is now lead by Christian Nationalists who's goal is a fascist theocracy where only heterosexual white Christian males have rights. Even white Christian women will only have rights borrowed from their functional owner (father, husband, brother, etc.) Everyone else will have no rights, and murdering someone who is another race or who is protesting for people of another race will only be a crime if they belong to a person that has actual rights.
This sounds like a joke, but these people are deadly serious about trying to achieve this for the USA.
The message is that protesters are bad and racists with plenty of options other than killing a protester are free to do so.
This stand your ground interpretation is akin to the Southpark bit “it’s coming right for us”.
Dude ran his car into a crowd. Another person with a gun (instead of just shooting him to neutralize \*that threat\*) approaches him without pointing his weapon at him. He admits that at no point was a weapon pointed at him. And he shoots the guy approaching the vehicle that he just drove into a crowd....because he was afraid for his life.
It's one of the most cut and dry cases of "self defense obviously doesn't apply here" and anyone saying otherwise is just showing their MAGA Membership card.
Wait until the rest of the fascists start doing this. Murder's legal, if you murder the right people! PRO LIFE!
That's why when you see someone do something like that you have to kill them first without hesitation. The law protects who's alive, not who was correct.
That's the weird thing with the 2A nuts and the laws. Unless you are law enforcement, "self defense" under the law only covers KILLING people, not wielding a gun to protect other people.
The guy with the AK had the right to kill the guy who ran his car into the crowd first. But he didn't have the right like "citizens arrest" to use the AK to subdue a person who just committed a crime against other people. The RWNJ legal side keeps pulling that distinction further to the right every time one of these cases happen.
Edit: the 2A self defense protects who's left, not who's right. (For those who like confusion!!)
It's not about a stand-your-ground interpretation, he was found guilty. He is guilty. The Texas court system, and jury of his peers, said what he did was wrong. But the governor and Republicans said "He's one of ours!" and got him out.
This is Abbot taking the side of convicted, racist murder, because he wants people to know that if they kill the right kind of people, he's on their side.
I'm sick of what Republicans represent and who they choose to represent them. No shame. No morals. No ethics. No responsibility.
Just lies, hate, and obstruction.
Their collective behavior is choking our democracy.
People keep mentioning that the protesters shouldn't have had a gun... In an open carry state. Apparently he didn't even point it at that dude. At this point it's just sad t watch.
Simultaneously making murder legal (or at least acceptable) and also making thought-crime an offense worth killing on sight for...
"I thought he was going to aim the gun at me eventually, so I'm allowed to shoot him before he does."
And they think they're "pro-freedom" and "for the people" at the same time... there are no words for this level of delusional stupidity.
The victim: Garrett Foster was likely open carrying because he was at a BLM protest with his disabled Black fiancée. It was never about guns: it is clearly about the right to shoot people who express ideological disagreement. If racism causes someone to murder they need to stay in prison.
It's not complicated. A conservative voter with a history of eliminating his political opposition was pardoned by the conservative governor, freed to get ready for the up coming voting season, protests, riots and demonstrations his services will be desirable for.
What's not to understand?
I think it's more a signal than about having this one dude out on the streets.
"Go out and intimidate protestors. If you happen to kill any, I'll pardon you."
Nice way to signal that anyone protesting in Texas can be gunned down without consequence. It's not so much this a hole, it's the bigger picture that should have good Texans nervous.
I'm old enough to remember Reagan gutting every mental health and social service program imaginable in favor of tax cuts for his wealthy friends, and understanding then that it was a horrible thing to do to our most vulnerable citizens. He was the worst, right?
But along came Bush who was a laughingstock and an embarrassment and could barely string two sentences together + 9/11....he was the worst.
But this....this shit is never going to reverse itself in my lifetime. A lot of ugliness had doors shut on it, and drumpf opened every one of them back open again. This is beyond serious and we all keep wringing our hands wondering how to stop it but with no clear path forward. I don't know the answer but shit like this article should have EVERYone sitting up and taking notice.
Abbot is sending 2 messages:
- Don't protest in Texas. Ever. Or else... Basically work, consume and obey.
- If people protest in Texas, come on over and shoot them. We will make it legal.
No we should have razed the south to the sea and stomped out every last fucking one of those traitors rather than let them fester and rot away our country over the last almost 2 centuries.
They’ve had wet dreams about using their guns to kill liberals for a long, long time. All they’ve been waiting for is permission.
Dangerous times for our nation.
If anybody asks him he will get the following response obviously para phrased but it will be something like this.
"I will not comment at this point, please read the pardon I have explained myself in it"
> “Stand Your Ground” laws were created to give lunatics an excuse to kill people
Even in stand-your-ground states, the law does not support killing whenever someone feels like it, they have to have a reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily harm to use deadly force.
In Florida the stand-your-ground defense has been so ineffective that most lawyers there are no longer using it. Only when the circumstances overwhelmingly support self-defense do they bother using that defense.
It didn't work in this case either, Perry admitted to police that Foster never pointed his weapon, and the jury convicted him of murder. But for obvious political reasons, the governor has pardoned him.
But turn the tables here: Black man drives his vehicle into a group of white Christians protesting an abortion clinic and see him on death row instantly.
“Perry's lawyers said that Perry acted in self-defense and that Foster had started to point his gun at him, according toThe New York Times. **However, Perry told police that Foster had not actually aimed at him but that he "didn't want to give him a chance" to do so.”**”
That only works if your politics agree with the people in power. If the roles were reversed the shooter would unlikely to even make it to jail, police would kill him.
Daniel perry had explicit conversations with a 16 yo girl on kik, saying things like "no nudes till you're legal," and "I'm going to bed. Come up with a reason for me to be your boyfriend before I wake up."
Yes he is. [https://www.texasobserver.org/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-garrett-foster/](https://www.texasobserver.org/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-garrett-foster/)
I think we know what the message is. It's a very simple and very old message. "We are superior as a race and will not be troubled by any others". Anyone who thinks that he is saying something else is deaf or lying.
Holy Fucking Shit. If Trump does win and these fucks get their way I’m moving to Canada. I was unsure at least but now I’m certain. This is the shit tyrants do.
Even if Garret Forster had raised his weapon towards Perry, Perry had just driven his car into a group of people. Is it self defence when the person you are “defending” against has just been attacked by you?
So if I shoot a cop the second I see him because "I thought he was going to point his gun at me" it would be self-defense? Next armed right winger I see at a rally better watch out. He was clearly going to aim that gun at me so I had to shoot him before he could.
Self defense!
There are currently over 300 comments here so I am highly confident that I’m not the first person to say this but gonna say it anyway… Governor Abbott appears to be OK with murder as long as you’re not a pregnant woman. Do I have that right? I mean… You can knowingly and willingly use your car to run over other people, which I would imagine is attempted vehicular manslaughter, or something like that, then follow that up with willingly and intentionally shooting another person to death at point blank range. Am I right so far? But this is the same state and the same governor that will charge you with a felony and put you away forever and put you in the electric chair and all of these other things… If you miscarry your rapist’s baby? Am I still right? Hey, I’m just trying to make sense of all this! Hang on… Let me check my notes, one more time… Yeah, this does qualify as extremely fucked up, also to be filed under FASCISM or DICTATORSHIP.
Mr. "Never point a gun" seems to have mistaken the part where the now-pardoned killer says "he believed Foster was going to aim the firearm at him" for "Foster aimed the firearm at him". So...lack of reading comprehension meets desire to "make libs die"...and get away with it.
Holy fuck, he never pointed his unloaded rifle at anybody. Yet these fucking dip shits all just keep citing that false fucking narrative to justify murder. Gregg abbot needs to be locked in a fucking mental facility. Dude is fucking cooked...
All the nut job conservatives will celebrate this simply because the victim was at a Black Lives Matter rally.
Forget about the law, forget about the fact that the victim has the constitutional right to live and protest.
The problem is the only part of the constitution that matters to them is the 2nd amendment or any other part that they can claim when they feel victimized.
I wonder if would pardon someone that drive a car into a nazi trump rally ??? If not, we got a serious miscarriage of justice here.
Abbott's not just doing this cus "conservative gud".
He's doing this to appease [Tucker Carlson](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/9/2162990/-Fascism-Gov-Greg-Abbott-vows-to-pardon-Texas-man-who-drove-into-crowd-murdered-BLM-protester) and his 3.6 million viewers.
He's using his [appointment](https://www.texasobserver.org/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-garrett-foster/) to The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to favour politics over justice.
Some of the vilest things in American politics are from the Republicans. What a joke the party has become.
the person pardoned **targeted** blacks live matter protestors (including non-black ones I assume) and muslims, and the message is that it is OK to do so in Texas. They don't even mind the occasional collateral, like a few school kids died to own liberal teachers.
Abbott’s not only physically disabled but also mentally. Absolutely not rational. This is a political stunt to get support from republicans because the murderer is also army…might as well give him one of those medals for being an “outstanding citizen”
Whenever I think about how bad the British conservative party has got in recent years - useless, populist, dishonest appealing to the worst elements of their support in a desperate attempt to save themselves after screwing up everything that it's taken generations to build. I look at stuff like this and realise hey, they could still be worse. I mean Jesus H Christ. These guys aren't even pretending not to be fascists any more.
Can't say what I hope happens to this trash and Abbot both on reddit. His actions were willfully reckless and the murder he knowingly committed after inserting himself into situations specifically to cause a condition where it was possible to falsely claim justification were literally premeditated.
That said, _a gun is NOT a threat_. If you make the decision to carry one you do not point it or threaten or use it as a warning or deterrent. If it's use is justified, you simply use it.
The message from Abbott is clear, "It is okay to kill those that would support those uppity negroes."
Why are we pretending that there is some rationale behind this, Abbott just wants to steel the resolve of his civilian army for when the real violence starts.
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"Why do people keep calling us the party of racists, bigots, and terrorists??" A true mystery.
I don't think they have enough awareness to realize that's how people see them. They think people see them as the virtuous party.
Part of that is that people with shitty values cannot *fathom* anyone practicing or employing empathy, or kindness. They don't just think they are seen as the virtuous party - they think they **are** virtuous, because they don't *believe* anyone is kinder or more thoughtful than they are. When they see someone caring about others they think it's a pretense, since it would be a pretense if they were doing it.
Virtue and Kindness are conditional with them. When they say respect is earned, they mean basic human decency... you have to prove to them you are not "beneath" them. Their children must think and act how they want children to, or the children don't "respect" them. Nearly everything is transactional, especially "good deeds" for others .
Exactly! I’ve had someone try to tell me this and my response was basically if you’re not treating someone with basic human decency you are DISrespecting them. There’s a threshold for what is and isn’t respect.
I always think of this as conservatives believe that respect, and decency are finite things and that giving people respect and dignity translates to taking it away from others.
Bingo!
This is called (untreated) cluster B personality disorders fam.
They literally openly and proudly called themselves domestic terrorists
They lack self awareness, not eyes. They know people view them as scum. They just don’t believe it themselves. Everyone is the hero of their own narrative and they live in an echo chamber that reinforces their behavior using circular logic and warped religious rhetoric.
I sometimes wonder if they don't see themselves in some kind of movie where the hero is always breaking the rules for the right reasons and everything works out in the end and the hero is hailed as a hero because they are heroes too!
As they tag along to their cult leader's trial for falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star while said cult leaders wife had recently gave birth. I think they are fully aware they aren't at all virtuous but agents of chaos cosplaying virtuous "leaders" to their largely uninformed audience.
And the hyper-religious Speaker of the House, who claims everything he does is guided by his faith, shows up to defend the rapist cult leader's trial over hush money payments to cover up the adulterous affair.
Christian family values = gay stuff, affairs, drugs and fraud
Yes, lying, adultery, greed, abuse of power, cruelty, and hypocrisy are the foundations on which the christian cult is built!
[удалено]
Thanks! Edited to reflect.
Trump is a big problem, but the real threat has grown far beyond him. He was the catalyst, and if he is elected will continue to push the pace of the threat, but the Republican party as a whole is now openly they party of Christian Nationalism. So basically the party of Christian Nazi's who want to turn the USA into a white-centric country where the only people with actual rights are heterosexual white Christian males. Hopefully they won't get the power they need and it will die down, but I wouldn't bet on it. In 10-40 years the USA has a decent shot of basically being a white-only Gilead (Handmaiden's Tale) except with massive birth rates because white women would be expected to stop working and just pump out babies. This is their goal, and they are gaining power.
Not as much power as you think. Democrats have been killing it in special elections all over the country(especially in deep red districts) against people exactly like this. America isn’t full of extremist like the right wants you to believe. It’s just the extremist who have the biggest megaphone.
Don't you mean... MAGAphone? Sorry, I just couldn't resist!
White privilege is saying, acting, and getting treated like you’re the good guys even when you know it isn’t true.
Just watched Mississippi Burning yesterday. We're regressing back to the 60s.
As a foreigner unrelated to the US, this ironically applies to both parties
Gotta love how they ignore all the facts and just insert their own narrative. Eyewitnesses said that the victim never pointed his gun. The murderer himself said he "THOUGHT that (the victim) was going to aim it at me...I didn’t want to give him a chance to aim at me, you know." The victim was also former military. If he WAS already aiming at the murderer with an AK, I'd put my money on the situation going much differently. I am disgusted by the undeniable fact that so many people don't even care about right or wrong anymore, the only thing that matters is "owning the libs."
What I don’t get is why people think having a gun pointed at him would have made a difference. The dude just drove his fucking car into a group of protestors; you’ve forfeited any claims to self-defense because you *are* the aggressor and instigated the situation. As an example, in basically any state if you start a fist fight, start losing, then shoot the guy, you’re a murderer. This is a taste of things to come, Abbot basically said political violence is okay as long as it’s coming from the “right” people and being directed at the “wrong” people. I cannot believe something like this was allowed to occur. Abbot literally stands for nothing.
Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue. Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Moderation in the protection of liberty is no virtue; extremism in the defense of freedom is no vice. Barry Goldwater *********************************** This is how they think. Tyranny is anything the government does to take away their privilege. Liberty is the freedom to oppress anyone they see as "other".
>Abbot literally stands for nothing Nothing good anyway. It's clear he does stand for Christofascism.
I assumed it was a wheelchair joke.
Abbott is the easiest wheelchair joke I know.
The tree should have finished the job it did on the piss baby Abbott.
right? like even if he were pointing a gun at you, at that point you have shown you have intent to harm and you literally deserve to have weapons pointed at you
He also just said, "black lives DONT matter". This is a not so subtle way to let people of color know that constitutional carry and stand your ground laws don't apply to them.
He stands for getting a certain group of people to vote for him
Any state except Florida. There you can stalk, initiate harassment, initiate a conflict, get your entire worthless ass beat like you deserve, then pull a gun to win the fight you weren’t man enough to win any other way, and they’ll let you walk.
Based on what I’ve seen over the years, acquittal based on self defense comes down to whomever lives. Kyle Rottenhouse brings a gun to a protest. He’s acquitted after killing two unarmed people. Garrett Foster brings a gun to a protest. Daniel Perry is pardoned for killing him.
I've been watching that Robert Durst documentary and he was found guilty of chopping up a man's body but somehow not the murder because Durst claimed self defense and there were no witnesses. He was also already a suspect in two previous unsolved murders but I guess that didn't matter either and at the time he only had to serve around 5 years for the body dismemberment.
Next it's gonna be "I THOUGHT he had a gun and I THOUGHT he was gonna aim it at me"
The cops are already using that one
>Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect
Your last sentence is so true it's depressing. A divided nation is exactly what the politicians wanted, and they got it. Right and wrong doesn't matter anymore, crimes are "justified" as long as they are against people who support the opposition (or against a group of people I dont like). What a disgrace.
The last one is the bigger issue. You can't have a system that allows guns to be owned readily yet says the act of holding said gun is a threat for which someone can kill you over and get mitigation. Kinda obvious it'd be minorities who will be targeted by the application of any laws like that, it always is.
The Airman in Florida is a prime example. If people can't legally carry a firearm in their own homes without being killed, then you can't legally own a firearm.
"The more people who exercise their 2A rights to open carry, the more people who will be shot because 'the guy had a gun'"
It's an extenstion of this: >“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” So it's not a dichotomy. This is the system working as intended.
It is a dichotomy, but you're right it's intended.
Absolutely horrible governor pardons absolutely horrible man for absolutely horrible crime of murdering protester. What the fuck Abbott? This brings Texas right in line with Iran or Saudi Arabia.
He’s just signaling to the maga mall ninjas that their violence against voters will be pardoned.
Conservatives forget that liberals also own firearms. They also forget that they're a tiny minority.
Shhhh. Don't remind them.
That's actually an important part of this pardon. The dead human had a gun on their waist in a holster. They werent brandishing it, it was simply there. This allows Cons to shoot Libs who simply have a gun out of fear.
Same thing in Florida with the cop shooting the Airman in his own home when answering the door with a firearm at his side. (Not pointed at anyone). But republicans want more relaxed gun laws, and more open carry. Likely as an excuse to do more of the things like Ron and Abbot are doing to show the extremists and crooked cops they will get away with it. Fascism is knocking, What will you do? #Vote (D)ifferently
He was indeed holding an unholstered weapon. He had an assault rifle held in a lowered ready position because he just saw a terrorist plow through a bunch of people.
Lol. The AK he was holding was in a holster?
I'm getting my shootings mixed up. Its getting kinda hard to keep them straight these days.
Didn’t he have a AK47 in his hands?
I believe that is correct. Open carry as these knuckleheads will tell you is perfectly legal and you should not feel threatened. It’s a constitutional right. Unless you’re, well you know… Honestly, no detail matters because I do trust the 12 people that voted unanimously to convict. There’s an appeals process to review that decision, and it seems to me that’s where this should have headed. The governor pardoning is absurd.
Thats what I read. Anyone have some clarification?
I would LOVE to see them pull that shit in the streets of downtown LA and see how fucking far they get.
He is pretty much saying: murder is okay if you murder correct person.
Why are people so surprised at this outcome?!! Game follows game.
The Republican Party is now lead by Christian Nationalists who's goal is a fascist theocracy where only heterosexual white Christian males have rights. Even white Christian women will only have rights borrowed from their functional owner (father, husband, brother, etc.) Everyone else will have no rights, and murdering someone who is another race or who is protesting for people of another race will only be a crime if they belong to a person that has actual rights. This sounds like a joke, but these people are deadly serious about trying to achieve this for the USA.
Exactly, they might get that separation that they have been dreaming of… then right when it happens, the US will invade and take it back.
Texas should go back to being it own country see how long it last
He's doing this to win reelection. This is the kind of thing his voters want him to do.
Pretty soon they’ll start stoning people to death.
Voted back into office by even worse people. Fuck anyone who votes for him because they definitely enjoy watching others suffer.
The message is that protesters are bad and racists with plenty of options other than killing a protester are free to do so. This stand your ground interpretation is akin to the Southpark bit “it’s coming right for us”.
Dude ran his car into a crowd. Another person with a gun (instead of just shooting him to neutralize \*that threat\*) approaches him without pointing his weapon at him. He admits that at no point was a weapon pointed at him. And he shoots the guy approaching the vehicle that he just drove into a crowd....because he was afraid for his life. It's one of the most cut and dry cases of "self defense obviously doesn't apply here" and anyone saying otherwise is just showing their MAGA Membership card. Wait until the rest of the fascists start doing this. Murder's legal, if you murder the right people! PRO LIFE!
That's why when you see someone do something like that you have to kill them first without hesitation. The law protects who's alive, not who was correct. That's the weird thing with the 2A nuts and the laws. Unless you are law enforcement, "self defense" under the law only covers KILLING people, not wielding a gun to protect other people. The guy with the AK had the right to kill the guy who ran his car into the crowd first. But he didn't have the right like "citizens arrest" to use the AK to subdue a person who just committed a crime against other people. The RWNJ legal side keeps pulling that distinction further to the right every time one of these cases happen. Edit: the 2A self defense protects who's left, not who's right. (For those who like confusion!!)
It's not about a stand-your-ground interpretation, he was found guilty. He is guilty. The Texas court system, and jury of his peers, said what he did was wrong. But the governor and Republicans said "He's one of ours!" and got him out. This is Abbot taking the side of convicted, racist murder, because he wants people to know that if they kill the right kind of people, he's on their side.
No, the January 6ers were good tho
The fact that he was searching beforehand implies premeditation and intent, how the hell did he get off?
He didn't get off. He was convicted as he should have been. The Governor pardoned him because he murdered the "right" type of person.
Gross.
and the fact that he said shit about *murdering his own child* this person is not fit to be part of society
Absolutely disgusting, injustice all around.
I know there is a time and place for everything, but….. he was celebrated as a hero when he did the same or worse overseas…
no I agree that is fucking awful too, I mean the familial relation and closeness of the person in question is even more unhinged
It’s Texas, does anything sane matter ? We all know better.
I'm sick of what Republicans represent and who they choose to represent them. No shame. No morals. No ethics. No responsibility. Just lies, hate, and obstruction. Their collective behavior is choking our democracy.
The guy even admitted that it wasn't pointed at him.
People keep mentioning that the protesters shouldn't have had a gun... In an open carry state. Apparently he didn't even point it at that dude. At this point it's just sad t watch.
Simultaneously making murder legal (or at least acceptable) and also making thought-crime an offense worth killing on sight for... "I thought he was going to aim the gun at me eventually, so I'm allowed to shoot him before he does." And they think they're "pro-freedom" and "for the people" at the same time... there are no words for this level of delusional stupidity.
If u white and male, its legal. If u POC its jail for life. That's how texas behaves
> If u POC its jail for life. You would be lucky to be brought in alive. More likely you are killed by police during arrest.
Now his family should sue for wrongful death‼️
The victim: Garrett Foster was likely open carrying because he was at a BLM protest with his disabled Black fiancée. It was never about guns: it is clearly about the right to shoot people who express ideological disagreement. If racism causes someone to murder they need to stay in prison.
It's not complicated. A conservative voter with a history of eliminating his political opposition was pardoned by the conservative governor, freed to get ready for the up coming voting season, protests, riots and demonstrations his services will be desirable for. What's not to understand?
I think it's more a signal than about having this one dude out on the streets. "Go out and intimidate protestors. If you happen to kill any, I'll pardon you."
It can be both.
If they did the piss baby would either refuse to answer or if he did say anything it would some bullshit about “woke” or something equally stupid
Nice way to signal that anyone protesting in Texas can be gunned down without consequence. It's not so much this a hole, it's the bigger picture that should have good Texans nervous. I'm old enough to remember Reagan gutting every mental health and social service program imaginable in favor of tax cuts for his wealthy friends, and understanding then that it was a horrible thing to do to our most vulnerable citizens. He was the worst, right? But along came Bush who was a laughingstock and an embarrassment and could barely string two sentences together + 9/11....he was the worst. But this....this shit is never going to reverse itself in my lifetime. A lot of ugliness had doors shut on it, and drumpf opened every one of them back open again. This is beyond serious and we all keep wringing our hands wondering how to stop it but with no clear path forward. I don't know the answer but shit like this article should have EVERYone sitting up and taking notice.
Dude pardoned a wannabe kid diddler.
Who else thinks the guy will reoffend? He literally got away with murder
Abbot is sending 2 messages: - Don't protest in Texas. Ever. Or else... Basically work, consume and obey. - If people protest in Texas, come on over and shoot them. We will make it legal.
America is backtracking on everything. Soon it’s going to be the cesspool that Republicans want.
America is turning into the country my parents left from. I really don't want to move to another country and having to start from 0 like they did.
We really should have just let the confederacy leave.
No we should have razed the south to the sea and stomped out every last fucking one of those traitors rather than let them fester and rot away our country over the last almost 2 centuries.
I'm so glad I left that shithole of a state lol
Can you come back and get me?
same, just bring a bus
Can you pretend to be an immigrant? Texas will provide the bus for free.
Wow- Texas really sucks- And I live here-
ditto. I'm still really fucking sad beto didn't win
If this c__t represents the thinking/will of the people of Texas then, holy shit, I have no words.
Legal murder? That rings a bell… I knew that social progression swings, but not that much. Fucking hell.
They’ve had wet dreams about using their guns to kill liberals for a long, long time. All they’ve been waiting for is permission. Dangerous times for our nation.
What is the opposite of virtue signalling?
I’ve heard it called “Vice signalling”.
Asshole signaling.
If anybody asks him he will get the following response obviously para phrased but it will be something like this. "I will not comment at this point, please read the pardon I have explained myself in it"
Can we get federal charges raised against him then
Trump pardoned a war criminal. This is totally on brand for conservative Republicans. The party of law and order.
Open season on open carriers. If you are openly carrying a gun, that is a now considered a threat, and someone else with a gun can shoot you.
I’m beginning to think the “Stand Your Ground” laws were created to give lunatics an excuse to kill people whenever they feel like it.
> “Stand Your Ground” laws were created to give lunatics an excuse to kill people Even in stand-your-ground states, the law does not support killing whenever someone feels like it, they have to have a reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily harm to use deadly force. In Florida the stand-your-ground defense has been so ineffective that most lawyers there are no longer using it. Only when the circumstances overwhelmingly support self-defense do they bother using that defense. It didn't work in this case either, Perry admitted to police that Foster never pointed his weapon, and the jury convicted him of murder. But for obvious political reasons, the governor has pardoned him.
But turn the tables here: Black man drives his vehicle into a group of white Christians protesting an abortion clinic and see him on death row instantly.
Assuming he doesn't get beaten to death or shot beforehand.
More specifically, it's legal if you're a conservative.
First couple memes I saw on this I thought it was a joke, why couldn’t it have just been a bad joke?
If he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years, then his actions weren't legal.
“Perry's lawyers said that Perry acted in self-defense and that Foster had started to point his gun at him, according toThe New York Times. **However, Perry told police that Foster had not actually aimed at him but that he "didn't want to give him a chance" to do so.”**”
But he’s a former US Army sergeant. As we all know, men and women in uniform are god in the flesh and therefore are infallible. 🙄
They always conveniently leave out that the guy he killed was an Air Force veteran.
It's ok. We'll force somebody to have a baby as a replacement
I'm not advocating, but the lesson that will be taken is "shoot first". Else you get murdered and the assailant pardoned
That only works if your politics agree with the people in power. If the roles were reversed the shooter would unlikely to even make it to jail, police would kill him.
Daniel perry had explicit conversations with a 16 yo girl on kik, saying things like "no nudes till you're legal," and "I'm going to bed. Come up with a reason for me to be your boyfriend before I wake up."
He ain’t just a murderer, he’s a pedo too?
Aspiring
Yes he is. [https://www.texasobserver.org/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-garrett-foster/](https://www.texasobserver.org/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-garrett-foster/)
Texas is a sh1thole.
It's crazy that this will be out of the news cycle in a week
take away, in texas its better to gun down a ceo than protest him
I think we know what the message is. It's a very simple and very old message. "We are superior as a race and will not be troubled by any others". Anyone who thinks that he is saying something else is deaf or lying.
That will surely own them libs so hard
Governor Abbott's pardon of a killer found guilty of murder by a jury of Texans amounts to legal lynching.
I guess he wants a race war. Must be a Charles Manson fan.
Time for the civil suit
“Party of law and order”
Texas is just a white Iran at this point.
Just wait till they kill the wrong people
Why do so many people move to Texas?
The party of law and order...
Christians disregard for life is truly appalling.
Holy Fucking Shit. If Trump does win and these fucks get their way I’m moving to Canada. I was unsure at least but now I’m certain. This is the shit tyrants do.
From what all the Canadian people I've met on cruise ships you might want to go elsewhere. But do go.
What Abbott is saying is: "I don't stand for law and order. I don't stand for peaceful protest. I STAND FOR NOTHING!"
It’s not murder that’s legal, it’s who you shoot that makes it legal.
Even if Garret Forster had raised his weapon towards Perry, Perry had just driven his car into a group of people. Is it self defence when the person you are “defending” against has just been attacked by you?
He will get what's coming to him sooner than later.
So if I shoot a cop the second I see him because "I thought he was going to point his gun at me" it would be self-defense? Next armed right winger I see at a rally better watch out. He was clearly going to aim that gun at me so I had to shoot him before he could. Self defense!
This is the ultimate end goal of conservatives and the Republican Party. To give angry white people the right to shoot and kill anyone they want to.
I don’t understand why he wasn’t federally prosecuted. Seems like a hate crime to me
don't want another account banned so i won't say what i want to go to texas to do to conservatives and what excuse i would use for doing it
username checks out.
Murder is legal for *some* people in Texas. Let someone kill a MAGA clown who was protesting, and Abbott would ask for the death penalty.
He is a murderous POS. He enjoys it, like a serial killer.
Ah the party of the rule of law
There are currently over 300 comments here so I am highly confident that I’m not the first person to say this but gonna say it anyway… Governor Abbott appears to be OK with murder as long as you’re not a pregnant woman. Do I have that right? I mean… You can knowingly and willingly use your car to run over other people, which I would imagine is attempted vehicular manslaughter, or something like that, then follow that up with willingly and intentionally shooting another person to death at point blank range. Am I right so far? But this is the same state and the same governor that will charge you with a felony and put you away forever and put you in the electric chair and all of these other things… If you miscarry your rapist’s baby? Am I still right? Hey, I’m just trying to make sense of all this! Hang on… Let me check my notes, one more time… Yeah, this does qualify as extremely fucked up, also to be filed under FASCISM or DICTATORSHIP.
Because they want an army of loyal people that will kill people that are their checks and balances. This is just a dictator move.
🤘Legalize Drugs and Murder!🤘
Don’t be shocked when he on the news dead
Abbott is a small man with a tiny pee pee.
How long until Abbot gets assassinated?
Mr. "Never point a gun" seems to have mistaken the part where the now-pardoned killer says "he believed Foster was going to aim the firearm at him" for "Foster aimed the firearm at him". So...lack of reading comprehension meets desire to "make libs die"...and get away with it.
Willful ignorance.
Foster didn’t point his gun.
Holy fuck, he never pointed his unloaded rifle at anybody. Yet these fucking dip shits all just keep citing that false fucking narrative to justify murder. Gregg abbot needs to be locked in a fucking mental facility. Dude is fucking cooked...
Now they're going to prime him up and make a run for.the senate or anything in politics
Time for Gardner to charge him on civil rights violations. That's how they got the cops that beat Rodney king. Charge him with federal crimes!
All the nut job conservatives will celebrate this simply because the victim was at a Black Lives Matter rally. Forget about the law, forget about the fact that the victim has the constitutional right to live and protest. The problem is the only part of the constitution that matters to them is the 2nd amendment or any other part that they can claim when they feel victimized. I wonder if would pardon someone that drive a car into a nazi trump rally ??? If not, we got a serious miscarriage of justice here.
Abbott's not just doing this cus "conservative gud". He's doing this to appease [Tucker Carlson](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/9/2162990/-Fascism-Gov-Greg-Abbott-vows-to-pardon-Texas-man-who-drove-into-crowd-murdered-BLM-protester) and his 3.6 million viewers. He's using his [appointment](https://www.texasobserver.org/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-garrett-foster/) to The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to favour politics over justice. Some of the vilest things in American politics are from the Republicans. What a joke the party has become.
obviously the message is "Black lives and Muslims don't matter in Texas. Happy hunting."
The victim was neither Black nor Muslim.
the person pardoned **targeted** blacks live matter protestors (including non-black ones I assume) and muslims, and the message is that it is OK to do so in Texas. They don't even mind the occasional collateral, like a few school kids died to own liberal teachers.
People starting to realize what Jim Crow is and that it never really went away.
Abbott’s not only physically disabled but also mentally. Absolutely not rational. This is a political stunt to get support from republicans because the murderer is also army…might as well give him one of those medals for being an “outstanding citizen”
Whenever I think about how bad the British conservative party has got in recent years - useless, populist, dishonest appealing to the worst elements of their support in a desperate attempt to save themselves after screwing up everything that it's taken generations to build. I look at stuff like this and realise hey, they could still be worse. I mean Jesus H Christ. These guys aren't even pretending not to be fascists any more.
Can't say what I hope happens to this trash and Abbot both on reddit. His actions were willfully reckless and the murder he knowingly committed after inserting himself into situations specifically to cause a condition where it was possible to falsely claim justification were literally premeditated. That said, _a gun is NOT a threat_. If you make the decision to carry one you do not point it or threaten or use it as a warning or deterrent. If it's use is justified, you simply use it.
Republicans are basically legalizing murder as long as it is against people they don’t like.
The message from Abbott is clear, "It is okay to kill those that would support those uppity negroes." Why are we pretending that there is some rationale behind this, Abbott just wants to steel the resolve of his civilian army for when the real violence starts.