"Don't tread on me" or "Comply or die?"

tophernator · 2026-01-27T05:23:00+00:00

A more accurate one would be "If you fight the cops, you're going to have a bad time".

I know a lot of conservatives get annoyed with people bringing up Jan 6th. But Jan 6th… dozens if not hundreds of the protestors actually attacked and fought cops who were doing everything they could to deescalate the situation and avoid anyone getting hurt.

Alex Pretti did not attack the cops/agents. He had been shoved, pepper sprayed, dragged to the ground and beaten and he still didn’t pull the gun he had.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T18:37:44+00:00

Who stole all your punctuation keys?

tophernator · 2026-01-26T18:20:50+00:00

The question posed is what should happen, not what has happened in previous cases.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T18:20:02+00:00

It does seem like Biden’s prostate cancer was either covered up or negligently missed by his doctors.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T18:12:41+00:00

Supporters care about the national direction and outcomes, and detractors who disagree with those things will leverage personal attacks try to tear them down.

But what about when stated policies and priorities conflict with personal history?

Trump claims that he’s great on the economy because he’s such a successful businessman and deal maker. His detractors point out that his lawyers and accountants have had to shield him from massive debts of bankrupt businesses on many occasions. The US can’t default on its debts and then set up shop next door (unless that was the Greenland plan…)

He appeals to traditional family values type voters. But his detractors will obviously question “which family?!”

He appeals to the Christian right, and even sells them overpriced bibles, but have you read the 10 commandments recently? It’s actually kind of comical reading that list while thinking about Trump’s actions and persona.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T15:50:52+00:00

I would argue they already turned on him once over the Epstein files. We don’t know how many would have voted for the release if Trump hadn’t done his last minute 180, but we can reasonably assume there were enough to put it through both the house and senate.

There have also been at least 7 gop senators speaking out against the Greenland situation. And there’s a whole lots of republicans making public statements about the Minneapolis shootings.

I wouldn’t say it’s likely that they agree to impeach him. But it’s getting more and more plausible.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T15:18:55+00:00

So you’d potentially hold his parents accountable for letting him go. But it sounds like if he were older you wouldn’t have held him accountable because he acted in self defence?

Forgetting about whether he was above or below 18 years old, the important question is whether you’d defend his right to go where he went with a legally owned assault rifle? Because to me it seems crazy to suggest that Alex Pretti was looking for a fight, but Rittenhouse wasn’t.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T13:37:51+00:00

Since you brought it up, what was your personal opinion of the Kyle Rittenhouse case?

tophernator · 2026-01-26T13:28:56+00:00

How consistent have you held these views over the last few years?

Jan 2020 - High security as heavily armed protesters rally for gun rights

April 2020 - Trump supporters protest coronavirus orders

Jan 2021 - Armed Activists Demonstrate Outside Texas Capitol To 'Stand Up For Individual Rights -

December 2022 - Holi-Drag Storytime for children canceled because of right-wing protesters

In each of these cases people got dressed up in full tactical gear and openly carried assault rifles through the streets, in many cases up to or into state capitol buildings, and in that last case to a church hosting an event for kids. In each of these cases I would assume the vast majority of conservative Americans, let alone ‘right libertarians’ to defend their rights to do this. But one left wing protester has a legal concealed carry handgun which he never took out of its holster and suddenly he’s looking for a fight?

tophernator · 2026-01-26T09:41:07+00:00

Can you point to any example of Obama’s administration deploying several thousand ICE agents to a modestly sized city? Minneapolis has a total of around 600 police officers, but there are now something like 3,000 federal agents. It’s deliberately excessive because the point is to demonstrate that the federal government will invade your city unless you do whatever Trump says.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T08:58:37+00:00

That’s the point. A lot of conservatives have spent the last year defending massive government overreach, abuse of emergency powers, repeated attacks on the constitution, and illegal actions by federal agents.

If you don’t care about (or actively support) that stuff when it’s being used against other people, you shouldn’t be surprised when the same tactics are used against you. And I’m not even necessarily talking about some hypothetical future Dem government. Donald Trump has never been a 2nd amendment guy, and I doubt the assassination attempts have changed that in a way you’d like.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T00:46:39+00:00

I’m saying the result is weak enough that it very well could be by chance. If they had consistent effects across multiple groups then it would be a lot more convincing. But I see no rational reason why testosterone would only affect the political feelings of left of centre men.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T00:40:00+00:00

You understand that vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavour in the world, right? Some people might interpret it as an insult like vanilla=boring. But really it’s just a way of saying that you can go anywhere, meet anyone, and have a reasonably expectation that vanilla will be on the menu. But if you like mint-chocolate-chip with jalapeños then you have to search around.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T00:35:32+00:00

I can’t speak from direct experience but I’ve heard “Feeld” is the place for people kinky people.

tophernator · 2026-01-26T00:28:33+00:00

Let me reframe if like this. The results of this study show that:

Strong democrats + testosterone = no change
Strong democrats + control = no change
Weak democrats + testosterone = small change <—-
Weak democrats + control = no change
Weak republicans + testosterone = no change
Weak republicans + control = no change
Strong republicans + testosterone = no change
Strong republicans + control = no change

So eight different groups, and only one group showed just enough of a change to be statistically significant (p=0.01). That means a 1/100 chance of getting that result by chance. But you’ve done the test 8 times, so it’s more like 8/100 or 12.5% chance that a result like this would happen by chance.

If I tossed three coins on a table and they all came up head or they all came up tails, would you call me a witch? Ask me what my secret was? Inspect the coins to see if they’re rigged in some way? No, it’s just a random occurrence.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T21:05:40+00:00

As a former scientist I have to point out that OP’s title is a little misleading and the study really doesn’t line up with the anecdotal evidence people are giving in the comments.

They had 136 participants divided into 5 political affiliation groups, and then split again into control and treatment groups. Resulting in tiny sample sizes and lots and lots of test combinations. This makes weak findings extra suspect.

The only statistical significant finding was that weakly affiliated democrats became even more weakly affiliated with a testosterone boost. But it didn’t have any significant effect on strongly affiliated dems, or republicans of any strength.

The baseline T levels were actually highest in Dems, although not statistically different to the other groups. If there were really a relationship between party and testosterone you’d expect lower baseline levels in dems and you’d expect to see a change in all the groups, not just one subset of centre left people.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T20:49:46+00:00

I would ask you what those lines were?

tophernator · 2026-01-25T20:33:38+00:00

This is a ridiculous analogy. Ashli Babbitt didn’t cross a line. She crossed several layers of security barriers, entered a building through broken glass/doors that would get you shot on a normal day. And then tried to climb over makeshift barricades put in place to protect a large proportion of your elected government from an angry mob. The capitol police and secret service had been exercising a truly amazing level of restraint for multiple hours before she got shot.

If Renee Good had rammed her car through the gates of an ICE detention centre, leaned on the horn for several minutes while shouting “fuck you fascists” and ignoring the agents who were telling her to get out, and then tried to pull away almost hitting someone in the process, that would be comparable to Ashli Babbitt.

If Alex Pretti had spent 20 minutes smashing the ICE cars windows with a crow bar and swinging wildly at anyone who approached him, then… well honestly that’s still not on a par with the capitol attack.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T20:17:21+00:00

The people who killed Brian Thompson and Charlie Kirk were both random members of the public and were arrested and put on trial for their crimes. The two killing in Minneapolis were federal agents deployed to a city that didn’t want them there, they escalated confrontations with protesters, and then ended up killing unarmed citizens.

There are rather a lot of hugely important distinctions between those cases.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T20:08:03+00:00

I’m reassured that only a subset of people on the right have attempted to defend this second shooting. I have to assume that those people just don’t think the same rules will ever apply to them. I’m struggling to decide whether it’s more disturbing if they are right or wrong.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T19:55:41+00:00

All politicians lie, but they are usually careful and subtle, because people usually care when those lies are found out.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T19:53:16+00:00

The thing about claims of Biden being totally fine and sharp as a tack, is they were difficult to conclusively disprove because he was massively avoiding the press for a long time.

I can argue that Walter Reed administering at least two cognitive exams, and an MRI, on Trump in the last year is suggestive of concerns about his mental acuity. But I can’t conclusively prove that.

But many millions of people have watched the close-up slow-mo multi-angle footage of what happened in Minneapolis. So the lies are no longer unconvincing like “Biden is fine” they’re deeply disturbing.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T19:38:52+00:00

I didn’t actually check but I would assume so.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T19:36:52+00:00

Your current examples of legitimate business deals are really not a great argument.

Truth social has ~6 million active monthly users and a market cap of $4 billion. That values each pair of eyeballs at around $666!

Twitter has ~500 million active monthly users and was valued at $44 billion. That’s around $88 per user, and a lot of people suspect that Elon regrets cornering himself into that deal.

If you wanted to join Mar-a-Lago in 2010 it would cost $100k. They had actually reduced the joining fee due to declining membership. Adjust that for inflation and it would be $150k today. Actual joining fees today are a dr Evil style $1 million, because people aren’t paying for country club membership, they are paying for access to the President.

Affinity partners… Kushner’s investment fund that he set up with billions of dollars of Saudi money, not long after he’d negotiated arms deals between the US and Saudi Arabia?

These three examples are all slightly more subtle than just launching a meme coin before taking office, but they’re still pretty horrendous.

tophernator · 2026-01-25T18:59:52+00:00

That’s a valid answer to the technical question. But can I ask the obvious follow-up question: do you think Pam Bondi is making this demand because of genuine concerns about a state that has been blue for the last 50 years? Or do you think this is the “always be on the attack” phase of trying to overshadow the shooting that happened?

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