05-04-2023, 09:42 PM
(05-04-2023, 06:15 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Exactly, but this is where it gets nitpicky over Trump's intent vs interpretation.
I'm sure Trump's camp is arguing that he never explicitly said to do it, and it's not his fault that those who stormed the Capitol Building chose to interpret it that way and did what they did.
But he sure never told them to immediately stop or not go once he found out what they were doing (until hours later at least), thus giving impression he did intend for them to do what they did (or at least he didn't care if they did).
Idk. I'm no Trump apologist, but these people are both unhinged and stupid. Stupid is the key word. They are entirely motivated by ideology. Because of this, they are susceptible to taking anything that comes out of his mouth and using it to confirm whatever dumb, crazy shit they might want to do anyway.
I think it's totally possible that Trump verbally stoked the fire without really understanding the depth of the stupidity that he was encouraging. It would be like me telling my kid to go play in traffic, him getting run over, and then me being legitimately shocked that he actually was stupid enough to misunderstand the context.
I know it sounds like I'm defending him, but I'm not. I just give a lot more weight to the possibility that the Jan 6th rioters are functional morons. They went out that day to do moronic shit, and when they got a chance and an excuse from the great leader they were in with both feet. I don't think even Trump thought they were really that stupid. I also fully believe that if his team could have kept Guiliani, Powell and Mike Lindell out of the conversation after election week, a lot of this stuff never would have happened. If the grown ups on his team had prevailed, things would have been much less interesting. Personally, I'd like to see those 3 untreated mental patients locked up even more than the Proud Boys.
