Man Who Attacked Paul Pelosi Says He Was Radicalized by Gamergate
The man told jurors he spent hours listening to far-right podcasts before breaking into the Pelosi home and attacking the then-Speaker’s husband with a hammer.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgwmdz/paul-pelosi-attacker-gamergateOpen linkView original on kbin.social
38 replies
Honest question: what does "pedophile molestation factory" even mean?!
It means "scary thing that must be defeated," because that's all the people throwing those words around want you to take away from it.
It's a magical cocktail of words designed to evoke emotions and stifle higher brain functions like reason.
If your reason for committing a crime is because of a conspiracy theory you should get an extra harsh sentence because you are an exceptional menace to society.
I disagree. I think the punishment should be twofold: automatic parole on the condition that you see a psychiatrist for a minimum of three years (paid via subsidy). Failure to find a therapist or missing three sessions (with reasonable exceptions) sends you to prison to serve out your remaining "therapy" time.
That would just guarantee this crap will thrive. You have vastly underestimated the menace of people like this. It is absolutely critical to deal with this in a severe way, as the equivalent of a hate crime.
Sorry. I have conspiracy theorists in my family and have a good friend with a doctorate in Administration of Justice with a focus on prison reform. These people need psychiatric help, not isolation and prison, which would just further entrench them in their worldview.
If there really was systemic child abuse and ritual murder happening all around you, any reasonable person would try to stop it; the core problem, of course, is that's not what's happening in reality. They can't tell what is fantasy and what is real, and relegating them to a cell doesn't teach them how to discern the difference.
There's no way mandating seeing a psychiatrist would result in more crimes any more than standard parole or community service does, especially if failure to participate results in prison anyway.
You would think that, but a reasonable person would also notice that no one else is concerned about this. And the few people that are concerned seem a bit funny in the head.
You would also notice that the bad guys always appear to be (((them))) and ignore it as anti-Semitic nonsense.
The people who believe conspiracy theories are not relieved when you point out the holes in their theory. This is the difference between "belief" and "desire to believe".
Let's say you believe this weekend will be rainy, and you are upset about it. You had cool stuff planned! You check the weather on Friday and notice the weather has improved. You would be happy to have your negative belief disproven.
That's not what happens when you disprove someone's conspiracy theory. They "want to believe" it because that belief gives them something: friends, purpose, etc.
That's called being in a cult. They want somewhere to belong. Like any cult, it snatches up people in a questioning phase of their lives.
Exactly. These people are in a cult. What they need is deprogramming, not isolation and engulfment in pain, which they already get from the cult they are in.
Not to mention our prisons are full of white supremacists who will further reinforce this worldview and further radicalize the Nazi. Prison is part of the problem, not the solution. We just saw this, actually, with Jacob Chansley's Congressional bid following his release from prison.
Yeah, ignorance and stupidity are not great defenses.
It's a synonym for "catholic churches"
You gotta get with the times. This should be a modern company. Remove the E: Groomr
I watched whatever Gamergate was erupt on that other site.
I still have no idea what Gamergate is or was. At the time I had no idea what was satire, what was real, what was under Poes law.
I know it happened. I know I was present for it. I do not understand it.
Misgony.
From a high level.
The details are interesting, but in the end it's drama caused by frail male egos that led to a ton of misgony.
Of note here is Steve Bannon, who owned several WOW gold farming operations at one point, specifically targeted gamergate as a recruitment arm for the alt right.
Gamergate was used directly by the Trump campaign to unify disenfranchised young men to vote for Trump. The numbers were so close in the 3 swing states when he won in 2016, a total of only 40k votes, you can say quite honestly that it won him that election.
I missed this entire thing unfold.
I got you, fam.
Story: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2015/04/28/gamergate/
The Zoe Post: https://thezoepost.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/tldr/
If you wanna see what the GG rubes are doing now, just swing by the subreddit KotakuInAction at any point.
Thanks. I thought this was recent given the Pelosi attack, but it was a long time ago, and this was just the flip point for him.
It's about ethics in gaming journalism! And attacking geriatrics with a hammer apparently.
I don't give a fuck if it was Obama, Trump, or the Buddha himself.
You don't hit someone -with a hammer.- /strikethrough
I actually think that if your reason is "I believed an idiotic conspiracy theory", you should get an extra harsh sentence because that makes you an exceptionally dangerous menace to society.
Nah, this is awareness leading to redemption. It deserves to be rewarded.
No, its just a plea for leniency. This crap deserves to be dealt with with extra severity. It is the cousin of hate rhetoric as a motivation.
Fixed that for them. Despite liberal media's pretensions, the term radical actually has a meaning - and a very good one at that.
(v) to make radical especially in politics
Radical (adj)
advocating extreme measures to retain or restore a political state of affairs
Yep, it has a definite meaning and that meaning definitely applies here as I think anyone would class attacking someone with a hammer as extreme measures.
Yes it has, and you don't have it.
The term radical (in a political context) has always implied "change at the root." That is what the Latin word rādīcālis (“of or pertaining to the root, having roots, radical”).
It is utterly impossible for a "radical" right-wing ideology to exist, as the sole purpose of right-wing ideology is to prevent change - that is why right-wing ideology is referred to as reactionary... essentially, anti-radical.
So, no... the liberal media is perpetrating misinformation when it uses the terms "radical" and "radicalized" in this inaccurate way - and so are you.
The dictionary definition I supplied gave no indication of left or right.
Your unsourced assertion, which I assume you got from someone making a video sitting in their car, is what you want to word to mean rather than what it actually means.
Now forgetting word play, do you think attacking an elected official's family with a hammer is an acceptable political action in a democracy?
No, it doesn't.
Showing up to a political discussion with a dictionary "definition" is a sure-fire way to show that you have zero real knowledge regarding the subject matter.
Really? You think the last three hundred years of political thought was made by "someone making a video sitting in their car"?
No, Clyde - again... it is utterly impossible for a “radical” right-wing ideology to exist, as the sole purpose of right-wing ideology is to prevent change.
Show me a right-wing ideology that is advocating for change "at the root" and not merely protecting and expanding the status quo - maybe your dictionary can help you with that?
Ok sure. Radical Evangelicals want to change America from a Secular nation to a Christian nation.
They want to change a core, founding aspect of the nation, 'at the root,' to better align with their religion
See what I did there? I helped you not spread misinformation - ain't I nice?
Soooo... a fundamentally white supremacist nation is turning to christofascism to protect the fundamental white supremacism the nation was founded upon?
Yeah... you really got the "radical" part nailed, genius - tell me another one.
You're adorably confidently incorrect.
ISIS.
Since when is fundamentalist right-wing Islamism not fundamentalist right-wing Islamism?