re: #238 Targetpractice

I’d split the difference: What Trump did was convince them that being total assholes in public carried no real consequences if you’re white and/or affluent. It started with “Karens” yelling and screaming at staff and ended with an attempted coup where the bulk of those arrested will have spent more time waiting in a cell for their turn before a judge than they will likely get when sentence is handed down.

+1 and close enough

i am being more and more convinced of parts of this:

…Trump doesn’t actually lead the MAGA crowd. He merely is pretty good at figuring out where it wants to go and getting in front of it so it looks like he is leading it. Once in a rare while—like right now—he guesses wrong. Instead of changing direction to follow the leader, the crowd boos the leader and continues to do what it was going to do anyway. This is only one issue and if COVID-19 isn’t much in the news by 2024, Trump can probably survive this episode without too much damage, but it might make him more careful about saying things that displease the monster he created. (V)

that’s why i dont think he ‘created’ the monster or convinced it of much.
more like he sort of corralled it, harnessed it to let their freak flag fly while he leeched off of it