4 in 10 Republicans think political violence may be necessary

[Art Haberland]

Scary survey from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/02/11/96649...may-be-necessa

[epoxyboy]

" Twenty-seven percent (of Republican Evangelicals) said it was "mostly" or "completely" accurate to say Trump "has been secretly fighting a group of child sex traffickers that include prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites."

How do these people come to believe this stuff, and what is even more incomprehensible, why/how do they believe the pu$$y grabber in chief is one of the good guys? It beggars belief!

Pete

[Hugh Conway]

These are the kind of people so scared of child molestation that they want to set up genital inspection boards for kids sports.

[Nicholas Carey]

I read this yesterday.

That 40% figure comes from the question about whether or not the respondent agrees with the statement, "If elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves, even if it requires violent actions."

One can read that statement 8 ways from Sunday. And context matters - without seeing the entire survey questionnaire, it's impossible to see how respondents were being guided.

And... consider the source. The American Enterprise Institute is hardly unbiased.

[Hallam]

These are the kind of people so scared of child molestation that they want to set up genital inspection boards for kids sports.

That may be an over reaction however I would not minimise the issue of child abuse in institutional settings. There is a lot of hysteria that does seem to arise from time to time and this hysteria is then used to discredit genuine instances as happened in a child daycare centre down the road from here. This incident involved a holiday home owned by a high ranking member of the police force. Here was much difficulty gaining a conviction as video evidence was “misplaced” and conflicting psychological evidence used by the defence to discredit the families whose children where abused. I have worked professionally in the Melbourne area in various youth work and adolescent community health settings and know there is abuse of children and minors that involves networking of offenders in positions of trust in the legal profession, education, psychological profession, media and law enforcement. Pinning anything against pedo networks of this type is next to imposable. The Catholic Church was easier to shine the spotlight on and deserved every bit the scrutiny and more, however it was convenient in that the heat was removed from other pedo networks outside a church setting. While our Royal Commission into institutional responses to child abuse hit the church hard it was less thorough in the scrutiny of pedo networks among Melbourne’s professional elite.

" Twenty-seven percent (of Republican Evangelicals) said it was "mostly" or "completely" accurate to say Trump "has been secretly fighting a group of child sex traffickers that include prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites."

How do these people come to believe this stuff, and what is even more incomprehensible, why/how do they believe the pu$$y grabber in chief is one of the good guys? It beggars belief!

Pete

How do they get people to believe this stuff?

Easy, because "this stuff" happens. And Trump is clever enough to use the reality of it to manipulate his base and discredit his opponents in the same manner he used the election steal lie. I would not mind betting that it is a similar smoke screening tactic of accusing the opponent of the very crime you have been involved in. This was the case with the election steal. His team used Cambridge Analytica to swing the vote his way where it was needed most for electoral college advantage in 2016 . So what does he do? Forcefully accuse the opponent of rigging the election! Unsubstantiated accusations with no proof of evidence. Accusations eagerly jumped on by a gaggle of totally fraudulent youtube commentators to repeat the narrative to the point of saturation. This adds an almost overwhelming reinforcement of the narrative to those open to its message. And forcefully, Trump repeats the message, going right over the top and whipping his followers up into a frenzy at public rallies where emotion outweighs critical thinking by a factor of 100,000 /1.............
Look at the whole disgusting situation with Eppstein and all the power players associated in one way or another. Then it's not hard to imagine a similar dynamic focused on young children. I know for a fact children have been born in this state of Australia who's birth was never registered and who never lived old enough to go to prep school. This $#!t happens.

And trump being the total scumbag he is used this reality not from an attitude of addressing it in any meaningful way but as a tool for manipulation and political gain. Trump is the lowest of the low to such an extent that it almost makes me physically sick.

[Hugh Conway]

Child abuse is real, as is transphobia. I think the risk of abuse from genital inspection boards required by legislation like this is higher https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/59505 than whatever risk transgenders pose

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I think that there is a real risk that people who volunteer to spend their time with Scouts Guides, Brownies and Cubs, and people who spend their time coaching children’s sports, will face false accusations and more people will be discouraged from volunteering at all.

And that will lead to an increase in real abuse.

[Hallam]

One NGO agency I worked for in my state developed a big brother big sister program to mentor youth at risk. All was going well in the establishment phase with good response from volunteers. There was a stringent process for selecting suitable volunteers including a psychological test to screen out potential sex offenders etc. It came to the supervising psychologist’s attention that a qualified and registered psychologist had prepared a work around set of responses to the test and distributed it among a network of sex offenders. The program’s development came to an abrupt end as the risk factors where to high. This was the early 90’s

[john welsford]

I think that there is a real risk that people who volunteer to spend their time with Scouts Guides, Brownies and Cubs, and people who spend their time coaching children’s sports, will face false accusations and more people will be discouraged from volunteering at all.

And that will lead to an increase in real abuse.

I was a sea scout leader for a while, put a lot of time and effort into completing the necessary training, then the groups governing board of people mainly from a particularly rigid church, elected a real misandrist to lead the group. She was hyper rigid about the possibility that one or other of us might be doing something nasty to the young people we mentored, to the extent of accusing us in front of other leaders and the scouts themselves.
I lasted two weekends then, along with several others, some of them women, quit. A lot of the scouts just quietly stopped attending. The group sadly folded a year or so later for lack of both scouts and leaders which was very sad.

John Welsford

[skuthorp]

In the absence of my father for war related reasons my brothers and I have to thank 6 amazing men that mentored me and many others through scouting, and I followed on till my mid 40's. I think about them quite often, they had a great deal to do with the man I became.

[RFNK]

I think that there is a real risk that people who volunteer to spend their time with Scouts Guides, Brownies and Cubs, and people who spend their time coaching children’s sports, will face false accusations and more people will be discouraged from volunteering at all.

And that will lead to an increase in real abuse.

That's a real concern but it has to lead to those organisations implementing measures which make it impossible for paedophiles to gain inappropriate access to children. Scouts and other organisations which have overnight activities etc. are a honeypot to these people and they do take advantage. It's actually not difficult to set up systems that prevent children's exposure to these dangers and do not diminish all the advantages to be gained from Scouts, sport etc. at all.

[LeeG]

" Twenty-seven percent (of Republican Evangelicals) said it was "mostly" or "completely" accurate to say Trump "has been secretly fighting a group of child sex traffickers that include prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites."

How do these people come to believe this stuff, and what is even more incomprehensible, why/how do they believe the pu$$y grabber in chief is one of the good guys? It beggars belief!

Pete

I listen to local radio frequently with National Public Radio taking a slot between the same Christian radio station with two frequencies and very strong signal. There are syndicated radio programs that make space for people’s anxieties concerning the corruptive influence of The Other. Whether it’s Muslim Terrists, Socialist Liberals or non-believers encouraging sexual perversions that are Contrary To God’s Plan. Tony Perkins was interviewing fellow Christian Mike Pompeo, after that another program about an epidemic of teenage girls going to Planned Parenthood for testosterone injections. The call in portion gives people a chance to air all knds of beliefs but it’s ok as long as you believe in Jesus.

It is totally bizarre that a gas lighting amoral person like Trump was their guy. Apparently God moves in mysterious ways.

[CWSmith]

If you said "likely", I would agree. "Necessary" is bone chilling.

[Too Little Time]

I have been in favor of revolution since college (or before). Even in favor of violent revolution. But my goal is different that that of Republicans. Without stating a better goal polls on political violence tell us nothing.