In an interview published Friday by New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR), US navy veteran Jason Riddle said: “It’s almost like [Trump] was trying to say it didn’t happen. And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable.

“I don’t want the pardon. And I … reject the pardon.”

Riddle entered the US Senate parliamentarian’s office, drank a bottle of wine, stole a book and inflicted damage at the Capitol when Trump supporters attacked the building on 6 January 2021 in a desperate attempt to the then president in office after he lost the presidency to Joe Biden weeks earlier, according to court documents. He received a 90-day prison sentence and was fined $750 in April 2022 for pleading guilty to committing misdemeanors in an attack that was linked to several deaths, including officer suicides.

  • Flying Squid
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    1134 days ago

    I’m kind of amazed any time anyone in America feels guilt or shame or regret based on their actions at this point, but especially Trump’s fans.

    • The Quuuuuill
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      674 days ago

      the lesson is that there are still sleepwalkers to awake. i don’t know how we do it, but it’s possible

      • @[email protected]
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        4 days ago

        It’s hard.

        My brother was deep in to this shit when our mom died. He was living with her and had no where to go.

        So he started living with me.

        I had to be an asshole about it at first. IE: in reference to the conservative media he’d watch all day I said something to the effect of “turn that hateful shit off or find somewhere else to fucking live” at one point.

        Once I got him to reduce the amount of bullshit he watched it was easier to point out a couple things that would resonate with him. Like:

        How the media he’s watching is always telling you how you should feel about the news. I didn’t tell him what to watch, but explained that journalists aren’t supposed to be telling you how to feel about the news, this is a manipulation tactic.

        I also pointed out that the media he was consuming was constantly telling you what “the leftists” think. I told him that if he wants to know what leftists think, he should listen to leftists, not the people trying to manipulate him.

        I also have gay friends. When some of them were coming over for a get-together I said, “if that’s going to be a problem, stay in your fucking room.”

        I kept pointing out how corporations are fucking us over and asking why the media he was watching never talked about that.

        I got him spending more time outside and just generally being away from technology for a few hours every day.

        I’ve also been helping him learn to live with a disability. Having to help navigate government supports for him is a good thing to reference when conservative views on health care come up.

        He’s not a card-carrying leftist yet, but he doesn’t get mad about gay people existing any more, so that’s a win. He now acknowledges that it’s the corporations fucking us with the help of both parties. It’s been almost 3 years now and he’s stubborn, but I keep at it.

        I think the short version is: get them to realize they’re being manipulated and get them to start questioning the conservative narrative, but make sure they know you care about them at the same time.

        Editing to add: using their language helps a lot too.

        Don’t say: “Trans rights are human rights” Say: “Those are your countrymen fighting for the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, just like you.”

      • Flying Squid
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        334 days ago

        Definitely, although the link to alcoholism is an interesting one. The other person who did this was also an alcoholic and said that the 12 steps made her admit she was wrong.

        I really have a lot of issues with AA and NA and other groups that use the 12 steps for a lot of reasons, but I’m glad it helped at least one person in this way.

        • Admiral Patrick
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          4 days ago

          Definitely, although the link to alcoholism is an interesting one.

          Indeed. I’ve often half-joked that the bulk of the MAGA movement is just a huge meth problem hiding in plain sight. It definitely stands to reason alcohol could have a similar effect on some people.

          • @RememberTheApollo_
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            94 days ago

            Might be. But I was in DC on the 6th, and let me tell you that the people I saw wearing the red hats were “normal”. Older couples, people you’d see at the highway gas stop restaurant. They might be from areas with a rural meth problem, but they were people the caricature comes from. Working class, rural, red-staters that gobble down the fear and rage in their Fox News and Truth Social echo chambers.

            • @[email protected]
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              24 days ago

              But I was in DC on the 6th, and let me tell you that the people I saw wearing the red hats were “normal”.

              Having grown up with a meth addict parent, you may not know what to look for in otherwise “normal” adults who are meth addicts. If they have the self control not to let the drug take over, they can live for years without showing any outward signs of their habit. It’s amazing how long some people can be functioning adults and addicted.

          • The Quuuuuill
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            84 days ago

            they’re desperate and will latch onto anything that gives them relief from their daily lives. throughout human history that’s been vice and extremism. a small number of gross looking men have directed that extremism towards the right wing to the detriment of the left. they got us here because the left too often said “these are the weapons of the enemy. i do not need them. i will not use them.”

            well.

            we lost the war because we refused to pick up any weapons. or at least the politicians we’d most be able to help did. the right monopolized violence, technological mass media, and populism. the left saw this, and just as in the 1920s, refused to push the extremists, the fascists, nazis, bolsheviks, and militarists, out of power. too much of the focus was placed on following the proper order of procedure. none was placed on “how do we hold government accountable”

            why?

            nacy pelosi doesn’t want an accountable government. these nut jobs have tried to kill her and her husband, but ooooh that stock portfolio tho. and she’s not the only one