A Man and an Enigma
On Saturday former president Donald Trump was nearly assassinated. One of my first thoughts when I saw the breaking news was, "OMG, I hope whoever shot him doesn't strongly identify with Democratic politics." The last thing we need right now- other than a political assassination- is for the false narrative Trumpists have been telling for years now that Democrats are extreme and violent and out to "get" "real" Americans to be bolstered by an actual instance of leftwing violence. So far it's just been a fiction they repeat daily. And, of course, plenty of people believe it because they repeat it so often and point to made-up or heavily distorted stories to justify it. But for an actual, bonafide instance to occur.... That would take their fear-mongering of violent lefties to the next level.
And that takes us to where we're at in understanding the motivations of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the person who allegedly shot at Trump. Authorities are basically nowhere in understanding him. Shooters, whether they're would-be assassins or mass shooters of ordinary civilians, often leave a manifesto, explaining and justifying their strongly held beliefs. Crooks left no manifesto. Shooters often air their beliefs among like-minded people, either in person or (much more common today) in splinter groups online. Crooks did none of that, either, at least as far as authorities have discovered and made public.
In the first hours after the shooting I saw claims on social media that Crooks was aligned with various far-right political groups. I haven't seen these in fact-checked stories in mainstream media. Thus I'm taking them with a large grain of salt until otherwise reported.
And that takes us to where we're at in understanding the motivations of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the person who allegedly shot at Trump. Authorities are basically nowhere in understanding him. Shooters, whether they're would-be assassins or mass shooters of ordinary civilians, often leave a manifesto, explaining and justifying their strongly held beliefs. Crooks left no manifesto. Shooters often air their beliefs among like-minded people, either in person or (much more common today) in splinter groups online. Crooks did none of that, either, at least as far as authorities have discovered and made public.
In the first hours after the shooting I saw claims on social media that Crooks was aligned with various far-right political groups. I haven't seen these in fact-checked stories in mainstream media. Thus I'm taking them with a large grain of salt until otherwise reported.