It is not a statement designed to convince. It is designed as supporting evidence for a certain mental model, yes, but to a degree that's pretty hard to appreciate unless you've spent some time with this mindset, they are not operating in a world where one person says an argument, and the other person evaluates it critically and decides whether to accept or reject it.
Their model is that if a person in authority says an argument, people "under" that person's authority are obligated to accept it. To evaluate for yourself whether the thing the big NYPD sergeant is firmly telling you is terrorist propaganda, is actually terrorist propaganda or not, is already a subversive act that may be punished by harsh criticism and humiliation at least, and possibly a total expulsion from the social circle or threats to your physical safety.
It's not a good model, but it's the one they operate under, and it works for them as individuals for the most part. So that's what they run with.
People really should get used to keeping an eye out for this idea. It’s the root of so much pettiness and bad faith, and so much good faith effort is put into trying to engage with it.
“How would these students know how to barricade a door?” Daughtry asked on Newsmax, as he charged that protesters wouldn’t have been capable of measures like locking doors with chains, blocking them with vending machines, or disabling security cameras.
Come the fuck on. I’m too old to have been through school shooter drills, but I’m not too stupid to remember that for the last 20 years this is what kids have been taught to do to deal with psychopaths with guns on campus. They start teaching it in kindergarten! At this point a kid not knowing how to do this stuff is like a kid that doesn’t know to stop, drop, and roll when on fire.
Or they watched too many bad ones where the characters make hella dumb decisions like investigating the spooky sound in the shed full of sharp objects.
They know perfectly well that they’re spewing bullshit.
The facts don’t matter to many people, sadly.
I know plenty of people who would go “heh damn college fucks deserved it” without knowing the first thing about what college or protest, simply “that generation getting what they deserve” is good enough
I’m too old for school shooter drills, but I’m like basically the perfect age for being terrified of velociraptors after watching Jurassic Park in theaters. Not only do I know how to barricade a door, but I also know how to use mirrors to visually trick people into seeing hallways that aren’t there!
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