Apparently, it was first reported that the F-16 was shot down. Then the story was pulled and replaced with one about it crashing on its own accord.
If the guy who is being reported as "the best pilot in Ukraine" crashed an F-16 during a mission, that says much worse things about the Ukrainian Air Force.
Mind you, Russia has sophisticated anti-air capabilities and can easily dominate Ukrainian airspace if they need to. But, sure, that billion-dollar high-tech jet fighter crashed itself.
All I'm seeing is people putting themselves into hysterics talking about it on social media, demanding that it has to be staged and his death would be an objectively good thing. And it's all just people who don't know what they're talking about, but refuse to ever shut up.
The right is going to retaliate for this eventually, but Trump getting off with only a minor injury was the best possible outcome of this. If the injury was serious or fatal, the fascist bandit armies would come out in droves. It would be worse for everyone. Remember a few years ago when the right kept doing terror attacks in progressive spaces? Imagine how much worse that would be if their dear leader was murdered on camera. Liberals really need to stop celebrating the idea of this attempted assassination, all it did was open a door that none of us should want to go through. This is a rallying cry for the right, this is a green light for violence. The far-right will use this event for years to come to justify murders and hate crimes.
I won't discount the possibility that it's staged, but this one doesn't ring that bell for me.
It's very possible that some liberal with a rifle and a dream thought he'd become a hero. Given the media coverage that Trump gets from the """left""", it's most likely that he's just the victim of someone who lost the mental health battle.
By all accounts, he had to have been actually injured based on the wound and the blood pattern. More than what a razor blade could do. As well, Trump would've needed to make the incision himself. It's extremely unlikely that he would've agreed to do something like this while he's already leading in the polls and doesn't need a stunt.
His reaction is also normal for someone who has just been grazed by a bullet. The first thing our body will do in an extreme situation is fill our brain with adrenaline, numbing pain. It's well documented that soldiers could be shot more than once in combat before fully realizing what's happened, this is even more true for grazes. An injury like this won't be fatal, and won't cause any long-term damage. His ear will get patched up, and he'll be back to normal with nothing but a scar and possible mental anguish.
And I'd like to close with a personal gripe, I'm seeing way too many people who aren't big into marksmanship not understanding why the shot missed. The head is a target the size of a cantaloupe, and a man like Trump never stops moving. From the noise of the rounds in the footage, I estimate a minimum distance of 150m. That is a damn difficult shot to make, of course it's going to miss. Then factor in that the shooter took (I counted but could be wrong) three shots. After that first round, it gets significantly harder to keep the rifle on target. The two follow-up shots might as well have been directed at random. Media has made so many people believe that hitting shots like that is easy, but it really isn't. Please stop with this one.
The simplest explanation is that the American "left" is rightwing, because they've been told that actual leftism is bad.
We're only told about leftist ideology or politics in the context of "these bad people in the past did bad things", and many Americans refuse to actually tackle those lies. because of this, no one in the American "left" is willing to be anti-capitalist in any way that actually matters. Nor are they willing to use materialism in their dialectics, because their political education comes from Liberalism, so they're more willing to listen to right-wing talking points and integrate them into their views.
This is why you'll see Americans who'll call themselves "leftists" pair a statement for working rights with a statement against immigration. Or you'll see them decry the horrors of fascism, then support whatever new war NATO has wrought.
Anarchists will really try to rip us apart for being "authoritarian", but when you ask them how their system would deal with crimes, upholding socialism, or maintaining any semblance of order, their responses are almost always far more extreme than ours.
Genuinely had an Anarchist call me an "evil person" and a "future baby killer" for saying that I'm ML. Then when I asked them about their proposed methods for preventing counter-revolution, they described a system where anyone can murder anyone else if the victim was suspected of wanting to act against the revolution. No trial, no investigation, just the word of the murderer.
Edit to add another thought to; "their responses are almost always far more extreme than ours."
If it's not more extreme, it's lax to the point of being nothing. So the poles are either a system of total chaos, or substanceless idealism.
once again fearmongering leads the sheltered white world to believe that anything that resembles the "enemy" is actually the enemy.
a 6-year-old boy and his mother were stabbed in Illinois, leaving his mother in the hospital and the boy dead. Just because our media has to fearmonger about the scary brown people.
Israel is trying to claim they didn't do it after getting shock and horror from the west, but they're the only people who could've done it. And if it wasn't them the only other logical option would've been the US, and that's a much bigger fish to fry.
this whole ass colonizer country is trying to "nuh-uh" warcrimes.
genuinely my favourite thing about 1st thought. The headline will be like "NATO plans to destroy the world, South Korea develops child killing drug, and 100 good boys getting much-deserved headpats" as an extremely exaggerated example.
Every time I hear about AES cops, it's about how nice and actually helpful they are.
That says a lot about who and what is being 'served and protected' in capitalist countries, it's definitely not the people.
average US liberal: "I'd hate to live in an authoritarian police state like Russia"
also average US liberal: "Though it is bad that the police are militarized and have constant access to everything we do at all times without the need for a warrant, we're not in a police state"
holy fuckin' hell, Anarchists really will monetise their ideology.
It seems like every time I see a shop that sells leftist clothing it's an Anarchist.
Also, most of their clothing looks hella bad and it makes me wonder if they made the designs themselves or if the designs are stolen. Also, if they hate AES and capitalism, where do they source their shirts from? Seems pretty damn hypocritical to shit on AES, and then utilize AES labour for your own profit.
all of the people who were part of Anonymous who were worth a damn at hacking back in the day work for the state department now. The movement could very likely have been a psyop, given how many high-level hackers from that era there are on government payroll.
I stand in solidarity with the gay furry hackers.