New diseases affecting Americans: Foxitus and FoxMania

CM156

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An attorney for an accused Capitol rioter said his client had been radicalized by Fox News, and that he had "Foxitus" and "Foxmania."

Anthony Antonio, of Clayton, Delaware, watched Fox News for six months prior to the Capitol riot, the attorney said during a multi-defendant hearing on Thursday related to the Capitol siege.

The attorney said his client started "believing what was being fed to him" by the news outlet and former President Donald Trump, HuffPost's Ryan Reilly and The Daily Beast reported.

Antonio, who was wearing a black tactical bulletproof vest with a "Three Percenters" patch when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, was included in a "seeking information" list posted by the FBI following the incident, court documents said.

Federal investigators interviewed Antonio on February 4, and Antonio said he was at the Capitol on January 6. But he did not answer when investigators asked if he had entered the building. Court documents alleged that Antonio entered the Capitol through one of the broken windows.

"Although his face was not visible, he was identifiable by the tattoo on his wrist and the distinctive black gloves with white writing," the document said. A video also captured Antonio inside the building "picking up a piece of furniture, which appeared to have a broken leg, with another individual and tossing the furniture
off to the side," the documents said.

In the February 4 interview with investigators, Antonio described his account of what happened when protesters confronted police officers outside the building, saying he saw "death" in the eyes of one officer who he said was asking for help.

Mike Fanone, a Metropolitan police officer, was shocked with a stun gun by accused rioter Danny "DJ" Rodriguez, who has been charged in relation to the incident. Video footage reported by HuffPost showed Antonio near Rodriguez while he was holding a stun gun.

A criminal complaint was filed against Antonio on April 14, charging him with unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds, violent entry and disorderly conduct, obstruction of law enforcement, obstruction of an official proceeding, and destruction of government property.

A representative for Fox News did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.
I am not in the least bit surprised that lawyers for a defendant would try this sort of argument, though I would be surprised if it were successful at anything more than a minor mitigation at sentencing, assuming the judge is convinced the defendant is contrite.

I also think that many news pundits (as well as our former President) bear a moral (if not legal) sense of blame for what happened on January 6.
 
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SilentPony

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Unfortunately for him being an idiot traitor who thinks Cuban ghosts illegally voted on mass in Pennsylvania isn't a disease, mental or otherwise.
 
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Trunkage

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A lot of the mania was caused by Project Veritas pretending something happened during the election when nothing did. Sure Fox passed the message on but O'Keefe has gotten some many people fired, mostly unfairly, over the last decade that it wasn't suprising to me that someone touching a USB would be cast as treason

That being said, Fox News is a cancel culture machine and has been for decades. Being made responsible for the destruction they've caused would be great
 
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Gergar12

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Once we get rid of Fox News, and we will, and it's replaced by the Hill, WSJ, and Newsmax since TV, and radio is dying. (along with many other mainstream channels) Our next target should be conservatism. It's an outdated ideology based on fear of change, the unknown, and progress of any kind.
 

CM156

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Interesting how quickly the "party of personal responsibility" will point fingers at anyone but themselves and scream "THEY made me do it!".
More or less my exact thought, yeah. To me, one of the most important things is ideological consistency. That's why I find attempts at special pleading to almost always be fallacious
 

Gordon_4

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I am not in the least bit surprised that lawyers for a defendant would try this sort of argument, though I would be surprised if it were successful at anything more than a minor mitigation at sentencing, assuming the judge is convinced the defendant is contrite.

I also think that many news pundits (as well as our former President) bear a moral (if not legal) sense of blame for what happened on January 6.

I dunno, that whole "Affluenza" thing managed to get traction beyond the lawyer not being laughed out of court by the judge he made the argument in front of. I can see this getting maybe some of the legitimately stupid among that group currently up for jail time because of Jan 6 if not off completely, then having their sentences reduced.
 

SilentPony

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I dunno, that whole "Affluenza" thing managed to get traction beyond the lawyer not being laughed out of court by the judge he made the argument in front of. I can see this getting maybe some of the legitimately stupid among that group currently up for jail time because of Jan 6 if not off completely, then having their sentences reduced.
See I can't see it. People died. Officers were beaten to death. They were hunting for politicians, they wanted to hang Mike Pence. They built a gallows, and someone planted pipe bombs.
This wasnt a little oopsie moment where the school valedictorian gave into peer pressure and smoked a joint, this was an armed insurrection and attempted coup. The traitors really have no idea how fucked they all are, especially if the Feds decide to use Rico laws and charge them all with first degree murder of a capital officer.
 

Casual Shinji

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Once we get rid of Fox News, and we will, and it's replaced by the Hill, WSJ, and Newsmax since TV, and radio is dying. (along with many other mainstream channels) Our next target should be conservatism. It's an outdated ideology based on fear of change, the unknown, and progress of any kind.

While Fox news dying would make me a VERY happy camper, isn't it -- like the most watched news program in America? I doubt it's going to die any time soon. Maybe once the boomer generation goes the way of the dodo, but they seem to be doing a bang up job passing the baton to the youth.
 
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Chimpzy

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Interesting how quickly the "party of personal responsibility" will point fingers at anyone but themselves and scream "THEY made me do it!".
That's because when they say that, they really mean your personal responsibility. Your problem. Your responsibility. Their problem. Also your responsibility.
 
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Cheetodust

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Interesting how quickly the "party of personal responsibility" will point fingers at anyone but themselves and scream "THEY made me do it!".
Ayn rand went to her deathbed on social welfare. These morons have a long storied history of telling other people to be entirely self sufficient.
 

Agema

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Ayn rand went to her deathbed on social welfare. These morons have a long storied history of telling other people to be entirely self sufficient.
This is not a problem for libertarians like you might think. Their rationalisation is that the government stole all that tax money from them in the first place, so they are justified in taking as much of it back as they can.
 

Cheetodust

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This is not a problem for libertarians like you might think. Their rationalisation is that the government stole all that tax money from them in the first place, so they are justified in taking as much of it back as they can.
"It's different when I do it." might as well be the party slogan. I was wathhing legal eagles video on Tucker carlson and like right out the gate, not only does that dipshit not believe in wearing a mask he believes nobody should be allowed to wear a mask. The fact that so many listen to that guy and think any of what he says is actually even consistent, never mind makes sense is appalling.
 

Agema

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"It's different when I do it." might as well be the party slogan. I was wathhing legal eagles video on Tucker carlson and like right out the gate, not only does that dipshit not believe in wearing a mask he believes nobody should be allowed to wear a mask. The fact that so many listen to that guy and think any of what he says is actually even consistent, never mind makes sense is appalling.
The libertarian trick is generally to rationalise "I can do what I like". And if your moral centre is that can do what you like, at a certain level you insulate yourself from all sorts of criticism.

I saw the comedian Robin Ince live years ago, and he had a great little section on the problem with being a left-winger, where you are held to your moral values and any deviation from some supposed ideal conduct incites accusations of hypocrisy or dishonesty. But at some level everyone sort of accepts a totally selfish right-wing wanker doing what they please, because that's just what selfish right-wing wankers do. Except, of course, he performed it in a way that was funny.
 

SilentPony

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Ayn rand went to her deathbed on social welfare. These morons have a long storied history of telling other people to be entirely self sufficient.
Ayn Rand also lied about her martial name in order to get I think it was a hip replacement off her husband's social security. Her entire career was basically a scam, in that she went by Ayn Rand the professional self-sufficient cold hearted *****, but legally she was Ayn O'Connor, reaping all the shared benefits of a marriage and social welfare programs in secret.
She was basically the Trump of her time.
 
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The Rogue Wolf

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Ayn Rand also lied about her martial name in order to get I think it was a hip replacement off her husband's social security. Her entire career was basically a scam, in that she went by Ayn Rand the professional self-sufficient cold hearted *****, but legally she was Ayn O'Connor, reaping all the shared benefits of a marriage and social welfare programs in secret.
She was basically the Trump of her time.
Just like her current-day disciple, Paul Ryan, who used Social Security survivor's benefits to attend college and then tried to privatize SS, leaving senior citizens at the tender "mercies" of Wall Street.

Republicans have long been the party of "I got mine, fuck all y'all".
 
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Trunkage

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I should point out that I would really love celebrities and pundits to not influence the media so much. Eg. With the centrist media leading up to releasing the Mueller report was all in on the Russian conspiracy. They did calm down a bit afterwards but it was still a mess. But then Greg Greenwald claims of 'nothing happened' is also very untrue and shows he read none of it before blurting out.

Like, Fox is bad for this, but everyone needs to pick up their integrity a bit