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Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

reason.com

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Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#271

Post by bonsai_spool »

onetimeusename wrote: post #189
bonsai_spool wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a little bit more context here in a different article where the sheriff explains how the posts were interpreted as a threat > https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2025/09/23/tennessee-l... There isn’t anything there that wasn’t in the original article.

The Reason article said there was no reason to interpret this as a threat and that it was entirely just political. The article made it seem like the memes were held completely out of context. It mentioned there happens to be a nearby Perry High School just by chance but the nearby Perry High School is the central reason why this was interpreted as a threat. This was posted in a group that was organizing an event at t…

> The Reason article said there was no reason to interpret this as a threat and that it was entirely just political. The article made it seem like the memes were held completely out of context. It mentioned there happens to be a nearby Perry High School just by chance but the nearby Perry High School is the central reason why this was interpreted as a threat. This was posted in a group that was organizing an event at the high school. I could see how someone might construe this as a threat more clearly from the tennessean article if they were being overly cautious. Also the sheriff mentioned the arrest was not done for legal speech content but more for the coincidental possibility this was a threat. Reason didn't elaborate on this.

> The Reason article is making this seem like it's entirely political and unreasonable. I don't think an arrest should have been made, that is too far. This seems like an unfortunate coincidence but someone looked at all this and reported it as a threat. The fact Perry High School's name is highly relevant here was not included.

All of this was in the first article. With far fewer intrusive ads.

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#272

Post by betaby »

canucker2016 wrote: post #136
beloch wrote: post #95

People outside the U.S. should care about this because so much social media is based in the U.S.. i.e. If you post an anti-MAGA meme to Facebook or reddit from an identifiable account you could be charged as this man was. Perhaps the U.S. will try to extradite you. (I would hope most nations have sensible checks and balances to prevent extradition over this sort of thing, but it would still be a PITA.) However, the U…

People outside the US can be in tons of trouble already for social media postings. UK and Germany come to mind where the police/law will go after people for what they post. That's just for developed countries. Consequences are worse in developing countries.

"Consequences are worse in developing countries."

Not necessary.

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#273

Post by mindslight »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #261
mindslight wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Self-identified "conservatives" are pushing this wave of censorship and autocracy Yes, exactly! They are lying to themselves, and as a group. They're not conserving our society, but rather throwing it away. I'm not doing a rhetorical trick - they are doing a rhetorical trick, and I am calling it out.

When a group calling themselves 'X', who are also broadly called 'X' by outsiders, decides to do something, that group 'has something to do with X'.

> who are also broadly called 'X' by outsiders

Yes. I keep saying - we need to stop doing this. "Conservative" makes it sound like what they are doing is gradual, measured, and familiar. Maybe not in narrow progressive circles where "conservative" has gathered strong negative connotations, but still in the wider general world. Using "conservative" as a synonym for Republicans/reactionaries/fascists is helping to support their movement.

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#274

Post by mindslight »

zzzeek wrote: post #244
mindslight wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the words mean different things. When used to refer to a group, those meanings confer connotations. The point is that we need to stop referring to people destroying our society as "conservative".

why do we need to do that? Which of the two political parties in the US is known as "conservative"? What does that party look like now? What policies are being pursued by that party's elected officials, and how much do they differ in concept from what that same party was doing ten years ago, twenty years ago, fifty years ago? The Southern Strategy, Reagan's speech at Neshoba county fair, "Starve the Beast", "Brownie…

Try painting with a less broad brush. I agree that we're experiencing the endgame of the Republican political operatives scorched-earth divisive tactics, but to insist on tying all their latent supporters to that is a grave mistake.

Imagine for a minute, if you will, that there are reasonable people who believe in some conservative values, but don't examine the rest of the party platform (or its results) all too hard. Now imagine that by pointing out where Trump falls short or is even directly opposed to those values (eg 2nd amendment), you might actually make them come around to seeing that we need to oust this autocratic child-raping anti-American scumbag. That would be a good thing, right?

I do get that Trump is just the tip of the Party's spear, and the whole pantheon of corrupt congresscritters / supreme council members / corporate backers really needs to go down with the ship. But that didn't work for 2024, and I'd say at this point we're losing our society and our country faster at a faster rate that those enablers' reputations are being damaged, so that seems like a terrible strategy. First and foremost, we need to stop the hemorrhaging.

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#275

Post by onetimeusename »

bonsai_spool wrote: post #271
onetimeusename wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Reason article said there was no reason to interpret this as a threat and that it was entirely just political. The article made it seem like the memes were held completely out of context. It mentioned there happens to be a nearby Perry High School just by chance but the nearby Perry High School is the central reason why this was interpreted as a threat. This was posted in a group that was organizing an event at t…

> The Reason article said there was no reason to interpret this as a threat and that it was entirely just political. The article made it seem like the memes were held completely out of context. It mentioned there happens to be a nearby Perry High School just by chance but the nearby Perry High School is the central reason why this was interpreted as a threat. This was posted in a group that was organizing an event at…

They totally de-emphasized the point about the name of the high school like it was just the sheriff going out of their way to find memes they were offended by. They mentioned the name as if it didn't matter to the case at all when it clearly did. I couldn't understand why someone reported this as a threat based on the Reason article. I can kind of see why someone might be concerned now but as I said the cops shouldn't have arrested the guy when no threat exists. This whole thread is filled up with people who now think there is a police force looking for offensive memes forgetting that someone reported this based on the name. If you don't think that then go FOIA the sheriff and prove this is corruption. If you don't think the Reason article was trying to portray this as out of control police trying to politically enforce memes and it's totally unbiased whatever, I'm done.

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#276

Post by nailer »

estearum wrote: post #269
nailer wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the first commandment again? I’m pretty sure murder and calls to murder are about as antithetical to Christianity as you can get.

What on earth are you talking about? Is this some word-association game where you’re finding your way back to people celebrating Kirk’s murder?

I’m stating you’re concerned with trivial matters.

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#278

Post by nailer »

zzzeek wrote: post #231
nailer wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that’s not true - it was uncharacteristic. There are many instances where he was kind to someone being openly aggressive towards him and one where he made fun of Paul Pelosi.

kind to people....who he was speaking to directly in person? or making social media references while they were not present (or adding them to dox lists so they could be harassed for years with death threats [1]) ? This is the key difference of course. It's also a really basic technique of horrible people to come off as very empathetic and friendly in person under specific circumstances so people are fooled in exactly…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45554559

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#279

Post by nobody9999 »

_heimdall wrote: post #237
nobody9999 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Regardless of bail, IMO you are almost always better off staying in jail if at all possible and forcing the state to a speedy trial. I'm guessing that you have the means to pay your bills for years before having to worry about losing your income and your home. Most folks don't. If you're in jail, you can't work. If you don't go to work, you'll lose your job. If you lose your job and you're like most people in the US…

> I'm guessing that you have the means to pay your bills for years before having to worry about losing your income and your home. Most folks don't. That's a pretty big assumption that also happens to be wrong. I specifically said "if at all possible" because I'm well aware that plenty of people can't put everything on hold for 30-60 days and have to potentially start over after that's done. If someone can in any way…

>That's a pretty big assumption that also happens to be wrong. I specifically said "if at all possible" because I'm well aware that plenty of people can't put everything on hold for 30-60 days and have to potentially start over after that's done.

Okay. I've been wrong before, am wrong with this and will certainly be wrong again. My apologies. As such, I hope you never end up in a position where you'll need to consider taking your own advice.

But that doesn't change the overall point -- that sitting in jail for weeks or months, perhaps even years pre-trial will likely destroy most folks' life and livelihood.

Re: Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening a shooting, after posting meme

#280

Post by mindslight »

rsynnott wrote: post #262
mindslight wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the words mean different things. When used to refer to a group, those meanings confer connotations. The point is that we need to stop referring to people destroying our society as "conservative".

Words mean what they are used to mean. In a political context, "conservative" has had _many_ meanings over the past few centuries.

Sure, and so has "democratic" - eg DPRK. That doesn't mean we shouldn't call out abuse of the term when it's used for something decidedly anti-democratic. And "democratic" is at least a purely political word, whereas "conservative" has a strong meaning outside of politics.
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