Trump/Guilt/Jan. 6 Insurrection/Brainwashing/Personal Responsibility/QAnon/Classified Brain-Scanning Technology/Legal Guilt or Innocence

Reddit Post Title: HaVe A vEry MerRy cHrisTmAs fellow democrats. Thank you everyone who makes this sub great! From the mods to the commenters. Make a wish to see Trump behind bars by next Xmas!

Me: Controversial take, but we don't know if he's been brainwashed (like members of a cult) or if his or his family member's lives are in danger or what. I feel like classified brain-scanning technology is far enough along that we should be able to use it to find out what's really going on and if he's guilty in the legal sense of the word...assuming there's a way to tell if his brain has been hacked or lobotomized or whatever to alter the results.

Commenter: Manchurian Candidate style.

Me: I don't know about that. I was thinking of how the QAnon people who took part in Jan. 6 thought they were following direct orders from the President. They get in trouble, the President denies doing anything of the sort, and now we're in the middle of a big investigation to determine how much he was actually at fault given his actions but not his thoughts. I feel like his thoughts would be part of the whole story, since there are people in cults, people who are acting under the orders of their commanding officer in the military, people who have a gun to their head, etc. who do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do if they weren't being forced to do it. The US should come clean regarding how far along they are with brain-scanning technology (probably a lot further than Neuralink, etc.) and use that technology to sort out the terrorists from everyone else. It would probably fall under the Patriot Act.

Me: To clarify, if he was brainwashed, it might have been done subtly through a disinformation campaign, or outright, like in The Manchurian Candidate. There might also be other factors at play, like Narcissistic Personality Disorder with delusions of grandeur.

Reddit Discussion Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/democrats/comments/zukwjh/have_a_very_merry_christmas_fellow_democrats/

If our courts didn't follow "innocent until proven guilty," we'd be living in a truly fucked up society.

Great news!

"WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian custody in a high-profile prisoner swap between the U.S. and Moscow"

Link to article: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/wnba-star-brittney-griner-released-russian-custody-high-profile-prison-rcna60683

Link to Reddit discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/zfyfhc/wnba_star_brittney_griner_released_from_russian/

Reddit appears to hate it, though. They're acting like our justice system is exactly like Russia's, and her being in a literal hard labor prison camp (Russian gulag) means nothing.

Also, in America, you're innocent until proven guilty. This means that we'd rather people who we're sure about be granted innocence instead of possibly throwing an innocent person in jail. Why? Because if we started throwing innocent people in jail, our country would be super fucked up. It's more ethical to let people go if you're unsure than to throw a bunch of innocent people into jail. That's basically what we did with the trade. We're letting someone go who didn't deserve to be in prison (a hard labor prison camp, actually) in exchange for the guilty Russian arms dealer. If it had been the opposite or if the trade hadn't happened, that would be like throwing one innocent person into a hard labor prison camp for every guilty criminal out there. Everyone and their mother would end up in the gulag. That's not fair. That would be a fucked up society to live in.

I think the same logic applies when you're doing prisoner swaps during war. In order to save guys on your side from being tortured and killed, you let some of the guys from the other side go. Even if you're playing by the rules (Geneva convention--war crimes rules), the other side is not. And your soldiers don't deserve to be tortured until they're begging for death. It's my opinion that no one deserves that, but that's a different argument.

I hope they find someone to exchange Paul Whelan for next. I think there's one other American as well.

Strict households and rebellion

Very true for some people.

I think it's like people who grew up in a strict household, then get to college and rebel.

Hopefully this will be studied in the future. A lot of factors probably come into play here.

Edit: Some studies have probably already been done, but I want them to come up with a near-foolproof plan that the mainstream media will pick up on and promote. Even if it involves things like being allowed to drink at home or go to parties as a teenager as long as you find a safe ride home. This is the kind of thing worth researching for future generations' sake.

Link to comic, published on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/zi42bu/triumph_oc