You cannot parody this country anymore, it is a living satirical distortion of itself. The Michigan militia's idea of "tyranny" = "she closed the gym"; it would be fucking hilariously corny were it not a pretext for a seething, murderous and sadly altogether everyday misogyny.

How many dopey podcasts and juiced up MRA YouTuber rants and 'edgy' and 'dark' comedy routines did these clowns guzzle up that pandered to their middlebrow power fantasies, their hatred of women, their longing to be warriors and tough guys and real patriots and true Americans?

how many sales guys at the gun show kept nodding and smiling & selling them extra ammo and various tactical crap that would function as yet more symbolic props to keep their sad and empty fantasy shtick of American masculinity as rugged desperado vigilante outsider status afloat?

We've seen white male terrorists cloak their murderous actions in vaguely citational Roman "anti-tyrranicism" since Booth's cry of "sic semper tyrannis" during the assassination of Lincoln was cited by Timothy McVeigh in his t-shirt choice for the Oklahoma City bombing.

The political enfranchisement of women & people of color terrifies a certain kind of racist and sexist white dude, who sees society as a zero sum game in which the ascent of others necessarily entails his dispossession from a place of entitlement he presumes as his birthright.

The fantasy of kidnapping a female Democratic politician, putting her on trial and perhaps torturing/executing her slots perfectly against the backdrop of four years of MAGA chants of "lock her up" against Hillary Clinton, & draws on a deep well of misogyny, insecurity, & rage.

It also follows directly from the GOP lionization of Kyle Rittenhouse as white male posterchild for suburban militia cosplay; the MAGA crew rewarded Rittenhouse's vigilante acts of violence with fundraising, t-shirts, memes, offers of legal defense, & plenty of special pleading.